Back in the early 1960s, when Daredevil was introduced, it seemed like a shocking premise... a blind superhero...albet, one with a radar sense.
Initially, DD was garbed in black and yellow... and the costume looked and felt like a fighter's sweats... complete with a hoodie.
Originally, it was said that Matt could tell what color the cloth was by the feel of the fabric... but this may have been ignored or retconned away, by someone saying the costume was so bad that only a blind man could have sewn it together.
Very shortly, the hood got ripped off, and various accessories were tried and discarded... the billy club, the hook and grapple, the whip line, the umbrella gunsite, the radio in the horns... even the color scheme changed.
Then one issue, #7 to be exact, he appeared in scarlet red...and he's been that way more or less ever since.
But the plots just seemed to wander all over the place.
Was DD a concept that was good for one-shot, but then Stan didn't know what to do with him?
How is the new series, and does Matt hold up well against DOCTOR DOOM? In the old days, DD met DD only twice... once in the classic FF #39-40...and again in the classic DD #36-37-38. They were BIG deals. (And even the repeat match up ignored earlier continuity when Doom could switch bodies without the use of an exterior machine.)
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The new series is wonderful. He doesn't really go face to face with Doctor Doom, so much as a bunch of Latverian middlemen. But it's a great two-parter, considering the restraints he's operating under (nanobots are dismantling his remaining senses).
Despite flashes of brilliance early on, Daredevil didn’t really hit its stride until the ten-numbered issues, first with John Romita art, then (especially) with Gene Colan. It was a dependable if unremarkable steady seller throughout the sixties, and Colan’s pencils never looked better than when inked by Tom Palmer. The Miller issues stand out, of course, both those inked by Klaus Janson as well as those drawn by David Mazzuchelli.
Mark Waid’s Daredevil is the best it’s been in years. But don’t take (just) my word for it:
https://captaincomics.ning.com/forum/topics/the-new-daredevil-series...
I agree that it's a great series, which is a dramatic turnaround from a few years ago, when I dropped it in disgust. It's the only Marvel superhero series I'm reading.
Waid just won three Eisner awards at SD for DD, for Best Single Issue (DD#7), Best Continuing Series, and Best Writer. That's an indication of how much it stands out from the crowd.
-- MSA
Did I read somewhere that Martin Goodman wanted to use the name "Daredevil" as it had come into the public domain and instructed Stan Lee to "come up with another Spider-Man"? So perhaps Stan's heart may not have been in it, which might account for the hit and miss early issues.
Martin Goodman loved to reuse titles previously used by publishers who were no longer in business.
"Stan's heart may not have been in it" certain goes for CAPTAIN MARE-VELL as well... which, incidentally, debuted one month after the final issue of the Marvel Western GHOST RIDER, which ended abruptly because Magazine Enterprises publisher Vincent Sullivan complained and threatened legal action for the reuse of his character. So one old magazine title was replaced with another one!
While most early-60's Marvel series were the creation of Jack Kirby, in this case, itn was the work of Bill Everett, who Stan was trying to lure back into the business. Unfortunately, other things got in the way, and he wound up only doing ONE issue. And Joe Orlando notoriously had a lot of problems trying to deal with Stan, who kept insisting on re-writing Orlando's stories after-the-fact, and demanding multiple pages be redrawn from scratch without any additional pay. Ever since I got ahold of the 1st DD Masterworks book, I've LOVED Everett's single issue, HATED with a vengeance Orlando's 3, and loved Wally Wood's 7 issues. When I got to Romita's run, I was hoping to enjoy it, considering how much I liked his early issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Instead, it was almost unreadable. It was a good thing he switched over to Spidey, and that Gene Colan took his place. At least Gene's stuff was actually funny.
Daredevil and Captain America are the only Marvel series I'm reading currently. It's greatly improved. It got so far bogged down in the "grim and gritty" approach that it became an absolute chore to read. But Mark Waid has restored something to the title that has been missing for far, far too long -- a sense of wonder, and even joy. Like the cover to Daredevil #7, seen here: "The Art of the Cover: Paolo Rivera's Daredevil Covers".
This article references "X-men #7" but shows a copy of an FF Annual Variant cover instead. Does anyone have a link to a cover of "X-men #7" by Paolo Rivera?
ClarkKent_DC said:
It's in the link. It's a picture of DD making a snow angel.
To answer your question is Daredevil any good?
Yes, yes it is.
It's been a great series from the start. Lots of fun adventure with some mysterious intrigue mixed in.
Let me add my voice to the chorus: the current Daredevil is great. I got on board late but caught up around issue 10. It's easily one of my favorite series right now.