Review: Daredevil Dark Nights #5 - the devil vs the gnome

For me, Daredevil has really been going all guns blazing of late. While the main series has been nothing but top quality work from the great Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, a couple of fantastic mini-series have been released alongside: first the terrific End of Days by Briab Michael Bendis (arguably Daredevil's best writer in the last decade) and David Mack, which has then been followed (judging from  the first four issues) by a series with just as much quality. Thankfully, Daredevil: Dark Nights #5 continues this with the conclusion to its second story.

Continuing from the previous issue, while the Avengers continue fighting a giant monster in the heart of the city, Daredevil has tracked the criminal borrower-esque Buggit to his cousins home, who's been killed. With revenge on his mind, Buggit escapes with a bomb and, for Daredevil, it's a race against time to get across the city to reach the gnomes target, all the while saving lives and stopping super-criminals who are taking advantage of all the chaos.

As I pick up this issue, I find myself feeling a mix of fear and excitement because Shadowlands is still fresh in my memory and though up to now this series has been one of the two best series I pick up (the other, ironically, being Daredevil's ongoing), I'm always weary that it will come crashing down. Thankfully, Marvel keep dodging this bullet and have done so once again, with David Lapham finishing this two part story with some real flare and writing Daredevil perfectly.

In honesty, there is very little wrong with this issue, or even this series as a whole (although, the last three issues could change that) and if there was one thing I had to pick on then it would be the art not being as colorful as Chris Samnee's within the regular series. Of course, that's just unfair of me to say as Lee Loughridge has drawn this story with some real grit and style, keeping the issues in tone with the characters noir place in the Marvel U.

I'll be honest, I think DC should take notes as this is what Action Comics should be to Superman; an anthology series that focuses on 'day in the life' stories of a character to compliment the ongoing series. Daredevil: Dark nights is exactly that to me in that it has told two beautiful stories that aren't reliant on the constant goings on of Daredevil proper and the fact that the stories so far have been told so expertly by great creators is a testament to both them and the character. I'm already looking forward to the next issue and I'm gonna try and not fear it falling short, because I'm now skeptical it will happen.