I translated this story for the Brazilian market a while ago. I’m split with “the” moment, between the “I think you just want out of your house” and the “almost doesn’t count” (favoring this one, of course).

So, the lead Yakuza guy is, what, Criminal #17 in Bendis’ run who just doesn’t get how the whole superhero thing works, huh?

I loved Bendis’s run on this title. It’s one of his best works.

I think if I picked a moment from his run though it would be

SPOILER

Where DD declares himself Kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen

I don’t know….. I think the moment is when the Yazuka guy offers money to the one who cuts off DD’s horns and shoves them in an orifice.

That WAS classic!

That’s Yakuza not Yazuka. Gremlins.

Spiderman’s “Your really good at this” is the moment for me.

From this sample of the Bendis and Maleev run of Daredevil it seems the star here is Maleev, hands down. Although I hate to see his art all constricted in those little panels because it seems to me that the artist does his best work with spreads and larger panels. There is just something about his art style on this book that i don’t like in a regular sized panels.

Maybe it’s just so pretty I get greedy and want to see more!

i would also go with Daredevil finaly telling Luke cage he and his friends were right he needs help he can not do it all alone and he screwed up.

I’ve seen Maleev at sketch duels, and he is just f’n great. If you get the chance, listen to him talk, as there are few in the industry who are as honest and as opinionated as he is. Mix that in with great skill, and he’s one of my favorite people in the industry.

Re: “So, the lead Yakuza guy is, what, Criminal #17 in Bendis’ run who just doesn’t get how the whole superhero thing works, huh?”

Actually , if anybody doesn’t get how the whole superhero thing works , it’s Bendis. Yeah , I give the guy a lot of flack but I still think his DD run happens to be his best work. Probably because it’s closest to his comfort zone of street level crime fiction. Put him on a “real” superhero ( as in “saving the entire world every day” ) title and he tends to fall back on blowing stuff up. Lots of sound and fury ultimately leading to nothing.

This is kind of the last good arc in the title until The Murdock Papers though. I LOVED everything up through King of Hell’s Kitchen, but Bendis never really gets much out of Matt trying to be “Kingpin without Crime.” Instead we get a plot-hole-ridden arc with the Black Widow, a gratuitous undoing of Frank Miller’s development of the Gladiator character that looks great but doesn’t do any of the characters any service, and then the inexplicable Decalogue arc where a promising frame story goes nowhere so Bendis can give us DD vs. Baby Demon.

The “Kingpin” idea was a great one, but for the most part Bendis just meanders around doing terrible stories about old DD side characters that don’teven play off the new status quo. The Widow’s situation has nothing to do with Matt’s new status, Bont wants revenge for things that have nothing to do with where DD is now, and the baby demon is just random idiocy in the middle of the one arc that actually does try to work it out. It’s as if, needing Wilson Fisk and Bullseye to be off-camera for awhile, Bendis tossed in some crummy filler arcs until h was ready to get back to his story for the title.

The moment for this entire run (for me) was the nervous breakdown revelation. That was just fantastic writing.

The moment for this entire run (for me) was the nervous breakdown revelation. That was just fantastic writing.

It really was great.

Maleev’s art does have some great qualities, but the colouring always annoys me.

I wasn’t buying comics when Bendis did Daredevil, so I missed the whole thing. This whole idea of him becoming a new Kingpin sounds strange and out of character, but I guess it probably made sense in context. (I guess I’ve read enough Bendis by now– mostly Avengers– to know what he’s like, and even when his stories aren’t very good, they usually have a pretty good internal logic.)

This does have some cool dialogue, despite the typical Bendis use of ‘@%#*!!’. I find obvious censorship incredibly annoying.

It does all look good, though. Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes I just sound more critical than I mean to.

easily my favorite Bendis run. I would love to see some of Brubaker’s run in here as well (my favorite moment being the ending of the Daredevil vs Mr Fear story)

Oh I think Yakuza guy does know how it works. Superheroes intimidate criminals with their very existence, setting them up to lose. It’s how Daredevil beats 50 ninja in a fight or Batman takes down 20 armed thugs. His mistake is not thinking it would work on him.

Mary:

Basically, having beaten the Kingpin, Matt realizes that there’s always a new crime boss because of the power vacuum. So he declares himself the new boss, and demands that all the lowlifes either go straight or leave town upon threat of serious violence. Meantime, he manages to use his legitimate money and connections to take over or resell a lot of the local real estate and clean things up that way, too.

Maleev is definitely the star here.

This does have some cool dialogue, despite the typical Bendis use of ‘@%#*!!’. I find obvious censorship incredibly annoying.

I prefer that approach to having characters not swearing or having them use things like “spit” and “fudge” to stand in for the real swear words.

I’d prefer actual swearing, but @£$!% is the next best alternative for me.

The moment for me is the panel following Spider-Man’s bathroom line. I scrolled down just a little bit and it looked like Daredevil wanted to give him the evil-eye for ruining his bad-ass moment.

I laughed until I cried.

I like this alright but the Spidey quips kinda killed the moment for me. I like the bathroom line but after that it was distracting.