Customer Reviews

Daredevil Vol. 10: The Widow

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I am outraged at Marvel for the City of Heroes nonsense, but I still can't help myself from buying their books! Daredevil remains my favorite despite the general backlash against Bendis, and this book is one of my favorites.

Obviously, it features the Black Widow, Natasha Romanov, Matt's partner and former lover. She is always sexy, always interesting, but in this book she feels like a real human, both vulnerable and strong, and the interchange between her and Matt feels very true to life. If life happened to be about former Russian spies and men with superhuman senses....

My favorite moment is when Matt comes home and finds Natasha waiting for him, in his bed, naked. Matt's thoughts are something to the effect of, "I used to dream about this sort of thing happening to me in high school." And you can't help thinking, sure she is here to use you for protection, but I'll be damned if the Widow isn't the only lady in Matt's life who is worthy of him. He doesn't take advantage of her, because he is still in love with his estranged wife, but they are so in touch with each other in this book that you really wish he would.

I didn't think I could still love this book after all this time, but I do. "Widow," along with "Hardcore," and "Out," is some of the best superhero writing around.

Matt Murdock simply cannot catch a break. This guy has the worst luck of any superhero I can think of (yes, even worse than Spidey). The problems continue to pile on in volume 10 of Daredevil. This collection contains issues #61-65, plus a reprint of issue#81 from the first volume of the series. So, Matt is still the Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen. The FBI is still crawling up his [...]. Criminals are still dumb enough to challenge his authority. This time he has to contend with Billy Russo aka Jigsaw. Yeah, The Punisher's arch nemesis is dumb enough to take on Matt this time around. Further complicating things, Matt's former lover The Black Widow decides to come back into his life. I guess no one told Natasha that Daredevil was now a married man, and if you think that complicates his love life, you would be correct. Also included in this collection is issue#65, which fills in the missing year when Daredevil became the new Kingpin. I found this collection to be a little underwhelming compared to the incredible story from the previous volume, but Bendis still does an admirable job continuing the tragic tale of a hero pushed to the brink.

While it may not strike the same chord as his previous Daredevil TPB's such as Hardcore and King of Hell's Kitchen, The Widow still finds Bendis' noir-ish take on Daredevil one of the best books to come out of Marvel. With the aftermath of the massive gang war lingering over him, Matt Murdock finds himself in the company of his former flame Natasha, AKA the Black Widow. It soon becomes clear that Natasha's arrival is based on some ulterior motives as they both come under fire from assassins, and Matt has a run in with disfigured Punisher villain Jigsaw. Alex Maleev's art is still superb, and his rendering of Natasha is mouth watering. Also collected here is the 40th Anniversary issue of DD, written by Bendis and featuring art from Maleev and guest artists Frank Quitely, David Finch, Greg Horn, Jae Lee, and P. Craig Russell among others.