Daredevil #512 - Mobile Edition

Marvel Comics
Daredevil #512
By Hervé St-Louis
December 29, 2010 - 12:52

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Andy Diggle, Anthony Johnston
Penciller(s): Marco Checchetto
Inker(s): Marco Checchetto
Colourist(s): Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer(s): Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist(s): John Cassaday, Laura Martin
$2.99 US

This is the issue after the defeat of Daredevil and where he relinquishes his title as the lord of the Hand ninja cult. It’s a wrapped up story where Matt Murdoch barely shows up, but the consequences of his actions affect all of New York. Who will pick up the pieces from Daredevil’s decay?

Shadowland had potential as a story, but it was rushed into six-part story for event way ahead of its time. It would have been good to run the “bad Daredevil” for at least a year and really study his character, instead of playing up the card that he had been possessed by an evil spirit from beyond that twisted his actions. It’s annoying that the crew at Marvel Comics didn’t feel confident they could pull out a smart story about and bad-ass Daredevil for an extended time. The Shadowland Daredevil story was probably meant to push up Daredevil and remind people that he existed after the years of stories in the title where the character barely interacted with the rest of the Marvel universe. The result now is that Daredevil is being kicked out of his own series in favour of the Black Panther. So in essence, he’s no longer in the limelight of the Marvel universe. It used to be that Daredevil was a series where only top creators with good things to do with the character would move to. Each story counted. The Shadowland storyline made Daredevil just another character available to be mucked around and essentially broke him enough that he had to be retired until he could be brought back again.

This story is more a wrapped up of the current team’s stint on Daredevil with a few loose plot points to clean up but without any real resolution. Having missed the big conclusion in Shadowland proper, I don’t really know what went on, but neither do I need to know about this latest soap opera twist in the life of Matt Murdoch, the Daredevil. The story is not bad at all. It’s decent. However, the story doesn’t matter much and as a reader, if you skip this issue, you could jump right into The Man Without Fear #513 with the Black Panther and read something more elaborated.

Visually, the artwork continues to be great with exceptional colouring. It was probably the best thing about this issue.

Rating: 7.5/10