 Daredevil has consistently been Marvel's finest super-hero. Though he is,
like most super-heroes, obsessed with his father, he is distinguished by the beautiful
simplicity of his classic red costume and the fact that he is written as if he does not have
super-powers; though he has supernatural hearing and other senses, this largely compensates for
his lack of sight. Though he has rarely been written as such, he is a handicapped man. His
villains are weak but disastrous for the urban New York landscape that he protects. Daredevil
might be utterly out of place fighting the Beyonder, but The Kingpin is right up his alley.
The history of Daredevil has played out these advantages. Though many
writers have struggled with his lack of powerful villains, Daredevil's focus on helping the
poor of Hell's Kitchen through both costumed crime-fighting and the legal services of his alter
ego, Matt Murdock, have stimulated many a story. Most remembered in Daredevil's history is the
work of Frank Miller, which, while derivative of Will Eisner and others, is greater than the
sum of its inspirations. At best, Miller crafted Greek myths for our time, whether of Elektra
or of The Kingpin's tragic loss of a wife. Moreover, Miller's Daredevil is seen my many to be
an early deconstructionist work in the vein of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and
Watchmen.
Daredevil is also remembered as important in the changes that occured at
Marvel Comics in the late 1990s and in the first decade of the twenty-first century. His
served as the flagship title of Marvel Knights, Marvel's slightly more mature pseudo-imprint
ran by Event Comics' Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti. Daredevil became a top-seller
again and the overall success of the line led to Quesada becoming Editor-in-Chief at Marvel,
in turn leading to additional changes.
The following eras are available:
Also available is a list of other sites of interest.
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