Review by Frank Plowright

Wilson Fisk’s biography has been commissioned, and as he’s a meticulous man who lets not even minor matters escape his control, he wants journalist Sarah Dewey to write it. He may have clawed to the top of the tree and no longer personally sullies his hands, but Fisk is widely known as the Kingpin in some circles, the man who controls the gangsters of New York and beyond. He’s not a man who’s rejected without retribution.

It turns out, though, that what the Kingpin claims he wants is redemption via a full confession to wipe away his past in order to prove he’s reformed. Is this true, and will Dewey be convinced to take on the task? The latter is never really in doubt. As portrayed by Matthew Rosenberg, the Kingpin lacks social boundaries, yet Dewey’s background supplies the strength to bypass initial impressions to at least listen.

There are deliberate echoes of Frank Miller in the art of Ben Torres, but Torres doesn’t draw his inspiration from Miller’s Daredevil, which featured the Kingpin, but the starker Sin City. It’s heavy on light and shadow with silhouettes of the chunky figures a frequent sight. There’s a hell of a lot of enthusiasm and effort here that more than overcomes an occasional anatomical problem. Unfortunately, Marvel prioritise a schedule above all else, so rather than having Torres draw all five chapters, the fourth is the work of Miguel Sepulveda. He’s also good, but has a very different style and makes no effort to match Torres’ tone. What a shame.

Rosenberg toys with readers. The hook, of course, is that no reader familiar with the Kingpin believes he’s reformed, and sure enough, the first chapter ends with the corpse of someone who’s chanced his luck against the supposedly contrite Fisk. Rosenberg’s also introduced other people whose lives or actions could draw the Kingpin’s attention, while laying on the charitable activities thickly and simultaneously reinforcing how association with the Kingpin can rapidly escalate into life-threatening danger.

It’s not apparent at first, but Born Against is a gradual descent into hell. Dewey sups with the devil and only makes token protests at the way her life improves, yet eventually comes to realise what control means. Rosenberg cleverly brings matters around to the same decision that factored in Daredevil’s origin story and is perhaps a little too clever with the ending, which requires some reading between the lines. However, overall, this is a sharp crime story with a human touch and worth your time.