Daredevil #3

Cover by Paolo Rivera, Joe Rivera, Javier Rodriguez

Daredevil #3 (September 14, 2011)

Writer: Mark Waid

Penciller: Paolo Rivera

Inker: Joe Rivera

Colorist: Javier Rodriguez

Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

That’s it. Daredevil is officially my favorite character Marvel character. I kind of love him.

That is rather surprising as Matt Murdock walks a very fine line between being a genuinely good guy and also playing the cad. I guess that’s part of his role as man-about-town lawyer to distract people from realizing he is also, in fact, the vigilante, Daredevil; or at least to get people to stop accusing him of being Daredevil.

After the cliffhanger in the last issue, it can be argued that this issue was rather lackluster. Daredevil’s escape and subsequent fight scene was not altogether exciting and felt rather rushed. Also, the villain was silly.

Apparently, the shadowsounds or echoes or something of Ulysses Klaw are becoming sentient and need a living person to totally bring back Klaw from the dead or outer space or turn him human again after he was turned into “living sound” or whatever Waid told me to believe. What is living sound? Is that a thing? You know Marvel, sometimes I have to meet you more than half-way.

Anyway, the resolution to this cliffhanger was rather rushed and not very compelling. Having no familiarity with Klaw and also no real understanding of just what the hell was going on, I just wasn’t very interested in this fight scene.

But that was okay, because the second half of the comic was decidedly more interesting to me. While the transition between the first and second half was abrupt, I thoroughly enjoyed the second half a great deal more. This focused on Matt Murdock, instead, as he assists a Muslim storeowner in defending himself in a police brutality case that was actually directly related to the sound echoes of Klaw. Who knew?

While this reveal was done to tie the apparent loose ends together, I didn’t need that to enjoy this subplot. Waid does a solid job balancing the two existences of Matt Murdock and making both lives equally engaging, which is a very unusual element in a superhero comic. His regular life is just as interesting as his vigilante life. Maybe I just have a weakness for underdog stories, but I love the idea of Murdock assisting in what appears to be a losing case.

Also, it’s frankly rare to find a comic book hero that is not tormented, full of angst or megalomania. Murdock is just sort of doing his thing and enjoying himself. It’s refreshing.

The art Rivera was pretty solid as well, especially his portrayals of the ethereal and malevolent sound shadows. I was amused, however, by his rendition of Murdock. Like I said, he walks a very fine line between endearing and insufferable and Rivera’s rendition pretty much captured that. It’s something about his hair, I think.

Nonetheless, I’m kind of in love with Daredevil and need to read more his books as soon as possible.