Digitally Speaking...57 "Lee Weeks' Daredevil"

Daredevil: Dark Nights #1 (Marvel)
From 2013.

I haven't been reading much from comiXology lately, and been talking even less about what I have been, but I had to make an exception for this.

And what makes it so special?  Well, for one, creator Lee Weeks.  I've been bumping into the guy's work with Dan Jurgens (Superman: Futures End, Convergence: Superman, Superman: Lois & Clark), and as far as I knew, that was pretty much his contribution to comics.  I mean, he popped in out of nowhere, as far as I was concerned. 

Now, of course, I know differently.  This issue is clue enough, for instance.  He's referenced as a Daredevil icon by the editor.  I had no clue, naturally.  The bulk of his Daredevil work came in the early '90s, so clearly he didn't come from nowhere.  Suddenly it seems a real shame that this is the first I'm hearing about him.

The issue itself is a clear revelation.  Weeks is writer/artist for it, the start of a three-issue arc in a greater mini-series featuring mini-arcs from other creators as well.  Since I knew Weeks as an artist (a truly remarkable one), I kind of wondered what his writing would be like.  It can always go either way.  But the more I read, the more I loved.

Simply put, Weeks figured it out.  He figured out how to further the Miller Narrative.  The Miller Narrative is Frank Miller's iconic reinvention of Daredevil, the Daredevil most fans know, the one who showed up in the 2003 movie, and the one currently dazzling folks in the Netflix series, the one who's an even sadder sack than Peter Parker, battling back from one colossal setback (notably, the Kingpin feud) after another.

I mean, I've seen the Bendis variation.  I saw the Waid refute.  But this is the real deal.  This is someone who truly understands what Matt Murdock is all about.

And from Lee Weeks?  Heck ya!  It's truly sensational work.  I don't care if the other two issues are crap.  This one alone is enough to sell me on the virtues of Weeks, well beyond what I thought they were already.  This guy's the real deal.  And needs lionizing!  So I'll do what I can.  Hopefully his Jurgens work will help other people discover or rediscover Weeks. 

Because he's one of the best talents in the game.