The Ultimate Collection book 2 picks up where book 1 left off with Daredevil having defended himself against the claim outing him as Matt Murdock.



The first half, which collects issues 41-50 deals with Matt’s continuing struggles with the criminal underworld of Hell’s Kitchen now that a vacuum has been left after the Kingpin’s fall from grace. It also introduces a new love interest in the form of the blind Milla Donovan who is rescued by Daredevil at the beginning of the story. Because he’s a superhero, the romance doesn’t exactly go real smoothly and when Kingpin resurfaces (because of course having his son attempt to kill him, losing all of his territory and having all of his money stolen by his wife doesn’t prevent him from wanting to rule Hell’s Kitchen again), things get ugly. This whole plotline was really interesting in the way that it showed how Matt’s friends are dealing with all the shit that is getting thrown onto Matt and, by extension, onto them.
That ending was crazy though! I honestly did not expect that at all. I mean, I know Matt’s been under a huge amount of pressure but to declare yourself Kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen? That’s ballsy and also completely fucking crazy. I like that Bendis leads up to that moment in a way that makes you understand why Matt thinks he has to do it even though it’s a terrible, terrible idea.

The second half collects issues 56-65 and (aside from issue 65) continues on the pressure built in the first half. I can’t really discuss this without spoiling the first half, so...

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Okay, now it’s not my fault if things get spoiled.

The second half deals with the fallout of Daredevil declaring himself Kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen. His superhero friends, most notably Luke Cage aka “Sanctimonious Prick of the Month” and of course Spiderman are less than pleased with what Daredevil has done. While I think Cage is over the top and annoying with his judgmental attitude, it was good to see Matt’s friends forcing him to come to terms with the crazy decisions he’s made and really look at why he’s reacting that way.

Matt clearly wasn’t thinking through his decision and now all sorts of reprecussions will have to be faced. First of which is the fact that now there are no other gangs, the Yakuza want to challenge Matt’s self-proclaimed throne. The throwdown between Matt and the Yakuza was pretty fucking epic.



Second, Matt’s relationship with Milla gets extremely complicated after she finds out that all his friends think he’s having a nervous breakdown over the death of Karen Page. I really liked Milla as a love interest. Being new to Daredevil, I have no one to compare her to but I liked that she’s not some helpless victim. She has some handicaps as a blind woman but she’s smart and determined to stand on her own two feet and not afraid to tell Matt how she feels. It’ll be interesting to see if she sticks around.

The last part of the story has Matt teaming up with Natasha Romanov as she comes under fire and needs a place to hide out. While he’s figuring out how to put his life back together, he and Natasha work together to find the man hunting her. I love the relationship between Natasha and Matt and I liked how it helped him work through his own problems. This was honestly one of the funniest parts of the story and I really enjoyed it.

The artwork for 99% of this book was as wonderful as I’ve come to expect from Maleev and a continuation of the awesomeness of Book 1. The single exception, and my only gripe about this collection, is issue 65. It switches over to a new art style and covers the reactions of Daredevil’s superhero friends to him being outed as Matt Murdock. The art isn’t awful but it seems to change every five pages and not for the better. It’s stiff and clunky and even the story parts were a) boring as shit and b) added nothing to the story. I honestly wouldn’t even recommend reading that issue if you pick up this volume.

Despite the mess that is issue #65, this is a fascinating look at Daredevil’s psyche and the ways in which he handles the immense amount of stress put on him after his secret identity was revealed. I’ve been extremely impressed by this run and can’t wait to see the next book!

Full series review here