Review by Ian Keogh

As the cover shows, Daredevil is looking somewhat different. That will only come as a surprise to anyone who’s picked up this volume without reading Truth/Dare. There’s a big battle with the Hand approaching, and Elektra needs Daredevil’s help. With a clever move she hoped to buy his trust, but he saw through that, so she’s earning goodwill by acting as a surrogate Daredevil while Matt Murdock serves time in jail for manslaughter. Due to a smart piece of legal application he’s allowed to maintain his privacy by wearing a mask.

That allows for a parallel narrative over the opening chapters with enjoyment dependent on how much any reader buys into the King in Black crossover with Venom symbiotes invading Earth and converting all they bond with. While it’s hardly a series highlight, Chip Zdarsky uses it to make a salient point about Daredevil’s faith, supplies a horrific separation, and gives Elektra a new responsibility while seemingly also removing someone who’s played their part and would be too great an intrusion if kept around. Regular artist Marco Checchetto draws the Elektra sequences while Mike Hawthorne handles those in prison, and that’s not an ideal mix.

Checchetto draws the remainder, having modified his style slightly from earlier volumes, also to the point where it looks as if other people are involved, but not credited. His version of Elektra is very distinctive due to the wild way he has her long hair emerging from a thick bunch, tendrils flowing all over the background. It’s a device heightening the idea of individual panels as equivalents of photographs capturing a moment.

A casualty of the action over the past couple of volumes has been the spirited ethical debate, but that returns with a dressing down for Matt from the prison therapist. Having closed all his plots inwards, Zdarsky seems to be looking out again in the final three chapters. Trouble is brewing in the underworld, Elektra’s personality ensures her processes are very different to Daredevil’s even if she’s sworn off killing, the Kingpin is scheming again and in jail everyone is gunning for Daredevil. The last three chapters are very satisfying and they head into Lockdown .

This volume is combined with Truth/Dare in hardback as To Heaven Through Hell Vol. 3.