written by Mark Waid
drawn by Chris Samnee
colored by Matthew Wilson
As early in as the first four issues of this relaunched edition of Daredevil, creators Mark Waid and Chris Samnee have been setting Marvel's favorite blind lawyer, Matt Murdock a.k.a./Daredevil up for a showdown with one of his oldest enemies, Leland Owlsley a.k.a. the Owl. This isn't going to just be another hero-villain slugfest, however, considering that the Owl, as of issue #4, has received a serious upgrade. After seeing what these creative team can do, I am convinced that when DD and the Owl throw down, it's going to be an epic read.
Alas, this issue does not contain that battle, but it does tease it ever so cruelly.
What Waid and Samnee deliver instead is a charming little done-in-one. Matt and his new law partner Kirsten have finally taken the endless mutual flirtation that has characterized their relationship since her character was introduced in 2010 to the next level. They were, prior to this issue, already "boyfriend/girlfriend" but at the end of last issue, Matt went and said the "l" word and things have taken on a whole new meaning, a whole new level of intimacy, and, for a man who's buried girlfriends killed by his enemies and had his only wife confined to a mental hospital, a whole new level of paranoia. It seems Daredevil's fears are borne out when Kirsten is kidnapped from a coffee shop by a mysterious assailant. Things, however, are not quite what they seem.
Of all the comic books published by Marvel that I have bought over the last few years, only two have managed to maintain a consistent standard of both writing and art over an extended period of time, the first being Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man, which has had Brian Bendis teamed up with David Marquez for something like three or four years running, with the odd fill-in artist, and this. To my mind, Waid and Samnee trump even the vaunted Bendis and the immensely talented Marquez because although Bendis's stories often tend to get bogged down by his penchant for decompression, Waid can pretty much handle any size of story; he can do big arcs, small arcs, two-issue arcs, and one shots. His characters talk with their own distinct voices and don't...basically all sound like the same person talking. At the end of the day, this is really the best superhero comic book on the stands as far as I'm concerned.
The only tragedy for me is that the days of this team, telling stories in this tone, may be well be numbered after things come to a head with the Owl.
In less than a month, Daredevil's new Netflix series will launch, and from all indications, it most definitely will not have the same tone that has been employed in the comic books for roughly the last half decade. No, this show quite clearly takes its inspiration from the noir storytelling that put the character on the map years ago, in the hands of Frank Miller. Marvel now being the well-oiled marketing machine that it is, with its comics' running narratives frequently being rejiggered in order to be more in line with what people are seeing on the big (or small) screen, it is not at all far-fetched to imagine Marvel editorial finally taking Daredevil from his (relatively) happy place and thrusting him back into the grime of Hell's Kitchen, or some psychological/emotional equivalent for him.
Maybe I'm just paranoid; maybe the only thing Marvel will do to mark the occasion is reprint all old Frank Miller comics and those of his imitators, like Brian Bendis, and maybe they'll leave my one little patch of comic-book paradise alone.
If they don't, these remaining Waid/Samnee issues will be all the more precious to me.
8.5/10
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