Daredevil #35 – Review

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

The Story: In the case of Matt Murdock v. Daredevil.

The Review: Even though I know it’s a folly to expect fictional characters to live up to our ideas of how real people should act—heck, it’s folly to expect real people to live up to our ideas of how real people should act—I’m only an overweight human beneath the critic.  If a character does something crazy or stupid, I’m going to get judgmental about it, just like anyone else.  I usually manage to set my prejudices aside, but it happens, nonetheless.

While Waid’s Daredevil has been one of the most convincingly human characters I’ve seen in recent superhero comics, the one quirk that almost always draws my ire is Matt’s constant denials of being Daredevil.  It’s a bit like the guy who insists he’s not gay even though you’ve seen his Judy Garland film collection: farcical and not a little pathetic.  It also invites a lot of uncomfortable logistical questions as to why his enemies haven’t bitten the bullet and simply bumped off Matt to see what would happen to Daredevil.