Speaking of Ed Brubaker, I've got the DD Omnibus that he wrote with artist Michael Lark (his fellow partner-in-crime over at DC's "Gotham Central") in my bag even as I'm typing this. The best thing about the book is that it's got more than 600 pages of great DD stories by Bru and Lark in an oversized hardcover collection. In fact, the book is so heavy that you can use it as a weapon if you're ambushed while walking around in Hell's Kitchen at night. Actually, this volume reprints only the first half of Bru's run on the title - the 2nd volume will be coming out soon in 2010.
Essentially, the run picks up immediately after Bendis' last story where Matt Murdock ended up in prison. The first half of this book deals with the aftermath of that event and is basically a gritty prison tale. To make things worse, Foggy Nelson "dies" and the Punisher gets himself into prison to aid in Matt's escape. Also, the Iron Fist dons the red costume to patrol the streets in Matt's absence. The second arc has DD touring the world and reminds this old reader of the classic run by Dennis O'Neil in the 1980s (collected in the "Love's Labour Lost" TPB) with a globe-totting DD as well. Bru and company gives us the return of the Gladiator and Mr. Fear. To me, the Gladiator is a parasite. He's been surviving on Matt's favours for as long as the DD comics have been published and every other year or so goes insane again. More than the Gladiator, Matt's estranged wife Milla Donovan is also several fries short of a Happy Meal and the book closes with her being confined to a mental asylum as well. All that was courtesy of a revamped Mr. Fear that appeared more terrifying here than all his previous appearances combined. The idea is so incredibly clever that you wonder why no one has done it so well before - pitting the Man Without Fear against Mr. Fear himself, who understood that Matt isn't really without fear at all because he is not without love or friendship. He may not fear for his own safety but what about that of his friends and family?
Classic DD artists such as John Romita, Klaus Janson and Gene Colan also contributed art to this volume. Pick it up if you like DD written and drawn well. While it may not have been as popular as Bendis' run, on a technical level, Brubaker's run is the superior one. However, that may've been the problem with the run as well - it is so technically perfect that it at times come across a little cold. A lot of Matt's angst and tensions are buried deep within his psyche that you wish he'd just explode like he did against the Kingpin in Bendis' "Hardcore" arc. On the other hand, maybe that's what makes Brubaker's take on the character so good as well. Matt is a thinking man's hero just as DD is a writer's book. The morality is not so clear-cut black and white. The characters are far more complex than your average spandex crowd. Throughout Bendis' run, Matt's life has been thrown to the dogs. Brubaker attempts to rebuild Matt from the inside out - with a hero who relies more on his sense of civility (he is a lawyer, after all) and duty than simply his fists and ninja-training.
I'd be remiss not to mention the reappearance of my favourite supporting character in this book - Dakota North, private investigator. I thought that Marvel had forgotten this wonderfully tough female from the 1980s already. She hasn't been seen for close to 25 years and suddenly Brubaker brings her back to the DD title. I was told that she later had a one-night-stand with Matt. To me, she'd make a better companion and lover to Matt than any of the other women that he surrounded himself with in the past. Also, thankfully, there's no hint of Elektra anywhere in this book save for an appearance on a cover image.
