Comic Review: Daredevil (2022-) #1

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Marco Checchetto
Color Artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Spoilers Below

Daredevil is back, but his time in New York City appears short. The Red Fist Saga represents the conclusion to Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s memorable run with the Devils of Hell’s Kitchen, and it kicks off with an extra big issue.

Checchetto and letterer Clayton Cowles continue to add such style and flare to Zdarksy’s story, which has turned from the shadowed filth of Hell’s Kitchen crime to more mystic threats abroad. But not so fast, as Matt has some closing business to attend to.

It’s a mirror of an early issue in the series, in which Spider-Man shows up to Daredevil’s apartment and essentially forces our horned crusader into retirement. This time, the devil and the spider hit the town together. They also hit Butch Pharris and his thugs, Hammerhead, plus a borough’s worth of street criminals. Matt might be leaving, but he wants the criminals to know there will always be heroes watching the city. The bruises should serve as sufficient reminders.

Matt and Spider-Man share an intimate conversation and opine about a future, maskless dinner they might share. But this is Daredevil, it’s Chip Zdarsky, and it’s the Red Fist Saga. Pages later, Matt’s blown it with a woman and possibly watched the woman get blown to pieces.

On the other side of the world, artist Rafael de Latorre continues to enhance the legacy of Elektra Natchios through one of the single coolest costumes in comic history. Elektra and Stick discuss their intentions of taking down The Hand once and for all. And they remind readers of a painful fact, one seeded months, if not years ago: to achieve this feat, either Elektra or Matt must die.

The following pages offer some of the most satisfying insights into Elektra as a growing character, as well as her relationship with Matt. For starters, Elektra is vexed when Stick kills a faceless Russian soldier who would have blown their cover. Vexed! Who’d have ever thought? Internally, she once again acknowledges that her attachment to Matt is not a weakness, but a weapon.

After teaching Stick all about this new weapon, the mood sours once again. “I’ve died in Matt’s arms before,” Elektra thinks to herself. “I’ll do it again if it gives my time in this world meaning. Or I’ll be the one to hold him as his light dies out….”

Here’s to hopefully parts 2-50 of the Red Fist Saga!