Eight weeks into retirement, and Matt Murdock has never been happier with a renewal on life. A new job, a new love interest, and not putting his life on the line every night in devil horns. Everything is on the up and up for him. Too bad we can’t say the same for Detective Cole - who is getting the short end of the stick at every turn he makes.
But what is Hell without the Devil keeping the demons at bay?
This volume, which contains issues #6 - #10 of Daredevil (2019-), follows up with a new direction for Matt Murdock, one that we've never really seen before that is still very true to the character. In it, we see Matt try to figure out what he has to do now that he isn’t fighting crime. I mean, after you dedicated so much of your life to this cause, to this mission that you believe God himself set for you, what do you do when you finally quit? So much training and instilling of these tenets that are now being forced into the background. Every fiber telling you to do something, and you gotta say no. And as a dedicated Catholic, how that guilt of quitting weighs down on him. I honestly believe that this story is so great. And now it’s been two years and rereading it just reinforced the fact that this story is great - and if anything, a little underrated.
When the first issue came out, I remember tweeting out after the first issue came out that the run looked great. From the start, I was very on board with Zdarsky and his take on Matt.
And the writing is still something I am very much attached to - even to this day (Issue #32 just came out for context).
The only downside I have for this volume is the art. For the first four issues (issues #6 - #9), we had Lalit Kumar Sharma as penciler, Jay Listen as Inker, and Java Tartagila as colorist, and for issue #10 we had artist Jorge Fornés and colorist extraordinaire Jordie Bellaire (who I am 100% certain DID sell their soul to the devil to be able to do all this work, and do it SO well.) For the purposes of this criticism, I will be referring to issues 6-9 unless stated otherwise. I think the thing that really got me with the art was the fact that we went from Marco Checchetto to these three lovely chaps, who conveyed a different tone than what was previously established. And while the art is not bad, with anatomically correct figures, dynamic panels, emotive faces, great line quality, workable backgrounds, and great movement within the figures - there was some panels that just seemed off. And I think it just boils down to the art style not matching the story.
But I think the worst part is that the art eventually matches the story, and there are some panels from issue 7 that are just some of the best in the entire volume. And that once you start to feel like, okay, perfect, this is all coming together very nicely - they switch artists. And while I love Jorge Fornés art - jumped in glee when he announced that he was coming in starting on issue 10 for a few issues - I think it was kind of a bummer that the three of them weren’t able to finish this arc. There are a lot of great panels that the three of them crafted, and for as much as I will criticize the art itself, I think if we gave them more time, they would’ve found their footing more.
As we go through each issue of the trade, I’ll break down my criticisms and praises more. Let’s get into it.
Spoiler warning:
“Help! Please! Someone H—”
Issue 6, part one of this story, sets up the status quo for our main cast of characters, and introduces a few more to the bunch. We see where Matt, Detective Cole, and Kingpin all go when Daredevil is no longer part of the equation. And, in typical Matt fashion, he ends up finding a pretty girl to pine over on his way over to continue his new job as a parole officer (exciting stuff).
I actually own Bleak House - bought it fairly recently actually, and it’s a 20-episode legal drama serial about a court case. It’s supposed to be pretty good but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. But Matt basically goes to this specific bookshop to find that specific book because he was attracted to the pheromones of the girl. I would say he thought she was good looking, but as we all know, Matt Murdock is blind.
Kingpin is beating up a bunch of thugs as a way to still feel strong and powerful, but he finds himself slowly getting soft so he calls a meeting of “the families”. Oooh mysterious.
And Detective Cole, still on a manhunt for Daredevil, has been tasked with capturing Spider-Man. He’s still very much about stopping crime, but since he disrupted the flow of “justice” in the police department - he hasn’t made a lot of friends. And a few people went as far as to jump Cole in the park. Though, he was saved by men of The Owl, as a “thank you” for getting rid of Daredevil.
This issue I think was the most jarring in terms of art. There’s a few panels here and there where the people would have these dead looking eyes that were kind of off putting - mostly seen with Kingpin and Cole fighting. Besides that, the art was pretty solid, if not stylized. The writing in this issue was very strong, with some great character moments and building - and my favorite combination of words, a set up issue.
An interesting thing that happens is the comic itself asks “what do the people of Hell’s Kitchen do when they no longer have Daredevil out to protect them”, and we will see that explored more in the other issues - but it is first sparked here in a very interesting way. And honestly, the art for this scene was just so perfect.
“Sometimes I think God blinded me so I won’t be able to see the visions…”
The next issue picks up directly where the previous one ended, with Cole giving a police report that incriminates all of his coworkers - rightfully so of course. We also have The Kingpin basically saying “hey, I’m bouncing from the role. You guys, split it up, just be cool about it and give me a cut.”
The real meat of this issue is the fact that Matt is faced with a Catholic dilemma when he learns that the person he is going to be parole officer-ing for is the brother of the man he killed back in issue #1. And like every time Matt has a Catholic dilemma, he ends up at the front steps of his church to confess his sins, hate on himself, and try to fight all the contradictions that he lives with on a day to day basis as Daredevil.
One of the most interesting things about Daredevil, as a character, is the fact that the man is such a hypocrite. Lawyer by day, vigilante by night. Devote Catholic who beats people to a pulp. The confession booth in a revolving door of confessions.
But it’s interesting here, because Matt is now coming face-to-face with his actions in a way he hasn’t done before. We’ve seen him defeated, full of sin, but we’ve never seen him confront those sins without the mask. A boxer who let out their stress and pain on the bag, who doesn’t have a bag anymore. And Matt is such a martyr, someone who holds all the Catholic Guilt of Hell’s Kitchen within his two fists, that he doesn’t even see the fact that he is worthy of forgiveness, of God’s love.
And even without returning to the cowl of Daredevil, our man starts staying up at night to call the police, using his heightened senses as a way to hear the crimes being committed, and reporting them. Such a raw and powerful scene in my opinion.
“Men like you follow the rules of law, but also the rules of polite society. Yes? What is it like to be shackled to the opinion of others, most of whom are long-dead lawmakers? Tools of the upper class?”
You find this girl cute who works at the bookstore, she finds this great book for your best friend but she reveals that she’s married. Bummer. But she invites you to dinner to meet her family, what could possibly go wrong? Well, if you’re ex-lawyer / ex-mayor / ex-vigilante Matt Murdock, you might possibly going to meet one of the most notorious crime families in all of Hell’s kitchen.
This issue is very dialogue heavy, that is basically a battle of ideologies. That of rules that are meant to be followed as a means of structure to keep equality versus rules that are just roadblocks to keep the rich happy and the poor squandering, and that it’s the crime of breaking those structures that keep the equality around. And with Matt just having to confront his previous actions and philosophy through his identity of a Catholic, now Matt has to confront his personal philosophy through his identity of a lawyer.
I really can’t do this issue justice through words alone. This issue is very philosophically heavy, and I really don’t know how deep Zdarsky went with it, but this is definitely an issue where the art feels like it “fits”.
It ends with some of the crime families shooting up the house, critically injuring some of the Libris family members in the process.
“…is your faith in the interpreted word of God? Or is it in what God has taught you? The moral center he’s given you?”
“Queen to B5… Checkmate.”
So this comic starts out with Matt asking Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic - “debatably” the smartest man in the Marvel universe - if he believed God was real. And the two of them got into a conversation about it, where Reed asks Matt a question that he’s supposed to ponder. Reed is almost the religious opposite of Matt Murdock. Not in the sense that Reed is a stark non-believer, but moreso that his faith lies in Science, lies in the facts and what he can physically see and touch. Someone who does tests and tests to see if things makes sense, and takes those new facts and applies them to his reality going forward. And for everything he’s seen, he knows not to discount things just because the tests have yet to prove or disprove anything. And it’s such an interesting conversation for them to have.
Anyways, Matt ends up BACK in a church to have a heart-to-heart with God and a nun, and learns about a missing boy. On his way out of the church, he succumbs to the rain and kneels on the ground as he listens to the world speak to him - and he ends up finding a hint to where the kid is right away.
Not wasting any time, Matt appears at the apartment where the kid is present, in a makeshift costume that is literally just his button up wrapped around his head (still wearing his blazer and slacks). He defeats the guys, and saves Leelo.
Still on an adrenaline high, Matt ends up dead-man walking to the cute bookstore lady and ends up having sex with her.
He’s gonna have to confess that one to the priest.
I think this issue is a big turning point in Matt, and something we’ve seen Matt do before. Matt is kind of an addict to the mask, unable to quit it - do as he may try, and boy oh boy has he tried to quit being Daredevil many times over the years. And for however long he quits, he ends up bouncing right back. A saint clinging to be a martyr. And to see him go Frank Miller “Man without Fear” styled outfit to save a kid, I feel, is very in character for our man.
“When you’re unbendable, when you pretend to be unbreakable… other people get broken.”
The conclusion of this story comes to a head with Matt going to the police department to pick up Joe - who was picked up for breaking parole - at the same time that Hell’s Kitchen PD is planning of off-ing Detective Cole once and for all.
And just like that, Daredevil comes back to fight the police and protective Detective Cole. And just like the martyr he is, Daredevil allows Cole to pin the whole commotion on him, as to protect Cole, and to prevent everything from being hushed.
In the end, Matt echoes a sentiment that rings true for the Marvel universe as a whole - in that, if you have the powers to stop the bad, doesn’t that mean you have a duty - a moral obligation - to stop that bad. And it’s interesting how he phrases it, because in earlier issues he talks about how God cursed him with this power, God taking away his sight and turning him into this agent of justice, and he calls this moral obligation a sort of curse. Because I mean, it kind of is for him right now. He just killed a man, and to repent he tried to give up the costume, but even then, it only lasted a few weeks before his body told him to return.
I said earlier in this review that Matt was literally fighting his body, every fiber of his being, to stop being Daredevil, and in the end he just couldn’t stop. And it wasn’t the thrill of the suit, but the fact that he couldn’t just do nothing.
Matthew Michael Murdock is one of the most righteous characters in the Marvel Universe, rivaled to only Spider-Man and Captain America - who will always try to do good, even if it’s not the legal thing or the thing to do right now.
This arc ends with the return of Elektra, who is there to help Matt.
As I said at the start, this story was great, that will bridge the gap of an old Daredevil to a new and improved one. We see a Hell’s kitchen without their guardian devil, and how the city responds to it - through playing halloween and dressing up like the man to fill in the gap.
And, as we see directly above, our three lovely chaps were able to create some very stunning works of art. While I did have problems with dead eyes, mismatching tones, and weird blocking, I think the art overall was one that is determined by taste over skill. Because there is no denying these guys are skillful. Just not everyone’s cup of tea.
Zdarsky leaves a lot on the table, and sets up the next arc beautifully. Knowing what happens, it’s exciting to reread this volume and see how the effects of this story still ring in the current issues.
Overall, you really cannot go wrong with this trade, and I recommend all Daredevil fans - if they haven’t already - to jump on this run as soon as possible.
Writing: 5/5 - Art: 4/5 - Total: 9/10
Daredevil v2 came out December 17th, 2019 - Daredevil v3 comes out June 30th, 2020