Rating: 
Summary: Must Own Daredevil
Review: Man, I must own 200 or more Daredevil comics (pre-93) and I must say that this collection is the cream of the crop. It's vintage Frank Miller, dark, cinematic, well written. The illustrations are also FANTASTIC. David Mazzucchelli did a great job. I can't see anyone NOT liking this book, honestly. Even non-comic fans could pick this up and really enjoy it.
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Summary: Comics at their best
Review: Miller puts Daredevil through the ringer, and the readers at the edge of their seats. The story starts slowly and builds to a big, suspenseful finish, like a good crime novel. You'll want to stand up and cheer.
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Summary: Oh now this was da proverbial bomb back in the day...
Review: Miller's done great work including Dark Knight, Daredevil, Elektra, Sin City, 300, Ronin, and I could go on, but you get the idea. Miller teamed up with subtle artist Mazuchelli to come up with what is one hell of a Daredevil tale. DD's secret identity is blown, he's hounded into poverty and depression, his friends have let him down, and all seems lost as he finds himself in Hell's Kitchen where a mysterious nun shows up like some guardian angel and saves him. The angst ridden Daredevil we've all seen and appreciate from Miller, but what is really great about this story are the guest stars. Karen Miller as a former porn star fleeing from her abusive pimp is surprising and compelling to watch as is a ruthless Kingpin who relishes his triumph over his greatest foe (he might have started with Spidey, but the Kingpin is a Daredevil character definitively), but it gets better! A new player is in town and he's a super soldier called Nuke. He is a drugged out veteran who's fought in Central American jungles and is sent to take on DD. He's a mindless nazi with an American flag tattooed on his face! And it gets even better as we get to see a new Captain America that I actually found interesting. This Captain America is an ultranationalist who defiantly tells a general who thinks he'll follow orders from the military that he is "loyal to nothing except the dream" and dramatically touches an American flag as if to hit home this point. The Avengers show up like gods and that is what they should seem to a normal guy with a radar sense and martial arts skills and this was years before Morrison started depicting the JLA as gods intervening in the lives of men when they deemed it necessary. Hell, I was a young kid when I read it and I remember wearing out my copies. So do yourself a favor and get this book!
Rating:
Summary: The Essential Frank Miller Daredevil
Review: More than any of his other efforts on this title, this story arc encapsulates what Frank Miller's vision of Daredevil is all about. Miller turns the series inside out by positing a question that all of us have wanted to know the answer to: what does a superhero do when his arch-nemesis learns his secret identity? (More accurately, what does a villain do when he learns the secret identity of the superhero who troubles him most?)Miller shows us a Matt Murdock (Daredevil) stripped down past skin, muscle and viscera to the very bone of his being. In effect, he kills Murdock and lets us watch him rise like a phoenix in a stronger, purer incarnation of self. I've often thought of Miller's Daredevil as a sort of flip-side of his Batman: Batman is always Batman, 100% detective even when he's out of costume; Matt Murdock is always Matt Murdock, tights or no tights, and nowhere in comics is that more evident than in this series. Daredevil isn't fighting just to take the villain down--he's literally fighting for Matt Murdock's life. "Born Again" also marks a turning point for Daredevil storytelling--to my knowledge, it was the first time a creative team came on board to write a fixed-length story arc, a practice which continues in Daredevil to this day. NB: this Daredevil story features the Avengers in a cameo that was voted #1 on Wizard's Top 100 Avengers Appearances list. THAT'S how good Miller and Mazzucchelli are.
Rating:
Summary: A literary masterpiece.
Review: No one captures the essence of tragedy and triumph quite like Frank Miller. You get the feeling that he could take any comic book character out there, turn his world upside down, and produce beautiful works of art.
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Summary: Recently found the story again...
Review: Not long ago, I began slowly assimilating myself back into comic books, just to see what was happening since I had last left (several years ago). In doing so, I began thinking about the comics I used to read as a kid and, above all, this set of stories stood out. I was lucky enough to be a faithful Daredevil reader when Miller took the reigns for this arc and I remember at first being frustrated with the "lack of action" in the "Born Again" series. However, the more I read it, the more my teenaged-addled mind realized that this was actually _about_ something. After reading this series again for the first time in many years, I realized it was about _everything_. That's Miller's genius. Hard-nosed, gritty and at the same time lovingly rendered, "Born Again" is a high point in comic history. Plus Mazzuchelli's artwork is absolutely mesmerizing. Many of today's so-called minimalist/experimental comics (read: "Kabuki") could learn a lot from his approach. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Daredevil¿s finest moment
Review: Now that the Daredevil feature film is out - and it's got some great moments, but suffers from cramming years of much comic book continuity into 90 minutes of action with a nu-metal soundtrack - it's well worth revisiting this, the greatest Daredevil story ever told. Frank Miller's writing and David Mazzucchelli's art are career bests in this eight-issue story. Like so many great superhero stories of the modern era, this one interrogates a fundamental aspect of the comic book tradition - namely, what would happen if a hero's worst enemy discovered their secret identity? The story is laden with Frank Miller's usual grit, but this feels integral to the story, rather than tacked on. In the hands of other comic book writers, themes such as prostitution, destitution, pornography, drug addiction and US military intervention abroad are often used to give superficial stories a faux-profundity. But in 'Born Again' these themes are served well, and not wallowed in any more than they need to be - Matt Murdock, Karen Page and Ben Urich may be sent to Hell in the story, but all three are then redeemed. The blossoming romance of Foggy Nelson and Murdock's ex Glori O'Breen is a corrective to all the misery as well. As well as being Daredevil's finest moment, this is also the Kingpin's. No artist has made the Kingpin's bulk look more imposing than Mazzucchelli does, whether big baldie is seen on a yacht at sunset, in his trademark suit, working out with weights, or sitting in a sauna. Another beautiful artistic touch is that several issues of the story open with a page showing Matt Murdock waking up, each one a snapshot of the state of his life at that point. And in one sequence, where Ben Urich listens to a murder on the telephone surrounded by the chaos of the the Daily Bugle, his face becomes progressively less naturalistic in each panel to reflect his growing horror - eventually, he looks like a Picasso. The godlike cameo of the Avengers towards the end of the story is a great example of the 'less is more' approach to comic books. And it's a pleasant surprise, in the last couple of issues, when Miller decides that since he's writing the best ever Daredevil story, he might as well have a crack at writing the best ever Captain America story at the same time. Cap Ap's tortured role in 'Born Again', torn between his patriotic ideals and US injustice, is exactly the same as Superman's role in the Batman story 'A Death in the Family' - but the set-up works better here. Daredevil is taken apart and put back together in 'Born Again', which is what makes the story so good. It contains an important revelation concerning Matt Murdock's family - typically, Miller delivers this bombshell with a light, blink-and-you'll-miss-it touch. And the story's final page, which shows Matt Murdock and Karen Page walking down a sunlit street in Hell's Kitchen, is immensely satisfying - a clean slate for the character. As the accompanying text says: 'My name is Matt Murdock. I was blinded by radiation. My remaining senses function with superhuman sharpness. I live in Hell's Kitchen and do my best to keep it clean. That's all you need to know.'
Rating:
Summary: Frank Miller's best
Review: People seem to get the wrong impression that The Dark Knight Returns was Frank Miller's best work, but more often than not those people have never even heard of Born Again, the best Daredevil tale to date and one of the greatest comics of all time. This is one of the most awe-inspiring reads I have had in a long time. To think what it must've been like for readers when it first came out. The basic gist of the plotline is Kingpin finds out who Matt Murdock/Daredevil is and proceeds to make his life miserable, even going so far as to bomb his home. Miller depicts Murdock's eventual mental decline with amazing ease. One of the most powerful and effective scenes in the book has Matt talking on the phone to a friend of his and convincing this friend that it is in both their best interests for him to track down Kingpin and kill him. You don't see what the friend is talking about on the other end, just Matt's responses. Then he drops the phone and walks off. It is then revealed that there was no one on the other end, just him and the dial tone. It's this kind of disturbing and humanizing sequence so prominent throughout that makes Born Again such a great read. Not to mention the wonderful action scenes, the most memorable of which involve a fat, frightening nurse, a certain someone's vengeful pimp, a Daredevil impersonator, and a government super-soldier named Nuke. It's awesome stuff. Issue 5 also stands alone as one of the best single issues ever. You can't even rightly call yourself a true fan of comics if you don't read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Dark Knight Returns by far!!
Review: The comics masterpiece that is truly Frank Miller's zenith in four-colour art form is not the overrated tale of an elderly Caped Crusader, but rather that of a blind hero whose life is stripped bare leaving him a shell of his former self, only to crawl out of the pit of despair in triumph. Miller's collaboration with David Mazzucchelli is the single greatest story in the history of Marvel Comics (including Marvels). "Born Again" is more about Daredevil's alter ego, Matt Murdock, as the Man Without Fear's worst enemy discovers the dual identity of Hell's Kitchen's guardian devil from a desperate drug addict from Murdock's past. The Kingpin systematically dismantles Murdock's life, piece by agonizing piece, as Murdock's is rendered bankrupt by the IRS, his livelihood of practising law taken from him, and his home destroyed. This turn of events provokes both Murdock as himself and Daredevil to gradually become so violent and paranoid to the point he teeters on the brink of insanity. Adandoning all his social ties, Murdock lives on the street and his attack on the Kingpin leaves him dying in a cab at the bottom of the Hudson River. On the edge of death in a church shelter, a nun nurses him to health as Murdock returns from the lowest depths of damnation to rescue his loved ones, as well as himself. This is the most personal tale of a superhero ever, you are dragged into the alleyways of Hell's Kitchen by Mazzuchelli's art and leap across the rooftops of Manhattan with Miller's writing. A truly underrated work that deserves more recognition than it gets.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal, Cathartic, Satisfying
Review: The first 100 or so pages of this book offer the train-wreck-horror fascination of seeing Daredevil/Matt Murdock ruined politically, financially, psychologically, and physically. This violent story has an affecting quality that pulls the reader in to experience total identification with the tortured hero. Reading this one reminded me of earlier comics stories that drive the hero right up to the cliff edge of absolute failure, like "The Fall of Hank Pym" from The Avengers and also "The Trial of the Flash". Possibly the earliest example of this type of story in the comics goes back to the Carl Barks Duck books, where the ducks repeatedly plunge themselves through some misadventure into a horrifying pit of despair -- often involving the loss of Uncle Scrooge's fabulous wealth -- and must rely on fierce determination and inventiveness to claw their way back out. However, those Duck stories never included drugs, prostitution, beatings, shootings, stabbings, and strangulations to the extent that this Daredevil story does. My one complaint is that Daredevil doesn't face his actual tormentor at the end of the story but instead a hired psychotic; but it's a small flaw in an otherwise impressive story.
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