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Introduction
Early in his run, Bendis (on Newsarama.com) distinguished himself from "hit-and-run comic creators ... [who] do damage and run away". These creators could be read to include Kevin Smith, who killed Karen Page in his run on Daredevil #1-8, and David Mack, who blinded the Kingpin in his run on Daredevil #9-11, 13-15. As part of his agreement with Marvel that allowed him to reveal Daredevil's identity, Bendis agreed to remain on the title to deal with the fallout and establish a new status quo for the characters and the title.
Out
Bendis’s and Maleev’s work on Daredevil isn’t about super-villains. It isn’t about punching some guy in the street. It isn’t about foiling schemes. It isn’t even about crime stories, no matter what Bendis says: there’s no gumshoe here, figuring out a mystery, no muscle-bound hero bravely going against the mob.
No.
This makes L.A. Confidential look like child’s play, like genre crap. Ostensibly a super-hero story, Bendis and Maleev have created a remarkably un-genred work. It is not about super-villains but about the silence between panels, about a look on a character’s face, about what’s not said. It’s not about having power but being rendered impotent -- not by some exotic ray but by legal action, by the ambiguity of real-life situations, and by that sinking feeling that, yes, I have psychological problems that I can barely identify, much less package and confront. It’s about what happens when events are set into motion, about the next consequence and the next, minutely examined in such a way as to provoke the reader to say, yes, this is how it would happen, and why didn’t I -- or decades of writers -- think of that.
A Note on the Format of these Annotations
In the following annotations, citations are made by issue number followed by page. “27.18” thus indicates issue #27, page 18.
All issue numbers refer to the second volume or series entitled Daredevil. It is assumed that readers know this, as it is rather difficult to confuse the two series.
Sometimes two pages comprise a single unit, typically with wide panels split over the break between pages. In such cases, panels are numbered as if both pages were a single unit. Because panels are indicated separately from the abbreviated citation format, such instances do not present a problem for that format: for example, pages 8-9 of #26, one such case of two pages treated as one, would be cited as 26.8-9.
"Previously in Daredevil" pages (unless they, atypically, contain a portion of the narration) are not counted as pages, nor are advertisements.
In many cases, panel numbering is open for debate, particularly in the case of panels inlaid within other panels. Generally, the rule of thumb is proper reading order, but such disagreements in terms of numbering should not prevent identification of the proper panel. "Panels" solely giving a title, a date, or a setting are not counted as panels here. Dialogue overlapping multiple panels is cited either by both panels or by the panel over which they lie, or mostly lie, rather than the panel from which they originate.
Take note, particularly as it relates to background information on characters, that the annotations to each issue and storyline presume that readers have read the annotations to the previous issues and storylines.
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