Daredevil, Vol. 6: Lowlife

Daredevil (1998) (Collected Editions)

by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev

With the media hounding him after he is outed as Daredevil by a tabloid, Matt Murdoch attempts to cope with his unwanted notoriety as well as his lawsuit against the tabloid, the villainous Owl, and a lovely blind woman named Milla.

Collects Daredevil #41-45

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Crime, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mutant Growth Hormone is hitting the streets courtesy of The Owl who’s moving in to fill the void left by the Kingpin. Elsewhere, the owner of the Daily Globe, who’s being sued by Matt Murdock for accusing him of being Daredevil, gets his head ripped off by an unknown assailant. Time for Daredevil to punch The Owl and scratch his chin!

Daredevil, Volume 6: Lowlife isn’t bad but it feels like table-setting. The Owl/MGH storyline is weak and unmemorable while the story of Matt’s new love interest, Milla, wasn’t that interesting either. She’s blind like Matt! Eh… And you know how it’s gonna end given the poor guy’s history. Matt and women – that always goes well!

The dude going around decapitating certain folk was the plotline that grabbed me the most but there’s precious little of it here. I’m also still enjoying Matt suing the Daily Globe for accurately reporting on his secret identity. Luke Cage points out the moral problem with that stance in one of the few extremely wordy scenes that actually felt worth the blather – seriously, Brian Bendis’ word diarrhea is at its worst in this one!

It may be overwritten but it’s also not badly written and while I wasn’t as engaged with some of the story, I still dug other parts of it. And Alex Maleev’s photo-realistic art style remains impressive. It’s not as good as the previous book but Lowlife is still a decent Daredevil outing. Here’s hoping all the setup pays off in later books!

[Himanshu Karmacharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most impressive and unforgettable thing about this volume is the art. So photorealistic and really captures the overall mood of Daredevil.

Bendis still has problem with dialogues and characters voices, where everyone sounds almost the same, but he excels in making Daredevil seem like a threat, like a person without a fear and one who instills fear into the hearts of criminals.

[Gavin Abdollahi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Brian Michael Bendis,

Please take up the pen that writes Daredevil once again.
Your take on one of my favourite Marvel superheroes is the best he has had, and he deserves more than what he's getting now.

A fan,
Gavin.

*****************

WOW.
This is officially my new favourite Daredevil run.
SERIOUSLY.
I mean, the first few volumes weren't anything wow... and that other volume before the start of Bendis' run...
Forgive Mr. Gale, but it was TRASH.
Beginning Daredevil's Marvel Knights Serialisation from the beginning can be dragging...
However, the struggle is worth it.
What you get after volumes of boring writing with dull art is something with a great story, beautiful drawings and a dark-noir-ish tone.

So, in this here story, (spoilers for those who haven't read earlier volumes) Daredevil's secret identity has been leaked out. The Kingpin is gone. The Owl has taken his place.
Matt Murdock must convince the public that he doesn't parade in a red leotard punching bad guy's, and simultaneously crush the Owl's new drug-run organisation.

So, I guess you could say that without Playing To the Camera (the terrible volume I've been rambling about), we wouldn't have Lowlife...
Fine, so, it wasn't completely useless...

I loved this comic.
I loved it.
I loved the tone, the art, the dialogue...
Did I mention that Foggy is pretty funny? No? Well, now I did.

A must read for Daredevil fans, as well as anybody who likes superhero comics.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daredevil continues to be stellar behind Bendis's writing.

This time we get loser The Owl stirring up trouble, trying to pick up or take the spot of the Kingpin. At the same time the court case is moving closer and closer for Matt. And Milla, a new love interest, enters Matt's life. While not the strongest volume of the series, it's a solid one that introduces characters while also reintroducing old foes. This is Matt on the verge of a nervous breakdown and his little spat with Luke shows that. I really enjoyed this volume but it feels like the calm before the storm. A 4 out of 5.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daredevil goes up against the Owl, one of his earliest enemies, who is peddling a new drug and trying to fill the power vacuum left by the absence of Wilson Fisk. Meanwhile, DD saves a blind woman, Milla Donovan, who forms a crush on the superhero. She takes advantage of the rumors connecting DD and Matt Murdock and goes to see Matt, who finds her intriguing and can't resist dating her. The title of the volume comes from an argument between DD and Luke Cage, which can be considered a double entendre also referring to the Owl. In one of the best scenes of the volume, Luke calls Matt a "lowlife" for maintaining publicly that he is not Daredevil, which Luke feels makes him a liar without integrity. Naturally, Matt feels differently when he has so much to lose.

Bendis continues to make some really fun story choices, believably walking the tightrope of the public strongly suspecting but not knowing that Matt is actually Daredevil. Bendis's version of the Owl is interesting in his weirdness, seeming way too unstable to be a legitimate rival of Fisk's or a realistic opponent to DD. Matt's encounters with Milla (who I've read about in much more recent issues and for whom things do not end well, apparently) are sweet and playful. There are a few nice surprises here as well that made my jaw drop. Maleev continues to impress with his dark yet photo-realistic takes on classic characters.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, if everything up until this point in Bendis/Maleev's run were set-up, this is where it starts to pay off. We're introduced immediately to Milla, a blind woman who works for the city, and will be Matt's new love interest. He pushes her out of the way of a speeding truck (sound familiar? Comics sure do love to echo incidents in superheroes' lives) and instantly I loved the way it handled both of them, Matt's realization that she's blind, when she begins to touch his face, and the way he switches tack immediately and explains to her everything that happened.

The Owl is back in town and, as Foggy puts it, someone's finally realized that what Matt is doing is as illegal as what they're doing, as he has a team of lawyers and attempts to catch Matt on tape, being all incriminating, as Matt struggles with a defamation lawsuit against the paper that exposed his identity. This sets the tone, and makes this something that covers areas that are not traditionally explored in superhero comics.

Matt is Matt, smart, sharp, and in costume a little ball of rage, though as both his personas, he tends to make decisions with his heart, and this happens more and more in Bendis' run; it's part of what makes this unique in the character's history. His interaction with Foggy is always on point, and his confrontation with Luke is so well done.

[Brandon Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

The run takes a slight dip in momentum here. I like the idea of MGH, but very little was done with it, though that’s not solely this books fault.

[J.M. (Joe) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the nineties, I was on staff with Caliber Comics and had the opportunity to work with Brian Bendis firsthand on certain projects (and, boy, do I know some funny stories). He always impressed me as someone who could write damn good dialogue, and that's no different now than it was then, but where Brian has truly improved over the years (of cranking oodles of comics out for Marvel) is his plotting and pacing, and it shows in DAREDEVIL: LOWLIFE. The dialogging and pacing are both phenomenal. The only reason this graphic novel falls shy a star is due to its predictability. There are no surprises in this book whatsoever. But, it's still a damn fine read and well recommended to comic fans of all stripes and colors.

My rating: four stars (out of five). Technically, it's 4.25 stars. Highly recommended.

--

Next up in the series:

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another solid entry in the terrific Bendis-Maleev run of this title. This volume is especially great at getting us to believe in the likes of Matt Murdock & Luke Cage not just as heroes but as human beings. As a villain the Owl is a bit wacky, but the gritty art helps ground the story in the real world.

[Matty Dub · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot Milla was introduced this early, it’s fine but I know where this is heading and I remember hating how it’s handled later on. The arc is good, creepy old fuck Owl is making a push for Kingpin’s territory on the strength of his MGH drug while Matt is under suspicion of murdering the newspaper tycoon he was firing. Also, daddy’s back in town.

[Rolls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my fave. I thought it slow moving and word heavy. They can't all be winners.

[Doctorjimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Διάβασε όλο το review εδώ

Για άλλη μια φορά, δεν υπάρχουν πολλά πράγματα να σχολιάσω επί της ιστορίας, αφού ο Bendis έχει αρχίσει ήδη να καταχράζεται την τεχνική του decompression σε σημείο που η ιστορία γίνεται απλά ένα κομμάτι μιας μεγαλύτερης ιστορίας χωρίς αρκετή αυτόνομη αξία, αλλά ας κάνω μια προσπάθεια: ο Owl έχει ένα από τα πιο κακόγουστα design που έχω δει τελευταία (τι μαλλί είναι αυτό;) και γενικότερα είναι απλά ένας μονοδιάστατος κακός. �� Milla είναι ένα συμπαθητικό love interest που υποθέτω θα αναπτυχθεί περισσότερο σε επόμενα arc, ενώ το ζουμί της ιστορίας βρίσκεται στον Matt: τα συνεχόμενα ακροβατικά που κάνει λόγω της διπλής ζωής του ή οι αμφιβολίες του για το που πρέπει να στρέψει την προσοχή του (τους μικρο-εγκληματίες ή τους αρχι-μαφιόζους) δεδομένων των όσων έγιναν στο Out είναι ο μόνος λόγος για να ασχοληθείς με το Lowlife.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

After volume 5 was so long, this one was surprisingly short. The Owl is trying to take over for Wilson Fisk and he has a new drug on the street said to give people temporary mutant powers. Then the head of the newspaper that outed Daredevil ends up murdered. Also Daredevil saved a blind woman and then she finds him and they go on a date which was... a thing.

I'm glad the last artist is back but I wasn't fully into this storyline. Probably because I absolutely hate the Owl's design like he just looks gross. They make the drug from scraping his skin which makes me want to barf.

This volume felt like a lot of filler tbh especially after the last one hitting.

[Mathew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one a lot. After all the crap that DD has gone through during the Bendis run so far, he's finally punching back, and PISSED.
Foggy shows what a good buddy he is, Matt shows a bit of humanity and even cute awkwardness with his new girl-buddy.
But my favorite part of the book is how it shows what morons the other baddies are. Truly no one can replace the Kingpin, and guess what NY. Daddy's home.

[Odo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5.0

[logankstewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Michael Bendis continues the Daredevil arc by introducing a villain I'd never heard of, The Owl, as well as bringing a new love interest to Matt Murdock's attention. The writing is as solid as the previous volumes, and the art is just as wonderful. This series still manages to be exciting and entertaining. Looking forward to what's undoubtedly approaching Hell's Kitchen and how the writer's will handle it.

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bendis continues at his peak with Daredevil, bringing to life one of the more tragic (and that is saying something) of Matt Murdock's romances, as well as putting Daredevil on the inevitable path of confrontation with a re-awakened King Pin. Killer dialogue... "Thank you for crying." As well as beautiful art and truly human characterizations make this run not to be missed.

[Jedhua · Rating 3 out of 5]

ABSOLUTE RATING: {3+/5 stars}

STANDARDIZED RATING: <3/5 stars>

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt Murdock zdaje się wychodzić na prostą. Sensacja wokół jego "tajnej" tożsamości nie ustaje i heros musi się zmagać z ciągłym zainteresowaniem ze strony mediów. W przypadku gdy w obiegu nie ma Kingpina, ktoś inny próbuje przejąć po nim schedę. Leland Owlsley. Owl. Trudno brać kogoś takiego na serio, zwłaszcza widząc jego fryzurę, ale jest to śmiertelnie groźny psychopata, który jednak próbuje nowych sztuczek. Ma nawet nowego doradcę, który wspiera "bossa" w tworzeniu podwalin nowego imperium. Matt nie może na takie coś pozwolić.

Tym bardziej, że do obiegu trafia nowy narkotyk. ZHW. Zmutowany hormon wzrostu, który nieźle namiesza w serii o diable z Hell's Kitchen, jak i w innym seriach, jak chociażby Alias. Daje on czasowo kopa zażywającemu, umożliwiając ćpunom posiadanie na moment super mocy. Coś takiego nie może trafić do powszechnego obiegu.

Matt ma też inne problemy. Pierwszym jest właściciel gazety, która opublikowała przełomowe wieści o Murdocku. Niejaki Rosenthal, który nie daje za wygraną i zamierza się z niewidomym prawnikiem sądzić. Pewne decyzje fabularne wobec tej postaci mocno mnie zaskoczyły. Bendis potrafi mieszać tropy, ale i tak głównym daniem jest działający na obrzeżach Fisk, który zdaje się powoli wracać do sił, przez co wkrótce znów zacznie się walka o władzę nad miastem. Pierwszy przekona się znany nam skądinąd niejaki Silke.

Byłem pod wrażeniem fenomenalnej rozmowy na komisariacie, gdzie Matt zajął miejsce przesłuchiwanego. Niejako deserem całego tomu jest nowa postać. Niewidoma Milla, którą Daredevil ratuje na początku opowieści jest godną partnerką Matta, bowiem kobieta tak jak on bezbłędnie odgaduje kto kryje się pod maską bohatera. Szykuje się płomienny romans. Jeden z ważniejszych w życiu Matta.

Do Maleeva nie mam żadnych zarzutów. To idealny duet. Jakby Bendis i rysownik byli sobie przeznaczeni. Jeżeli oczekujecie standardowej trykociarkiej bijatyki... to coś tutaj dostaniecie. W głównej mierze to jednak dojrzała historia podążająca za bohaterem na co dzień, ukazująca Daredevila jako człowieka z własnymi wadami i potrzebami. Coś wspaniałego. A będzie jeszcze lepiej.

[David Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

And still Brian Michael Bendis is killing it with his Daredevil run. MAN, I wish I’d read these back when they were first published!

The Kingpin is gone. Matt Murdock has been outed as Daredevil by the Daily Globe, and Vanessa Fisk, the Kingpin’s “widow”, has sold off the businesses and divided her husband’s territory among the other crime families in the area. The only one she wouldn’t sell to, however, was The Owl, one of Daredevil’s oldest, and silliest villains. But holy crap, Bendis takes this third rate character from silly has-been to murderous bas-ass in one issue. This Owl looks mad as a hatter, and he’s every bit as vicious as the Joker. And he’s doing whatever it takes, even if it means killing the man who owns the Daily Globe, to keep Daredevil at bay and expose him further. Meanwhile, Matt’s met a new lady friend, Milla, a blind woman he’d saved a few days earlier from being run over by a truck. She figures out his secret, but keeps her trap shut when the police come asking questions about the death of the newspaper mogul.

I loved every page of this story and devoured it in almost one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. Bendis’s writing is just as strong, just as powerful as it’s ever been, while Alex Maleev’s art is just getting grittier by the page. And it works. The two work together here in perfect symbiosis, one driving the other forward, story and art, art and story, so the end result is this flawless marriage that is everything a comic should be.

Really, pretty much anything you read from Bendis is going to be killer, but this book’s got something, a sense of desperation, that the previous collection didn’t. That’s not a fault on Bendis' part. If anything, it shows he’s paying attention and taking his character on a real journey of discovery and development, and letting us watch it play out in about as realistic a way as is possible considering our main character is a blind lawyer with super senses who can hear a heartbeat from several blocks away.

[Ben Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine growing crystal meth on your back, that’s basically the plot of this 😭.

This is a more generic addition to the Bendis run, but not without its highlights. I really like the character of Milla, I found her sweet and likeable, as well as the blooming romance between her and Matt, also there’s a lot of crazy shit that massively effects the main story that I was not expecting. The murder of the head of the Globe paper was a very impactful moment, and it leads into the interrogation of Matt in a compelling way, which is in and of itself a cool sequence. Also the revelation that King Pin is alive… isn’t very shocking, but he can apparently see again!? Although I’m sad to see Silke die, because he was a pretty interesting villain. The set up for all these events have been building for a while now, and I’m hoping the pay off will be coming soon. The main plot about Owlsley selling drugs was your basic Daredevil action, and enjoyable enough. I thought Luke Cage’s call out of Matt’s actions was completely out of line though, and it made me like his character less (in other words, Foggy is right).

The presentation of all these story beats is really what makes this stand out among other Daredevil stories. It may just be settling up what’s to come, but all the visuals and structure made it much more compelling, and continues to invest me. Not a whole lot to say, but a worthy volume.

[Bene Vogt · Rating 2 out of 5]

If one accidentally skipped this volume while reading Bendis’ DD run, it’s entirely possible to not notice.

Almost perversely bereft of any plot movement at all, with the only only pictures that are nice to look at while bad to follow (and make for very bad fight scenes, of which several are here to fill pages without influencing any of what little story there is) and pages of pages of dialogue that also doesn’t advance anything ans are mainly three characters that sound exactly the same repeating each other’s lines at each other.
Oh, and there’s a new love interest whose whole character is “ is blind and wants relations with Daredevil” and she figures out Matt Murdock is Daredevil because SHE TOUCHES HIS FACE, the dumbest damn cliche about the blind there is, and also everyone has gotten spontaneously extremely stupid to the point of comedy (Matt Murdock, genius lawyer, fails at each and every argument he has, particularly Luke Cage’s, which doesn’t even make any damn sense. At another instance, somebody’s head is getting ripped off and another’s - who has in the past crossed the Kingpin -gets crushed “like a watermelon” - investigators are baffled of who might be responsible and decide to arrest a blind lawyer).

The final pages also feature the return of a fan-favorite character that Maleev’s art style is singularly ill-equipped to make work, and I shudder to think what Bendis will make of.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the Kingpin was attacked, his wife picked up the pieces and left. The void in the criminal underworld was filled by the Owl. Matt begins to target his operation in New York. Meanwhile he saves a woman named Milla who is also blind and who develops feelings for him.

Matt gets a visit from Milla who is immediately convinced that he saved her as Daredevil. He tries to reject her for her own safety, but he too feels an attraction. Their date is cut short by the news that Rosenthal was murdered in his home.

The police and FBI issue a warrant to search Matt's home and office. This again puts Matt in the media spotlight, which forces him to go into hiding. This allows the Owl who increases his criminal activity. Thankfully the FBI gets to him and then Daredevil helps them catch the guy.

[Adam Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bendis Daredevil saga continues to be the best superhero noir series that Marvel has ever put out. While you might be able to hold up a six or seven issue Batman story against it for DC, there is no run of Batman as long as this Daredevil run that even comes lose to this quality. And few other DC comics even tried a story this long. So far, I've added every volume of the Mack/Bendis run as a favorite, and with, I think just one exception, I think all of these volumes, plus the adjacent run of Alias, Vol. 2: Come Home, are going to end on that Favorites list.

[Mina Pavelek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daredevil may be one of my favorite super heroes, reading one of his comics and seeing his relationships with other Marvel's characters has been so interesting.

This volume reflects upon the importance of heroes' secret identities. And I got to say, one of the most touching moments in the Civil War arc for me (CW SPOILERS AHEAD) is when Spiderman reveals his. Some heroes are made to be anonymous, and have their private lifes separated from his heroic adventures. For me Daredevil is one of them.

I loved the drawing by Alex Maleev. I love how he used red in the intense moments, definitely I'm checking more of his stuff.

[Bassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explored the consequences of having a secret identity revealed in interesting ways. Also, it is refreshing to having the story focus on Matt Murdock, and the way he tries to have a normal private life. This book’s villain was not so interesting, but that also serves the story in a way. Art and dialogue are excellent in this book, consistently high quality.

[Dereck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really interesting and it includes a lot of fighting which I love fighting and daredevil this one of my favorite superhero. This book is really good and the plot of this story is menacing and daredevil is that guy. But overall this story is really good I loved it and would definitely recommend it to someone.

[uzhuj · Rating 2 out of 5]

Daredevil's identity got leaked by an informant and a big news outlet reported it so now he is suing, while beating up guys of the new druglord the Owl. Looks okay, reads okay. The script is tightyl written. But all-in-all this character is super boring for me. I have very little wish to read forward.

[MrColdStream · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nah, this one isn't Bendis' best. The Owl is a boring villain and the story barely moved anywhere. And there is way too much dialogue. Thw subplots didn't bring much to the story. The art style is nice at least.

[R. Archer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between Maleev’s art style and Bendis’ writing…. Literally peak Daredevil storytelling. Scrumptious. Outstanding. Immaculate. This is literally such a good comic series I don’t know why I didn’t read it sooner