"Mayor Fisk" Concludes: A Review of Daredevil #600 (Vague Spoilers)

written by Charles Soule
drawn by Ron Garney
colored by Matt Milla

Daredevil reaches its landmark 600th issue as the multi-part story arc "Mayor Fisk" reaches its epic conclusion...sort of.

Matt Murdock enacts his plan to take down Wilson Fisk, which involves the intervention of the superhero community and a reliance on the legal doctrine he established a few story arcs ago. Unfortunately for him, Fisk's real plan unfolds, and the consequences are not pretty for Murdock or his confederates. Meanwhile, as Matt's protege Blindspot faces off against Muse, the Inhuman vandal/serial killer who took his eyes, he finds himself at a distinct disadvantage, until the otherworldly force who gave him his eyesight back offers to intervene...for a price. Sam seizes upon the opportunity, but the consequences end up much, much bigger than he may realize.

It's not entirely uncommon for big story arcs to end on a somewhat anticlimactic note; Brian Bendis' fabled run on Daredevil was filled with just such story arcs filled with non-endings and/or distinctly unsatisfying endings, and Soule, rather than adopt the route of his immediate predecessor Mark Waid, who generally tied up his arcs quite neatly even as he left the door open for new stories, turns back to the trope that Bendis leaned on, albeit with a pretty respectable twist that I dare not reveal. Though I liked Soule's story on the whole, it requires quite a few contrivances to make it work, and it doesn't feel nearly as well-conceived as his far more absorbing "Supreme" arc from a few months ago, or even the arc in which he introduced Muse, whose ultimate fate is revealed here as well.

Ron Garney turns in good work here, and I have to say he draws Spider-Man better here than he ever has before, though as I've said, he's really less at home with the whole four-color superheroics thing than he is with the scratchy, noir-inspired storytelling that Soule brought back to this book when he took over from Waid and Chris Samnee.

I expect this character, like just about every other superhero in Marvel's catalog, is due for this "fresh start" soon, though there's definitely at least one more story arc to go from the current team before than happens. I'll stick around for that long, at least.


8/10