Daredevil by Mark Waid vol. 1

Daredevil is a character who tends to be defined by how far a writer can grind him down and still leave something for others to work with.  You can probably trace this back to Frank Miller’s definitive run, and even more so in his follow-up “Born Again” with David Mazzuchelli.  This became even more apparent in the title’s previous volume.  You started out with Kevin Smith killing Karen Page, then Bendis outed the character’s identity and wound up sending him to jail.  Brubaker followed up by getting him out of jail, but ruining his marriage and eventually setting him up as the leader of the Hand, where Andy Diggle then had him succumb to demon possession though I stopped reading before we got to that.  Now Mark Waid is taking a crack at the character with a run that been very highly praised up to this point and contributed in large part to the writer’s Eisner wins at this past Comic-Con.  The best part is:  all of this praise is justified.

Though Waid has shown that he can go “dark” with “Irredeemable” and “Incorruptible” the majority of his superhero work for the Big Two has been largely optimistic and upbeat in tone.  See:  “The Flash” and “Fantastic Four” for the best examples of his work, both grounded in the traditions of the Silver Age but not mired in them.  He brings a more positive tone to “Daredevil” and the change is downright refreshing.  Here we have a Matt Murdock who has come back from losing just about everything and is determined to try and lead as normal and happy a life as a superpowered vigilante can these days.  That may seem pretty delusional for someone who is coming off from a bout of demonic possession, but the man makes it clear that this is how he’s choosing to cope with what life has thrown at him.  Smartly, Waid uses sidekick/legal ace/heterosexual life partner Foggy Nelson to “hang a lantern” on how strange this seems to those around him.  Even though this is the first time in a long while that Matt has come off as “happy” to those in his supporting cast, there’s still plenty of dramatic tension to be had in the fact that it doesn’t make up for or address what has happened to him over the past few years.

Speaking of the events of the previous volume, they aren’t swept aside, but acknowledged and dealt with as necessary.  Okay, the whole “demon possession” thing is only acknowledged in passing, but the matter of Daredevil’s “outing” is dealt with in a fun manner.  For years, the character’s secret identity has been joked about being the “worst kept secret in comics” to the point where Bendis made the secret explicit.  Now, Waid treats it as an open secret that was once big news, but has now faded into the background thanks to the 24-hour news cycle.  On one hand, this leads to some playful exchanges with people on the street but has also forced a change in Matt’s legal career as he can no longer step foot in a courtroom without someone making the trial all about the fact that he’s Daredevil.

It’s smart, fun stuff, and there’s even some creativity to the stories themselves.  The first arc pits our hero against Ulysses Klaw — a man made of sentient sound — while tying it in to the first unfortunate client Nelson and Murdock take on.  It’s a novel idea, pitting a man made of sound against someone with radar senses, and the ensuing fight plays out in exciting fashion as the idea that Matt may be in over his head is sold very well.  The second arc is even better as our protagonist gets involved with a wrongful termination suit and then finds himself embroiled in an international conspiracy involving Latveria and five of the biggest terrorist organizations in the Marvel Universe.  It’s the details that make this one sing:  from watching Matt try to jog his blind client’s mind through sensory perception, finding out the real reason his client was terminated, and the solutions he comes up with for getting these organizations off his back.  A long term plot thread is also set up here, which bodes well for the ongoing appeal of this title.

However, as good as Waid’s writing is, the book is almost stolen by its artists.  Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin have garnered lots of praise for their work on “Amazing Spider-Man” over the past few years, and it’s easy to see why here.  Rivera’s linework is clean yet detailed and very bright as well.  Even when it’s night, there’s not a lot of the darkness and shadow that tends to dominate the book’s style.  This volume probably features more primary colors than I’ve seen on the title in years, and it’s a welcome change that works.

Rivera’s storytelling is also clear and easy to follow, no matter how many panels he puts on the page, and I really like his interpretation of Daredevil’s radar-sense — breaking people and objects down into 3D-topographical images.  That said, his work here is edged out by Martin whose effortlessly inventive page and panel layouts are a sight to behold.  Not only is Martin a whiz at incorporating sound effects into his work, they’re implemented in a way that reflect how Matt perceives them with his enhanced senses.  Seeing the “KRONCH” of Foggy munching on chips fill a hall, witnessing the onslaught of voices Matt faces whenever he steps onto the street, or the slow humm of a speedboat as the text grows larger as it approaches really draws you in due to how intuitive the approach feels.  Same goes for the panel layouts in each issue, with the most impressive being the two-page spread of Matt and Foggy walking through the city without a panel break to interrupt their stroll and the most prominent sounds and smells highlighted in an unobtrusive manner.

That these guys are so great at their work makes me sad that they’ve since departed the title to pursue creator-owned projects.  (The announcement of which I will be looking forward to.)  Even so, this is a sterling example of superhero storytelling and probably the best thing I’ve read in the genre this year.  Well, after “Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine” but that had the two travelling back and forth in time to invent beer, blow up Doom the Living Planet, and bedazzle their costumes with magic gems.  “Dardevil” doesn’t have that, but it’s a welcome fresh start for a character from creators who really know their craft and use it to subvert expectations in a way that’ll please any fan of the genre.