One of the many reasons I love patronizing my local branch of the Chicago Public Library is that whoever makes decisions about buying graphic novels....has impeccable taste.
Thankfully, they purchased volumes one and two of Marvel's new Daredevil, written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Paolo Manuel Rivera and Marcos Martin....and quite honestly, I am now founding Marvel Comics have become fun to read.
One of my biggest issues with Marvel Comics (and by extension, previous iterations of Daredevil) is that constant drama-without-a-break: Civil War bled into Secret Invasion bled into Siege ad nauseum, without a slight pause. (At least, it felt that way reading these books...) Although parts of The Heroic Age felt great, I really had given up on Marvel, feeling that like DC, it succumbed to the feeling that big events and high drama were the only components of great storytelling.
The genius of Waid's Daredevil is that, finally, a grim-and-gritty hero says, "Screw the angst - I'm just going to commit to having a fun time." And the book reflects that - the first major arc of the first 10 issues (or trade Volumes 1 and 2) is that Daredevil comes across an artifact that everyone wants....and to say more would be telling. But what is a revelation is that this is a sharply written, just-plain-fun book to read, with some great moments of humor.
(Personal favorite - at a Christmas party, Matt Murdoch wears an "I'm Not Daredevil" t-shirt. Although publicly outed previously, Murdoch's attitude is that he's yesterday's news)
I can't praise this book highly enough - I'm having a lot of fun reading Daredevil, which manages to reboot a character without denying what made him good in the first place.
Very highly recommended....scratch that: it's mandatory reading for comics fans.
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