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@ Pop Syndicate-- Daredevil: Return of the King tpb

"In that way, Ed Brubaker is the perfect writer for Daredevil because he has shown that, as a writer he is willing to make choices that others wouldn’t.  He is the man who brought Bucky back and then killed off Captain America.  His books Sleeper and Criminal are all about people who made bad choices and then have to live with the consequences.  During his run on Daredevil, Brubaker never took it easy on Murdock and refuses to let up in the end.  Matt still has to deal with his own infidelities and pride, even up to the end where he had to make drastically life changing decisions."

You can read the whole review here.

As I was thinking about this review, a thought struck me about Ed Brubaker; he may be one of the more mature writers at either Marvel or DC.  Right now, between his Captain America and Daredevil, Brubaker was writing comics that I really like as an almost 40 year old comic reader.  He wasn't trying to stroke some inner fanboy of mine like I think Geoff Johns and Brian Michael Bendis try to do.  Brubaker, along with Greg Rucka at DC, are writing some of the best mainstream superhero comics write now because they're not writing like they're playing with their favorite old toys like the Flash or the Avengers but they're trying to write good, solid stories using these corporate characters.  There's the time and the place for Bendis' and Johns' fan service but Brubaker and Rucka, while maybe not as flashy or sexy, are much better writers than either of them because they know how to tell a story. 

Over Brubaker and Lark's run, I debated dropping the series a couple of times.  It felt slow at times but I'm really glad I stuck with it.  His story actually went somewhere and his "shock" ending actually works as a better conclusion to his story than Bendis' ending with Matt going to jail.  Bendis' ending still feels like he left in mid-story.  Brubaker's drastically changes up Matt's status quo but it's a strong conclusion to his run and almost nicely brings his story full circle by having Daredevil in a new environment, surrounded by more friends than enemies.