Happy birthday, Daredevil! To celebrate ol’ Hornhead’s fiftieth anniversary, we have a whole host of talent including Mark Waid, Javier Rodriguez, Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Karl and Kurt Kessel bringing together stories from through Matt Mudock’s history. Let’s dive right in to this red-clad celebration.
Written by Mark Waid, Brian Michael Bendis & Karl Kessel
Illustrated by Javier Rodriguez, Alex Maleev & Kurt Kessel
• Celebrate Daredevil’s fiftieth anniversary with a look at the future!
• A special standalone story that takes place on Matt Murdock’s 50th birthday. How has his life changed? Who lives? Who dies? See if you can spot all the clues the Daredevil creative team has planted for the year 2014!
• Plus: Stories by special guest creators from Murdock’s murky past! Fifty years without fear have all lead up to this!
Look, let’s get one thing out of the way first: I love Daredevil. He is easily in my top five favourite comics characters and I’ve loved him for years. Hell, I even like the movie. And he’s a character that has been riding a creative high for a while now thanks to the contributions of Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Paolo Rivera and everyone who has worked on “Daredevil” since it’s 2011 relaunch. With relaunch that has been just as well received, that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon and this issue is a celebration of that fact.
The first story that takes up the bulk of the issue is the flash-forward story to Matt Murdock’s fiftieth birthday by Mark Waid and Javier Rodriguez. This is, by far and away, the best story of the three contained within the issue even if just for the fact of how connected it is to the story that Mark Waid and Chris Samnee have been telling in “Daredevil” itself. The story is built around just how plausible this possible future history is making it a compelling glimpse into where Waid and Samnee could be taking that story. Building on top of that with a genuinely well written story that captures the father/son relationship between Matt Murdock and his father, Jack, and casting that in a new light simply serves to make it even better. Without spoiling anything (because this is definitely a story you won’t want spoiled if you’ve been following “Daredevil”), not only is this essential reading for Daredevil fans, but it might be one of the best stories to come out of the current run of the title.
That’s also largely because Javier Rodriguez’s artwork on that story is breath-takingly gorgeous. This is an artist that needs to be holding down their own ongoing series and not just filling in on “Daredevil”. Rodriguez manages to deftly keep in tone with the styles of Paolo Rivera and Chris Samnee that have defined the character for the last few years while creating a feel to the story that feels entirely his own. This is largely because of his amazing story-telling that keeps the swash-buckling, high-octance feeling of Daredevil intact despite the characters age in the story, but it’s also, I think, because of the colours. Rodriguez colours over his own pencils here allowing him complete control over the tonality and depth of the page which creates an amazing feel to the artwork. The vibrancy of the colours gives the book an underlying joyful feel that punctuates the story just when it needs to to make this a celebration fit for a king in red.
The second story of the bunch is a reunion between Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev for a small story untethered by continuity but that feels perfectly in tone with their run on the series. However, as excited as I was by the prospect of this, this is the story that fails to deliver the most. This is mostly because of the format that story takes. Instead of what you would think of as a normal comic, this story is formatted with two vertical images by Maleev that surround the text of the story in a box by Bendis. On every single page. This doesn’t make it bad story per se, though the ending did leave me a little in the dark as to what actually happened, but anyone who was expecting a grand reunion between two of the most in sync storytellers that “Daredevil” has ever seen (like I was) might be sorely disappointed.
Continued belowThe final story is one that harkens back to the simpler times of when Matt Murdock disguised himself as his own (non-existent) twin brother to prove that he wasn’t actually Daredevil. By Kurt and Karl Kessel, this is a strange story as it kind of fits in between the other two stories. It doesn’t quite have the poignancy that elevates the first story, but it’s far more unassuming than the Bendis/Maleev story and, frankly, not as disappointing. While it does feel like a harken back to the older style of Marvel Comics, that also comes with a few of it’s problems like an overuse of narration or dialogue that doesn’t quite benefit the story. The Kessels created a rather fun story that definitely has it’s moments and feels like a nice look back to the history of the character, but ultimately feels too unassuming to really stand out against the first story.
Overall, Daredevil’s 50th anniversary celebration feels like kind of a mixed bag. While all three stories try to speak to a different style that defined that character at different points in his history, only some of them manage to hit their mark. While Mark Waid and Javier Rodriguez created a story that’s practically essential reading for the current run, Bendis and Maleev really failed to deliver on the promise of them reuniting. Rounding that out with a rather unassuming story by the Kessels that harkens back to a part of the characters history that might not resonate with most makes this a rather awkward book. There’s some great, there’s some not so great, but I would still say the great outweighs it enough to justify the $5 price point. Mostly.
Final Verdict: 6.9 – For hardcore “Daredevil” readers mostly, but anyone following the current series will want to check it out at least for the Waid/Rodriguez story alone.
