Over the weekend I finished reading Daredevil: Return of the King.
What's it about? The Kingpin returns to the Big Apple and teams up with Daredevil to take down the Hand. Of course the Kingpin isn't revealing all that he has in mind to Murdock, but in time it becomes clear that he isn't quite as honorable as he wants to appear.
The first chapter was awesome. It was all Kingpin. Both Brubaker and Lark really did a superb job on that chapter. The dialogue and the images were spot on brilliant. With the exception of the the Hand there are no supernatural or superheroic elements in this chapter. It read and felt more like a chapter from a good noir story.
The rest of the book fails to live up to the promise of the first chapter. It felt rushed in places. I tend to think that it might have benefited from being stretched over a few more issues. There were a lot of loose plotlines that came together and were either resolved or at least moved forward all in the very small space of the last four chapters. Some of it felt a little off kilter and out of whack with Brubaker and Lark's story up to this point and obviously was done to set things up for the creative team that followed them. I'll admit that I'm curious to see what comes next but not curious enough to give the book a try. After almost 40 issues I'm ready to move on and read something else.
Looking back on the Brubaker/Lark run on Daredevil. I think that it started strong and had its high points but wasn't consistently great. I'm not sure what sort of reader I would recommend it to. It has some superheroic elements but often felt like a dark, gritty story about man who seems too emotionally supressed to confront his feelings and make some sense out of his life. This makes it frustrating at times but also makes it an interesting character study.
Good? Yes. Great? Not on the whole. Overall it was worth my time and money but I dunno if/when I'll reread it.
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