Daredevil #21
Marvel Comics
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Art: Marco Checchetto, Mattia Iacono & Clayton Cowles
After the last issue’s exhilarating events, this week we have the beginning of the next phase of Matt Murdock’s life. Zdarsky and Checchetto continue to bring us their take on Marvel’s man without fear.
If compared to the story’s last chapter, this one was a bit dull acting somewhat like an epilogue to the events that took place in issue #20. In this new issue, Murdock sticks to his word while surrendering himself to the NYPD. However, Murdock’s transport, guided by Detective Cole is intercepted by Foggy who proposes an alternative. Wilson Fisk receives a call from the Stromwyn siblings, this time, choosing to hang up on them setting a somber tone to what might come to Hell’s Kitchen.
Zdarsky took his time with this issue. As usual, the writer knows where he’s going with his story and how he wants to get there. He takes the time to establish the interesting points of this new story arc. Zdarsky even manages to keep the writer a little on the edge with how Foggy’s plan for Daredevil to turn himself in end up happening by bringing a shift in the relationship between Matt and the D.A. Hochberg. This is the key to this week’s issue. Daredevil has stirred Hell’s Kitchen heavily and now that things are settling we get to see how bad his connections have been affected.
I have commented on Checchetto’s work and his brilliance on the portrayal of human anatomy before. So what I chose to focus on this time was the artist’s work on backgrounds. At first, they’re quite humble, while the characters are still in the devastated landscape of Hell’s Kitchen. Although they get extremely superior once we move out of the destruction zone. The attention to detail given by the artist is amazingly realistic fading out as the elements in the background get further and further away.
This is all very well complemented by Matia Iacono’s work on the colors, of course. Since the destruction, we see a predominance of orange and black for all the fire and smoke that’s going around. This aids in the feeling of relief the reader might get once we see the wide panels showing us a dawning New York City. The colorist was also attentive to daylight progression as we start in a night set up and we feel the sun coming up on a new day in Murdock’s life, back as Daredevil. The lettering in this issue is pretty straight forward by Clayton Cowles. It focuses mostly on sound effects however using different fonts portraying the possible echo that sound might have in real life.
This is the beginning of the next phase of Daredevil’s story as told by Zdarsky and Checchetto. It reads a bit slow as not much happens but it is crucial to the plot so I do recommend a read if the reader is eager to keep up. If not, then the read is recommended anyways because of the truly stunning visuals.
