A Lighter Take on Daredevil

Daredevil, Volume 1 by Mark Waid

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Daredevil's back and minus the load of depression. After three decades of gathering gloom, with the last dozen or so years being particularly intense in gloom, Daredevil is reborn under new writer Mark Waid.

While Marvel began the Waid run by relaunching the numbering system making this Volume 3 of Daredevil, Waid doesn't write the book as if the past dozen or so years of pure misery for Daredevil didn't happen. He acknowledges it.

In this collection, Matt Murdoch's got a spring his step. He's not Pollyanna, but he he's made a choice to be positive. In an important short in the first issue, Murdoch lays it on the line. The last few years are going to be rough, but he's going to choose to be happy. Daredevil features Daredevil back as a rough and tumble swashbuckling hero.

In some ways, the book is an improvement on the Silver Age version of Daredevil who was determined to defeat evil but was really a superhero for the thrills and excitement. Here we see Murdoch using his legal skills to help others. When public suspicion of his Daredevil career ruins his courtroom rep, Murdoch to teaching people how to defend themselves. He's helping people in need directly.

The only thing for parents of teens to be aware of is that the book has some innuendo and there's some violence but it's not as graphic as in the Frank Miller days. The overall content of the book is about that of a TV-PG TV series.

Overall, Waid shines a bright life brings back balance to a character that desperately needs it with stunning art, clever writing, and plenty of action and adventure.

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.00.



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