It’s a sad day for me, indeed.  I never thought this would happen nor did I ever think I’d be put in this position.  But I have and, just to twist the knife a little more, it’s Brubaker that’s doing the putting.

I think I may have to hate Matt Murdock now.

For those who read the issue, you know what he did.  Typically when a comic character does this (not all the time… but usually), that character from then on has my disdain, be it an obnoxious archer or an uptight team leader.  Me and Daredevil go back aways since I picked up the Frank Miller Visionaries trades when I jumped back into comics.  I’ve followed Daredevil for the last how many years since Bendis was on the book.  Daredevil was always among my favorite superheroes and I suppose he still is, but this definitely knocked him down a couple pegs.  This stains the character to me.  I had hoped that this development wasn’t going to happen since I smelled it a few issues back, but it did, and now I really don’t know what to think about it.

The issue itself was very well done as is par for the course with Brubaker so much to where I feel kind of guilty to let the above affect my rating of the issue.  Ironically, the big stink about this issue, Lady Bullseye, is handled fairly well.  Honestly, call her by another name and nobody would have took issue.  Her reasons for taking the mantle of Bullseye are explained fairly well.  Her nature is very in tune with the mythos of Daredevil: dark, broken, and cold.  Ironically, she doesn’t seem to throw anything and whose style of fighting feels more Matt than Lester, which I find kind of funny.

The art by Clay Mann is similar enough to Lark’s that his absence from this issue is hardly noticeable.  However, there are certain panels (particularly involved the female element of the issue) that show Mann’s craft in his own right.  Brubaker continues to weave a fascinating tale even if a certain plot development rubs me the wrong way.  I will admit Brubaker does weave things around usually to where uneasy plot threads become gold, but right now Matt Murdock is on thin ice, and the Bru expects me to continue to root for the primary character of this book, he’s going to have to work some magic.