Daredevil #113

If you're looking for a superhero with a character arc that looks like a rollercoaster, check out Daredevil.

The Man Without Fear started life in a (thankfully short-lived) yellow-and-red costume. He was a Spider-Man clone, cracking jokes while beating up the bad guys. He soon gained a much cooler red-and-black costume (thank you, Wally Wood), but continued on as "Spidey Lite," with dependable stories and good supporting characters - but never really building up the Rogue's Gallery a great hero needs.

Finally, under Frank Miller's guidance, Daredevil's adventures became darker, as the character led the way for the grim and gritty movement in comics. From there, with varying degrees of success, that hero's adventures kept getting darker and more tragic, as loved ones were killed, friends were hurt, and things just never seemed to go DD's way.

But he's had quite a run of luck lately. Oh, not in the comics, where he's endured having his identity exposed, being thrown into prison, having his best friend killed (temporarily), and his wife driven mad.

His good luck has been in the writers who've been handling his adventures. Brian Bendis turned in an excellent run on the book, and now it's in the hands of the more-than-capable Ed Brubaker.

Although DD continues to fight the bad guys in his costume, the comic feels very much like a cross between a great crime novel and an outstanding martial arts movie.

The latest storyline continues Daredevil's bad luck with ninja women, as he faces off against Lady Bullseye, an assassin who has modeled herself after one of DD's greatest villains. This issue adds in several other interesting characters, including the Black Tarantula, Iron Fist (fresh off Brubaker's excellent run on that comic), and the enigmatic Master Izo, who bears a strong resemblance to DD's first teacher, Stick.

It's a great comic, aided in no small part by the outstanding art of Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano, who provide wonderful, moody scenes and some excellent fight sequences. You can almost feel the rain in the rooftop scenes.

Brubaker continues to tell stories I wouldn't expect to like. He did it with Bucky in Captain America, and now he has me interested in Lady Bullseye, which sounds like a lame spinoff characer - but she's much more than that.

This comic has come a long way since its colorful beginnings - and the good news is, from all indications, Brubaker is just getting warmed up.

Grade: A-