Daredevil #7 - Mobile Edition

Marvel Comics
Daredevil #7
By Hervé St-Louis
June 10, 2016 - 14:58

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Charles Soule
Penciller(s): Matteo Buffagni
Inker(s): Matteo Buffagni
Colourist(s): Matt Milla
Letterer(s): Clayton Cowles
Cover Artist(s): Bill Sienkiewicz
$3.99
Rating: T+ (Teen Plus)

Daredevil confronts Elektra who wants to kill him for having kidnapped her daughter. Her daughter could be Daredevil’s alter ego, Matt Murdock’s daughter too. But he has no recollection of ever having had a child with Elektra. Will Daredevil have to reveal his newly hidden secret identity to stop the assassin from blaming him? Who is behind this plot anyway?

I have not read a Marvel Comics in months as I dislike the direction Marvel is going (I bought this comic the same day that I got Captain America #1 but only managed to squeeze a review today). Hopefully, the company will come to its senses and like DC Comics perform a turn around and reach out to its old readers and be proud of its rich heritage. Daredevil has always been my favourite Marvel character and my attachment to him made me buy this issue just to see what’s going on.

I was a bit surprised with this comic. Apparently, Daredevil, like many super heroes whose secret identity has been revealed to all over the years, has had a global mindwipe reboot. I have read this story in at least two other comics in the last decades. Spider-man and Wally West, the third Flash, have also had global mindwipe done to hide their one public secret identities. This feels like lousy and a bad reset button when writers feel that they have been written into a corner and that they can no longer play with the toys they have been given, including the secret identity prop.

Even Elektra, a core individual in his life, has no recollection of who Daredevil is. Even in old comics, I do not believe that there was ever a point where Elektra did not know who Daredevil was. In many comics she has been portrayed as knowing him so well, that she could mask her presence from him. Just looking at him move, she could guess who he was. Here, all of the intelligence and skill that shape a character like Elektra has been surgically removed from the character and all that remains is a hollow avatar that calls herself Elektra but without any of the passion and personality that makes her the character we love.

The rest of the story is decent but pedestrian. What’s decent is the intrigue about Elektra’s child and how she shows a video about her capture to Daredevil. The play on the visual perception of both Daredevil and Elektra was clever. What was pedestrian, was the ongoing Matt Murdock / Foggy Nelson bickering about his responsibilities. It felt like Soule was using a recipe book similar to the one that states that Spider-man’s life must always be in shambles. It did not feel genuine.

I did like Buffagni’s rendition of Daredevil and the hip noirish look he gives his work. He can tell stories well.

Rating: 7/10