Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

And he shows both Matt's history and how it comes back to haunt him; without that history, we as readers wouldn't understand how Matt starts to unravel by the end.   In fact, this would be a solid five star read for me if not for one of the earlier issues being a bit heavy handed.   It was a message story, and while I agreed with the statement it made, I couldn't help but feel like I'd been hit over the head with it by the end so the narrative definitely did not work for me. 

Which was a shame: with two villains who looked like identical twins, they had a good story.   One, Melvin Potter, wanted to go straight, and the other simply wanted to have his fun with women.   The Daredevil intersection was twofold, but the message his wheelchair bound secretary, who had been beaten until she was paralyzed by the man who didn't want to reform.   And while she made a nice entry point to get Daredevil involved, she wasn't needed in the end.   Matt was already defending Potter, and would have gotten involved regardless of Becky's situation, so the only reason for her to be involved was to get the message across. 

There was a nice moment where Daredevil realized what she'd gone through, and Matt goes to tell her he understands, although I feel conflicted about this and will talk about it at the end, under the page break.   And then The Message hit you again.    But very rarely do men acknowledge the ways which women feel powerless, helpless, or fearful in certain situations, particularly in comics.   It was nice to see this happen here, so I didn't flat out hate the issue, so much as I didn't appreciate how much the narrative as much as I could have.  

But let's get to the trio that Miller creates, or fleshes out so nicely: Elektra, Bullseye and the Kingpin.   He created Elektra, and merely used the other two, but what he did with all three was fantastic.   Bullseye was already formidable, although he became creepier, and perhaps even more formidable, in Miller's run.  Kingpin?   Well, I haven't read much of him before, but he purportedly wasn't the mastermind he was before now.  I don't find it hard to believe: every single person who's used Kingpin since Miller's run has based him off Miller's run.  Streetwise, savvy, a large guy who is muscle rather than fat, Machiavellian to the extreme, well read.   He was, supposedly, somewhat of a joke before Miller took him in and turned him into a true adversary for Daredevil.   The Kingpin's history, how he reformed, why he gets back into the business is moving, as well.  Especially since, well, Vanessa turns out radically different from what Miller originally conceived her as.   

Elektra, Matt's first love, returns.   This volume includes their love story, and them meeting again, years later.   Elektra, haunted by her father's death, has become an assassin.  This is a nice mirror, a what might have been.   Matt reacted to his father's death by vowing to protect others; Elektra is the darkest version of what he might have been if he hadn't believed in justice, if he had allowed himself to become bitter and angry at the world. 

I'm going to talk about rape in the world of Daredevil now, so behind a page break.   Also, spoilers if you know nothing about how the whole Bullseye and Elektra playing Kingpin's Top Assassin works out.   And other things. 

And then there's this: 

'

Miller has said this is a metaphor for rape.   Yeah,  Bullseye rapes and kills Elektra to try and get to Matt Murdock, whom he at one point believes is Daredevil.   The Kingpin laughs at him, and Matt, aware of how he'd been tricked, sets up a dummy with a recorder so Bullseye 'realizes' that Matt isn't Daredevil. 

See, the thing is that Bullseye kills Elektra for two reason: to try and become the Kingpin's chief assassin again, as well as to emotionally wreck Matt/Daredevil.   He's upset that he didn't get that jab in at Daredevil when he's fooled by Dummy!Matt.  This becomes problematic, along with Becky.   See, Becky was raped, and felt so ashamed she didn't report it.   

So, let me list my problems: 

1. Rape isn't there to be used as a message.   Or for you to fridge a woman with so a man can learn a lesson.   No, no, no.   As something I was reading online points out, Matt forgives her for not reporting her rapist, which they felt was problematic, although he does point out that the only way her rapist will be put away is if she report him which she finally does.    But it's not there for the message, which I will come back to in a later point.

3. Matt doesn't get raped.   A beating=/=a rape and I'm a little bothered that one is used as almost interchangeable with the other.   Matt recognizes that they're not the same, but that's not even recognizing that he got away from his assailants and Becky did not. 

4. Victim shaming.   He rebukes her for not reporting her rapist, and asks how many people he hurt while he might not have gotten the chance if she'd reported him.  Because, remember, women, if you get raped, it's your fault if your rapist gets away, you don't report him, and he goes onto rape other women.  WTFWTFWTFWTF?

5. Clearly Becky's rape, and reporting her rapist, were just a message.   No one asks her about what happens to him, mentions it, or mentions Becky's rape after.   They never referenced it before.  It was just there for that one issue, making no impact on anything else.   Because it was a Message issue. 

6. Rape as revenge on someone else is really, really fucked up. I liked the Elektra death scene before I read about what it was supposed to be; the story worked better for me when rape wasn't involved. 

So, ugh, I'm pretty disgusted with how Miller treats sexual assault.   I do, however, think he's a great storyteller when he doesn't use rape as a message or means of vengeance.