- The Devil in Cell-Block D is good. It starts differently than how Bendis set it up (it seems he wanted Murdock, Fisk, and a few other big criminals cohabitating in a cell wing on their own; Brubaker nixes that and puts them in a more regular prison setting), which he handwaves away with a line about their lawyers. My only problem with this arc is that it feels bit too subdued -- felt like there was a lot more you could do with Matt, Punisher, Fisk, and a bunch of criminals locked together; Frank Castle's role in particular feels underdeveloped.
- The Devil Takes A Ride is pretty much the conclusion of Bendis' plots, and Brubaker does a fairly good job putting everything together, tying it all back to Bendis' first arc Underboss. Despite this focusing on Bendis' plots this also feels like the arc where Brubaker shows that he has no problem with the more colorful side of Daredevil, using the likes of Tombstone and (a new) Matador, plus having Matt globe trotting. Vanessa's plotting goes a bit too much into the "Just according to keikaku" meme levels of unbelievable puppet mastery but I do ultimately like how she's written as broken and corrupted by her husband's life and thus indirectly by Matt, too.
- To The Devil, His Due & Without Fear are easily my favorite of Brubaker's arcs. Great use of classic DD villains & continuity, a decent mystery element to it, and good pacing. I feel like this story does everything Kevin Smith tries to do with Guardian Devil but infinitely better -- it's especially a much stronger send off to Matt's love interest than GD was for Karen Page, which is sad given her importance. Speaking of that, Milla's ultimate fate of being seemingly insane forever is definitely the darkest end to a love interest since Matt Murdock drove Heather Glenn to suicide. This is probably also the most definitive case of the villain winning. My only problems with the Fear plot are that instead of concluding Lily Lucca's plot it basically sends her off to limbo and it feels like its setting up something with The Hood but Brubaker never follows up on it in his arcs.
- Cruel & Unusual is my least favorite of Brubaker's arcs. I don't mind a slower, more down to Earth plot after the last couple of arcs but this one I thought was just sorta boring. Also, if it were a TV show, I'd swear this was a backdoor pilot for Dakota North. I know Brubaker didn't create the character (I remember her popping up back in Web of Spider-Man in the '80s) but she comes across as a sort of author's pet, as I noted before. The amount of focus Dakota gets is weird and it ends up hurting the rest of the supporting cast since she comes across as the only pillar keeping Matt up, making Foggy, Becky, and Ben seem as though they don't give much of a shit about what he's going through with Milla.
- I was sorta lukewarm on Lady Bullseye & Return of the King. They're not bad arcs... but fucking with Matt's life yet again felt repetitive. Matt & Fisk teaming-up to stop The Hand could've been interesting... but Brubaker knows everyone knows it's bullshit and the 'partnership' ends as soon as it begins, so any possible interesting dynamics between the two characters interacting in new ways go unfulfilled. It all ultimately feels like build-up to Matt taking over The Hand, which is definitely an interesting plot concept, but he obviously doesn't see it through and we end up with Shadowland.
- Whereas Bendis seemed mostly infatuated with the mobster side of crime noir, Brubaker seems to love the mystery side. I like Brubaker's preference here more, a good crime mystery can be molded into endless stories but there's only so much you can do with mobsters, especially when you try to be as down-to-earth and gritty as Bendis did during his stories.
- Michael Lark was the artist for most of the run and while he gets better as he goes along, I really didn't like his art at first. Everyone looked weirdly chubby and everything had an overly scratchy, rough look to it during those first two arcs. By the end I liked him well enough.
- The use of Black Tarantula was a bit weird. Brubaker writes him as a generic banger in Cell-Block who talks like a dumb thug. I know Brubaker originally wanted to use one of the original Tarantulas but couldn't due to them being dead but that characterization doesn't really fit with either of the Tarantula characters. Brubaker seems to eventually realize he's writing him weird because he corrects the characterization slowly over subsequent uses.
