(w) Mark Waid
(a) Chris Samnee
(c) Matthew Wilson
The stakes have never been higher for Matt Murdock as he learns that Wilson Fisk, also known as the Kingpin of Crime, has no interest in cutting a deal to help Matt out of the mess that the actions of Max Coleridge, a.k.a. the Shroud, have made of his life; rather, Fisk simply wants to end Matt's life, and he has a capable ally in Ikari, the similarly enhanced Ninja who almost killed Matt the last time they fought. The lives of Foggy Nelson and Kirsten MacDuffie hang in the balance. Matt fights for his life and those of his friend, but there may yet be a wild card that could shift the balance. Whether for better or worse remains to be seen...
I will say this right now, and with utter conviction: there will come a time, if it has not already, when this creative team is mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, John Romita, Jr., Bill Everett, Joe Quesada and Brian Bendis, and other creators who left an indelible mark on this character. In short, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that these guys will go down in history as all-time greats. It's hard to find new superlatives for a book that I consistently lavish with praise in almost every review I write, but with one issue to go in what is certainly destined to be remembered as a "fabled" run, Waid and Samnee truly are pulling out all the stops. As DD bad guys go, they went for the biggest one of all in their last arc with the Kingpin.
What really impresses me about this issue, as it did last issue, is how Waid and Samnee managed to turn Fisk into a truly credible menace to Matt again, both through circumstance and through their masterful depiction, through dialogue and imagery, of this truly formidable character. After all, this was not the Kingpin who made Matt's life a living hell back in the days of Frank Miller. He's been broken and stripped of power, and is basically a shadow of his former self. Waid quite cannily recognizes, however, that this can actually make him even more dangerous.
The highlight of this issue is the DD-Ikari rematch, and just when one thinks that we'll be subjected to the sight of Matt fighting a climactic battle in his three-piece suit, which he's been sporting since issue #15, he does quite the bit of prestidigitation and changes costume with a simple tear-away motion, even managing to put on his mask in the same gesture.
As egregiously late as this review is, given that I've already read issue #18, which I will naturally review next, I couldn't close out my love of this run without acknowledging this issue.
These two guys really will be a hard act to follow, so for my part, I have decided to follow them to wherever it is they're going (and Samnee has already intimated that he, Mark, colorist Matt Wilson and even letterer Joe Carmagna will all work together again very soon on a top secret Marvel book)!
9/10
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