Mark Waid (writer)
Chris Samnee (artist)
Javier Rodriguez (colorist)
When Mark Waid rebooted Daredevil some three years ago, with artist Paolo Rivera, he completely ripped up the form book on the character, throwing out a Frank Milleresque/noir-inspired status quo that had been in place for decades. Much more importantly, he wrote some of the best stories that had been seen on the book in years, and people took notice. As it turns out, however, he was just getting started and when he was joined by artist Chris Samnee more or less a year into this new direction for the character, their collaboration became one for the ages. Month after month, the book maintained a steady, if not quite large fanbase, and critics gushed on a regular basis.
A little over a year into the Waid/Samnee team-up, Marvel decided that it was worth raising the profile of this partnership a little bit, and therefore "rewarded" the duo with a spanking new #1 and a redesigned logo. Waid and Samnee built up to this relaunch with two meaty story arcs that expertly set the stage for a radically different status quo for the title character as well as his supporting cast and opened a lot of new possibilities.
This new relaunch opens with lawyer Matt Murdock, who moonlights as costumed vigilante Daredevil, having left his native New York and moved to the West Coast, specifically San Francisco, in view of the events of the last few issues of the previous series (which I will not spoil). He faces a new threat; a mysterious group of men kidnap the daughter of the deputy mayor, apparently as part of a planned terrorist attack. Of course, none of them factored Daredevil into their plans.
This issue had a lot to live up to; it had to justify the re-numbering, carry on the standard of quality that Waid and Samnee had established, and, as with all #1s entice new readers. I have no idea how successful Marvel were at the third goal, but to my mind they'd accomplished the first and the second spectacularly. They basically started this new series sprinting right out the gate, or firing on all cylinders, depending on one's choice of high-performance metaphors.
In particular, they achieved, with this issue, the rare feat of giving readers a "done-in-one" or an issue that tells a complete, standalone story, and at the same time rather brilliantly setting up what I'm sure is a larger narrative thread. This is something I rarely see; writers like Grant Morrison and Mark Millar made rather self-serving claims to have written such issues of the comic books they were writing in the past (both of which I have read), but neither of them quite captured that perfect blend of both "standalone" and "part of something bigger" that this issue did.
More than simple chop-sockey, fast-paced action, though, what really set this issue, and the book in general, apart was how it placed emphasis on Murdock's greatest weapon in his fight against crime: his brain. Daredevil is far from some omniscient, uber-genius who can cobble together a suit of armor from scrap metal or build a wide array of gadgets, vehicles and weapons with which to fight crime, but his greatest asset, (one which Waid arguably uses better than almost anyone else who has written this character) is his ability to think on his feet, or to be more literal about it, in mid-air. Samnee captures it all perfectly, giving easily the most kinetically-charged issue I've seen from this team so far, and it's only been one issue!
Waid leaves plenty of breadcrumbs to entice readers to come back for future issues, such as the fate of Matt's law partner Foggy Nelson, still battling cancer as he was at the end of the last series, but with an apparently new twist. To my mind, however, these little teases are not at all necessary; I'm already on board for the long haul.
What's the justification for the additional dollar on the cover price (and its equivalent in our Philippine peso)? Well quite frankly, if it means paying Waid and Samnee more than they used to receive, I can't think of two gentlemen in the comics industry who deserve it more.
5/5
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