Let me start this review by saying, you do not have to be a diehard Daredevil fan to get into this book. I will admit, I am not a huge fan of Daredevil, especially since the Fall from Grace storyline back in the ‘90s, but I would check out his book if the Punisher or any other character that I liked made a special appearance. Other than that, I usually get the trades if it was a story I was interested in. But with this latest series titled, End of Days, I was like I need to get this and review it for Somewwhatnerdy. I am glad I did!
First of all, I am not trying to spoil the issue, but it cannot be helped. End of Days, means just that, the end of Daredevil. You open up to page one and you are right in the middle of an epic fight between Daredevil and Bullseye and it is a fight to the Death. Daredevil is getting clobbered and all the witnesses are worried about if they are catching everything on film. No one tries to help the Hell’s Kitchen hero. They just watch him die.
The story then takes us to the Daily Bugle where a reporter named Ben Urich is refusing to write the story of what has occurred. He doesn’t want anything to do with glorifying the death of a hero, or making him look bad. You know how Jameson likes to spin things. Jonah finally talks Ben into giving the story a try.
After countless interviews, he finds one witness who feels like he does. The witness does not want to tarnish the name of a hero. This catches Ben’s interest in how to approach his story. With the help of the witness, he learns that Daredevil said one last word before the final blow. The word was Mapone, but what does it mean.
Ben goes on this new angle writing about the life and trials of Matt Murdock. How he became a hero and how he fell in the eyes of the people with his last epic battle with the Kingpin. As Ben goes through these moments of Matt’s life and writes notes he is unaware that a familiar shadow is watching him from the distance. But the Daredevil is dead, so who can it be? We will have to wait for issue #2 to see.
This book gets a solid 15 out of 10 rating for me. I was consumed by the story on page one. The writing is that well, and the imagery is dark and sets the mood. I cannot wait until issue #2 hits the newsstands. Get your copy today if you haven’t already.
Writers: Brain Michael Bendis & David Mack
Pencils: Klaus Janson
Publisher: Marvel Comics
