written by Saladin Ahmed
drawn by Aaron Kuder
colored by Jesus Aburtov
Another day, another Daredevil reboot.
This time around, Matt Murdock, who literally went down to Hell at the end of Chip Zdarsky's and Marco Checchetto's run and fought actual demons to the death (or whatever constitutes the destruction of demons), has come back to Earth as, of all things...a Catholic priest, one with no memory of his life as a lawyer by day and a costumed crimefighter by night known as Daredevil. Instead, he attends to the orphanage of St. Nicholas in Hell's Kitchen, an orphanage which is apparently frowned upon by the Catholic Church hierarchy but which manages to stay open thanks to a mysterious benefactor, one whom Matt used to know quite well, and one who is actually watching over him. Unfortunately, someone else is watching over him too, with less benevolent intentions.
I'll say this for this new take on the character: it's different. Matt's been a number of things apart from a lawyer throughout the years. Quite memorably, he was a fry cook after the Kingpin briefly ruined his legal career. A priest is a new path, one I don't think has been explored yet, so I'm willing to see where Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder, both eminently talented creators, take him with this new direction. I quite like the action sequences that played out here; Kuder's crisp art evokes David Marquez. They treat us to a nicely satisfying done-in-one that leaves the door open for a much bigger story, and I really like storytelling like that.
That said, I snickered a little at the issue's big showdown; Matt's first opponent is distinctly supernatural, and he defeats it by holding up a "Rosary" and saying...the Act of Contrition?!? I wasn't exactly looking for "the power of Christ compels you" but this still feels a little out of left field. Still, full credit to Ahmed for actually having Matt recite a Catholic prayer in its entirety, because it's quite literally one more prayer than was ever uttered in the entirety of Chip Zdarsky's five-year run. Matt's Catholicism is pretty much baked into his character and constantly referred to by his writers, so it's refreshing that one of them actually had him reciting a known Catholic prayer, not to mention tossing out Bible quotes throughout the story. All that said, it does peeve me that like so many artists before him, Aaron Kuder could not be bothered to learn how to draw a Rosary properly. Oh well.
Still, the book is off to a much better start that I had thought it would be.
8/10
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