Welcome to the Daredevil Retrospective, where I’m going to trace our way through 40 years of Daredevil and the seminal runs that began each one: Frank Miller in the 1980s, Brian Michael Bendis in the 2000s and (eventually) Chip Zdarsky in the 2020s.
We’re starting off with three different types of origin stories to ease our way into this, Miller’s retroactive beginning with “Daredevil: The Man Without Fear,” Bendis’s first ever Daredevil work, “Daredevil: Ninja” and Jed MacKay’s great lead-in to Zdarsky’s run, “Man Without Fear: The Death Of Daredevil.”
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear
“Daredevil: The Man Without Fear” was Frank Miller’s triumphant return to Daredevil after writing “Dark Knight Returns,” “Batman: Year One” and “Born Again” (which we’ll get to, don’t worry) and it’s basically his take on the Hornhead’s humble beginnings. It was super tempting to compare this to “Daredevil: Yellow” the entire time, seeing as that’s my other main touchstone for Daredevil origin stories, but I held back and instead found a video you guys can watch which does it better than I ever could anyway.
“Man Without Fear” is illustrated by the king of beefcakes himself, John Romita Jr. and as someone who can be pretty hot/cold on his work, I had fun with this. Even from the covers JRJR shows you how Matt Murdock is trapped in the shadow of the hero he will become. It’s not the newest trick in the book, but it’s also something you wouldn’t really see with Thor or Spider-Man, it’s a uniquely Daredevil brand of imposter syndrome. JRJR’s exaggerated physicality works especially well in the David and the Goliath style fights between young Matt and the Mob enforcers he’s up against. Seeing this little boxing kid slowly grow into the fights he gets himself in feels really rewarding. Also JRJR draws an enchanting high kick, it gives Batman and his tree a run for their money. He also nails his settings, the blistering white of Matt and Elektra’s alpine ski trip, the frenetic chaos of Matt trying to drive, the high-motion struggle as he works to break away from the cops; everything feels so organically blocked and framed. Despite the brick-wall character designs he also has some pretty great character beats, Matt’s “I don’t want to kill you” panel is a great example of this, it’s so rugged and uses its inks to exemplify the limited facial acting possible with a blindfolded hero, conveying a perfect sacrosanct moment. Also Matt has amazing fuckboy hair throughout this series (even though he’s blonde for some reason).
I would say this story sits right on the precipice between the mastermind Frank Miller of the 80s and the hot mess Frank Miller of the 2000s, he’s definitely a bit too wordy, but aside from a couple of questionable Elektra moments there’s nothing too egregious in this. Elektra has always been a character built in a certain context through a very certain male eye, and the weird forays into her daddy issues and black-widow (the spider, not Daredevil’s other ex) attitude don’t exactly help here. I think she’s a good anti-villain here, with her being conscious of the damage she’s causing Matt and the malice of her actions, yet still continuing with as much morality as she can muster, but I don’t think is a version I’d want to read for more than 6 issues anyway. It doesn’t help that Matt’s second female role model in the book, Mickey is a teenage girl with the hots for him who damsel-in-distresses her way into the birth of Daredevil. It just feels so dated, even for ‘94. Miller and JRJR even dress her up in a pink dress and have her worshipping Matt, it’s so groooooss. That being said, Miller nails Foggy Nelson, the slapstick tonal shift when he pops up is pure gold, honestly he and Matt are such a great odd couple. Kingpin’s also in this, don’t expect much moral quandary from him or his goons, he’s just an old fashioned mafioso who gets straight up compared to Hitler at one point, very casual.
This is definitely an edgier Daredevil for better or worse, on one hand it feels way more impressive to see him pull off these crazy athletics when he’s not even in a costume, but also seeing remorseless mass-murderer Murdock isn’t really my vibe. I mean he drowns, stabs and blows up two guys without breaking a sweat, then leaves Larks to bleed out on a dry-dock, very “All-Star Batman.” They aren’t even bad moments, but they just feel like they belong to someone else, at least give him some guilt around it. That being said, Matt accidentally killing a sex worker in one of his first fights is a very grim, but interesting character beat (squirrelly connotations aside), the fact that she invokes God in her last moments is a really interesting beat that plays straight into Matt’s catholic guilt, I wish it could have been explored more, the fact that the falling woman is a recurring motif works really well as a symbol of dread and hopelessness. The book’s ending is absolutely pitch perfect too, I love how Matt is essentially trapped in New York, which feels illustrative of the stockholm-esque relationship he has with his own identity, coupled with his awesome fucking costume, it has one of the most gratifying endings of any origin story.
Continued belowOverall, this whole story is a really powerful way to show how and why Matt Murdock is Daredevil. We see how much he’s sculpted off of Jack Murdock, who experiences the same moral dilemmas, with the theme of forced decisions and the inability to escape a broken system being a great thematic throughline. We see how Matt uses the city (and hence the identity of Daredevil) as a means of escapism, yet by the book’s end, both those things have shackled him. I also really like that the first time Matt gets to genuinely help people it’s as a lawyer, not as Daredevil. It speaks not only to his duality, but the tragedy of his identity, Matt’s always been a driven, self-made hero, so you can make a pretty good case that he could have amounted to so much more if he leaned into his study rather than the abilities forced on him. That’s what makes this book such a great character study, it poses questions rather than stating facts.
Now, before I wrap this up, I have to ask, how the fuck did Stick get away with this much child abuse?! Like forget The Hand, your biggest problem is Child Protective Services mate. Honestly he doesn’t even start out nice, just treats Matt like shit from the jump. 3hat a maniac, I love it. Also he gives terrible (and obliviously late) dating advice, never change Stick, never change.
Daredevil: Ninja
“Daredevil: Ninja” was the first Daredevil story ever written by Brian Michael Bendis. I don’t know if I’ve got that much to say about it. It’s not a bad story but it’s definitely what you think of when you think of a comic book, which is weird because the whole thing spends its three issues pretending to be a movie. Rob Haynes’s art has a funky kind of Jason Latour/Brian Oeming feeL to it, while also mixing with that weird early 2000s marvel house style (although a lot of that comes from the coloring here, everything feels a couple shades off and a little too haphazard in the shadows). In the few emotional moments we do get, he has some nice character work, and his designs are all fun and distinct (at one point we get Daredevil wearing a duffel bag and that just makes my heart a-flutter), but the action that this book thrives on often falls pretty flat. It doesn’t help that every cover just advertises the book as a mess of limbs (also I think Matt has 8 fingers on his right hand on that cover at the top). Every fight feels like empty panels full of harmless kicks and karate chops while Bendis works his way through the allotted text bubbles for each page. Honestly the best fight in the book might just be when Daredevil calls the cops on the ninjas they’re fighting, it’s a genius move! It’s not that Bendis doesn’t do well with those bubbles he’s given, but it feels very obligatory.
I think all the story beats in the issue are really great concepts; Daredevil getting kidnapped to fight in a ninja war? Sick. Stick getting reincarnated as a hotly contested ninja baby? Count me in. But the way everything is put to the page just doesn’t translate in the end. For one there’s so much bad phrasing in the dialogue which is a weird problem to have in a professionally edited comic. If I ever have to read “Some helpless some such in need of help” again I might just have an aneurysm. Plus we get a lot of weird, seemingly harmless sexist stuff just peppered throughout the series, y’know, unhealthily skinny ninja ladies at that weird butts-out boobs-out angle as Daredevil whines about always having to punch girls. Who knows, maybe I’m too hard, this was the early 2000s and I can’t say Friends was doing much better. After reading “Daredevil: The Man Without Fear” it’s kinda gross to see Matt idolising Stick like he does here, but that might just be me carrying my own expectations into the book. Something I definitely wasn’t expecting was that this whole book would be framed as if it’s a movie, the panels sitting horizontally across the page (y’know, like a movie screen), it’s not a bad choice and it doesn’t really change much, but I’m just kinda puzzled as to why they did it at all.
Continued belowThe Daredevil here definitely feels more like the movie version, but it’s nice not having another super demure Daredevil, even if it swings the other way a bit hard. This is a Daredevil who drinks green tea and moisturises his skin and threatens to deport people when they start beating him in a fight,I’m still figuring out if I’m here for it, but I’m happy Bendis is trying something different. It’s a bit weird that he can’t speak Japanese in this version (maybe he’s never been able to and I’m just insane, but if Cap can speak Spanish then this feels pretty natural), I guess it keeps him away from the white-guy ninja stereotype but I dunno, I like it when Matt Murdock isn’t too stuck in his all-american boxing champ bubble. In that vein it was nice seeing how agnostically he views Japanese mythology, even if he’s the second most Catholic Marvel hero out there (first place reserved for the loveable Kurt Wagner), it’s good to see he’s able to look open-endedly at myth and spirituality. Also I really love how Spider-Man somehow cops all the blame for their airport fight, it’s so perfect that he’s just a superhero blame bag.
Overall “Daredevil: Ninja” is a fun romp that I’d suggest reading if you can get it through your library or Marvel Unlimited, anywhere cheap. Everything’s a bit flatter than you’ll hope, but I promise Bendis only gets better from here.
Man Without Fear: The Death Of Daredevil
Jed MacKay’s “Man Without Fear” is a really, really smart comic. It’s a five-issue weekly miniseries jammed between Charles Soule and Chip Zdarsky’s runs on the Hornhead, with Matt in rehab after getting hit by another truck, with the injury shaking loose a lifetime’s worth of battle scars, half recovered wounds and pent up anxieties. The story uses Daredevil’s continuity so well, it might just be that Daredevil hasn’t had a ‘Sins Past’ level of cringy continuity, but his long history has always seemed to work to the benefit of his stories. The book jumps between meditations on Matt’s unconscious, identities, relationships and friendships, tearing each of to shreds as Matt slowly rises back up. I make it sound hokey, but the whole quiet misery to it works really well. It doesn’t seem like this grand Dark Knight Rises style ascension and more like, well, actually therapy.
This was a weekly comic so it ended up having four artists in five issues, despite that the general aesthetic is really strong. I love the intercut title cards, they bring a weirdly frantic, atypical beginning to each issue. The covers by Kyle Hotz are also a really strong addition, as they use some fairly abstract imagery to translate Matt’s pain and fear onto the page without pulling out its ghosts of Christmas-traumas past straight away. Also I’m a sucker for lowercase lettering, so I felt a little bubble of joy when I first saw that Clayton Cowles was sticking with that through the book. In terms of pencillers, this book doesn’t have a single bad artist, I’d say it probably doesn’t even have a mediocre one. Some of the expressions were a bit wonky in places, but overall I found myself consistently enjoying and lingering on every page. Danilo Beyruth has this especially nice grip on emotion and pulls off some amazing page spreads, pairing really perfectly with Andre Mossa’s desaturated palette. But I do wish that this series could have had a slightly longer lead up time so we could have stuck with one team (MacKay began writing in October as the series was announced, giving the art team roughly two months to make five issues), maybe they were grabbing a bunch of different artists to try illustrate the different facets of Matt’s journey, but even then there isn’t enough distinction in their styles for that to feel significant. If anyone defines this book for me though, it’s Paolo Villanelli. Issue #4, his Kingpin story, had me consistently losing my shit whenever he drew Fisk. I love their fight too, especially how central the environment is to it, it’s something that feels really street-level and frantic under Villanelli’s hand.
Continued belowThere are so many incredible parts in this book, to the point where I don’t think there’s an intelligible way I could talk about them all, and since I will go to my grave before I ever willingly make another mindmap, here are some bullet points!
-Foggy is a beautiful loyal boy, I like that he’s not just a doofus in this either
-Rugged stubbly Matt is a sleeping beauty, also yay they gave him a beard
-The moment where Kingpin slips and synonymises Matt and Daredevil is so smart, IMAGINE being that smart a writer
-I love the post-mortem narration of Karen Page
-Matt’s toxic dependence on Elektra despite the support right in front of him is super telling, especially with her never actually appearing on page
-I really like how Luke Cage supports Matt but for the wrong reasons
-Fisk’s own fear manifested was an amazing ending
-The way he pushes Kirsten away, completely silently, brutal but on-brand
-Holy fuck, Iron Fist is cute in this
-Whenever Matt pushes people away, no matter what, Foggy will still be there
The Foolkiller story in issue #3 is an amazing, pitch-perfect Daredevil, with a genuinely smart villain and some classic Urich. I really liked Marquez and Bendis’s “Defenders” (the tv show was a whole other thing) so it was nice to see them here. It made a lot of sense too that Jess is the only one who really sees through Matt’s bravado, since her and Matt are the only two who have to see through people’s bullshit for a living. It honestly may just be her and Blindspot who understood him at this level of depression, so what does it say about Matt when the two people who truly understand where he’s at both think he’s a coward?
Okay, now that I’ve indulged myself and touched on everyone involved, I feel like I should delve into the center-piece of what this story is, Matt Murdock’s unconscious and the man it’s created. So in Jed MacKay’s dichotomy, Daredevil is defined by two things: the pain that drives him on and the fear that he has repressed. I don’t think it’s one of the subtlest metaphors to ever be put to page, but I do think it’s one of the most elegantly layered. Both the manifestations of these element are creatively sleek yet additive to the collective creativity around the character. Pain is seen in the classic red suit of the functioning Daredevil, comfortable in his identity, but instead of actually having a protective layer his skin has been flayed down. Meanwhile Fear is in the Yellow suit of an unconfident, revenge-driven Daredevil, a skeleton without any life on him. Visual storytelling, it’s a doozy. Seeing how Matt’s attitude manifests after such a deep look into his psyche also works in the comics favour. His whole life, Matt has been inherently antisocial to the point where his pain and fear have swapped purposes, with pain pushing him to continue through crises and fear causing involuntary restraint. So when he goes into recovery and finally starts reacting normally to pain, it dismantles his old life and we start to wonder how you can ever detach Daredevil from his dual identity. We probably can never learn the answer to that, as by the end Matt Murdock becomes Daredevil once again, returning to the same convictions and the spirit of Jack Murdock which made him a hero in the first place. What a story.
Murdock’s Musings:
-“He doesn’t die. So he has to make do.” -Narration by Frank Miller (“Daredevil: The Man Without Fear”)
-“There are times when Jack Murdock does not hate himself. Only in the ring, only in the heat of combat” -Narration by Frank Miller (“Daredevil: The Man Without Fear”)
-“This smells like ninja crap to me” -Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis (“Daredevil: Ninja”)
-“We need your help” “Sucks to be you” -Stone and Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis (“Daredevil: Ninja”)
-“Kingpin. Bullseye, The Hand. Stilt-Man. And who does this to you? The first in your rogues’ gallery, of course. A truck.” -Foggy Nelson by Jed MacKay (“Man Without Fear”)
Continued below
-“The Bravest Man in the world, and at the same time, the most vulnerable. That was what I loved about him. That was what we all loved about him” -Karen Page by Jed MacKay (“Man Without Fear”)
-“I know you can hear everything. Listen to your body for once” -Luke Cage by Jed MacKay (“Man Without Fear”)
Next time we’ll be starting our journey proper with some of Miller’s early work as the artist on “Daredevil,” Bendis’s collaboration with David Mack, ‘Wake Up,’ and Zdarsky’s first arc, ‘Know Fear.’
