Daredevil #4 – Review

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

The Story: Owlsley discovers a technology more wonderful than Google Glasses.

The Review: I suppose it can’t be helped, for a genre that sustains itself on the clash between hero and villain, that characters in superhero stories somehow always fall neatly on either side of the divide between good and evil. It’s rare to find characters who truly straddle that line. I’m not talking about your antiheroes, whose methods are questionable but whose moral alignment is rarely in question. I’m talking about characters who really don’t know where they stand.

As you may expect, it’s the most insecure people who usually land in this category, and Max definitely fits that profile. Besides the jealousy and resentment he has for Matt, the unexplained disappearance of his girlfriend keeps Max unhinged, willing to make deals with the devil—or, in this case, the Owl—just to bring a little more stability to his life. There’s no question he’s decent at heart; as predicted, he never intended to let Matt go down in flames. But it’s that willingness to compromise, to set his needs over the greater good, that takes him into gray territory.