The Frank Miller Issues
This section covers the legendary, character defining run written and drawn by Frank Miller.
Daredevil #190: "Resurrection"; 38 pages
Writer: Frank Miller
Artist: Klaus Janson
To prevent Elektra from being resurrected as a zombie servant of The Hand, Matt--along with Stone and Natasha--makes a deal with The Kingpin, and unwittingly allows his long-lost lover to complete a journey she started years ago.
Okay, everyone, you can stop your complaining. Here it is: the first Frank Miller story entered into the records.
And except for a disjointedness between the first eleven pages and the rest of the story, it's one of best Daredevil stories ever.
I think many people who have become Daredevil fans during the Marvel Knights era don't realize how amazing Miller's stories were. They were decidedly streamlined--they always seemed to read a lot faster than they should have, as if someone was telling you the tale after running down the street--and tended to be simple more often than not. The threat of Elektra being raised up in servitude to the Hand is effective not only because of its inherent gruesomeness, but because we, as readers, are still close enough to the character that we want her to have her peace. And when Matt ends up doing what the Hand wanted to do not out of evil but love, the triumph is palatable.
And Miller is smart enough to give us a satisfactory, yet ambivalent resolution to his major plot threads. Elektra finally reaches a form of redemption for herself, the relationship between DD and Kingpin is defined without setting it in stone (something that will unfortunately be done by later writers) and the minor characters are sent on their way without damaging them for future creators. He doesn't slash and burn, he doesn't try to throw you one last shock--prolly because to do so would be to be dishonest with his own work.
....which is why the first act comes off so out-of-place. My suspicion is that these eleven pages come from another project (or another issue), and were tacked on to give this issue its double-sized length. These vignettes, tracking the journey of Elektra as she seeks to learn from the Chaste and is ultimately corrupted by the Hand, weigh down the otherwise fast-moving storyline. An argument can certainly be made that the information revealed within gives a greater insight into Elektra and, more importantly, her corruption into the dark assassin Miller introduces us to. But giving it to us as a disconnected lump basically disrupts the reader, making it difficult for him to 'hit the ground running.' Maybe if these flashbacks were interspersed throughout the issue in tinier portions (or maybe throughout the later part of the run), they might not seem as obtrusive.
Klaus Jansen does the art, as he does the art for these last few issues of Miller's run. It's sort of sad that Klaus never quite got out from the influence Miller had on him, as he never looks like more than a Miller clone. Granted, you could do a lot worse than being a Miller clone, and his work is consistently good but it's not surprising that Jansen never really extends himself outside the 'urban heroes' like DD and The Punisher.
I wish I could say more about this issue, but as another writer once pointed out, it's far more difficult to write about something you think is wonderful than it is to write about something that's flawed. You'll prolly find more meat as we venture into the earlier portions of Miller's run, but right now what we've got is the sight of a man who has grown into a mastery of his form tying up everything before turning out the lights.