Daredevil #507 – Review

by Andy Diggle & Antony Johnston (writers), Marco Checchetto (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Matt’s conflict with Bakuto comes to a head while the Hand continues to pull the strings.

What’s Good: I’ve really come to love Marco Checchetto’s artwork, particularly as it works in tandem with Hollingsworth’s colors.  The book looks unique in Marvel’s line, equal turns gritty and polished.  I especially enjoyed Daredevil’s fight with hand ninja in the snow; it’s always interesting to see a darker style forced to work with a mostly white palette.  Seeing Daredevil’s red stand out against a white background and a horde of white adversaries works out great and is something different from the usual red on black.  The snowy, feudal Japanese landscape has been a nice change from Hell’s Kitchen and it has made the story feel fresh as a result.

Diggle and Johnston use this vibe to work their way towards telling another story where Matt finds himself in an impossible situation, only faintly aware of the danger surrounding him, manipulated on all sides.  Great Daredevil writers have often found success in putting Matt under tremendous strain and Diggle and Johnston are certainly moving in that direction.  We’re just heading into Shadowland, so it’s just yet a full-on pressure cooker, but already it’s beginning to feel suffocating.  Partially because of his being on alien, unfriendly territory and even moreso because of White Tiger’s betrayal, which he’s still unaware of, Matt Murdock seems completely isolated.

This is especially the case because Diggle and Johnston seem intent on delivering a clear message with this issue:  the most crippling, dangerous, and threatening enemies are those you can only ever, at best, suspect.  Even if they have yet to make their move, their planning and bad intentions alone make for something of a crushing narrative.  At issue’s end, there’s no doubt that the headfirst animosity of Bakuto is nothing compared the greater machinations of his peers.  Hell, Bakuto’s such a lesser evil that he’s almost a sympathetic character by comparison.