By Bruno Savill De Jong — It’s 2006. Saddam Hussein is executed for crimes against humanity, Nintendo releases the Wii, Twitter is created, and Pluto is declassified as a planet. People are listening to “SexyBack,” watching Borat and reading Daredevil.

Written by Ed Brubaker
Illustrated by Michael Lark (82-87, 90-93), David Aja (88-89)
Inks by Michael Lark (82), Stefano Gaudiano (83-87, 90-93), David Aja (88-89)
Colors by Frank D’Armata (82-89), Matt Hollingsworth (90-93)
Lettered by Cory Petit (82-92), Chris Eliopoulos (93)

Daredevil, slowly but surely, is being turned into someone else. Brian Michael Bendis seemingly pushed Matt Murdock as far as he could go, starting a downward spiral through publicly revealing his secret identity that eventually landed him in prison. Ed Brubaker had the unenviable task of following up this acclaimed run at a narrative dead-end, although Brubaker has said he welcomed (and encouraged) taking up Bendis’ cliff-hanger. 2006 gives Daredevil a new creative team, but it’s also a direct continuation of the turbulence and breakdown in Daredevil’s life, a year which continues to steadily chip away at his integrity and identity.

Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark – hot off their celebrated collaboration on Gotham Central and during their great work in Captain America – made total sense to pick up the baton, continuing the tone of Bendis and Maleev’s gritty and morally ambiguous examination of Daredevil. Although there are slight but notable differences to the creative teams, making 2006 more a transition than a copy. Lark operates on a similar wavelength to Maleev, but his art is somewhat more compact and straightforward, less focused on textured backgrounds or photographic shading like Maleev.

Similarly, although Brubaker’s tone is also rough and realistic, he has less back-and-forth banter or rambling monologues than Bendis. Bendis enjoyed watching his characters react in real time, stewing over their impossible situations and working through their messy emotions. Brubaker still has outbursts of emotions, but it’s placed in a more calculating framework, centring his first year over certain “mysteries” that characters must work towards. If Bendis was more psychological study, Brubaker somewhat pivots into noir crime saga.

Brubaker also differentiates himself with a subtle shift in the supporting cast. Rather than Bendis’ original creation Jessica Jones being Matt’s “bodyguard,” Foggy Nelson has now hired model-turned-PI Dakota North while Matt is locked up (North has her own fascinating history). Brubaker also casually reintroduces former Daredevil supporting character Becky Blake, the paraplegic legal aide who hasn’t been seen since Matt “first” had his life blown up in Born Again. Now an attorney in her own right, Becky helps Foggy defend Matt against the FBI. Brubaker still mentions and uses key players from Bendis’ run, but this demonstrates him gently shoring up his own roster while Matt must reformulate his strategy from the inside.

One anonymous ally is somebody posing as Daredevil while Matt is locked up in Ryker’s. Although he ought to be happy someone is helping his case, Matt seems frustrated someone is “stealing” his mantle, only further highlighting his lack of control within his cage. Matt is at everyone’s mercy, with them acting like he is Daredevil (despite his protestations) making it tough to survival without revealing himself. His super-senses also mean Matt is painfully aware of every aspect of prison without being able to act on them. This becomes heart-poundingly tragic when Matt “hears” a visiting Foggy get attacked and shivved and seemingly killed while visiting him, aware of his screams but unable to stop them.

The death of Matt’s long-term best friend pushes him over the edge. He now surrenders to the FBI transferring him from protective custody into gen-pop – a move cynically designed to end Matt’s life before mounting their insufficient case against him – so that he can take justice into his own hands. Matt becomes a kind of “Kingpin” within Ryker’s, avoiding any concrete evidence of his abilities but unleashing a torrent of violence as an “open secret,” no longer bothering to play by the “rules” everyone is ignoring. Foggy’s death breaks something in Matt, a visit from suffering wife Milla showing her concern that Matt is losing track of himself. Even more menacing is Matt snarling how nobody has met the “real Matt Murdock,” his honor and integrity a protective shell for something much darker and brutal underneath, which has now finally cracked.

Another person concerned about Matt’s transformation is, oddly, The Punisher. Frank Castle hears about Matt’s clandestine reign of terror, and promptly snaps a pimp’s neck next to a cop in order to join in the fray. Daredevil and Punisher have a long and contentious history, but here Frank mostly seems curious to watch Matt “finally turn into him.” His arrival coincides with the Kingpin also being transferred into gen-pop, alongside a special transfer of Bullseye, as all the inmates gather and wait for the powder-keg to inevitably pop off.

And explode it does, as Brubaker’s “The Devil in Cell Block D” erupts into a full-scale prison riot. Kingpin, as per usual, is prepared to take advantage of this chaos, but Daredevil ultimately foils his and Bullseye’s escape in the final hour, taking Punisher’s offer of escape as the lesser of two evils. Matt’s subsequent plan is to hunt down mysterious attorney Alton Lennox that seems connected to Foggy’s death, donning various disguises (including Matt Murdock!) as he jet-sets around Europe. Meanwhile, Foggy Nelson is revealed to still be alive and living in witness protection. Both men’s identities have become warped and altered through these events.

After tracking down several leads – including a new Matador – Matt ultimately discovers all these recent elements (the fake Daredevil, Foggy Nelson’s “death”) were due to Vanessa Fisk. Vanessa is sick and dying, ostensibly over the guilt of killing her son, and reveals her grand scheme as a way of toying with Matt’s life and ultimately blackmailing him into freeing Kingpin from prison. Her supposed goal is sadistically perpetuating the vicious cycle the two are locked into, given it has robbed her of everything. Matt initially refuses this deal, but Vanessa assassinates the FBI Director anyway, and frames him as having fabricated the entire case against him.

Vanessa’s admittedly convoluted plan is, on the one hand, an easy way of explaining and resolving Matt’s most recent issues, allowing Brubaker to end his first year with Matt reunited with Foggy as a free man. But it also works as the confused and desperate plot of a dying woman, someone corrupted by Kingpin’s schemes despite deep down being a good person. Matt later tells Kingpin that she “wasn’t really Vanessa,” but he intends to honor the woman she was before. While this Vanessa claimed she wanted Matt to free Kingpin to cynically continue their cycle of violence, Matt argues this was Vanessa’s diseased and twisted mind warping her true intention of wanting them both to have a fresh start. Matt follows her plan, honoring the woman she was deep down instead of who she presented.

2006 had Brubaker resolve the conflicts of Bendis’ Daredevil the long way around. Matt gets back together with Milla, his legal troubles have ended, his exposed identity is covered up as a frame-job, their law firm is operational again etc. But Matt knows that these issues cannot be easily resolved, and his secret-identity crisis cannot be easily put to rest. Brubaker’s beginnings are therefore tied to Bendis, but in an organic and seamless way, that demonstrates Brubaker’s own confident manner and reflects the awkward and careful transition from one phase of life to another.

Read classic Daredevil Comics!

Check out past installments from The Man Without Fear…By The Year!

Check out Bruno Savill De Jong’s last regular series, Gotham Central Case by Case!

Bruno Savill De Jong is a recent undergraduate of English and freelance writer on films and comics, living in London. His infrequent comics-blog is Panels are Windows and semi-frequent Twitter is BrunoSavillDeJo.