Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artists: Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano, Matt Hollingsworth (colours)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Something about this latest arc isn't quite doing it for me in the same way that "The Devil In Cell-Block D" managed to. Maybe it's the fact that Brubaker's second arc is a slow-burning detective plot, which will likely come together much more gradually than his adrenaline-fuelled prison saga did. Perhaps it's the change in tone which has lessened the impact of Brubaker's work, as the tense, nervous claustrophobia of Ryker's has given way to a more expansive, jet-setting environment for Matt Murdock to swashbuckle his way through. Maybe it's just the way that Matt's choices come off as far less logical and sympathetic in this arc, as his decision to sport the DD costume whilst travelling incognito still beggars belief, and the way that he throws himself into sloppy super-hero fights and underworld interrogations suggests that he has very little interest in self-preservation or in laying low so as not to arouse his enemies' suspicion.
That said, if you've glanced at the bullet rating I've given this issue then you already know I'm still very much enjoying what Brubaker is doing with the book. It's a definite change in tone to Bendis and Maleev's introspective run, and actually giving Matt something to do (in the form of a mystery to unravel and a problem to solve) makes a welcome break from years of stories in which Matt often seemed to demonstrate his strength of character by reacting to events rather than instigating them himself. Murdock puts his detective skills to good use this issue, relying on supporting cast member Dakota North to feed him information (as a sort of Oracle to Matt's Batman) and opening the book up to the kind of glamourous and exotic situations and locales that you'd normally find in a James Bond movie. Daredevil has become decidedly more suave and sophisticated than he was a few issues ago, at his lowest ebb (this issue sees him darting around the streets of Portugal and Paris, breaking into grand country mansions, and even speaking French - with a hilarious payoff), but Brubaker doesn't forget to keep his hero somewhat tortured, throwing in a couple of super-villains to knock DD about a bit before hinting at the beguiling powers of the arc's femme fatale, Lily, who looks sure to become yet another name on Matt's long list of ladies who are strangely irresistible yet decidedly dangerous-to-know.
Although the arc's plot doesn't exactly leap ahead in this second of five issues, we've got Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano's great-looking art to keep us interested whilst Brubaker lays his groundwork. The duo's rendition of Portuguese landscapes and Parisian city nights are accurate and evocative without ever feeling constrained by a desire to be photo-realistic and are made even more effective by Matt Hollingsworth's atmospheric colours. I've spent time in Paris and can safely say that Gaudiano and Lark's rendition really captures the mood of the place. The pair's action sequences are also fairly strong, and even if they sometimes feel more like a sequence of static stills taken whilst the fight was in progress than images which really convey movement or energy, the staging and framing of the action is solid enough to carry the fight scenes effectively.
Brubaker's first arc set a monumentally high standard for his run on the book, and it's no surprise to find that his second story has chosen to slow things down and mix things up a little more than the sleek opener did. Now that he's got the fans on-side, Brubaker is free to start telling the kind of stories he really wants to tell with the character, and I've got confidence in the writer to build the plot threads of this arc into something more than the wild goose chase it appears to be so far - and in the meantime the quality of the storytelling is good enough that regular readers won't feel short-changed.
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