Essential Daredevil, Vol. 2 by Stan Lee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ol' Hornhead returns for another 20+ Adventures. This book collects Daredevil #26-#48 as well as Special #1 and Fantastic Four #73 which provides an ending to a story arch begun in the Daredevil magazine.

Overall, I thought Daredevil took a couple steps forward both in the stories and as a character.

The art of Gene Colan is absolutely stunning throughout. Some of the full page pictures look good enough to frame and the black and white really brings that out.

Perhaps, the most controversial aspect of the book is the presence of Mike Murdoch, Matt Murdoch's invented twin brother. Many fans have panned the contrivance as "annoying". I actually kind of liked him. More to the point, I think it was a psychological twist. Being seen as a "helpless blind man" is clearly maddening to Matt Murdoch. As Mike, he can simply have fun, be himself, and not have to live with that stigma. He can be fun and fancy free. Mike Murdoch "died" officially after several issues of disuse, so I appear to be in the minority on that.

I also liked that the over-used "love triangle" between Foggy, Karen, and Matt was abandoned with just a Matt-Karen love interest/conflict being enough.

The biggest weakness with these early Daredevil stories is without a doubt, the villains. Daredevil Special #1 featured a team up of Daredevil's greatest early villains as the Emissaries of Evil. It was an obvious attempt to give Daredevil his own version of Spider-man's Sinister Six and it was just sad (particularly with the Matador making the team). However, thinks looked up considerably for Daredevil when he faced off against a couple of old Fantastic Four enemies with the Trapster in issues #35-#36, and Dr. Doom in #37-#38 leading to Fantastic Four #73 in which Daredevil would guest star along with Spider-man and Thor. True enough, it would turn into an exhibition fight, but what an exhibition. Finally in Daredevil #42, he gets a truly supervillain in the Jester. He may look like a refugee from D.C. Comics, but he packs some high powered villainous gravitas in the Daredevil universe and I hope to see the character again.

Daredevil #47 features Matt Murdoch using his legal prowess to help a blinded soldier and ex-cop who'd been falsely accused of corruption and then uses his skills as Daredevil to protect him from vengeful mob bosses. It's a heart-warming story for me, particularly with Daredevil going to Vietnam to entertain the troops. To be honest, that story moved the book from 4 stars to 4.5 and I rounded up.

It ends on a down note with Daredevil saving Foggy's life from the Stiltman but alienating him as Matt Murdoch along with Karen. It definitely left me wanting to read Volume 3. Overall, a very solid collection.




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