Yeah, it's another victim of Constant Marvel Reboot, in that at least once a year Marvel resets the issue numbering back to #1. This used to be thanks to idiot fans thinking it was easier to understand a series if they started from the beginning, but...it's literally impossible for Marvel to feature all of its characters with completely fresh starts every single new series. It's mostly because Marvel has chosen to reboot with new creators, because apparently it's too confusing to even consider that one creator could have anything remotely relevant to say about whatever the last creator did. How rude!
Anyway, so this is another Daredevil #1, but the good news is that this is the second creator in a row I actually care about. The last run was written by Charles Soule, one of those Inexplicably Unappreciated talents Marvel has had in recent years. This time it's Chip Zdarsky, who is actually Inexplicably Appreciated (because finicky Marvel fans have decided it's somehow been long enough that they've hated Marvel).
Since I don't really read comics regularly (as in, read monthly comics regularly), I haven't really been able to appreciate Zdarsky properly, but I've been consistently impressed with what I've seen, so I'm glad Marvel fans and/or Marvel itself are appreciating the guy's work. He started making waves with his Spider-Man work, where among other things J. Jonah Jameson finally put aside his irrational hatred of the web-slinger.
So ironically enough, Zdarsky is following that up with a Daredevil run where cops finally noticeably don't like vigilantes.
The famous template for Daredevil comics since Frank Miller has been to recycle Matt Murdock's life being completely ruined and his identity becoming publicly known. I didn't really care to find out, but I think even the Mark Waid run that apparently wasn't about that eventually turned into that. There was a Karl Kesel run I think in the '90s that harkened back to the character's pre-Miller roots (but Kesel is a reliable source of Silver Age nostalgia that is less stodgy than the average Alan Moore effort, mostly because Kesel loves Jack Kirby, and Moore is merely nostalgic).
Anyway, so Zdarsky actually picks up where Soule left off (thereby officially negating the whole reboot concept), and like the slightly later issue in the run I previously read, it's a joy reading his work. It always is. Few writers are as capable of following standard superhero tropes while making them seem relevant, and Zdarsky is one of those. He's not just going through the motions, delivering what he thinks and every reader seems to expect this sort of thing is supposed to be. He's a vibrant voice.
And yeah, he's tackling the rarely explored topic of what actual law enforcement might make of vigilante antics. Given examples like Jim Gordon, you'd think cops would love it, or gleefully look the other way, or use this activity to their advantage. But this is Daredevil. Daredevil is one of those (many, many) hard-luck Marvel heroes. So that's not what he's going to experience. So this is exactly the kind of story he should be starring in.
Kind of sucks for Soule that he signed the exclusive with Marvel and then hasn't gotten much love from Marvel fans.
ReplyDeleteI read Spider-Man Life Story and the first volume of Invaders by Zdarsky and they were both good. Maybe he'll be one of those like Tom King where most everything he does is decent.
Seems to be the case, although I skipped out of sampling a pre-Marvel comic he did in a recent back issue splurge (that I have decided not to write about here) (unless I change my mind). Sometimes I am a chicken. I did not want to be proven wrong.
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