Comic Book Reading Club: Daredevil Born Again

Daredevil Vol. 1 #226-233

Writer-Frank Miller

Penciller-David Mazzucchelli

Inker-Dennis Janke

Colorist-Dennis Janke

Letterer-Ralph Macchio

All of these issues are available on Marvel Unlimited, Global Comix, Amazon Kindle, and in print as part of the Marvel Premier Collection line.

I feel like this was a no brainer not only for this month but for this series. Daredevil Born Again is not only one of my favorite comics of all time but one of the most important comics to ever be created. This series is Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli at the top of their powers. Now in todays comics landscape you can see creators breaking a character down to his or her core just to build them back up setting a new status quo a couple times a year. When Born Again came out this was a revolutionary idea that the team nailed from beginning to end.

The story for Born Again is about the rise of the Kingpin as Daredevil’s top villain. We see Kingpin get the information that Matt Murdock is Daredevil and he uses this information to destroy him. He takes everything away from Matt Murdock before trying to kill him. Matt’s accused of tampering with witnesses causing him to lose his law license, he and his friends is systematically tortured by the Kingpin driving Matt insane and he ends up losing his home plus his fathers gym along the way. Everything Matt cares about is torn away from him until he is stuck living in the streets. Eventually when a street level thug’s attempt to kill him misses we find Matt healing in a catholic church charity. It is strongly hinted that the woman helping him is his mother. And when he rises from all this pain he takes on the Kingpin and his weapon, Nuke, as the Daredevil restoring everything that was taken from him. Building a new life for both Matt and his alter ego Daredevil.

There are so many things about this series that have stuck with me throughout the years. First as I was reading this it hit me that the character Nuke has always been someone I enjoy. That all starts here for me. Then there is my love for Daredevil as a whole, all of that is built off the strength of this and Kevin Smith’s Daredevil run. But most important this created the cornerstone of what has made Daredevil a premier character at Marvel. That is the back and forth between him and Kingpin. That relationship has evolved into one of the best hero/villain pairing in comics history. I could go on for days about how much I love this story.

I have to add a part here about Mazzucchelli’s art. I am a huge fan of 70s/80s comic art. For me the style bleeds nostalgia even though I wasn’t even born during the time. David manages to make every panel and every line pop off the page. And the way Daredevil moves during this series is, for me, what every artist should strive for in future versions of the character.

If you couldn’t tell I had a blast returning to this series. I also read it this time using the Marvel Premier Collection edition that recently released and I have to say it is very good. I thought the smaller format would take something away from the reading experience but it didn’t. If you are on the fence about these smaller trade paper back I would say pick one up and try it. Hopefully you loved it as much as I did.

Next month’s reading assignment will be Justice League: Tower of Babel(JLA #43-46). This is a story I haven’t read in years so lets jump back in during a time before we have to do some movie/tv show related content!