When last we met, I was gushing about how Frank Miller transformed Daredevil from a derivative Spider-Man stand-in to the complex, tortured and very hard-boiled hero we know today. That whole first post was a long version of stating a simple truth: in the same way you can break all Batman stories into two distinct periods, pre-Miller and post-Miller, you can do the same with Daredevil. But I stopped just short of actually talking about and recommending specific Miller Daredevil stories, which I plan to do now. So let’s jump right into it.
The Initial Miller Run/The Elektra Saga –
(Collected in Marvel’s Daredevil: Visionaries Trade Paperbacks, as well as a beautiful beast of an Omnibus that will set you back some series coin.)
As I mentioned last post, Miller used his initial run on the Daredevil series to not only revolutionize the character and his mythology, but also come into his own as a writer and artist. Beginning with 1980’s Daredevil #168, when he took over writing duties in addition to providing art (he had been drawing the title since #158) straight through his last issue as regular writer/artist with 1983s #191, Miller completely overhauled the character while developing into a comics storytelling master.
If you’re interested in watching Miller create his version of Daredevil from the ground up, start at the beginning and work your way through the entire run. Just keep in mind that you’ll be watching as Miller finds his way with the character, groping in the dark as he goes for both his own voice as a storyteller and the mixture of elements that would make his Daredevil such a smash success. This aspect of watching Miller struggle and create as he goes is of course a big part of the fun of these early comics, but it can be a little daunting and exhausting to anyone who wants to be introduced to Miller’s Daredevil as a wholly formed entity. For that, I would recommend starting with one of the next two stories on this list.
Miller’s initial run is where you’ll find his landmark Elektra Saga, the story which introduced Daredevil/Matt Murdock’s tragic romance with assassin Elektra Natchios. This epic would culminate in the greatest tragedy of Murdock’s life since the death of his father. It’s a hell of a page turner and one of the best superhero stories of the 1980s. Again, anyone interested in watching Miller grow, experiencing the modern Daredevil mythology take shape or just serialized storytelling in general should take the plunge and start at the beginning.
Daredevil: Born Again
(collected in trade paperback form)
After a brief hiatus away from the character, Miller would return to the series in 1985 to create his Daredevil masterpiece alongside artist David Mazzucchelli, who he’d later rejoin on Batman: Year One. The 7-part Born Again is Miller’s crowning achievement and one of the best superhero stories of all time. In it, Miller deconstructs Matt Murdock to an even greater extent than he did in his initial run on the character, zeroing in on Murdock’s repressed catholic guilt while psychologically breaking him down to nothing.
In what was at the time an unprecedented development for a superhero comic, Miller has Kingpin, Daredevil’s organized crime archnemesis, discover the hero’s secret identity and use that information to destroy Murdock both psychologically and physically. This idea of a hero being torn apart by a mastermind villain before having to put himself back together again has been repeated time and again since Born Again first saw print (most notably in Batman: Knightfall), but it was all new and groundbreaking here, and it’s still better than any story to follow in its wake.
Elevating Miller’s brilliant, gut-churning script is the gorgeous art of Mazzucchelli, one of the best pure draftsmen to ever work in superhero comics. Mazzucchelli’s noir-inspired visuals make Murdock’s fall from grace all the more haunting, upping the stakes of the story significantly. Rarely have any writer/artist team worked this well together. In fact, after DC tapped the duo to reimagine Batman’s origin in Year One, Mazzucchelli would leave superhero comics behind entirely, his only two major superhero stories standing as two of the best the genre has ever seen.
Born Again’s vision of Daredevil is so powerful and complete, its seven issues have served as a blueprint for nearly every writer and artist who has followed Miller and Mazzucchelli on the title since. The idea of putting Murdock through the emotional wringer and revealing his secret identity has literally been copied again and again over the past three decades, and there’s a damn good reason why: this story is just that awesome. I can’t recommend Born Again enough. Any fan of Miller, Daredevil or comics in general needs to have this comic on their shelf.
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear
(collected in trade paperback)
Though Miller would return to the Daredevil mythology sporadically over the years following Born Again with stand alone graphic novels like Daredevil: Love and War and Elektra Assassin (both with artist Bill Sienkiewicz) as well as Elektra Lives Again (with longtime colorist and collaborator), his first major return to the canonical Daredevil mythos came with 1993’s Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, a five-part retelling of Daredevil’s origin story with John Romita Jr. on art.
Having re-imagined Daredevil’s beginnings on the fly during his initial run on the character, this series offered Miller the chance to go back and retell Murdock’s early years in a way that would more closely align with his take on the character. Here we get the first glimpse of Mudrock’s initial college romance with Elektra, his first brush with organized crime, his training under the ninja master Stick, and the closest look yet at his relationship with his father. It’s not the creative powerhouse of Miller’s earlier work with the character, but it’s definitely worth reading just to see Miller retroactively set up all the juicy drama he paid off earlier in his career.
This is definitely the place to start for anyone who likes to start superhero stories at their beginnings, or who might be a little intimidated diving into a story midstream.
That’s it for my thoughts on Daredevil for now. Sometime soon I’ll write about the other great Daredevil stories that followed in Miller’s wake, as well as the kick-ass and counter-intuitive work Mark Waid is currently doing with the character. I’m going to change gears in the next couple posts. As promised, I’m going to share a short comic I created with Tom Travers in the next couple days, which Tom and I are both very excited to share for the first time.
Sorry for the scheduling inconsistencies. Trying to figure out a rhythm to creating new posts every week without making this a fulltime job has been made all the more difficult by the construction going on in my house. In fact, this very post was written while incessant hammering and drilling went on ten feet away from me. Hardly ideal conditions to write, but hey – excuses are like assholes, right? See you next time, and as always, please tell your friends about the blog.
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