Reviews by Harold Bloomfield (HB56@aol.com)

Daredevil #15

PLOT: Daredevil and Echo battle in the burning schoolyard she has set up as a trap. Meanwhile the Kingpin relates how his early years shaped his philosophy of life. During their combat Maya comes to the realization that Matt is Daredevil and cannot be the one who murdered her father. She deduces the Kingpin was the murderer and leaves to confront him.

The conclusion of the 'Parts of A Hole' arc is mainly a psychological tale. The contrasts and parallels between the three main characters works very well. All three are in a great part molded by their relationships with their fathers. All three faced physical adversity as children: Matt's blindness, Maya's deafness and Fisk's weight. Some pages David Ross even literally illustrates these parallels by placing Echo and Daredevil's fight right besides Fisk's childhood struggles. This is the first issue Ross handles the pencils by himself and he does an excellent job.

This story pretty much serves as an origin for the Kingpin which to my knowledge has never been done before. Mack does this so well that he almost evokes sympathy for Fisk without relying on the usual child abuse cliche. As I mentioned before he ties it in subtly with the backgrounds of Matt and Maya. Such a focus makes this story arc just as much about the interpersonal psychological dynamics at work among the three of them than about a plot by the Kingpin to bring Maya into his organization by having her kill Daredevil.