“It has been a miserable last few years and every time I
thought I’d finally hit bottom, God somehow found me a bigger shovel. All this pain and all this loss and…and I
just can’t bear the weight of it anymore and stay sane. I know that.
So this is the way I’ve decided to be.”
Matt Murdock’s speech to Foggy is perhaps Mark Waid’s
statement of intent with his run on Daredevil.
Acknowledge the grimdark past of the comic, while offering a dramatic
change of pace and tone. It’s perhaps a
soft reboot more than anything, with past events staying in continuity, even
while there’s a change of focus away from that type of storytelling.
Waid’s fresh approach to the title is in some ways a return
to its silver age roots. Forgoing many
trends of contemporary comics, Waid’s Daredevil is a swashbuckling hero. His concerns are at a more human level,
protecting the poor and disenfranchised, than with slugging it out with
supervillains. The stories are shorter,
punchier, and more self-contained. A
reader doesn’t need to know 50 years of Marvel continuity to understand the
storyline. It feels fresh exciting and
fun.
The art duties are split between Paolo Rivera and Marcos
Martin. Their simple clean lines reflect
this reversion to silver age aesthetics visually. The colorists, Javier Rodriguez and Muntsa
Vicente, only add to the throwback effect.
Bold color choices, often themed in red and yellow (DD’s colors, don’t
ya know). The overall effect is
evocative of the pop art of the 1960s, the era of Daredevil’s birth.
I couldn’t be more impressed with a contemporary comic. It has both the fun and energy of a silver
age comics, but with the stylistic sophistication of a 21st century
piece. Highly recommended for all ages.
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