Comic Book Review: Daredevil #90

As always, Ed Brubaker delivers a quality read each and every month on this title. The fact that Daredevil is one of the few Marvel titles not bogged down in lousy Civil War tie-in stories is much appreciated. I’m sure that Daredevil #90 is going to be another solid read. Let’s do this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Michael Lark

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: The issue begins with Matt on a train wondering why Lily reminds him so much of Karen Page. We then go back to yesterday. Matt arrives at a village near Libson. Dakota North tracked Lennox and Lily to this location. There is a mansion that is deeded in Lucca’s name. Matt slips into his Daredevil costume and goes to the mansion. When Daredevil enters the mansion, he finds Lennox shot to death in his bed. He had been dead for at least an hour.

Daredevil then catches Lily’s scent. He jumps out the window and lands in front of a car trying to leave the mansion. The driver is Tombstone and he has Lilly in the passenger seat. Tombstone gets out of the car and starts brawling with Daredevil. Lily jumps out of the car and hits Tombstone. Tombstone responds by pimp slapping Lily. Tombstone then takes down Daredevil. Tombstone takes Lily back to his car and drives off with her.

We cut back to present time with Matt on a train to Paris. He was able to track down Tombstone’s trail to Paris. Once in Paris, Matt slips into the Daredevil costume and starts beating up the local criminals asking for any information concerning Tombstone. Finally, one criminal tells Daredevil that there is a shopkeeper who trades in weapons who knows Tombstone.

We shift to Daredevil smacking around the aforementioned shopkeeper demanding information on where Tombstone is hiding out. The shopkeeper says that a woman called on behalf of Tombstone and that he is supposed to meet Tombstone to supply him with a gun tomorrow afternoon. The shopkeeper then says that Tombstone works for the woman.

We cut to Lilly talking to Tombstone. Lilly tells Tombstone to never touch her again. That he was way to rough in that scene back at the mansion with Daredevil. Lily tells Tombstone to be ready because he knows that Matt will be showing up soon enough.

Lilly then goes to her bedroom where we see the Matador in her bed. The two start kissing. The Matador tells Lilly that her scent reminds him of his mother. The Matador asks her how this could be. Lilly responds that a woman has to have her secrets. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Daredevil #90 was another good read. Brubaker is doing a masterful job of weaving this mystery that Matt is so desperately trying to solve. This issue is nicely paced. It is Brubaker’s trademark steady and measured pace as he methodically unfolds this murder mystery before the reader. Brubaker’s setting for this story only serves to give it a more rich and textured feel. Having this story set in Europe gives this story a much more adventurous feel to it rather than having it set in New York like 95% of all comic books. It is a nice change of pace to see Daredevil outside of Hell’s Kitchen.

As always, Brubaker delivers well crafted dialogue. Brubaker is one of the few writers that can give the reader a dialogue heavy issue with little action and still make it an absolutely gripping and entertaining read.

Brubaker threw a huge curve ball at the reader by having Lennox killed. This is a great technique that gets the reader to share Matt’s frustration for not being able to get our long standing questions answered by Lennox.

Of course, Brubaker wasn’t done with the surprises for the reader. Brubaker hits the reader with a big twist at the end of this issue with the revelation that Lilly is the mastermind behind all of the recent events. Lilly had Lennox killed. Lilly hired Tombstone. And to top it off, Lilly has seduced the Matador into doing her bidding. Clearly, Lilly has some type of pheromone based power that induces men to smell whatever their greatest desire is and to transfer those strong emotions on to Lilly as their object of desire. It certainly can’t be her looks. She looks like a dude. Lilly has the potential to be one nasty villainess. I am interested to learn more about her character and just what exactly she has against Matt Murdock.

Tombstone is your standard issue Daredevil villain. He isn’t anything incredible, but I like his character. He has a neat look and provides plenty of entertainment value when it comes to a nasty street brawl.

Daredevil #90 is vintage Brubaker. Deliver the story in a tension filled steady pace and spring several surprises on the reader and then leave them with more questions at the end of the issue than they had when they started reading the issue. Well done.

Lark and Gaudiano do a nice job with the art on this issue. This is a good example of artwork that I would detest on a majority of titles, but absolutely love it on Daredevil. This style just fits the tone and mood of Brubaker’s story perfectly.

The Bad: No complaints with this issue.

Overall: Daredevil #90 keeps the ball rolling as we get deeper and deeper into this mystery where we seem to be getting more answers than questions. Daredevil is certainly one of the best titles that Marvel is currently publishing. If you like fast paced and action packed comic books, then you probably won’t enjoy this title. However, if you like great character development and a well crafted and steadily paced mystery, then give this title a try.