Daredevil volume 3

Daredevil volume 3: Wake Up (reprinting Daredevil 16-19)

I love Bendis. He seems most famous for his Ultimate Spider-Man work, an excellent read to be sure, but I started out reading his Powers books as well as Torso. The man loves crime-drama, no doubt about it. This volume collects the first issues of Bendis' run and he fits nicely into the world of Daredevil, a lawyer/vigilante and nemesis of The Kingpin.

OK, it sounds cheesy, but these are the sorts of names history has stuck us with.

Not for the first time, our narrator is reporter Ben Urich. Marvel's universe is more down-to-earth than some and the superheroes can catch normal folks up in their wake. Not generally a good place to be. As Ben puts it, "Every time I go down this road -- my life becomes a raging sea."

Ben's investigation into a little boy trapped in a comic book story repeating endlessly and the boy's loser father (the villainous LeapFrog) is also a journey into his own past and his own place in society as a reporter. Daredevil himself is more of an implied presence, actually appearing in only a few panels.

David Mack's art. This guy always amazes me. It's like he devours a scene or person or emotion and then vomits it back up. Luckily, his vomit looks amazing (much better than my own) and we get to see deep inside a character or moment and all the little bit it's made up of. This sort of psychological story is perfect for him. I have no clue if the guy could really hold together a classic brawl, but his work on Kabuki is the stuff of, well, I dunno, but its beautiful. Thank god Marvel let him fully paint it.

Thumbs up for this, especially for newcomers. It's more than what you might think.

(as an aside, I really can't recommend the Ultimate Spider-Man enough. ESPECIALLY for new folks. The Ultimate line (Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, The Ultimates) takes these big name titles/characters and restarts them outside of the normal Marvel continuity. Basically, you can pick up these collected volumes and there's no need to read the non-Ultimate titles. These works are totally separate from the mainstream lines.)