By the end of the previous volume, there are a lot of gears moving in Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil run as our eponymous hero struggles with his inner demons as he is determined to save people without his DD persona, whilst his arch-nemesis Wilson Fisk takes a brutal, bloody turn during his current position as the Mayor of New York. The central theme of this run is characters trying to run away from their past, which continues to haunt them as apparent here.
Reunited with his ninja ex-girlfriend Elektra, who apparently does not know that Daredevil is Matt Murdock (because, comics?), Murdock may have lost his fighting edge as she approaches him to be his new trainer. With the rise of Daredevil copycats, Detective Cole North continues hunting these vigilantes as showcased in the first issue here, where he has a fun encounter with a certain friendly-neighbourhood web-slinger, who gives the law-upholding detective a lecture about where his responsibilities should lie. Zdarsky can’t seem to let Spider-Man go and that is a good thing.
As compelling as Murdock is as the lead, who remains without his red-horned costume, the Daredevil comic has always a great supporting cast, such as Foggy Nelson has a brief but bad-ass moment as an attorney. Taking cue from writers like Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker, Zdarsky treats the whole thing like a crime epic with the Libris family – that Murdock had a rough acquaintance previously – who turns about to be a greater threat to the city, whilst the Owl is targeting them.
However, the most interesting character is the former Kingpin of Crime. Although the character was originally conceived as a Spidey villain, Fisk works better in Daredevil’s world where he is more of a naturalistic mafioso, despite behaving like a violent man-child that struggles to maintain his cool professionalism. Now that he is a mayor, that struggle becomes challenging as during a dinner at the house of the Stromwyns – the wealthiest family in America – a bloody moment with a lack of control in the bathroom occurs and huge consequences occur for our conflicted villain. Much like Vincent D'Onofrio’s portrayal on the Netflix show, Fisk may be doing horrible things, but Zdarsky writes him in a way that makes you hope he gets out of these situations.
Following his absence in volume two, it’s great that Marco Checchetto returns to illustrate the comic as his vibrancy gives every page a unique look, from the highly-detailed New York streets to the impressive panel layouts that allow for some bloody but well-choreographed action sequences. Murdock may lack the costume, but Checchetto can still make him look cool with his frequent wardrobe changing, or even his regular clothing where he rocks the shades and red hair. Although Francesco Mobili does a decent job drawing a few pages in the final issue, Checchetto’s art reigns supreme.
Three volumes in, Chip Zdarsky is doing his best work to date at Marvel upon writing the Man Without Fear, a character who seems to bring out the best of creators who have tackled over the years.