Daredevil #3 – Review

By: Mark Waid (story), Chris Samnee (art), Javier Rodriguez (colors)

The Story: Matt learns not to include a known backstabber as part of his big plan.

The Review: For a superhero writer, I imagine that there can be no greater, more joyful challenge than reinvigorating a character that everyone else already considers a lost cause. This particular task does embody the very essence of creative power, doesn’t it? Taking something that seems dry and infertile and giving it new life just with one good idea? But writers claim to deconstruct characters all the time; very seldom do they actually manage to do so.

Even for a writer as gifted as Waid, finding new dimensions to neglected or exhausted characters is no easy task. At best, what he’s done with the Shroud and what he’s currently doing with the Owl is strip them down to find what makes them, if not original, then at least unique. As far as the Owl goes, his physical alterations and more bestial presence make him campier, if anything (watch him swoop from tree bough to tree bough as he demands to know “Who” is in charge). It’s his unflappable—pun intended—reaction to having his life threatened that gives him street cred.