Issues: #1
Writer: Frank Miller
Illustrator: John Romita Jr.,
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publication year: 1993
Language: English
Pages: 28
Rating: 3.5/5
First of all, I want to set the ground by explaining my experience with Daredevil. I haven’t watched Ben Affleck’s Daredevil movie. I haven’t watched Netflix’s Daredevil series, but I’m interested to do so. I know that Daredevil’s real name is Matt Murdock and that he’s blind. His signature weapon is a Billy club. I know about Elektra and that she somehow has a relationship with Matt. I know he wears a red costume with little devil horns and that’s about it. Now that it’s out of the way, let’s talk about the comic.
Daredevil: the Man without Fear is Daredevil’s origin story retold by Frank Miller. Comic superheroes tend to have many origin stories, but this one especially was suggested to me if I want to know the origin of Daredevil. This issue opens with Matt Murdock as a child living in Hell’s Kitchen. He’s a good boy, but on the other hand, he likes to prank people. In this issue, Matt was pranking an officer by stealing the officer’s club. It seems silly and harmless, but we’ll see that this scene would play a bigger role in a later scene. Then we meet Matt’s father, Jack Murdock. He’s a boxer who’s also moonlighting as a mob enforcer, a job that he hates but he has to do because he’s a single parent and responsible for Matt. In this issue we see the relationship between Matt and his father. We see how his father raised him to play by the rules, which shape Matt’s ethic. We also see the event that causes Matt’s blindness and the introduction of Stick, a character who taught martial arts to Matt. This issue ends with Matt’s father being murdered by the mob.
The first issue of Daredevil: the Man without Fear basically lay out Matt’s personalities and the defining moments of his childhood that shape him as Daredevil that we know. I explained before that I haven’t watched Netflix’s Daredevil show, but I’ve watched the trailer and I get the sense that Matt is having a moral conflict with himself with the confessional booth scene. Reading his scene with his father, it makes sense to me about his moral conflict. He’s taught to play by the rules while he’s acting as a vigilante by being Daredevil. It’s a great opening and drawn me toward the character. This issue definitely intrigues me to read more about Matt Murdock.
Issues: #2
Writer: Frank Miller
Illustrator: John Romita Jr.,
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publication year: 1993
Language: English
Pages: 33
Rating: 3/5
The second issue takes place soon after Matt’s father’s death. Angry, Matt decided to avenge his father’s death and went after the mob. While fighting the mob, accident happened and a woman fell out of a window and died. This snapped Matt back to his sense and he remembered how he should have played by the rules. He tried to be a vigilante and a woman died because of it. The death of the woman is actually an accident, but because earlier Matt was taught to play by the rules so this event really affects him.
We learn that Stick teaching Matt is a part of something bigger. This issue also introduces us to a character named Elektra. Later in this issue we follow Matt in his college student year. This is also when he meets Elektra. Not much known about her character, but we still get the first look of her character and her personality here. Besides Elektra, there’s another character introduced in this issue whose name is Foggy Nelson. He’s Matt’s college roommate. In this issue, it isn’t clear whether or not he would play a bigger role in Matt’s life. Probably in the next issue we’ll see if he appears again.
I like the first issue more than this one. I still don’t know how I feel about Elektra. She looks daring and playful. Weirdly, I feel like Elektra is drawn to appear like a mischievous woman. Maybe it’s intended or maybe it’s not, I’m not sure yet. I’m interested to see more of her in the later issue and her role in Matt’s life.
Issues: #3
Writer: Frank Miller
Illustrator: John Romita Jr.,
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publication year: 1993
Language: English
Pages: 34
Rating: 3/5
The third issue of Daredevil: the Man without Fear explores Matt’s relationship with Elektra. Stick is making a little appearance here, which further highlights that there’s a bigger picture. It’s still vague, but at least we know that it also includes Elektra. Elektra is a scary woman. It’s shown that she’s constantly hearing voices in her head telling her to kill people. She’s been trying to suppress it by killing bad guys, but it seems that it’s not enough. Unfortunately, there’s nothing much known about her condition, especially mentally. I hope there’s a standalone comic about her origin and basically her background because I think she’s an interesting character to explore. But I don’t know really if there’s one. Somehow like I said before, I feel like Elektra is drawn as a mischievous woman. We often see a close up of Elektra smirking. I guess it shows her true personality a little bit. I don’t know, I’m just intrigued by her character.
This issue ends with the introduction of Kingpin, who apparently becomes Matt’s nemesis. His first appearance is kind of haunting. He’s first shown as this big shadowy figure that would later emerge and take over the underground mob business. He will surely appear again in the next two issues. I’m excited to read the continuation.
Issues: #4
Writer: Frank Miller
Illustrator: John Romita Jr.,
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publication year: 1994
Language: English
Pages: 29
Rating: 4/5
This issue opens with Kingpin’s scene. The first few panels explain how Kingpin rules the mob and how much power he had over the neighborhood. Matt has graduated from law school and he’s working as a lawyer for big corporations in Boston. One day he got an assignment in New York and after years, he’s finally back to Hell’s Kitchen. While visiting his old favorite place, the gym, he met a girl named Mickey and they became friends. Mickey saw a poster of Matt’s father in a wrestling costume depicting red devil, which implicitly explain why Matt’s friends used to tease him by calling him Daredevil.
Later, Mickey’s kidnapped by Kingpin’s men. Matt found out about her kidnapping when he’s going to say good bye to her because his job assignment in New York was over. While trying to rescue her, he discovered Kingpin’s underground operation. Matt then became more determined to save Mickey.
This issue is full of action. It ends on a cliffhanger, but I knew right away that the next issue would probably wrap up the rescue operation. I like that the villain in Daredevil’s comics is just a human. Kingpin has no super power; he’s just a man with influence and wealth. This makes it more quite realistic for an unrealistic story.
We see the reemergence of the stolen club, which appeared in the first issue. The club will be Daredevil’s signature’s weapon, the Billy club. It’s fun to read that even the littlest thing like the club has an origin story too. Also, I haven’t brought it up before, but the narration in this comic doesn’t come from the character. It’s a third person narration, which to me enhances the reading experience. Such as when Matt is exploring the city at night, the narrator would describe the air, the noise, the smell, kind of like how Matt would sense these things. I like that part of this comic. Issue #4 is probably my most favorite issue of Daredevil: the Man without Fear.
Issues: #5
Writer: Frank Miller
Illustrator: John Romita Jr.,
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publication year: 1994
Language: English
Pages: 25
Rating: 4/5
This is the last issue of Daredevil: the Man without Fear. This issue continues where issue #4 left off. Matt ambushed Kingpin’s underground operation. He saved Mickey and this moment is a marker in Matt’s life where he finally knows what he wants to do with his life. He wants to protect his neighborhood. He wants to be Daredevil. The last two issues mostly tell the start of Matt’s feud with Kingpin and the moment that triggers him to be the Daredevil. It’s intense, but I think it’s a good wrap up to Daredevil’s origin story.
Overall, it’s quite a journey reading this comic. In this comic, we follow Matt’s journey from fighting child bullies to frat boy bullies, and later the mob. Reading this comic, I sympathize more with Matt as a character or Daredevil, the protector of underdogs. Watching Netflix’s Daredevil trailer, I love how it ends with Matt saying that he just wanted to make the city a better place. It shows that his motivation to become Daredevil is genuine and I love that. I recommend this comic for a newbie comic reader like me. With comic books especially superheroes comic, we often don’t know where to start; because there are many story arcs and many superheroes with their own series. Then there’s a story continuity that can be confusing and intimidating. This one is an origin story so you don’t have to worry if you haven’t read other Marvel’s comic books.
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