Daredevil Visionaries Frank Miller Volume 3 TPB [Paperback]

The death of Elektra in issue #181 of DAREDEVIL was a shocking, groundbreaking moment in mainstream superhero comics... but it was far from the end of Miller's transformative work on the book.

Over the course of his run on D.D., Frank Miller had utterly transformed an uninspiring, second-tier book into one of the most dynamic and fascinating reads on the monthly comics racks. He'd infused Daredevil with the grit of film noir and the occult mood of esoteric ninja sagas. Month after month, his writing improved and his art became tighter, more expressive and more experimental.

As his experience deepened, Miller seemed to discover more about his technique -- and more about his characters and the world they inhabited. The previously shallow characterization of D.D.'s "alter ego" Matt Murdock became richer and more complex each month, as Miller explored the character's history and paradoxes. The growing sophistication of the book meant that even though his run had seemingly hit its apex with the tragic conclusion of the Elektra thread, Miller mined the aftermath of the tale for some of his run's most memorable and haunting stories. Characteristically, Miller found ways to enrich Elektra's saga even after her death.

The stories in this book are haunted by her memory -- as Matt Murdock seeks solace from other lovers, and as he grapples with his own anger and rage, sometimes in ways that are hurtful and damaging to the other characters. The storyline threatens to bring Elektra back as a dark, grotesque shadow of her former self. Murdock already failed to save his lover's life -- now he has one last opportunity to save her soul.

Appended to the book are some stories from WHAT IF? and BIZARRE ADVENTURES. One of the WHAT IF stories is an utter waste -- a slight and pointless piece reimagining DD as a superspy for the agency called S.H.I.E.L.D. But the other WHAT IF tale is a haunting, troubling tale, with Daredevil standing at Elektra's grave, wondering what would have happened if she had not died. It's the perfect coda to the Elektra storyline, with Miller's most emotionally evocative writing. Inked by Terry Austin, Miller also lays out some of his most impressive artwork of this period.

Finally, the Bizarre Adventure tale follows an early adventure in Elektra's career as a hitwoman-for-hire. It's black-and-white, crudely simple in plot, but with simply gorgeous art prefiguring Miller's later experiments with noir storytelling in the SIN CITY line. (Unfortunately, the publisher jumbled the un-numbered pages, so you may have trouble following the plot.)

This volume is not without its awkward moments and flaws, but it's still an astonishing feat. You can literally watch Miller honing the artistic and storytelling skills he'd display in his later, more powerful works. The esoteric themes of RONIN have their roots here, as do the technically brilliant artistic flourishes of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. Miller may have perfected his fusion of superheroics and noir in BATMAN: YEAR ONE, but this is where he developed every tool in that bag of tricks.

In terms of sheer formal inventiveness and skill, ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN and ELEKTRA LIVES AGAIN may be two of the most stunning works in Miller's bibliography. But to truly appreciate them, you have to know the history of the character and how far Miller had journeyed with his femme fatale. Some of the most crucial moments in that journey lie between the covers of this volume.

After building steadily to a peak with the death of Elektra in #181, Frank Miller had done pretty much everything he needed to with Daredevil. Volume 3 of the DAREDEVIL VISIONARIES: FRANK MILLER series proves this with a run of subsequent stories that basically mark time: they're okay, but they don't amaze like the previous issues. This book collects Daredevil #183-191, What If? #28 & 35, and Bizarre Adventures #28. The real stinker for me was the "final breakup" of Matt and Heather, done in such a awkward and trite fashion... I figure Miller wrote himself into a corner with this plotline and took the easy (albeit inexplicable) way out. The last 3 stories (What Ifs and Bizarre Adventures) don't do much. Where a WHAT IF story will ususally make me go "whoa", these made me shrug. I guess the BA story would have been okay if Marvel could have printed the pages in the correct order. Once again, fans pay the price for the laziness of proofreaders.

In summary, Volumes 1 and 2 are defintely worth it. Volume 3 is not.

The third collected volume of Frank Miller's initial run on Daredevil doesn't have the overall impact and shock value of the second volume, but is instead a haunting and harrowing end note to Miller's first run on the title that saw the writer/artist transform Daredevil from a third-rate superhero to one of the top figures of Marvel's lineup. Daredevil Visionaries - Frank Miller Vol. 3 picks up with Matt Murdock still mourning the loss of Elektra, and soon enough he's going head to head with Frank Castle, AKA the Punisher, whose differing methods in crime fighting come to a head as the two clash. Soon enough though, Matt's old mentor Stick makes a return, as it is revealed that Elektra's fate may not be death after all, that is, if the mysterious organization known as the Hand has anything to say about it. Quick moving throughout, this third volume doesn't feature the defining moments that Miller had presented before, but the overall story is so compelling that it would take quite some time for another author to make Daredevil this harrowing, and that other author ended up being Miller again with his Born Again storyline. All in all, if you picked up the first two Frank Miller collections of Daredevil, this third collected volume is a worthwhile pick up as well.

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