The first Daredevil origin story that I read many years ago was so very, very dark that I was sorta put off from reading Daredevil comics for quite awhile after that (didn't get back into the character until I found Mark Waid's current run where there was a bit of humor present again).

This one had its dark spots, but it also had some caring spots and definitely humor as well. It's about Matt Murdock and his law firm, Foggy Nelson, his law partner and their secretary Karen. It's also about Daredevil finding his own style and not copying the other NYC Marvel heroes. A pretty good book. ( )

I'm probably not the best judge of a Daredevil comic, since I've never read one before. This was my first, so keep that in mind as I discuss it.

I was familiar with the basic story of Daredevil, and obviously I've seen the Ben Affleck movie (which I didn't actually hate, by the way), but I'd never actually read a Daredevil comic, and thought Season 1, which covers Daredevil's origins, would be a good intro.

To an extent, it was a good intro, covers the basics, and it gets you into Murdock's head quite a bit. One thing I liked was how much I felt what a disadvantage Daredevil has due to his blindness. I mean, I know the guy is blind, but I always had the impression that his other senses made up for his blindness and then some, effectively balancing out his blindness so it wasn't really too much of a problem. But in Season One, it's a real handicap to the guy, and it really gives the reader a sense of how brave he is that he still puts himself out there.

Murdock lost most of the battles he engaged in, which was an interesting touch but it did get a little old. Then he became obsessed with "proving" himself to be a "hero" which seemed weirdly narcissistic. The story jumps all over the place, kind of a hodgepodge of different story elements, random bad guys, and mini-tales, which I didn't particularly like. In fact, the "main arc" ends with a few issues left in the book, which are then a completely different story, a completely different artist, and a huge tonal shift. I'm not sure if it's fair to criticize a trade for this, but when I get a trade paperback I expect a certain level of cohesion - why draw the lines where they were drawn if there were just going to be two totally random issues tacked on at the end?

Another thing that irked me in the book was the EXTREMELY sudden change in costume. I mean, I'm reading an origin story here, I expect a little more reasoning behind completely changing the costume other than, literally, "this new costume should distract him!". I'm not kidding, that's the only mention of why Murdock suddenly shows up looking completely different than he did on the page before. He was in the middle of chasing down bad guys too, did he go home and change? Did he already have the red suit, ready to go? So weird.

The most engaging parts of the book were actually outside of the costume, when he was just being a lawyer. I'd have actually liked some courtroom scenes or something, the closest it gets is a couple panels of a trial that gets delayed.

Overall, this is not a great introduction to the character. The book showed me that a Daredevil story actually *COULD* be good, but this one isn't it. ( )