MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel
[This review was originally posted in Patreon.]
STORY: Chip Zdarsky
ART: Marco Checchetto
COLORS: Sunny Gho
LETTERS: VC's Clayton Cowles
EDITOR: Devin Lewis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Akira Yoshida a.k.a. C.B. Cebulski
COVER: Julian Totino Tedesco
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Alex Maleev; Joe Quesada; Skottie Young; Gabriele Dell'Otto
36pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (April 2019)
Daredevil created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett with Jack Kirby and Wally Wood
“Know Fear” Part 1
Daredevil is a Marvel Comics superhero created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett. The character first appeared in Daredevil #1 (cover dated: April 1964). Daredevil is Matt Murdock, a vision-impaired attorney who was blinded as a child after being exposed to a radioactive substance. That substance enhanced his senses to a supernatural level and gave him a 360-degree radar sense.
Marvel Comics is giving Daredevil the comic book something of a reboot. Daredevil 2019 is written by Chip Zdarsky; drawn by Marco Checchetto; colored by Sunny Gho; and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Daredevil #1 opens in the wake of the events depicted at the end of writer Charles Soule's run on Daredevil and in the subsequent five-issue miniseries, Man Without Fear. After recovering from grievous injuries and intense physical therapy, Matt Murdock returns to Hell's Kitchen. As the story begins, Matt has already acted once as Daredevil (although apparently not in costume). However, there is a new sheriff in town.
Straight outta Chicago comes Detective Cole North. He has been tasked by New York City Mayor Wilson Fisk, formerly known as The Kingpin – the crime lord of New York City, to take down costumed superheroes in NYC. When he dons the Daredevil costume for the first time in a long time, Matt may end up doing Detective Cole's work for him.
Daredevil #1 (2019) is quite a good start for the new series. First, there is Julian Totino Tedesco's beautiful cover art. Inside, Marco Checchetto offers his most disciplined compositions to date, with an emphasis on storytelling that makes the most of atmosphere and mood and characters' emotions. Previously, Checchetto was good at these things, but his drawings seemed to emphasize style. Sunny Gho's colors are beautiful and emphasize reds and blues to create a sort of rose-tinted Film-Noir look. The artists' depiction of Daredevil's radar sense is also quite nice.
Writer Chip Zdarsky's storytelling here reminds me, in some ways, of writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzuchelli's “Born Again” story arc in Daredevil (1964) #227-231. It is also something of a spiritual heir to the last year of Frank Miller's original run on Daredevil as writer-artist/designer (with Klaus Janson as artist). I don't know if Zdarsky's work on Daredevil will reach the great heights of Miller, but I like how Zdarsky emphasizes Matt's moral conflicts and his past, as well as emphasizing Wilson Fisk as being an existential threat to Matt Murdock-Daredevil. Clayton Cowles lettering creates a nice rhythm for Zdarsky's script.
I was not looking forward to Daredevil (2019), but happenstance dropped a copy of Daredevil #1 (2019) in my lap. I am glad I read it, and I am recommending it to Daredevil fans.
8 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.
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