Review by Ian Keogh
Chip Zdarsky’s run on Daredevil has generally been a beacon of quality, but while this isn’t the volume where the wheels drop off, it certainly falls well below the previous hardcovers.
It combines what was Lockdown in paperback, a Daredevil story in which Elektra guest-starred, with Woman Without Fear, an Elektra solo while substituting for Daredevil. Both sections are flawed, and the first is seriously hampered by ever-changing artists.
Elektra’s strength is her absolute certainty. To borrow Wolverine’s catchphrase, she’s the best at what she does. No-one can defeat her in fair physical combat, and few can manage it even with an unfair advantage. Perhaps she sees in tunnel vision, but the knowledge of what she can do is absolute. Is it then a good idea to introduce insecurity in the form of a person Elektra fears? Live with that, and Elektra facing off against Kraven the Hunter has entertainment value.
As seen on the sample art, it’s very nicely drawn by Rafael de Latorre, who captures the athleticism of both characters, and whose settings resonate. That’s also true of Stefano Landini, one of five artists working on six Daredevil chapters. At least he’s responsible for two of them. There is a chapter of Marco Checchetto, but not all other artists are as accomplished as these three.
The Daredevil sequence needs to move Matt Murdock back home from jail in preparation for Devil’s Reign, presumably included in the next volume in this series, but there’s another strange choice, this time regarding the Kingpin. He’s long used Typhoid Mary as his personal assassin, and to date Zdarsky has supplied a thoughtful version of her fractured personality, but the way he changes their relationship here is surely not in keeping with the way most people would view Wilson Fisk. The bulk of the story concerns the return of Bullseye, and credit to Zdarsky for finding a way to make him even deadlier, but smart as it is, it also necessitates prolonging the story beyond its natural lifespan.
Once past the Elektra story we have Typhoid Mary’s creator Ann Nocenti setting her against Elektra, which certainly plays out unpredictably, but not very coherently in exploring Mary’s multiple personality disorder. Elektra’s role could be taken by anybody. Two far shorter back-ups are far better, with Declan Shalvey and Stefano Raffaele’s balletic training sequence really good.
Your money is your own (at least we hope that’s the case), but there’s not enough quality here to justify a hardcover costing just shy of $40 at list price.
