Daredevil Reborn HC

So I guess Andy Diggle wanted to write a Western? I mean, he’s good at it, and I enjoyed Ratcatcher that he did a few years ago. But, this is barely a Daredevil story, right? Matt Murdock never puts on the red suit, never uses a billy club. Sure, the villain has some powers, but those only come into play twice during the story. This is mostly the story of a corrupt town and the mysterious stranger who cleans it up. Diggle checks all the boxes, hopeful young boy, downtrodden “normal” folks, corrupt cops, and thugs everywhere.

As a Western, this holds up fine. I loved seeing Murdock mete out justice to some deserving jerks. This would make one heck of a movie. But you don’t need to call it Daredevil. I picked this up sort of expecting a bridge between the boring Shadowland and Mark Waid’s spectacular new DD series, and unfortunately this doesn’t fill that gap. Murdock mopes around the Southwest, beats up some trashy folks, then goes back home to NYC. That’s it.

I’m not sure Diggle likes super-hero comics. As I said, this would have been a really strong Vertigo or crime comic, it just doesn’t fit that well as a Daredevil story.

It’s interesting that Davide Gianfelice never really gets to draw Daredevil. He gets a few shots of the rogues’ gallery, but for the most part, this is folks in regular clothes beating each other up. Gianfelice does a fantastic job giving each of the townsfolk their own look, you can tell who everyone is because he does a great job with hair, builds, and faces. That level of storytelling is rare in modern comics.

Fair