Daredevil #6 // Review
What does a superhero do when they're forced into retirement? It's a question few at Marvel or DC have bothered to ask since they both focus on the never-ending battle. However, Chip Zdarsky quite literally proposed an entire run on Daredevil with that as a core component. With Daredevil's recent life-threatening injuries putting him into forced retirement, what does he do? What does Hell's Kitchen do?
Part one of No Devils, Only God strikes out to answer that question. Zdarsky is joined by Lalit Kumar Sharma on pencils, Jay Leisten on inks, Java Tartaglia on colors, and Clayton Cowles provides the lettering.
It's been months since Matt Murdock was Daredevil. Wanted for a murder he committed in the heat of combat, Matt's friends finally convinced him to hang up the mask. Barred from the New York legal system as a lawyer, Matt now spends his time as a bail officer for the NYPD. Unlike a traditional issue of DD, though, Matt isn't the only focus. We also see how the NYPD reacts to the lack of old Hornhead, and even how the landscape of Hell's Kitchen is beginning to change. While Matt may be done as Daredevil, Daredevil may still return to Hell's Kitchen.
Chip Zdarksy is only six issues into his run on Daredevil, and he's already found a way to work in a twist that not only feels like a natural extension of what's come before but also has made it compelling and intriguing. Seeing Matt genuinely happy is both a delight and downright disconcerting, making the reader wonder when (or if) this new life of his will come crashing down around his ears. Another pleasure is seeing Wilson Fisk, and the other corrupt cops start to go crazy without someone like Daredevil around to thwart them or be watched.
For a book without super heroics, the art is still smashing. Lalit Kumar Sharma has some spectacular body language expressed on the page, and the facial expressions even for someone like Matt Murdock (face covered as it is with sunglasses) are top-notch. Java Tartaglia does a beautiful job on the colors as well. Almost every scene with Matt in it had some form of red in the background, foreground, or used warmer red-shades tones to highlight the page. It's hard to tell if it was intentional or not, but it is a beautiful touch.
Zdarsky promised he would take Daredevil in some exciting ways, and he certainly has. As with his other works, there's a ton of heart in this book, and seeing how the world tries to cope without Daredevil is fascinating. This is one of those books that deserves a place on your pull list if you haven't picked it up already.
