Sunday Review – Daredevil: Born Again

The term comic book has always struck me as an odd and outdated term to describe sequential words and art. But that’s what we have and I don’t see it going away any time soon – if not forever. But really, it’s getting harder and harder to find comedic elements especially when it comics to superhero comics. All the great characters have had to overcome tragedy in one form or another: Batman’s parents were shot, Superman’s planet was destroyed, Spider-Man’s girlfriend murdered and Iron Man’s troubled addiction to alcohol. But no single character has had to endure hardship more so then Matt Murdock aka Daredevil.

Frank Miller’s second run on Daredevil started with issue #226, but it was his Born Again story that ran from #227-233 (1985) that had the most impact. Even to this day it is considered the best Daredevil storyline ever. Better then The Man Without Fear (also by Miller), Last Rites (considered a pseudo sequel to Born Again), and even the more recent works by Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker, both of whom build on the Born Again mythos. But as for this book, Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli are at their best and I can’t help but think that there is an element of James Dean’s Rebel Without A Cause influence with Matt as Jim, Karen as Judy, Foggy as Plato and The Kinpin as Buzz. Read this book and then watch that movie and tell me if you see otherwise.

Let’s get a little background:
Young Matt was hit by a truck loaded with industrial chemicals. The ensuing result left him with blind and his other senses heightened beyond those of a normal man. This may appear to be a great superpower but just think how hard that would be to deal with hearing every voice and heartbeat in a crowded room, smelling every odor in a busy downtown area, and feeling every crevasse with you bare feet on a hardwood floor. Add this all up and there would be only one profession for you: a superhero. But you also want justice for the accused so you also have a day job as a lawyer. You protect your small neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen from vandalism, corruption and thievery. Sounds good, right? That is until you finally get under the fingernails of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime.

The time has come and The Kingpin has had enough of Daredevil and he catches the luckiest break of all time. Karen Page, Matt’s old secretary and girlfriend, is now a heroin junkie after failing at an acting career. To get a quick fix she sells Matt Murdock’s Daredevil identity for a score. The Kingpin winds getting the information and tracks Matt for a good six months to be absolutely sure he is correct. He sets his plan in motion and unravels Matt’s life like one would peel an onion – layer upon layer until his life is exposed and the man is no more.

The most potent aspect of the six issues is that we hardly see Daredevil at all. Miller plants so much despair into Matt Murdock’s life that there just isn’t time or the need for the costumed hero. But the writing is just the half of it. David Mazzucchelli paints us a picture that fills the panels with hardship, blood, heroin and pain. Take that away and we have an authentic Shakespearean tragedy by Miller. Take the words away and we have a silent art book of somberness. Hope does rise in the end and the enemy is defeated but not before the hero is broken and changed forever.

The extras in this Premiere Classic Edition are very nice. There is an introduction by editor Ralph Macchio from the 1987 trade paperback edition, cover art for all the original issues and the various trades, the original layout to issue #232 page six showing the embrace of Matt and Karen, a host of Mazzucchelli pencil layouts and the original script for issue #233. Lastly there is the inclusion of issue #226, the first teaming up of Miller and Mazzucchelli, but it’s placed at the end of the book. This is a bit odd, but I like the completeness factor from the Marvel collected editions editors.

I’ve read Born Again a few times over the years, but now that I’m a bit older and wiser, I have looked upon it with news eyes. To be completely honest, I read it because of the current Daredevil: Reborn series that follows the Shadowland event from a few months ago and thought it would be a good comparison of the two “Born” stories for my own piece of mind. The jury is still out until Daredevil returns to Hell’s Kitchen and Black Panther resigns.

Daredevil: Born Again Premiere Classic Hardcover (Variant Vol. 19)
Written by Frank Miller
Art by David Mazzucchelli
$24.99, 248 pages, Marvel Comics

Also recommended:
Daredevil Omnibuses by Frank Miller, Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker
Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil Volumes 1-5
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear Marvel Premiere Classic (Variant Volume 18)

Related posts:

1. CCL Podcast #200 – Frank Miller’s Daredevil Omnibus 1 and 2
2. CCL Podcast #139 – Daredevil: The Devil Inside and Out Vol. 2
3. CCL Podcast #115 – Secret Six and Brubaker’s Daredevil

Tags: daredevil, frank miler, sunday review