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A review by clarks_dad
Daredevil, Vol. 1: Guardian Devil by Kevin Smith
3.0
Not a bad intro to the Daredevil character. While Kevin Smith definitely overwrote this arc (a disturbing trend in the last three volumes of Marvel works I've tried out), the plot ended up pretty solid and there are some pretty nice dialogue gems to be found within this volume.
Matt Murdock has lost his faith. He's been through a rough patch lately and the normally devout Catholic has been handed enough curveballs to leave him feeling pretty bitter with the man upstairs. The love of his life has left him and the tights gig is beginning to feel a more and more like spitting in the wind. In short Matt's in the middle of a huge crisis of conscience and identity when into his lap is thrust a small child. Who, or what, the child is becomes the focus of a bit of an obsession for Murdock. What's clear is that the child is at the center of a struggle between factions of light and dark that have him questioning his beliefs and his role as the child's guardian as his life unravels further and further.
There are strong thematic tones of dark and light, layered double entendres and a seamless blending of the mystic and scientific that gave this run a complexity I wasn't really expecting. Parts of it gave me that old X-Files feeling as Murdock attempts to define which elements of his life are the result of supernatural forces and which are caused by the more mundane and manipulative. Ultimately the resolution took some of the wind out of the sails. It wasn't a terrible explanation, but it falls a bit short of the epic it promises to be in the very beginning. The story has huge consequences for the DD universe though with several characters meeting their soap opera "ends" within the arc.
That last Avengers story and a variety of other aborted reads had me doubting my goal of powering through most of the Marvel Universe since the 2000s, but this one has restored some hope in the endeavor. I like Daredevil. He's like Batman. He and Bruce would get along just fine. They're bitter as @*!#. I also kind of like how he stays kind of exclusively in Hell's Kitchen. I hadn't really noticed before that Daredevil maintains a super low profile in all the major crossover events. I kind of respect the reasoning and like that he's gotten such little exposure and he's fine with it.
Matt Murdock has lost his faith. He's been through a rough patch lately and the normally devout Catholic has been handed enough curveballs to leave him feeling pretty bitter with the man upstairs. The love of his life has left him and the tights gig is beginning to feel a more and more like spitting in the wind. In short Matt's in the middle of a huge crisis of conscience and identity when into his lap is thrust a small child. Who, or what, the child is becomes the focus of a bit of an obsession for Murdock. What's clear is that the child is at the center of a struggle between factions of light and dark that have him questioning his beliefs and his role as the child's guardian as his life unravels further and further.
There are strong thematic tones of dark and light, layered double entendres and a seamless blending of the mystic and scientific that gave this run a complexity I wasn't really expecting. Parts of it gave me that old X-Files feeling as Murdock attempts to define which elements of his life are the result of supernatural forces and which are caused by the more mundane and manipulative. Ultimately the resolution took some of the wind out of the sails. It wasn't a terrible explanation, but it falls a bit short of the epic it promises to be in the very beginning. The story has huge consequences for the DD universe though with several characters meeting their soap opera "ends" within the arc.
That last Avengers story and a variety of other aborted reads had me doubting my goal of powering through most of the Marvel Universe since the 2000s, but this one has restored some hope in the endeavor. I like Daredevil. He's like Batman. He and Bruce would get along just fine. They're bitter as @*!#. I also kind of like how he stays kind of exclusively in Hell's Kitchen. I hadn't really noticed before that Daredevil maintains a super low profile in all the major crossover events. I kind of respect the reasoning and like that he's gotten such little exposure and he's fine with it.