April 21, 2023

I’m never quite comfortable when Todd is right.

Let me explain. Todd is my friend who works at Comic World. When I came to the shop this Wednesday for NEW COMIC BOOK DAY, Todd had placed something special in my pull box.

Now, that is not an uncommon event. He has placed certain things in my box multiple times. Sometimes it is a serious thing where he has put a new book that he thinks I would like in the box. He has been right about whether I will like the book a little more than not.

Sometimes he puts some books in my box as a joke. You can practically guarantee that any book featuring bondage will find its way there.

This week, there were actually three comic series in there. An old Storm series, The Unworthy Thor series and Daredevil: End of Days. He had said that the only one that he wanted me to read was the End of Days book, written by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack and art from Klaus Janson.

I already owned The Unworthy Thor and the Storm series (prior to her wedding with Black Panther) did not interest me. However, the Daredevil book was fascinating.

Todd was trying to give me a synopsis of the series because it seemed familiar to me, but I could not make out if I had read this before. He compared this book to Citizen Kane.

Yup, Citizen Kane.

That was all the idea that this book told the final Daredevil story, as he is killed in issue one by Bullseye. Daredevil’s final word: ‘Mapone.’

Much like Rosebud in Citizen Kane, the mysterious word became the key to Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich’s investigation into Matt Murdock’s final days.

Todd promised me that I would like this. He knows that I do not typically enjoy these future stories that are not in continuity. Most of these books annoy me. He told me I would like End of Days.

And despite this type of story is not usually in my wheelhouse, he was right. I loved this.

However, he also told me that he heard that Brian Michael Bendis had said that this would eventually wind up in continuity, that the real world Daredevil would reach this point. In this, I call Hooie. There is no way this series will EVER be anything but a ‘What If’ type story.

That does not take away from it though.

I really enjoyed the story of Ben Urich going around to all of the key individuals in Daredevil/Matt Murdock’s life and seeing how DD’s death affected them and the mystery of what the word Mapone means. The series does a great job including such important characters as Frank Castle, Bullseye, Kingpin, The Owl, Melvin Potter, J. Jonah Jameson and even a short cameo by Peter Parker.

And I do not know how many little red headed kids Matt Murdock has running around in this series. It is true that Matt has always been a player, but, come on, does he ever think about some protection?

It is not a perfect series though. There is a mystery on who a new Daredevil is and it is painfully obvious who it was. I will say the mystery of Mapone is better, but also felt tagged on.

I really enjoyed the art from Klaus Janson, whose dark and moody art fit with the tone of the series. I’ve never been a huge fan of Bendis, but this worked well. There were some covers that had scenes that were not important in the book. Again, that does not bother me much, but it does create some expectations.

Daredevil has been one of my favorite characters in Marvel for some time now and I did love seeing his legacy continuing. Todd, you were right. This was outstanding.