In Review: Daredevil (2023-) #2

Synopsis: Corruption is tearing Hell’s Kitchen apart! Those who have sworn to protect the city have betrayed their oaths, and Matt Murdock formerly Daredevil is seeking righteous retribution, one billy club to the face at a time! Daredevil’s losing allies left and right…so what does that mean for the love of his life, ELEKTRA?!

The Story

Picking up from the last issue. After having excercized a demon from Electra. Matt Murdock has returned to St. Nick’s Children’s Home to resume his duties as a caregiver to underprivileged kids. However, his evening is soon disturbed by a knock at the door from two police officers who are investigating vicious rumors about the orphanage that Matt has been running. It pretty soon becomes apparent that someone is spreading vicious lies about Matt Murdock and the work that he is doing at the orphanage, but who would do such a thing and why?

The Artwork

Aaron Kuder produces some brilliant visuals for this book. A favorite panel from this issue is when Father Matt is praying and we see an image of the two police officers that turned up on Matt’s doorstep with some demonic-looking figures hovering in the background. Added to that we get some great action beats as we see Matt don the Daredevil suit for the first time as he looks to channel some of his anger about the nasty rumors by knocking some criminal heads together.  In this sequence of panels, Daredevil sees off two competing gangs. One that is armed with some pretty heavy-duty weapons.

Overall

This new take on Daredevil continues to keep me on my toes as I am still getting used to the idea of Matt Murdock running a home for kids and his whole Father Matt persona. It will be interesting to see if this incarnation of the character eventually transitions into a new TV series or an animated movie at some point. But it would have to follow on from the events that have taken place before this and show us the story in which Matt went to hell.

All that said. I’m enjoying this series and looking forward to seeing what happens in the next issue with the foes that Matt is about to face are both human and supernatural.