Daredevil! #1

1. The cover, featuring Daredevil hiding behind a motorcycle, which is blocking him from the view of Hellverine, the Weapon of Vengeance. Flames track the width of the image. In shadow looming overhead, the Kingpin of Crime oversees the scene. This is the first issue in the series, and text in the bottom right corner reads, “A toy comic by Phil Wrede.

2. Nighttime, in the New York city penthouse apartment of the Kingpin, who interrogates his assistant about bringing the Book of the Damned to their meeting, which the Kingpin believes they will need for some unspecified purpose.

The Kingpin’s assistant begins to flip through the book, and is horrified by what he sees. One specific entry, which he reads aloud, is “the rite of the resurrection of the flesh.”

Their conversation is interrupted as the Kingpin’s son, Richard - who is dressed in a white costume, and wearing a red demon mask - comes falling in through a main living room window. Daredevil narrates the scene, indicating a profound lack of respect for Richard Fisk’s apparent quest to kill him.

The Kingpin orders his assistant to help his son. Daredevil continues his narration, emphasizing his disdain for Richard Fisk.

Richard doesn’t need help; he hops to his feet, and readies one of the two large swords on his back. Again, Daredevil continues to observe the scene from a distance, declaring that he thinks Richard put on his demon mask and trained in the martial arts to get his father’s attention.

We see the scene in the Kingpin’s apartment through Daredevil’s radar sense, and then we see Daredevil himself, some distance away, patiently surveying. Still, he narrates, drawing a sharp distinction between his reasons for putting on his own mask, and what he thinks led Richard Fisk to do the same.

Pulling his twin batons from a sheath on his leg, Daredevil begins to run across a tall building. In narration, he declares his intention to show the Fisks what he thinks it means to be a “chosen one,” and why it’s often not all it’s cracked up to be.

Daredevil leaps into the New York City nighttime skyline, bathed in a sea of light and color. He continues his narration, and discusses his intention to fight for his city for at least as long as people like the Fisks are trying to rule it.

Kingpin, his assistant, and Richard all steel themselves for the arrival of Daredevil, which they know is imminent. In further narration, Daredevil compares the night air racing past him to justice.

Daredevil swings in through the broken window of the Kingpin’s apartment, and lands dramatically before his foes. As he approaches, his narration continues, explaining that he wears the devil’s mask because he seeks justice, which can sometimes be beyond the scope of the law that he serves as Matt Murdock.

Kingpin eggs his son on, and Richard draws one of his swords, preparing to attack Daredevil. Our hero stands and prepares himself for the fight. “Nature abhors a vacuum,” Daredevil says in further narration. “It seeks justice when it is found lacking.”

Richard swings his sword, but Daredevil blocks it with his twin batons. They curse one another across their clashed weapons. Even the fight doesn’t stop Daredevil’s narrating the action.

Daredevil kicks Richard hard enough to knock him away. In narration, Daredevil hopes Richard will end the fight here, but he knows he won’t.

Richard draws his other swords. As Daredevil and the Kingpin’s son prepare to clash again, the Kingpin and his assistant discuss their fighting style.

A series of panels in a 3x3 grid show Daredevil and Richard repeatedly swinging their weapons at one another. Daredevil punches Richard in the face, but misses when he attempts to kick him.

Richard swings his swords, but Daredevil leaps out of the way. He flips clear over Richard, and while in narration, declaring that he saw what he was about to do, and could not help himself, manages to land on the floor and rush forward, kicking Richard Fisk mightly.

Richard falls off the building and lands dead on the sidewalk. Daredevil escapes, and the Kingpin orders his assistant to retrieve the body of his dead son.

Later, beneath the city, the Kingpin and his assistant walk through a strange tunnel, which leads them to a platform in a candlelit room. Richard Fisk’s dead body lies on that platform.

Suddenly, the Kingpin orders the mysterious “Mr. Robbins” (Parker Robbins, AKA “The Hood”) to kill his assistant, which he does with a gunshot to the head. A Hand ninja who accompanied The Hood retrieves the Book of the Damned from where the dead man dropped it on the floor.

Kingpin orders The Hood to read from the Book of the Damned; he calls forth Mephisto and Zarathos, claiming the Right of Vengeance, and pleading that the spirit of vengeance enters Richard’s body, and allows him to live once again (long-time Marvel Comics, or Nic Cage comic book movie fans know what this is building toward). Richard’s body floats into the air, and fire pours forth from his face.

Richard Fisk is no more; his physical form has been claimed by the Spirit of Vengeance, incarnated in a body that looks rather like Wolverine. In fact, according to The Hood’s reading of the Book of the Damned, this creature is called, “Hellverine.”

The credits for the comic strip, citing the Unsplash users whose photographs were the background art, the use of fonts by Blambot, the ownership of Marvel by Disney, the creation of Marvel characters by actual human beings, the use of stock visual effects by Action VFX, and that the figure photography/script/lettering were by me, Phil Wrede.

Full disclosure: I never really thought I was a Daredevil fan. I certainly admire a lot of Daredevil stories and artwork; it’s tough to enjoy the kinds of movies and comics that I enjoy without encountering the generally-agreed-upon peaks of Daredevil-ish-ness.

For instance, there’s probably been enough written about Frank Miller’s run on the comic to never need another word written about it again, but there’s a good reason for all the effusive praise: it deserves it. The whole thing, not just Born Again (but… Born Again! When the oversized hardcover (see below photos) was solicited in Previews, I ordered it without hesitating, and I don’t regret it).

A photo of the Daredevil: Born Again oversized hardcover, next to volume 1 of the Waid/Martin/Rivera Daredevil, and a blu-ray of the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law show, for comparison.

The Daredevil: Born Again oversized hardcover flipped open, above the open Waid/Martin/Rivera Daredevil vol. 1 hardcover, for size comparison.

The first Daredevil appearance I ever encountered was in reprints of these Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man comics where Spider-Man gets temporarily blinded, and teams up with Daredevil because a) they’re buddies, and b) Daredevil understands what he’s going through. They’re written by Bill Mantlo, and while the first part’s pencilled by Jim Mooney, the second part was drawn by… Frank Miller! (Just click on the link to the comic, and take a second to appreciate the cover of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #27. Man, wasn’t Dave Cockrum a great artist?)

When Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev were doing their Daredevil run (the first of the modern iconic Daredevil runs, probably?), I wasn’t following comics too closely. Truth be told, Bendis’ writing has never resonated with me the way it does for so many other people, so when I have read it (which I’ve done more than once), I read it for Maleev’s artwork. There’s nothing I need to say about it; it’s stunning.

The first time I really followed Daredevil closely was immediately after Bendis and Maleev’s time on it, when Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark took over. I’ve been a nut for any comic that has Brubaker’s name on it for about 20 years; after Gotham Central and during the now-legendary Captain America run, I was an easy mark for a Brubaker Daredevil comic. That it was as good as it was made it go down all the easier; images from ‘The Devil In Cell Block D’ will just leap into my mind unprompted as I’m going about my day.

My favorite comic take on Daredevil, though, is the one I have in a stack of hardcovers (you can probably guess, from the photos I included above). The Mark Waid/Marcos Martin/Paolo Rivera/Chris Samnee stories grabbed me from the very first issue, and though I think it loses steam once or twice, and the conclusion isn’t quite as strong as I’d hoped it would be, the high points more than make up for whatever low points there are (your mileage with it may vary, depending on if you’ve read it before). Rarely has the phrase “swashbuckling” been as applicable to the tone of a comic (particularly the early issues) as it is to this one.

Then, of course, we have Daredevil on film and television. The 2003 movie, starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Jon Favreau, and Joe Pantoliano has, I firmly believe, aged well (especially the director’s cut). It is a spectacular historical document, so representative of its moment in time (the soundtrack! the simultaneously inappropriate-yet-perfectly-appropriate Matrix aping! all the earrings!), and it’s also a plain good movie, made by people who are trying to make a good Daredevil movie. Even if you disagree with me there, I think we can all agree that Duncan’s Kingpin and Farrell’s Bullseye are all-timer performances! Bullseye, particularly, is one of the greatest performances in any superhero movie, ever, period.

Of course, any rundown of Daredevil media wouldn’t be complete without considering the Netflix-now-Disney+ show (created by fellow CU-Boulder alum Drew Goddard!), all of which I rewatched this spring in preparation for the first part of Born Again. All the Marvel Netflix shows seemed to me to want to tell their stories in a tone similar to that of the 2003 movie, but with far less humor, and so they never really connected with me the way they did with the people who were clamoring for a Charlie Cox appearance in the MCU proper. I’m also always going to be salty about its refusal to even try to visually represent Daredevil’s radar sense; at least the movie tried (and, I think, largely succeeded)!

I think it’s the best of the Marvel Netflix shows, in large part due to Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin. If there’s a tour de force performance anywhere in the MCU, it’s D’Onofrio’s as Wilson Fisk; after rewatching the original show, I have a newfound and deep appreciation for Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page, and I’ve always believed that Vondie Curtis Hall’s time as Ben Urich was over too soon.

It’s probably no surprise that, as a fan of the Waid Daredevil, my favorite thing Charlie Cox has gotten to do in the MCU is his appearance on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

I sure have written a lot of words here without even writing one about the toy comic you’ve just finished reading (and, hopefully, enjoyed – I think it’s the best one I’ve done yet, at least in terms of visual presentation. For some reason I never anticipated, posing this Mafex Daredevil action figure unlocked a new gear for page layouts in my head. It’s probably past time I stretch that part of my visual imagination, anyway!). I guess I am a Daredevil fan…?

This story, like my Deadpool & Psylocke, Rogers, and (to a lesser degree) the Spider-Protector comics, is meant to exist in its own separate… well, existence from the All-New, All-[Whatever] Avengers comics to which I dedicated all of my free time for years, so if you are somehow a longtime Phil Wrede Marvel Action Figure Comic Universe fan, don’t expect to see anybody you’re familiar with (or, at least, the way you’re familiar with them).

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