By Hussein Wasiti —  To be frank, I was surprised when Chip Zdarsky was announced late last year as the writer who would take ol’ hornhead in a brand new direction as the writer of Marvel Comics’ Daredevil. Joining him on this book, is artist Marco Checchetto, who made a name for himself with The Punisher and Old Man Hawkeye, both dynamic and action-oriented comics. It all seems like an unlikely creative mashup, but it works beautifully. 

So, how does Zdarsky measure up to the iconic Daredevil runs by greats like Frank Miller, Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev, and Ed Brubaker & Michael Lark? Zdarsky and Checchetto’s first arc feels like a cumulative story for the character, one that embraces his past and condenses it into one theme: Matthew Murdock is finally experiencing the consequences of his stubborn past. For most of his adult life, he’s put being Daredevil above being Matt Murdock, and it’s always affected Matt more than it has Daredevil. This time, the impact is reversed. Now Daredevil is suffering at the hands of Matt’s mistakes, and Matt’s too blind (heh) to see it. 

At the end of Charles Soule’s run, which preceded Zdarsky’s, Matt was hit by a truck which put him in a coma, in a way “unlocking” all of the physical pain Matt has suppressed for all these years. His inability to balance both of his identities and his insistence on saving lives while ignoring his own is what got him into the mess we find in this story; in the first issue of this collected trade, we see Matt in a way we’ve never seen him before, popping pain killers and hanging out in a seedy bar. By the end of the issue, he’s apparently killed someone by accident as he tries to stop three men from robbing a store. He’s out of his element in every way, as he isn’t even able to properly defend himself against lowly criminals. 

What works best within this story to me is that there really isn’t a big bad that Daredevil has to take down. Hard-boiled detective Cole North comes the closest to an antagonistic role, but the man is just doing the right thing no matter what. Vigilantes are against the law now, and he’s doing his job as new member of the New York City Police Department. Mayor (and the Kingpin) Wilson Fisk is nothing more than a bystander in the best way possible; his openly illegal crime days are done and instead he gets to sit back and enjoy the show, watching Daredevil fall in a way he could never have orchestrated. 

This is all to say that, yeah, Matt is the villain of his own story. His stubbornness has finally gotten the better of him. This is the major narrative element that separates this from other Daredevil runs, and a big moment involving another major Marvel superhero near the end of the collection cements this. This is just unlike anything we’ve seen from this character. 

Checchetto’s art, with Sunny Gho’s amazing colors, creates this grimy, smoky Hell’s Kitchen that I’ve fallen in love with. Checchetto’s depiction of these characters is unreal; they’re all amazingly beautiful and his lines make nice, clear figures and overall images. This provides such a contrast with what bubbles underneath, highlighted in Matt and new character Cole North, a cop from Chicago with a mysterious past who seems obsessed with taking down Daredevil at all costs. The beauty of the characters extends to everything else, from the widescreen visual elements to the story in its action scenes. A massive, messy action sequence in the collection’s fifth issue especially blew me away. 

This is a great introduction to the character for those who’ve never read any of his gritty adventures. It stands apart from the evergreen flock of runs past but embraces them in way that makes Matt Murdock’s tragic story here one of Marvel’s best. 

Daredevil Vol. 1: Know Fear
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artists: Marco Checchetto and Chip Zdarsky
Colorists: Sunny Gho and Chip Zdarsky
Letterers: Clayton Cowles and Chip Zdarsky
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: August 13 2019

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Hussein Wasiti is a history undergraduate with an intense passion for comics. He is a staff writer on The Beat and a contributor to Comics Bookcase. You can find him on Twitter as bullthesis. He lives in Toronto with his hordes of comics.