Daredevil Volume 7: Hardcore

Title:
Daredevil Volume 7: Hardcore

ISBN:
0785111689

Price:
$13.99

Publisher/Year:
Marvel, 2003

Artist: Alex Maleev

Writer:
Brian Michael Bendis

Collects:
Daredevil #46-50

Rating:
3.5/5

The
seventh volume of Bendis's Daredevil series brings his central story to a
close, while opening up new possibilities for the future. Daredevil is dealing
with the public revelation of his identity as blind attorney Matt Murdock when
his greatest enemy, the Kingpin, returns from the grave to rule over New York
City again. With him, he brings two of the hero's greatest enemies, the
unstable Typhoid Mary and the crazed Bullseye. But this time, Daredevil decides
to end these conflicts once and for all.

Bendis
writes this series as though it is a film; the Kingpin's return and rise to
power are straight out of a movie like Scarface : bloody, glib and dramatic all
at once. His pacing is superb, as the Kingpin and Daredevil run parallel
courses, building tension until they finally collide and battle through an
entire issue at the book's conclusion. If Bendis is writing a film, then artist
Maleev is drawing one—each panel is like a still from a movie on paper. When
this works, as in the kinetic fight scenes, it's thrilling and grandiose, but
it's less effective for tender moments, such as the romantic subplot involving
Matt Murdock and a new girlfriend who's also blind. Hardcore is engrossing and
broad enough in theme and character to absorb fans of Daredevil's adventures
from both the silver screen and the comic books.