[A] splintered, documentary approach is appropriate for Bendis and Maleev's overall story, one of whose major themes is information and evidence -- who knows what, and which secrets are actually secret. At the center is a nasty twist on one of the sacred tenets of superhero comics: the secret identity. Beneath his mask, Daredevil is a trial lawyer, Matthew Murdock. If that were ever to get out, his life would be destroyed -- he'd be instantly disbarred, and go to prison for any number of obstruction-of-justice charges -- and the lives of everyone around him would be at risk from his enemies. So nobody knows. Except for a bunch of other superheroes, and various ex-girlfriends, and his partner at his law firm, and a trusted reporter or two, and a rather large number of people who've seen him with his mask off, and a bunch of murderous ninjas, and -- oh, yes -- the Kingpin. And the Kingpin's family knows, too, and so do a handful of friends they've blabbed to, and following a mob power struggle, one morning Matthew Murdock wakes up and his secret is on the front page at every newsstand in Manhattan.

There's no going back. From that moment on, the series' hero is in a morally untenable situation, and everything he does makes things worse. The only thing Murdock can do is to start lying, and make all of his allies lie for him, too. He denies everything. He files lawsuits that he knows are fraudulent. He beats the Kingpin half to death, drags his unconscious body into an underworld bar, and declares himself the new boss of Hell's Kitchen. Then the narrative abruptly jumps forward a year, and things really start going downhill.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 9:20 AM  |