Week of 8/19/09 – Daredevil #500
August 20th, 2009
For my first Panel of the Week (POTW) I’m going to go to one of my all time favorite Marvel characters, Daredevil. It just so happens that this is a panel from Daredevil #500, a historic issue if only in number. Here we see ol’ Horn Head kicking Lady Bullseye in the face.
Starting with Daredevil #82 (the issues have been renumbered recently) Ed Brubaker took over the scripting reigns from the nigh untouchable Brian Michael Bendis. The perennial crime fiction powerhouse did not disappoint as he took Matt Murdock from the depths of a Rykers prison cell back to the rooftops of Hell’s Kitchen where he would face Mr Fear, Lady Bullseye, and the return of the Kingpin.
Now some will say that the general handling of Matt’s latest tragic love interest, Milla Donovan, was heavy handed or dismissive but I didn’t mind. Despite the fact that she was around for over 50 issues I never connected with Milla and in the end she was just a loose end from Bendis’ run on the series.
Handling the pencil on this run has been Michael Lark. His action panels are great, they feature a gritty style that makes me want to refer to him as a poor mans Alex Maleev but that seems harsh. When the kicking stops though, Lark’s work stumbles a bit.
Brubaker and Lark’s run starts with:
Daredevil: The Devil, Inside and Out, Vol. 1
and continues with:
Daredevil: The Devil, Inside and Out, Vol. 2