Daredevil #1 Review
I talk about this every now and then, but Daredevil is maybe the only superhero IP in the Big 2 that can go toe to toe with Batman in terms of how many runs and stories are all timers. For Daredevil specifically, this is a more treacherous sea to cross, he doesn’t have the mass volume that Batman does, and so that creates a stronger set of expectations from the title. At bare minimum, the opening salvo can be nothing less than great.
It’s a very high bar, and our expectations also ebbs and flows as storytelling in the industry changes. An opening salvo just used to be a complete story in the first issue, then it was the first part of a wider tale, then back to the first issue, then the first part of a wider tale, you get the picture. This is further broken down into creative teams involved, how they pace these etc. etc. It’s what I noticed as I read through a few Daredevil #1s in preparation for this. I read #168, the first issue Frank Miller wrote and drew (the first appearance of Elektra!), V2 #26, the Bendis and Maleev’s first issue, and the first issue of Waid and Rivera’s run (coloured by Javier Rodriguez, who some might know now as the artist of Absolute Martian Manhunter!), the first issue of Soule and Garney, the first issue of Zdarsky and Checchetto, and then finally the first issue of Ahmed and Kuder.
Regardless, they share common traits – set up a new status quo for Matt, glimpses of the world around him – some big shakeup, if you will. It’s not necessarily a formula per se, but there is a structural commonality across them which makes them interesting to assess. That being said, out of all the issues I laid out earlier, the first issue that Stephanie Phillips, Lee Garbett, Frank Martin and Ariana Maher’s Daredevil #1 shares its DNA the most with is Bendis and Maleev’s.
The reasoning for this is straightforward – the rest of them are enclosed, in a sense. The last page might be the cliffhanger for the next, but everything before that is complete – there’s a beginning, middle and end, you get an emotional climax even if you don’t get a narrative one. Bendis/Maleev’s first issue doesn’t have an emotional climax, it leaves you waiting with baited breath. You could draw a similarity of the ending of this issue to the ending of Zdarsky/Checchetto’s first, but that issue provides you with a thematic throughline at the very least, compared with Bendis/Maleev’s, which takes its time to set that up, and this issue is in that same boat.
But before we get into all that, let’s wind back a bit and look at what Garbett and Martin have in store for us. If a Daredevil book looks less than excellent, something is terribly wrong. Garbett isn’t an artist I’m unfamiliar with, and ever since he was announced I knew he was a good fit, especially with the dynamism he showed off in Uncanny Spider-Man. As soon as Martin was announced, I knew he was the right call too, given his great work colouring the other Frank Miller child in Absolute Batman.
I was correct in that assessment, because they’re all killer here. This book looks beautiful. Garbett’s use of insets and fun panel placement leads to a really “jumpy” comic, where your eyes aren’t darting around two pages the same way – there’s always something new, there’s always something fresh, and it leads to a very engaging experience. Martin brings all of this together beautifully, I’m a big fan especially of the choices to shroud Daredevil in shadow a lot of the time. One detail I do love is the texture in the darker shade of red on the suit, I’m not sure who to credit that to but it adds a nice sense of depth to the costume.
Ariana Maher’s lettering choices are excellent, I love the font she’s using for the new villain, and the caption boxes flow really well with Garbett’s kinetic panelling.
Now, as for Phillips, I’m not too familiar with her work. I don’t have a lot of strong feelings over what I have read from her bibliography, but Daredevil #1 is the first time I’ve really been hooked. Obviously part of it is because it’s Daredevil, but also I was really engaged through the whole thing. I really like her voice for Matt, I like how she’s set up the moving parts of the status quo, and most importantly, she and Garbett seem to be in sync (which makes sense, given that this book was pitched by them as a packaged deal), and that to me is the most important thing so I’m glad you can see that on the page.
If anything, my only concern is the new villain. On average, I think whenever Daredevil steers into spiritual/mystical territory they don’t tend to come out in tip top shape, but I’m going in with an open mind. I liked this first issue a lot, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out month to month.