Daredevil, Volume 6 by Mark Waid

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collect Issues 28-30 of Daredevil's 3rd Volume and Issues 9 and 10 of Indestructible Hulk.

The reason this book is shorter is that the current volume of Daredevil will end with #36 and so they want all six issues of the final story in the same trade.

Issues 28 and 29 collect a pretty decent story in which Matt Murdoch is asked for help by a man who tormented him with the nickname, "Daredevil" when he was a child. The guy got involved in a seemingly more benign branch of the serpent society and reluctantly Daredevil agrees to help him represent himself in a civil rights suit, but it'll take more than legal footwork to get DD and his old nemesis out of trouble in a pretty fun story that lives up to the best of this series with some great interaction between Matt and his ex-bully.

Issue 30 starts off with the (big deal) return of Kirsten McDuffie who comes to work for the firm while Matt's longtime partner Foggy Nelson is still recuperating from cancer treatments and she's decided to come work for her. I've never had any strong feelings about her prior to her exiting Matt's life several issues before and her presence doesn't help the story.

Then again, the story in Issue 30 doesn't need any help because alien turns up asking for Daredevil's help when out of nowhere comes the Silver Surfer hunting for the alien. Daredevil and Silver Surfer fight and then team up in a story that has Daredevil steering the Surfer's board in a very cool story that references an incident from back when Stan Lee was writing the series. (In Vol. 1, Issue 28) Waid knows his history and that's what's great about Marvel continuity.

The Indestructible Hulk Issues are problematic. I'm a fan of the series but having said that, it's dubious to include it. Past trades have included issues of Amazing Spider-man, Avenging Spider-man, and the Punisher but that made sense because those issues collected storylines that involved the Daredevil book. Daredevil just made guest appearances in Indestructible Hulk.

We do learn that Murdoch is Bruce Banner's attorney and that to make sure S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't doublecross Banner, Banner calls Murdoch every week to give the all clear. Otherwise, Murdoch will go to the papers. Daredevil and the Hulk team up when S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operation takes them to Hell's kitchen. It's a good concept and it definitely has its moments with Daredevil acting as a calming influence on the Hulk and some great action scenes for the Hulk.

The story isn't without problems. For one thing, as a reader of Indestructible Hulk, I'm curious about what happened to Banner's assistants from the prior issues as these two go off in another direction. More importantly, a major Marvel baddy is reveal as behind the attempt to procure illegal weapons that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s busting and the villain's given a big reveal in Issue 9 but our heroes NEVER battle him. That doesn't make the issues bad, but they are surprisingly flawed.

Overall, I was borderline about giving this collection three stars or four but decided on three for several reasons: the biggest is that Marvel cut the page count on this book by one full issue, kept the price the same, and did nothing to make this book special enough to merit four stars.



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