Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #1

Daredevil: The Man Without Fear

by Frank Miller, John Romita Jr. (Illustrator)

The origin of Daredevil is retold by legends Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.! What led Matt Murdock on the path to becoming the Man Without Fear?

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Superheroes, Comic Book

27 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1993

About the author

Frank Miller is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. He is one of the most widely-recognized and popular creators in comics, and is one of the most influential comics creators of his generation. His most notable works include Sin City, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Year One and 300.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Jessica Olson]

‎‏‏‎ ‎

[Tate Stephan]

Children are so creative when bullying each other!

[Michael]

If you’re retelling a characters origin there are so many ways to screw it up, but Frank Miller does it right. It’s a dark and gritty tale enhanced by some brilliant artwork. As a Miller fan, there’s nothing about this that I don’t like and as a newer Daredevil fan it makes me want to explore the entire history of this character. That what I loved about this first issue. If you aren’t a Daredevil or even a Marvel fan, you will be after this first issue.

We all know who this character is, but the draw here is what Miller does with him. Of course there will be people who hate this simply because it’s a new origin for an already established character but in Miller’s hands he becomes far more interesting which is what he set out to do. If I had read Daredevil when I was younger I would have been all over the Miller run, but my intro to the character was during the Mayor Fisk arc which is still a damn good place to start.

As a first issue it sets things up nicely. These are characters that feel real. In comics it’s easy to forget that you can have flawed characters that are a product of something broken. Matt’s story isn’t going to warm your heart but it’s not supposed to. It’s what makes him eventually become Daredevil. This is a character that we all are familiar with so if you tinker around with him too much the core of who he is becomes lost in retcon. Thankfully that doesn’t happen here and we get a strong, well written issue that makes us want to continue reading. This is a true Marvel classic that should be picked up in individual issues just for the covers alone.

[Nick Veldey]

The first issue of The Man Without Fear paints a vivid picture of Hell's Kitchen as seen through the eyes of a young Matt Murdock. We are introduced to Matthew, his blind mentor Stick and Matt's father "Battlin'" Jack Murdock who is probably my favorite secondary character. Author Frank Miller does an excellent job characterizing these three especially when it comes to Matt after he is blinded. John Romita Jr.'s artwork works very well with Frank Miller's writing; the writing is very rough, very "down and dirty" which helps immensely with the tone of the comic and Romita Jr.'s artwork is much the same way with a lot of black and heavy shadows. The art tells the story about as well as the writing does and when the writing is this good that says a lot.

[Kaotic]

I have and always will love Frank Miller's writing. There is a reason he's one of the biggest comic book author names there are out there. And this was no exception.

By now most of us already knew Mat Murdocks life story (I hated the movie, but am loving the Netflix series), but this is a wonderful telling of it. The defined voice speaks throughout and consistently. The art is an excellent example of how much motion and emotion in just the inks, and how much more powerful they are when you get drastic blacks and colors contrasting against each other.

I hope to have all of this series soon. Right now (1/2/2017) I only have volume 1 and 5, but I absolutely love this.

[Sedef]

Frank Miller desen zaten konuşmaya gerek kalmaz ama bu çizgi romanda daha da öne çıkan şey kesinlikle çizimler ve renklendirme. Harikaydı. Puan kırmamın tek sebebi Stan Lee'nin orijin hikayesinde olduğu gibi bu hikayede Jack ve Matt arasındaki baba-oğul ilişkisi detaylı işlenememişti. Onunla kıyasladım 4 verdim ^_^

[Aritra Dasgupta]

The Writing. Amazing. The Art. Iconic.

[Devin Wilson]

My first experience with a whole Daredevil story was reading the impressively efficient original #1 from 1964. Since then, I've watched the movie (ugh) and the TV show (no thanks) tinker with the tone and details of his origins and personality in ways that I found pretty off-putting.

I'm not a Daredevil expert by any means (outside of the Born Again run, almost all of my Daredevil experience is written in the previous paragraph), but when there's this 1964 origin that is far from broken, I've gotten annoyed when new people come in and try to fix it.

And that was how I felt at first about this, until... I realized it's actually a pretty solid iteration on the original material. It's different and certainly more cynical, but I think it's a well-crafted kind of different (as opposed to the movie and TV show).

It helps that the art is very strong, too.

[Doctor Doom]

THE addition of "Stick" is both interesting and annoying. Annoying because if he is just a dude born blind [which is all I know at this point} it doesn't make sense the things he knows and can do. Interesting because it expedites the story in interesting ways. Daredevil has his abilities in part because of the radioactivity involved [a false premise we accept in comics that radioactivity is helpful in these situations] but Stick has none of that.

[Dylan]

I have no clue how Frank Miller's brain works. How did he write Elektra: Assassin and then this? He definitely has range. Daredevil is him at his best, though.

May as well listen to the Netflix show's theme song before reading because almost all the flashbacks from S1 are straight from this issue. Pretty epic stuff.

[Charlie Love]

This was my first exposure to mature comics, at the age of 9. I had read marvel before, but this blew my mind and I would like to personally thank frank miller for helping me be exposed to this genre.

[chlo]

4.5 stars. yeah, no wonder this is considered the best run. it's fucking amazing. my only complaint is elektra's design, i prefer her look on the show but otherwise what a stellar beginning to daredevil.

[Mikey Baker]

one of the darkest comics i’ve ever read. a fantastic retelling of Daredevils origins start with the young life of Matt Murdock and specifically focuses on his relationship with Battlin’ Jack Murdock, Stick, and how he became blind.

[Ryan Gässer]

Better late than never. I was a junior in college when this series debuted. Now, 33 years later, I have finally started reading it…and boy is it worth it. A solid first issue of a 5-part miniseries.

[Pilipma]

Thanks to Miller after reading just this single I can for the first time finally sympathize with Daredevil's lawyer/vigilante duality.

[jane werther]

01/2022

[Steven Shinder]

A pretty good start. You can see how this influenced the movie and the TV series.

[Mon]

i never would've thought that one day i would actually give reading comics a try??? this is an achievement. (i am also back on my daredevil bullshit)

[Isabel]

that was really good, I've been trying to find Matt's origin story so it was really cool finally reading it.

[Joni]

Historia de origen de Daredevil. Linda edición con Miller y Romita Jr en estado de gracia
..

[Saber]

Great start. Love the illustration and the storytelling is also good so far with fleshing out our main protagonist. Can’t wait to read what happens next in future Issues.

[Almir Sadovic]

Legendary stuff, absolutely amazing read and perfect visuals. Perfect introductory read for Daredevil. Highly recommended! Must read!

[Joseph Mateo]

Amazing! Decided to read some daredevil comics after finishing daredevil born again tv show after really loving it…daredevil is one of my favs

[James]

just a quick read, didnt mind this actually. good writing

[Taran Suri]

Stick honestly pisses me off the attitude is just so mean, I wished they had changed so that stick wasn’t a person other than that, great origin story

[grimbamreads]

4/5


lowkey tuff but the narrator dialogue is kinda ahhhh

[Alan Sale]

classic.

Not always a big Daredevil follower but this story is classic origin and I am so glad I read it.

[Basim Rehman]

Great opening to the origin of Matt Murdock

[Jpxfrdih]

Damn ngl I ain’t expect something that’s 28 pages to be that good. Would give a 4.5, but that’s not an option.

[Lucas Garcia]

Absolutely stunning artwork, very easy to read but not lacking in depth. Very gritty and dark, but also very captivating!