Daredevil, Vol. 20: Return of the King

Daredevil (1998) (Collected Editions)

by Ed Brubaker (Writer), David Aja (Illustrator)

Nearly two years ago, the Kingpin left America to try to build a new life and find a new purpose for himself. Is that new life now coming to the attention of old enemies? And how does this connect to Matt Murdock and his troubles in New York with Lady Bullseye? Find out in Return of the King Daredevil: Return of the King re-teams four-time award-winning writer Ed Brubaker with groundbreaking artist David Aja for the first time since their work on the cult sensation Immortal Iron Fist.

Collecting: Daredevil #116-119 (Vol. 2), 500

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Crime

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2009

About the author

Ed Brubaker (born November 17, 1966) is an Eisner Award-winning American cartoonist and writer. He was born at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.

Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.

In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.

Reviews

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess 3.5 stars, rounded up. Brubaker and Lark are as good as ever but I spent the entire book wanting to scream "WTF are you doing, Matt?!"



Seriously, he does so much crazy shit in this volume that I don't even know where to start.

Alright, so since Daredevil has refused to become the new leader of the Hand, the ninja clan's attention turns to a certain someone who is in exile in Spain.



But Kingpin, listening to Daredevil, has put his life of violence and crime behind him. He's fallen in love with a Spanish woman and has created a new life and a new family for himself. Sound familiar? It goes about as well as can be expected for both Kingpin and Brubaker.



This brings Kingpin back to his old enraged self and the first thing he does is return to Hell's Kitchen. Then, WTF decision #1 comes in. Kingpin hates the Hand and offers to make a deal with Daredevil. The two of them will team up to take out the Hand and then worry about the bad blood between them.

Sounds like a great idea! No? Then you're smarter than Matt Murdock.



Matt meanwhile is still refusing to let Milla's parents take custody of her despite the fact that he clearly can't handle it and has been banned from seeing her because it's affecting her recovery. He's not going to work and all of his friends are alternately pissed off at him and worried about him. Yet Matt apparently doesn't recognize how crazy he's getting because instead of listening to Foggy and Dakota, in WTF decision #2, he's getting all his advice from the ancient, alcoholic mystery ninja Master Izo. The man who has revealed absolutely nothing about himself and his past and his intentions with Matt Murdock and the Hand. Always an awesome plan.

And then we get to WTF decision #3 in which Matt decides that in order to keep Kingpin from becoming the leader of the Hand, he will do so himself. Because he's clearly in the right mental place to be taking down an evil organization from within without corrupting his soul in the process.




I wanted to reach into the pages and shake the hell out of Matt through the entire thing. Normally that would make me rate a book lower. But Brubaker somehow makes it all believable with Matt. This is the guy who can't get involved with a woman without her getting murdered and/or driven insane, which has happened at least three different times by my count. He also has absolutely zero self-control. I love the guy but sometimes he makes me long for Batman's iron will.

And despite my total annoyance with his stupid, stupid decisions, I'm still gonna be picking up the next run of Daredevil to see what kind of hell he gets himself into next.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brubaker completes his last volume of Daredevil in which our hero deals with not only The Hand organization but also some old villains from his past. There's some good character introspection for one of those villains as well.

The artwork and action take a dip compared to the previous volume but it's still good. Just about all of us Murdock's friends get involved in this last volume trying to work out their anger or dissatisfaction with the Daredevil himself. The Brubaker series while open to criticism was still very good overall to me and has prompted me to track down all of the recent issues before and after this mid section. Ed Brubaker won the 2007 Harvey Award for Best Writer.

ARTWORK: B; CHARACTERS/DIALOGUE: B plus to A minus; STORY/PLOTTING: B to B plus; ACTION SCENES: B minus to B; WHEN READ: mid March 2012; OVERALL GRADE: B to B plus.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voto: 3,5.

La run di Brubaker si conclude nel peggiore dei modi.
Poteva essere da 5 stelle, ma il finale é una cazzatona allucinante ed apre la strada all'ancora peggio "Shadowland", saga a dir poco illeggibile...
Saltatela e passate direttamente al Daredevil di Waid, non ve ne pentirete.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilson Fisk, also known as the Kingpin, is retired in Spain when the evil ninja Hand clan attacks and kills his new family, led by Lady Bullseye who tells him that he's now free to pursue and destroy Daredevil. Fisk decides instead to return to New York and side with Daredevil in taking down the Hand for what they've done. Of course, any deal with Fisk is never a good one... It becomes clear that Fisk is maneuvering to become the new leader of the Hand, which Daredevil stops by taking on the mantle himself.

An great arc for bringing back the Kingpin which involved some of Daredevil's best friends and greatest enemies. The arc culminates in a major decision for Daredevil that could easily feel unnatural and forced in the hands of another writer, but Brubaker takes advantage of Matt's optimism and fearlessness to put him in a situation that both echoes and ups the stakes of Bendis's Hardcore arc. A great finish to the Brubaker run and an unenviable setup for succeeding writer Andy Diggle.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume sees the Kingpin return to town, and then we see the unlikely team up of Daredevil and the Kingpin as they unite to battle the hand. There's some twists and turns, and this ends up being a pretty good volume. We're getting closer to Shadowland.

[Brandon Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brubaker and Lark’s run ends with a bang.

[RG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brubakers run ends on an epic conclusion. DD faces off with The Hand and Fisk. Whos dounle crossing who? So much intrigue. The action scenes are amazing, the artwork really makes these scenes shine. Highly recommend this run after reading Bendis.

[logankstewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is it. The end of the run for the second volume of stories concerning Matt Murdock and his not-so-secret secret identity. Issues 116-500 (which is actually 116-120, but the numbering was changed (to look more impressive?)) wrap up the long arc of this story. Or at least wrap up the second half of the long arc of this story, when Brian Michael Bendis stepped away and handed the pen to Ed Brubaker.

Brubaker's story is a brutal one, continuing the tone BMB established. And with this final arc, there is plenty of casualties.

First, I was very impressed by the covers of each of these issues. Each one gives a great impression of what's to come, and the colors are simply striking. Additionally #500 is like triple-sized and contains so many extras that there's plenty of delight in reading it alone.

Mostly the Return of the King concludes the immediate arc of the previous issues, Lady Bullseye. The conclusion is stunning and sudden and seemed kind of out of the blue and rather rushed, but was definitely a proper and fitting way to end this story. And by end I'm gonna go on and say that it's not a true ending. There's a series that follows this called The Devil's Hand, written by Andy Diggle, and that apparently deals with the aftermath of Return of the King. It falls in the Marvel timeline right after the Secret Invasion and Civil War stories.

Anyway, this final arc was bittersweet and shocking. I really liked Brubaker's story, just not as much as Bendis'. Still, Return of the King was just plain fun and fitting, and I highly recommend giving this entire series a read. More hits than misses, though a heart takes a hefty beating considering everything Matt Murdock goes through. So be prepared.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return of the King (116-119, 500). The biggest problem with Brubaker's third and final major arc is that it's so muddy. Still, this is better than the first half and Brubaker does the best to clear up everyone's motives in the final issue with a funs set of flashbacks that's particularly insightful for Master Izo ... but before that we spent almost a year stumbling around, and even in the end everything's not crystal clear, especially not the motives of Lady Bullseye. (I think it doesn't help that these characters were totally dropped from Matt's mythology pretty soon after Brubaker's run.)

With that all said, this is still a solid ending for Brubaker's run that closes off his major Kingpin story and also concludes his smaller arcs involving Milla and Dakota. It also puts Daredevil in an interesting starting place for the next author (though sadly Diggle's short run would never manage to tell that story is a particularly enthralling or believable way).

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuck, this volume means that Brubaker is done on Daredevil. I gotta say, for a character that more or less has the same shit happen to him time and again (romantic interest killed or maimed, secret ID outed, etc...), Brubaker managed to spin the same old stories in a way that actually advanced the arc of a 60-year-old character. It woulda been nice to see what he would have done with DD as leader of the Hand. He certainly set up Andy Diggle (Brubaker-light) with a number of decent possibilities.

[Matty Dub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brubaker remains consistent to close out his run. The book is well written and ends with a pretty exciting new status quo. We’re still in dark and emo DD territory, maybe even more so than before but he still managed to write a much more compelling second half overall. The art was a treat throughout so Brubaker’s run has that over Bendis. Issue #500 has a sweet Nocenti/Aja story that I really liked too!

[Stephen Hero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Depending on the comic's writer, I typically quite enjoy Daredevil:

(1) He's Irish-Catholic.
(2) His most redeeming superhero superpower is his blindness.
(3) He's always 0.02 seconds away from completely losing all semblance of his sanity.

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leadup to shadowland and covers Daredevil 500 in a crazy way. Lot of wild decisions made by Matt but it is one hell of a story.

[Divina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I need... a break from this run. For context, I started vol 2 in mid-April and I'm still not done. It's not the character, because I love this book with all my heart but this run is getting old. Bruback entered with a bang with ´Devil in Cell Block D´ but since then its just kinda... gone downhill? I don't care about Lady Bullseye. Love the Hand as a character, but god does he find a way to make it boring. Why would you do that to Milla. Why. I love her. It´s just so dark in gritty, I need a break. I have learned to appreciate vol 3-4 more (tip: don't read comics backwards by volume). It has its moments, but it's never bogged down by all the... evil-ness??? I don't know. Just a thought.

[Dan Blackley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the return of the Kingpin and the downfall of the Hand. Or is it? Brubaker keeps the tables turning throughout the story that on the surface seems impossible. Kingpin and Daredevil as partners? Get ready for some unbelievable action when the Owl, Lady Bullseye, and The hand all try to take over Hell's Kitchen.

[Gustavo hayasaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was not as good as Bendis’s work but I can’t say that it was not fun and well-written so congrats Brubaker!

[Graham Barrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

After finishing the previous volume of Ed Brubaker’s Daredevil (“Lady Bullseye”), I figured what the hell and read “Return of the King” since it was next to it on the library shelf. I’d heard about this storyline for years and it was worth reading, although I wasn’t particularly blown away by it.

The idea of Wilson Fisk waging war on and then taking control of The Hand is a terrifying thought for any Marvel fan since individually on their own both can and will make Daredevil’s life hell. To a point Brubaker follows up on this potential but I felt as though Brubaker didn’t go far enough with it. This storyline was either hampered by the volume juggling a bunch of other plot lines (Matt’s social/love troubles, the Hand’s inner politics, how Matt was groomed for decades to take over The Hand) or how Fisk was saddled with cliché story beats (i.e., trying to go legit until The Hand kills his girlfriend, him talking to an imaginary depiction of his old wife Vanessa, etc.).

“Daredevil: Return of the King” was a step up after the last volume but ultimately it had many of the same problems I had with the last one. Again maybe if I had started Brubaker’s Daredevil run at the beginning I’d have warmed up to this conclusion instead of dropping in at the climax (mea culpa). Ultimately I think there’s plenty of better Daredevil stories/runs and it hasn’t really endeared me to seeing the follow-up to the volume’s conclusion in “Shadowland”

[Adam Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brubaker ends his run with a solid twist, and tying several, if not all, of his threads together.

For me, the highlight of this issue is the brief section where David Aja's art appears. I've enjoyed Lark's art on this run, but it's not quite as striking as Maleev's was, or as creative and jaw dropping as Mack's or Quessada's. Aja is just the right touch to liven things up.

The story returns Kingpin and several others to the center of the action as The Hand returns to Hell's Kitchen. It's then a journey of deception and odd alliances that carry us to the final page where the Daredevil Universe changes permanently.

Overall, Brubaker's run wasn't as great as I remembered. It started incredibly strong, but became inconsistent. I got the feeling that Brubaker had no idea what to do with Murdock's marriage, and it took him a while to settle on finding a way around it. It made for some incredulous moments that Bendis's run didn't have. But it did resolve in a satisfying way.

I remember hating the Diggle/Johnston run when it came out in issues, so I'm not incredibly looking forward to dipping my brain back into Shadowland, but it's a much shorter journey than either Bendis or Brubaker's run so I'll just hold my nose, knowing that the Waid run is waiting on the other side (after Diggle's "Reborn" series, which I do remember liking).

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

During his self-imposed exile, Wilson Fisk meets Marta. He is trying to let go of his violent past, but it follows him everywhere. Marta and her kids are killed by the Hand. Lady D warns him that he can't escape his past and that he must return home.

Matt has personal problems, mostly in his love life. He feels like he lost both Milla, who he cheated on, and Dakota, who doesn't appreciate how he is handling the whole cheating with her thing. On top of it all, Fisk offers an alliance against the Hand. Only Izo is fighting the Hand openly at first.

With a gentleman's agreement in place, Fisk and Matt join forces against the Hand. Foggy is against it and kicks Matt out of their partnership.

Fisk sends his henchman Owl to hire the Hand. His secret plan aims to take back the city from his former lieutenants, then deal with Daredevil. The last target on the list is Foggy, which makes it that much more obvious to Lady B that Owl is following Fisk's orders. Dakota follows Fisk to his meeting with Lady B and is captured. Matt gets to her and hits Owl hard, while Izo's man Black Tarantula (who everyone thought was working for the Hand) keeps Foggy breathing.

The whole gang attacks the Hand in the end. Matt does the only thing that can stop the bloodshed and defeat Fisk - he accepts the Hand's old offer to become their leader.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brubaker's run ends on a solid, interesting note, even if it feels a bit rushed.

Basically the hand puts the pressure on getting a new leader. Even going after Kingpin and making him return back to America to take on Daredevil. With lots of planning from different bad guys Matt has to go inward, separating himself even more, to the point of isolation but is this the correct path to go on?

It's a dark chapter for sure. I really enjoyed Fisk backstory of where he was. I also dug Matt being more cunning and brutal than before. The whole plan of everyone though felt a little iffy, kind of too easy and too quickly paced, it felt like Brubaker wanted to jump off the title quicker than taking his time to finish.

Overall though a very very solid ending.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished the Ed Brubaker run, I'll say my favourite parts of his run were the Devil in cell block, the devil takes a ribe, hell to pay, and return of the king, the noir aspect that brubaker is famous for wasn't as strong as I would have like but he still delivers

Again daredevil been leave off in a shitty situation for the next writer to keep up from, feel like that tradition at this point, over I will say Bendis run was a bit better then brubaker overall, I loved how the run ends with daredevil praying for the first time in a long time, next up is mark waid.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love that Matt has FINALLY come to his damn senses about certain people, like the entire Milla situation but omfg the whole thing is just so emo. When Stick called him the whiniest superhero ever lmao.

The #500 issue was really cool and the ending to this volume was wild and changed the status quo moving forward. I know this leads to Shadowlands which I already read and didn't like but I appreciate something new. If you can't beat them, join them huh.

[Néstor Vargas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can’t believe it’s over. It was a great run, few lows and amazing highs, the good thing is that it really improved towards the end. Aja’s prologue is great. This last volume has the expected return of The Kingpin with the usual backstabbing, not a lot of surprises there. It does not feel like a conclusion per se, not like Bendis’ one. It does leave everything set up for the next creative team but still had a bittersweet sensation like it suddenly ended and that’s it.

[Bassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is somewhat better than the last one. I am glad Kingpin is back, that character is always menacing. Art and story complement each other very well. Although I am not sure if I truly like the way this story arc concluded, I hope the next book will prove me wrong.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good selection of super people.

Good color artwork. Does seem a little repetitive. The owl is really old school. King pin returns and manipulates many. Lady bulls eye is still half naked.

[Chris Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Brubaker/Lark run ends in just as spectacular fashion as it began.
Now I have to read the follow-up run by Andy Diggle and also the Bendis/Mack run that came before this one (which I should have read earlier, really, but I'm on an Ed Brubaker kick).
Full marks!

[Bharat Krishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one. I’d read shadowland first so maybe I’ve got an unfair view here, but it out this did a great job explaining kingpin and why he returned and how this all leads into shadowland.

[Alex Fyffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ed just can’t write kingpin like bendis and it’s sad when he tries

[Ming · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Kingpin's one spotlight issue carried more weight than the other chapters, but overall it's still a pretty good read.