Daredevil: Born Again Review

 

With the tv series of the same name coming out soon, I thought it'd be a good idea to review one of the many great Daredevil stories written.

Daredevil: Born Again was 1986 storyline published in the Marvel Comics series Daredevil. More specialty in issues #227-233. Frank Miller coming of the heels of wildly successful The Dark Knight Returns wrote the story arc, with David Mazzucchelli drawing.

The story is, someone close to Matt Murdock has revealed that he's Daredevil to his arch rival, The Kingpin. With this information in hand, The Kingpin plans to destroy Matt's professional and personal life by sending him straight to insanity. Can Matt come back stronger than ever or will this great hero fall?

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

Nope. Don't even got a mixed feelings.

• Positives

First the pacing. Some parts can be slow but, the majority of the story is pretty fast so I don't believe those parts really do any true damage.

Then we have David Mazzucchelli's art. Now David didn't do too much work in the comic industry as far as huge on-going runs or big blockbuster-esque events are concerned, but what he did do was spectacular. And while I love his work on another Frank Miller storyline [Batman: Year One], I think this was his all-time best! His art is very human, and because of that we truly see how the events of the story are taken a toll on our characters. However, Mazzuchhelli also captured the joy and relief they feel as well. And his work on action is spot on. Then there's also great panels like these.

That's just incredible.

Then we have the story, holy crap the story. Let's start off with the biggest aspect of all, the Christian symbolism. Now yes, we do get a crucified pose, but there's more than that. Such as the titles (except for issues #232-233) are related to Christian concepts such as one issue being titled as purgatory. There's also how Matt's walk through Hell's Kitchen parallels Jesus's walk to Golgotha. But even when Frank Miller was applying those concepts there's still themes that anybody can connect to, such as forgiveness and hope. A matter of fact, forgiveness along with love and rebirth are the primary focuses of the story. Sure we still get our action especially in issue #233, but with those themes added the story can hit with a very emotional gut punch. Speaking of emotional gut punch, not only is Matt/Daredevil pushed to the edge, but so are many others as well. They're all put in some sort of danger. So the stakes are high for everyone. Because of all of these factors were left with not only a great Daredevil story or a great Marvel Comics story, but a great story overall.

I think it goes without saying but, I love this storyline.

My final rating is, A MUST READ!

So that was fun, despite how intense of a read it was. So hopefully the upcoming show will be just as good. Speaking of which, come back on Monday, Mar 3rd, for my A Look Back at review of the Netflix Daredevil show. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.