Issues 9-14 are Parts of a Hole, written by David Mack with continuing art by Joe Quesada (minus the fill-in issue 12). This introduces Maya Lopez who is the perfect mate for Daredevil. Her powers are to mimic any physical activity by just looking at someone else. So she can mimic someone playing piano, acting or fighting.
This is not a particularly original plot, but Mack managed to fit it very well with Daredevil characters. Maya is played by Kingpin against Matt, but in the end she finds the truth (which begs the question, why didn’t Matt unmask himself sooner?). Once she takes it back to Kingpin she shoot him. In the head!! And what happens to him? He’s blind, not dead. I guess it’s ironic for him to be blind, but now I wonder if Maya did it on purpose. She’s still out there, so we’ll see her back.
This arc also tries to explore the Kingpin’s past, though I must say it felt a little bit like a tacked on thread. He’s also in the middle of a trial, though that didn’t go anywhere.
Quesada’s art is highly influenced by Mack’s style. I’m not sure how they worked together, but it looks like Mack did the layouts, and Quesada the pencils. Mack loves to write words between panels, or even around a person in the art, instead of the classic word balloons.
Unfortunately Quesada didn’t get to finish this arc, Dave Ross did admirably, I think trying to ape Quesada’s style as much as possible.
The second arc is Wake Up, this time with Mack on the painted art and Bendis writing. It takes place during the Kingpin trial in the previous arc, but it basically stars Ben Urich. He’s trying to find out what happened to the son of a small time villain called Leapfrog, that made him psychologically withdrawn.
It plays out like a crime mystery, but it also tries to explore the child’s psyche through his drawings. This story was perfect for Mack’s surrealistic style. I would have preferred he worked on Kabuki at the time, but this is still very good.
Daredevil is more like a secondary character, though he plays a crucial role in finding the truth about what happened to Leapfrog. I loved the ending, it played out just like a good mystery.
I’m glad that David Mack got to work on a mainstream Marvel title, first as writer then as artist. That said, I think his own work on Kabuki is far superior.