Conquering Fear...but not Boredom: A Review of the "Man Without Fear" Miniseries

written by Jed MacKay
illustrated by Danilo Beyruth (issues #1 and #5), Stefano Landini (issue #2), Iban Coello (issue #3) Paolo Villanelli (issue #4)
colored by Andreas Mossa

Following the gag outgoing Daredevil writer Charles Soule pulled on readers by having Daredevil vanquish the Kingpin, only to reveal that the whole thing it was a dream he was having while in a coma he fell into after being hit by a truck, writer Jed MacKay and a gaggle of different artists essentially have Matt Murdock fight not only his paralysis but his own inner demons as he struggles with whether or not to be Daredevil after the truck accident has revealed the ravages to his body that his life as Daredevil has wrought. For the first time in years, Matt feels the cold grip of fear, and this time even his iron will may not be enough to overcome it.

I wasn't particularly keen on picking this up as I didn't know much about the creative team, but I figured it would serve as important connective tissue between the end of Soule's run and the beginning of incoming writer Chip Zdarsky's, so I ended up giving it a shot, but only after all five issues had come out. My suspicions were right about the story basically having some significance to Daredevil, but so were my fears about its quality. It's really nothing great to write home about, whether from a story or art perspective. In not so many words, it takes MackKay and his quartet of artists five issues to tell readers what we already know: that Matt Murdock was always going to return to being Daredevil.

This didn't have to be as weak as it was; this could have been the opportunity for an A-list creative team, or at least an A-list writer or artist, people who wouldn't normally work on a title like this, to try their hand at the character, and even with an ending as predictable as this one inevitably was it could have been a fun read. As it was, however, with a bunch of also-ran creators, especially Beyruth, whose art bookends the series, this miniseries just serves as distinctly superfluous filler while readers wait for Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto to relaunch the main series. The thing is, given that I didn't even follow the series as it came out, it feels distinctly superfluous, and with the exception of Landini and Coello, the art was somewhat forgettable too.

Well, at least DD's main series is back, and as I shall reveal in my next reveal, it was certainly worth the wait.

6/10