by Ed Brubaker & Michael Lark
collects Daredevil # 111-115
the premise: The Hand strikes at Daredevil and his friends, led by a deadly woman known as Lady Bullseye. Plus: Milla's parents try to get her away from Matt.
the lowdown: The latest volume of the Brubaker/ Lark Daredevil run repeats some themes from earlier stories - once again we have bad guys striking at Daredevil through those around him, Matt's personal life a shambles, people hurt just because they know him. In the hands of lesser creators it'd be awfully repetitive. This arc seems to be aware of its redundancy, though, which leads me to believe that Brubaker has a plan.
The new female version of Bullseye is less a derivative than an homage, someone who's inspired by Bullseye but doesn't really mimic his skill set. In other words she's not just Bullseye with breasts. Brubaker sets her up as a pretty crafty adversary, and having her arrive just as things are going south for Matt personally works well. Murdock's love life is, as always, a thinly veiled Greek tragedy, made more complicated by developments in this volume - but rather than the unbridled misery of some of the earlier volumes, this time it feels like it's going somewhere.
Lark does his usual good job on the art. The first issue in the collection is drawn by Clay Mann, whose work I'd not encountered before. I quite liked his stuff here - similar to Lark's work but subtly different.
the verdict: More excellent work from Brubaker and Lark. This is an entertaining, well-crafted arc with lots of cool characters. Recommended for DD or crime fans. Oh, and there's lots of Iron Fist, too - more Fist by Bru is a good thing.
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