Daredevil is having an interesting time of late; he’s publicly revealed himself to be Matt Murdock, been disbared, moved to San Francisco and helped his best friend fake his own death. But we all know that the life of a superhero is never easy and moving across the country has brought a whole new set of problems for The Man Without Fear.
This issue reminded me a little of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in that the problems caused by the villain of the issue correlate well with what our hero is going through in his personal life. I see this tactic tried in storytelling a lot, but I think Mark Waid really nails it in this issue.
We’re reminded that Matt Murdock has been offered a huge sum of money to write his autobiography and discover that his friends are worried he won’t be up to writing it. Not just because of his appalling writing skills but because of all the emotions he’d have to go through as he recalls all the bad things he’s endured in his life.
At the same time The Purple Man, who has the power to make people do what they want, has been rounding up his children from their mothers but has fallen foul of his own offspring as they turned on him in the last issue. His children seem to have slightly different powers, in that they can actually make people feel emotions.
When Daredevil encounters the children for the first time they make him feel all manner of different emotions, and he begins to realise that maybe he can’t deal with them after all. It’s a great parallel between personal life and “work life” and is pulled off expertly.
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The one negative thing I’d say about the issue is that it really doesn’t feel like much has happened by the time you get to the end. One minute he’s talking book deal, the next he’s chasing down the kids, then it’s all over. But maybe that’s just because I was so engrossed in the story and read it so damn quickly, wishing the next issue was in my hands already.
Chris Samnee is on art duties for this series and I’ve really grown to enjoy his style since I first picked up a copy of Daredevil. When I first read a Daredevil book I was intrigued by how we’re shown how he “sees” things, it’s one of the unique things about the character. It’s used really well to illustrate how DD deals with fights or makes his choices during chases. It’s always drawn in a way that’s not confusing, which must be tricky considering, in essence, it’s just a bunch of wavy lines.
