Daredevil: End of Days #3

            The flagship character’s death is always going to be a rough jumping off point for Limited Series. It’s easy for the book to go numb without a superhero to guide it through. But that’s not what happens when Ben Urich is put at the helm.

            Urich, a reporter for The Daily Bugle, was tasked to write the story of Matt Murdock’s end (a meta concept for Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack). But, being who he is, Urich instead fixates on the word “mapone,” the last thing that Murdock said before he passed. And by fixates, I mean he goes to reckless, sometimes dangerous lengths in attempts to figure out what exactly that means.

            But this still isn’t a story about Urich. It’s about Murdock and it’s about Daredevil. And the act of keeping it about Daredevil is where the truly artful work takes place. Urich speaks to, in this issue, three people with whom Daredevil had very close relationships. He talks about how they’ve left their lives behind and Murdock didn’t, they last time they spoke with Daredevil and the meaning of ‘Mapone.’

            The testaments are where the poignancy comes from, and though it’s subtle, it’s great. The conversation with Elektra is particularly eye-opening, and her opinions of why and how her former friend and adversary passed the way he did was probably the most powerful line within this series, or on most pages of Marvel books for a while, now.

            Being predicated on the death of a hero is enough to make this book ostensibly different from the rest, but the noir styled art is absolutely stellar and really gives the book a feel of its own.

            It’s not just written differently; the entire package is a wonderful and original creation, and if nothing else, it’s a really nice change of pace from the bombastic openings to all of the Marvel NOW! books.

            Daredevil: End of Days is about finding answers to questions that matter, it’s about searching for meaning within the people we encounter, and it’s about the human experience. It’s a thought-piece on the different way people affect those they spend time with, dressed up in a superhero comic book.

            That just blew your mind a little bit, didn’t it? Now read.