Dennis O’Neil

Brian Bendis

David Mack

Does Matt Murdock know any normal women?!?

I stopped reading the Bendis run after #50. It’s high level stuff, but I think it suffers in comparison with the other Bendis work of the time (Powers and Alias).

Bru is off to a great start. Loved his perfect use of the Punisher, and the escalating tension of the first arc. The next two arcs haven’t been as good, but they are still high quality. Like Bendis, his DD run is out-shined a bit by his other current work (Cap, Fist, Criminal).

I enjoyed Smith’s run, but it’s nothing special.

I specifically recall the ultra left wing feminist/animal rights activist, and her ultra right wing macho gun-toting CIA operative father. Many writers would have written the daughter as a saint, and the father as a one-dimensional heartless villain. But Nocenti showed that both of these people had flaws, that it was a relationship with a lot of grey and ambiguity to it.

Oh, yeah, and who can forget Daredevil going to hell? the idea of Daredevil fighting Mephisto sounds patently ridiculous, but Nocenti make it work, writing a story which explored issues of faith and free will and the nature of good & evil.

And then Daredevil (literally) returned to Earth, as we got Dan Chichester & Lee Weeks onboard, penning a ten issue or so arc that culminated in DD finally taking down the Kingpin. Fantastic stuff.

I would even argue that Chichester’s later stuff on DD was also good. “Tree of Knowledge” was very prescient, with its notions of Hydra committing terrorist actions in order to push the government into enacting draconian laws and setting up matrial law in the name of national security. In the mid-1990s, I didn’t really understand what Chichester was attempting to communicate, but having re-read the story arc a couple of months ago, it definitely brought to mind the post September 11th political atmosphere in the United States.

^^OK, that was just hilarious. Hat’s off to you, Mutt. I’m mad I didn’t see that joke first.

Nocenti and Bendis – very different ways. Probably Nocenti first, because she was the first (and because i LOVED, and still love, JRJR)

Oh, I almost forgot, I liked Bendis a lot too so he should be up there with Kesel and Kelly somewhere.

Having said all that, my favorite non-Miller was the O’Neil stuff between Elektra and “Born Again”. I was at an age where I didn’t pay attention to the writer’s name in the credits, and while I noticed a change in style, I never lost my enthusiasm for the stories, Denny was just as engaging to me.

Personal highlights of that run for me were O’Neil and Mazzuchelli delivering, in my opinion: the best Two-Gun Kid story, the best Jester story, the best Vulture story and the best Beyonder story.

I think JM DeMatteis’ very brief stint showed potential and could have been interesting had he stayed on the title longer.

I’m a little confused on this whole “Miller run” thing. For me, he had several, distinct “runs”. There’s early stuff where he provided pencils and got the occasional writer/co-plotter credit. There’s the period made famous by the Elektra/Bullseye stuff where he’s firmly in charge with Jansen on inks. And then there’s Born Again, which probably gets the nod as my favorite “run”, largely due to Dave M.

Anyway, outside of any of those, I think I have to vote Bru. I just finished the third trade and, man, that’s good comics. Todd’s point about being able to use “comic booky” adversaries is a really good one. Overall, I’m impressed at how the Bru hasn’t fallen back onto making DD a straight noir/crime story, but instead has melded elements of that into the superhero story. Like he’s done with spy stories and Cap. He’s just at the top of the game right now.

I liked Bendis’ run, which had some phenomenal ideas (the nervous breakdown reveal being my favorite one) but some definite problems with execution. I think BMB often failed to meld the crime elements into a superhero comic, often giving us whole arcs without Matt in costume/action and losing the swashbuckling/”he enjoys this” part of the character.

Haven’t re-read the Nocenti stuff in ages, but remember really loving it, so she probably goes #3 on my list.

Mercifully exited the scene for the late 90s, so I haven’t read any of the Chichester, Kesel or Kelly stuff. Smith’s run doesn’t hold up and has some boneheaded moves (Mysterio’s death pisses me off more than Karen’s). My least favorite stuff has probably been anything with Mack. Echo’s a decent enough idea, I suppose, but never gelled into a real character for me.

disclaimer – I haven’t read Anne Nocenti’s run.