Daredevil #21-25: Supreme

Ok, another break between the ramblings of those Trades I read while on holiday (which was a while back now I think about it.

Late last week I finally picked up Daredevil #25 and so, felt it was time to go through the entire arc and write down what I thought about it (given that it's been a while since I talked about new comics).

Therefore, over the course of this past weekend I read Daredevil #21-25 in it's entirety to remind myself what had been happening in this latest story arc; Supreme.

'Supreme' sees the Man without Fear Matt Murdock, fresh off of his confession about how he regained his secret identity, deciding to put his master plan into action. Roping in some of his friends and allies to help him take out and armed gang of thugs, Matt uses this as an excuse to approach his boss with a bold plan; to place Daredevil on the stand to give evidence and open the door for other heroes to do the same. However, not everyone is happy with this plan as the Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk, takes steps to put a stop to this motion, either by killing Murdock's case or killing the man himself.

Now hopefully I haven't laid any spoilers out there, although it does occur to me about how complex this story actually is. That said, regardless of it's complexity, after coming off of the 'Running with the Devil' arc I was really excited to see what Charles Soule was going to offer here, given his prior career and how his run has really pulled me back in since I jumped back onto Daredevil.

And, thankfully, this plot doesn't disappoint as I really enjoyed the legal manoeuvring of seeing Matt try to change the law and allow his superheroic persona to have more influence on his day to day. I will admit though that I do feel a little let down by the story, as though I was expecting something greater and more epic with these issues. After Dark Art and Running with the Devil, Soule's run felt like it was leading up to something and I really thought that this would be the 'Magnum Opus' of his run, the best part that he had been leading up to.

Of course, that doesn't take away from how good it was as I enjoyed seeing Matt as the hero instead of Daredevil, making for a nice change of pace. What I really enjoyed though were some of the character appearances which occurred here as not only does She-Hulk show up (in a way that makes me tempted to check out her most recent run) but also the character known as Legal from Soule's own She-hulk run. This character in particular, who seemed one note in that She-Hulk run, was much more intriguing here, especially with his speech about the law being fiction. This speech along with a more optimistic one by Daredevil kinda has me wondering if this is why Soule is now a writer and not a Lawyer; due to a somewhat paradoxical view on his former occupational field.

The art meanwhile was also pretty solid.... to begin with. Goran Sudzuka's art in the issues 21 and 22 was gorgeous and really gave me a reminiscence of Paolo Rivera's work during the early Waid run. It was just so beautiful and stylish and I'd have happily gazed upon this style for the whole arc. Sadly, that wasn't to be as the final three issues were drawn by Alec Morgan and, most likely because of this, the arc went downhill.

Sadly, I just wasn't a fan of Morgan's work in these later issues, with issue 25 looking nowhere near the quality of issue 25 through my eyes. The characters in particular didn't look particularly great in these three issues, with them all looking rather rough in their faces. As a result of this, I found myself struggling to get into those final issues and only by reading them as a bulk read was I able to actually enjoy the story.

Despite that though, I did enjoy this arc very much (though maybe not as much as I had expected it to) and found the end of it (which could have stuck with the status Quo) a little inspiring and optimistic. This end also gave me a nice teaser for what is to come down the road, which excites me (while also bothers as I may not be able to afford it when it gets here) and does make me glad I gave Charles Soule's run a second chance.