This book made me a Daredevil fan.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me since my only experience with Daredevil is the terrible movie with Ben Affleck:


And I want to be ready for how (hopefully) awesome this is gonna be:


To be honest, before this book Daredevil just never seemed all that interesting to me. A blind dude with superpowers fighting crime? I mean, good for him but why should I give a shit?



Bendis makes you give a shit about Daredevil.

He’s not just some blind superhero, he’s a guy who has learned to control the fact that his hearing tells him what people blocks away are saying or the heartbeat in a person’s chest or the smell of food cooking across the street. Bendis makes it clear that this isn’t easy. It takes control and focus and Daredevil has poured both of those things into giving back to the rough neighborhood he grew up in by protecting its citizens.

And not just that. As Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer, Daredevil has to equate his vigilante side with his defender of the law side. It seems almost hypocritical so he has a damned fine line to walk. Bendis finally makes Daredevil human and interesting to me.

And the artwork. Some of it was so damn gorgeous that I wanted to frame it and put it on my wall. Definitely one of the better artists I've seen on a superhero story in a long time.

So here are the three main stories in this book:


In Wake Up, Daredevil has to face the very real consequences of his actions. A little boy has been put into a catatonic state by the interaction between a criminal named Leapfrog who is the boy’s father and Daredevil. It’s not often that you see people caught in the middle between villains and heroes as the focus of a story and I really liked how nuanced this was.


In Underboss, the Kingpin’s recent blindness has made him vulnerable to the other elements in his criminal “family” and things gets very dangerous for all involved. The best part of this story is the relationship between Kingpin and Daredevil. I’ve always seen Kingpin as a straightforward criminal boss: murderous, callous and completely evil. Underboss paints a more nuanced picture, particularly when it comes to the uneasy truce between Daredevil and Kingpin.

And holy shit is Vanessa Fisk badass. That lady does not pull any punches and I was a little surprised at how much I was rooting for the wife of a crime boss.


And in my favorite story, Out, Daredevil’s identity is finally revealed to the world. The total media circus and how Daredevil and his partner Foggy handle it was just amazing. It was refreshing to see it handled in a way that seemed believable and not just some stupid stunt like having a shapeshifter show up as Daredevil next to Matt Murdock. Here you really get to see the conflict between Daredevil’s vigilante side and his lawyer side. And the case that they took on at the end…damn, that was crazy and way more emotional than I was expecting. Just an incredibly well done superhero story.



Because of my “minorly” obsessive love for Batman, I’ve always been more of a DC girl than Marvel. Bendis shows you all the dirty sides of Daredevil and makes you love him for it. This is by far one of the best Marvel stories I’ve ever read and I can’t wait to see more of my new favorite Marvel hero!

Full series review here