Two great comic book stories from the team of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.

One choice.

I love 'em both, but I have to go with Born Again.

That was the first Miller Daredevil story run that I ever read.

It's so close, but I had to go BORN AGAIN.

I also went with Born Again. While Year One is really good, it was a reorganization of mainly known story beats. Born Again was really original for it's time. Even if I'm not a huge fan of the now trope that the villain knows the hero's secret identify and no one will believe him.

I much prefer Miller's take on Daredevil than Batman. So, Born Again for me.

Year One is a cracking crime stroy, but Born Again is the culmination of what Miller started on Daredevil in issue 168.

Miller's Batman is a novel approach that too many other writers tried to copy and couldn't. Jim Starlin being the primary one.

To paraphrase The Comics Journal, Born Again is a one-man-against-the-mob story more in the spirit of James Cagney than Clint Eastwood, and better for it. Year One portrayed Batman as an icon and moral force and almost forgot about the characters. The conflict between DD and Kingpin in Born Again built off two years of stories, while I don't think Year One even has a main antagonist. The one bad guy I remember was Flass, and he was Gordon's enemy.

I also think Miller and Mazzuchelli were more invested in work-for-hire superheroics when they collaborated on Born Again at the start of Miller's 1985-1987 hot streak, while Year One their last hurrah in the genre before Miller moved on to Sin City and Mazzuchelli to Rubber Blanket. I think where both men were going career-wise contributed significantly to Year One's specific awesomeness, but Born Again's straightforwardness and lack of irony and genre deconstruction made for a more fully-realized story on its own terms.

In addition, Daredevil's situation in Born Again was inherently more relatable and sympathetic. While owning a New York brownstone undoubtedly put Matt Murdock in a top income bracket despite his penchant for charity cases, he was completely fucked and sleeping in alleys within a couple issues. Whereas at Bruce Wayne's lowest points in Year One, he had a billion dollars, a mansion and butler to fall back on.

Year One just made me want more Daredevil by Mazzucchelli.

Born Again, again.

For me, it's Year One. Frank and the Chelly managed to make the Adam West suit menacing and cool looking. That displays the immensity of their talent moreso than Born Again does.