Rating: 4/5
This is one of those books that really highlights what Frank Miller can do and why he is so well regarded as a comic writer. It is not without its flaws though.
The storyline is better than the previous ones in this series that Miller worked on. He has hit his stride with the characters and there is a level of comfort that shines through. The plot here is that the Kingpin of crime has found out that Matt Murdoch is Daredevil. This sets the tension pretty high right away. Murdoch crumbles as everything is stripped away from him due to the Kingpin's attacks on his personal life.
I really like the mirroring of Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdoch. As Murdoch hits bottom Fisk is on top of the world. This slowly shifts as Murdoch gets his life turned around. Things aren't perfect for him at the end, but he does get his feet under him and is in a pretty good place. There are hints that Murdoch was having trouble before the Kingpin got involved. That part of the story didn't feel developed enough. For the amount of repetition within this volume, I feel like that downward spiral could have been presented more.
The side stories did a pretty good job of supporting the main action. The first involved Ben Urich, a reporter for the Daily Bugle that discovered Matt's secret previously. He is fighting to clear Matt's name from Kingpin's attacks. The second is about Karen Page, Matt's former secretary and the source of Kingpin's information about Matt, as she tries to return to America and Matt. I didn't like this one as much because she is portrayed very negatively. She is strung out on drugs, involved in adult films, and doesn't present as likeable at all. The third side story follows Matt's former partner, Foggy Nelson, and his latest ex-girlfriend, Glori. I felt like this was here for comedic effect that didn't work very well. I was disappointed with Foggy considering how close he and Matt are supposed to be. The concern he should have had fell short of where I thought it would have been.
There is some more revealed about Matt's background and this sets a hook for future stories. It fell short on his Catholic upbringing. That seemed to be a large part of the character and could have been used more. The culmination with Nuke/Simpson was nice and gave some details on a character I was unfamiliar with until I watched Jessica Jones on Netflix. The final issue in this volume, which actually appeared first chronologically, doesn't add much either.
Born Again is a great representation of Daredevil. Anyone interested in the character after watching the Netflix series should pick this up. It doesn't start at the beginning, but that was covered well enough to let this hold up on its own.
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