written by Chip Zdarsky
drawn by Marco Checchetto (with Rafael dela Torre)
colored by Matt Wilson
As Matt Murdock prepares to lead "the Fist" together with his longtime frenemy Elektra in a bid to take down the Hand once and for all, an adventure which will have him heading out to parts unknown, he embarks on a crime-fighting spree with longtime ally Spider-Man. His first target is Butch Pharris, the illegitimate son of former Mayor of New York City Wilson Fisk, and the new Kingpin of Crime. Also, while saying his goodbyes to the likes of Foggy Nelson, Matt discovers something unexpected about his old law school classmate Robert Goldman, the prosecutor who convinced him to serve time as Daredevil. Meanwhile, Elektra trades words (and blows) with her old mentor Stick as she firms up her own plans for her upcoming quest with Matt.
After Chip Zdarsky ended his first stint on Daredevil strongly with his "Devil's Reign" miniseries, I was genuinely optimistic for his upcoming series relaunch with Marco Checchetto, with whom he had previously relaunched the title in 2018 following Charles Soule's three-year tenure on the book. I disagreed with quite a few of Zdarsky's creative decisions, but he won back my trust with "Devil's Reign" and left me eager to see the next chapter of Matt Murdock's life.
I guess it's a good thing that Zdarsky and Checchetto managed to set a pretty high bar for themselves but I have to admit that coming on the heels of "Devil's Reign" this series launch felt distinctly underwhelming, with very little happening by way of actual story progression, and with an unwelcome resort to the old "talking heads" story device that tends to rob a story of any real forward momentum. I also found it a bit illogical that Matt, while pretending to be his deceased brother Mike, basically outed himself as Daredevil to make some bizarre point. I actually liked Checchetto's work here especially since Spider-Man, the guy with whom he started his Marvel career years ago, made an appearance, but the proliferation of panels kind of blunted his talent a little bit here.
Zdarsky and his collaborating artists have been setting up this "war" for well over a year now, so I would have thought that with this big relaunch he would have dived right into the adventure instead of treading water, which is basically what all of the characters spend this extra-sized issue doing. There's one big bang of a story twist near the end of the issue, but it didn't really make that much of an impression on me, especially considering how spoiled I've been by the sublime storytelling I've seen from Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr. over in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man.
Zdarsky and Checchetto are off to a slow start, but I hope they pick up steam real soon.
6.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment