Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Ultimate Collection Vol. 2 (Daredevil (Paperback))

Came within the expected date, not in perfect condition though!But cant argue it's an amazing trade!

Have only read book 1, will start book 2 soon but great story sop far.

Cool cool

Very good

Excellent!

brilliant

Volume 1 was by all means a fantastic beginning to Bendis' and Maleev's tenure on Daredevil. However, Volume 2 finds the pair really kicking in to the ramifications of the BIG REVEAL of the first volume- Daredevil's secret identity, Matthew Murdock, to the rest of the world. However, what amazes me about this second volume is that Bendis doesn't stop there. Bendis' Daredevil is a modern classic- there are so many amazing moments in the book that lesser writers would build an entire story around. Yet Bendis fires them off every single issue. This volume has all you could want from a great comic. It's got romance, action, mystery, horror. This volume blows the first volume out of the water. It's this volume where we really begin to see the ramifications of the spill in the first volume, as Matthew Murdock spirals down into savagery and violence. We find him doing things in this volume that he could never have done under Stan Lee's, Frank Miller's, or Ann Nocenti's run- Daredevil becomes SCARY to the bad guys and promises nothing but total destruction to all of his villains. The psychology and the motives behind all of the characters are so fully realized that it's breath-taking. And whilst Bendis could have kicked back after the major twist of the first volume, this second volume finds another major twist. Whilst I won't spoil what this twist is, it's an amazing moment and, again, reminds me why I read comics in the first place. The only thing I was slightly unhappy about was that Ben Urich drops off the radar for the majority of this volume, but this is hardly noticed- there's so much more amazing stuff going on that it doesn't matter. And again, Alex Maleev provides some amazing visuals to the series. Slightly disturbing the pace of the story however was a random spot of fill-ins by classic DD artists during a battle with the Kingpin. Whilst this was great to see and Bendis explains his intentions in the back of the volume, it disturbs the pace and I would have preferred for Maleev to continue his art duties throughout the entire issue. There are of course a plethora of extras, giving more context and some interesting information on Bendis' thoughts on the classic DD artists, as well as two deleted scenes from his original scripts. I genuinely have no idea what Bendis has lined up next in volume 3, but I'm really looking forward to it!(Here is my review for the first volume of this series): [...]

"A typical film noir usually revolves around a doomed relationship set against the backdrop of a criminal and inveterately corrupt world," begins  The Rough Guide to Film Noir (Rough Guides Reference Titles) , which could just as easily be describing the DAREDEVIL comic book by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. "The protagonists occupy a world that is dark and malign: people are frequently trapped in a web of fear and paranoia, and are often overwhelmed by the power and consequences of uncontrollable sexual desire." Daredevil/Matt Murdock is, come to think of it, the perfect noir protagonist in that, whatever battles he wins, he always seems to lose something equally dear, until he finally loses his balance in the tightrope walk between Catholic/devil, lawyer/vigilante, and hero/antihero -- but I'm getting ahead of myself.This volume begins with the story arc, "Lowlife," which is mostly talking heads, but what crackling good dialogue those talking heads are given! Matt's largely out of costume for five issues, trying to stay out of jail in the wake of his outing in the press, while dealing with the return of the Owl, a dimwitted, drug-dealing homicidal maniac who sees himself as the new Kingpin -- nice touch, that. In "Hardcore" the genuine Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, come home to reclaim what's left of his empire, initiating a bloodbath with the assassins Bullseye and Typhoid Mary as the hired help. "Hardcore" lives up to its title in its mounting dread, its extraordinarily brutal fight scenes, and in an ending in which Murdock crosses one ethical line too many.What happens when a superhero has a nervous breakdown? Matt has finally succeeded in cleaning up the Kitchen, but in "The King of Hell's Kitchen" an army of West Coast yakuza show up on his doorstep to take it away from him. The physical damage they do to Matt only reflects the emotional damage he's done to those closest to him, which makes this, to me, sadder and scarier than most superhero stories. The volume concludes with "The Widow," a wicked, four-part thriller in which international political gamesmanship results in Matt's ex-girlfriend, superspy Natasha Romanova, joining him in New York with a rogue S.H.I.E.L.D agent gunning for both of them.This is not your average run of superhero comics. Bendis and Maleev have crafted a genuinely noir superhero title, a bleak, frightening and merciless contemporary crime comic that nevertheless remained too hopeful to become merely cynical or ironic.