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Longbox Diving – Daredevil: The Man Without Fear by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr

By | September 21st, 2011
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Everyone keeps talking about Mark Waid’s Daredevil! I keep talking about Brian Bendis’ Daredevil! It’s like a wacky sitcom where I live with my goofy roommate (played by everyone else on the internet) and we keep arguing about what kind of pie is best until we both breakdown laughing and agree — oh yeah! Apple pie is the best!

So let’s talk about Frank Miller’s apple pie after the cut.

Frank Miller is one of the most respected comic creators of all time, and also currently one of those creators that everyone likes to take potshots at. It could have started when he wrote wrote The Dark Knight Strikes Again, or even his over the top return to the character in All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. Perhaps it was 300 and Sin City both becoming massive film hits, which led to his “handling” of the feature film the Spirit. Maybe it was that leaked script to Batman: Year One that Darren Aronofsky was going to direct. At some point, everyone basically kind of “forgot” that Frank Miller is actually kinda sorta brilliant, and a player in the industry whose work is arguably just as important as Alan Moore. I know I did.

Of course, when it comes to mainstream superhero work, there is no greater example of Miller’s importance than Daredevil. Miller wrote the character somewhat sporadically for five years, from 1981 to 1986, ending his run with Born Again in 1986 with art by David Mazzucchelli and a graphic novel later that year entitled Love and War with Bill Sienkiewicz. This marked the end of career and character defining work on the character which has in turn — and I do not exaggerate even slightly when I say this — influenced every Daredevil story you know and love today. Miller’s work gave us the classic stories of Daredevil and Elektra, of Bullseye’s horrific murder, and of the wonderful insertion of the film noir vibe that Miller’s work is famous for. With the perfect coda to his work in Born Again, Miller said goodbye to Matt Murdock, never to be seen again.

…That is, until 1993 and Daredevil: The Man Without Fear.

There is perhaps one note about the book that was lost to the halls of time. It’s interesting in reading the Daredevil: The Man Without Fear in single issues from when the comic was originally published in 1993 because — and I don’t know if this information was put into any trade reprints — the issue actually begins with a short essay/forward. Instead of jumping into the story, the opening of the book features legendary editor Ralph Macchio explaining the creation of the title, considering it came out 8 years after Miller’s legendary run. The book evolved from Romita Jr requesting to do a Daredevli one-shot with Frank Miller, with Miller in turn turning in a script for a sixty-four page comic dealing with Daredevil’s origin. This script was apparently so good, it evolved into a hundred and forty-four page graphic novel, which was then split into a five issue mini-series for release. If any writer has ever been accused of “writing for trade”, I’m pretty sure Miller officially has them beat with this one scenario.

Anecdote’s aside, Daredevil: The Man Without Fear was released for the sole purpose of celebrating Matt Murdock’s gritty origin on his 30th birthday. Initially created in 1964 by Stan Lee and Bill Everett (with notes from Jack Kirby), Murdock had gone through a few revisions in term of history over time, with various writers and artists all leaving their stamp on the character’s story. Now, on the eve of his birthday, Marvel wanted to release a book that updated Murdock’s origin for the modern audience and took into considerations the new and expanded history of the character. Who better to do that than the most celebrated writer of the book?

Continued below

Miller’s graphic-novel-turned-mini follows Murdock from his younger and more venerable years as a ruffian on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen through his blinding accident and all the way up to his first night as a masked vigilante. We see Murdock lose his father, train with Stick, meet a ravishing young woman named Elektra and eventually take on the Kingpin of New York and his goons before teaming up with Foggy Nelson to become super-lawyers. It is, for all intents and purposes, the definitive origin of the character bar none (despite what others on this site may say to the contrary).

I’ll be honest – in recent years, I’d kind of forgotten why I ever liked Miller’s work. A general malaise and apathy towards his body of work that had come over me (specifically because of the Spirit and this comic), and despite owning a good deal of his work in trade and singles, I had somewhat forgotten to care about any of it. In going back and reading through the singles of Daredevil: The Man Without Fear that were hidden amongst a great deal of other Daredevil comics, I was instantly reminded of why his work was important both to the medium and me as a reader in the first place. Miller’s voice is as strong as ever in this mini written 18 years ago, and it exemplifies all his strengths. His noir-infused Daredevil world lives and thrives in this book just as it did when he wrote the main title, and the choice of a third-party narration of the events as opposed to Miller’s usual direct first-person narrative helped open the story up even more. It feels like Matt’s story has been done to death, but somehow reading this story feels fresh even today, with Miller’s passion for storytelling in a world determined to be realistic one of the key selling points to the success of the read.

Suffice it to say, it was beyond great to pick up a comic of his and so quickly become re-immersed in the world he created. Miller’s always breathe life in a way that isn’t matched by 90% of the writers today. It’s kind of the idea that a lot of Batman writers bring to his book, about how Gotham is just as much a character as the eponymous hero. Miller understood this with Daredevil, and he put him in a Hell’s Kitchen that sang songs of woe before Miller had even written Sin City. It’s Miller’s greatest strength above all else; in a world of extraordinary characters who could fly and lift tanks, Miller wrote characters who helped define the term “street-level,” and part of that was making sure the street was just as much a character as they were. Given the importance of Hell’s Kitchen to the story of Matt Murdock, it’s safe to say that this book is just as much about Murdock’s home as it is about Murdock himself. The combination of Miller’s strong neo-noir character work and his gritty yet thematically poignant storytelling and setting combine for a rather wonderful read.

It is certainly undeniable that a big aspect of this Romita Jr’s Miller-esque artwork here. If Miller’s art was ever noteworthy for one thing, it was his impeccable understanding of sequential storytelling. Miller knew how to block a page, how to make his solitary illustrated characters move and come to life, and this translates wonderfully for Romita here. Romita isn’t an artist known implicitly for impersonating any other artists, but if there was ever an instance where he was taking after anyone else, it would be here. Romita’s work is fluid and beautiful, matching Miller’s famous style and updating it to fit the spirit of a new origin. Murdock moves about the pages and practices his moves in a very real way, and Romita never misses the character interactions either. Sometimes an artist can’t strike a good balance between the big sequences and the quieter character moments, but considering that this story is implicitly about Murdock the character as opposed to Murdock the action star, it’s noteworthy to say that Romita brings a wide variety of real emotion to the pages of the story. Miller worked with some absolutely top of the line artists in his run, and with one mini/graphic novel Romita Jr etches out a nice spot for himself within the line-up.

So fine, Miller’s later work isn’t all that great. Whatever. There is a reason he is Frank Miller and not “that guy that directed The Spirit,” though. Miller’s work on Daredevil has always been the most important work since the character was introduced, and on his 30th birthday Miller reminded everyone of that fact. As much as Born Again is the go-to story of Miller’s impressive run with the character, The Man Without Fear is just as if not moreso important as a story towards the character, and for any fan of Daredevil it is a must read that still holds up wonderfully after all these years.


//TAGS | Longbox Diving

Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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