Our very first article was a review on my personal favorite character, Daredevil (check it here!), now it’s time to review Daredevil’s run by Chip Zdarsky.
This review covered Daredevil up to “Major Fisk”, which was one of the best stories from Daredevil I had read in years. Well, Chip Zdarsky’s run on Daredevil marks yet another high peak in this character’s already full of hits story.
The Story
Daredevil´s run by Soule left him in a very difficult place: run down by a truck, almost dying, and after a long and traumatic convalescence. Not a place where we usually see our heroes, is it?
Chip (sorry, I will try to call him Chip from now on, his surname is waaaaay difficult to write!) picks up the story right after that, with a Matt Murdock that’s playing around on his red suit, but’s still far from his best version.
The story’s premise is quite uncommon: what happens when a super hero is past his prime? Should he keep on doing what he does, or must he hang his suit? Where does he make more good, and where does he make more bad?
Supporting Cast
Chip presents us with these questions and more, and in the process introduces some interesting characters as Detective Cole North, a hard as nails cop that arrives to New York from Chicago with the target to catch him and other “renegade” heroes.
Daredevil might have met his match in Detective Cole North?
We have to remember that at this point of the story, Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, is still the Major of New York, and has banned vigilante heroes in the city. Fisk also plays a prominent role in this story, considering ending his criminal activities and moving to some more legal activities. Kingpin’s way, of course…
The Libris family (specially Mindy, who becomes somewhat of a love interest to Matt) and the Owl play important roles in the second story arc.
The Artwork
Up to the moment, I read the first two collections, issues 1 to 10 from current numbering, and has been a very entertaining and catching story.
Art on the first book, “Know Fear”, by Marco Checchetto goes really well with the story, while I personally find the artwork on the second book, “No Devils, Only God”, by Jorge Fornes, is not the best fit. The look and feel is somewhat more comic strip like, while a more realistic style like the one in the first book or the one on the last issue feels more appropriate. Editorial decisions, we could say.
Final words
All in all, Daredevil continues giving us some of the best stories in the mainstream comics market, and Chip raises to the level of some of his predecessors to provide us with a very solid story line that I cannot wait to continue reading.
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