Comic Book Review - Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky TPB Vol. 2: No Devils, Only God (Zdarsky/Sharma/Fornés)
No Devils, Only God presents writer Chip Zdarsky's second arc on the Daredevil title, one in which he continues to explore Matt's recovery from serious injury and the repercussions of Daredevil's being wanted for murder (see the events in Zdarsky's first arc first arc Know Fear).
As a result of the accidental death at his hands, Matt is experiencing a crisis of faith in regards to his abilities and actions as Daredevil. He had previously believed that he had a duty to use his abilities to help protect others, but now questions whether or not he was actually doing good or inadvertently increasing the level of danger of the incidents he intervened in. Matt decides to give up being Daredevil, but that doesn't stop a number of other concerned citizens of Hell's Kitchen from using him as inspiration putting themselves in danger in an effort to fill his role as protector of the community.
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| Daredevil (2019) #6 (Sharma/Lesiten/Tartaglia) |
This arc also sees the introduction of the Libris family (one of the criminal entities currently caught in the power struggle incited by Mayor Fisk's attempts to transition to legitimate business means) by way of Mindy, the purveyor of a local book store who helps Matt obtain a gift for Foggy's birthday. Zdarsky does an excellent job of working the Libris family into Hell's Kitchen's history over just five pages, establishing their organization as a force to be reckoned with, and as a believable target in the Owl's play for power in Fisk's absence.
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| Daredevil (2019) #7 (Sharma/Leisten/Tartaglia) |
Matt's involvement with Mindy and her family gets complicated very quickly, and if I'm being honest, at first I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Especially when Kirsten McDuffie (my personal favorite, non-Elektra love interest for Matt) is out there, still dangling as a potential plot thread (after Jed Mackay's Man Without Fear: The Death of Daredevil mini-series). But having seen where Zdarsky takes things, I'm on board with seeing it play out.
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| Daredevil (2019) #8 (Sharma/Leisten/Tartaglia) |
On top of giving up life as DD, Zdarsky makes a seemingly more subtle tweak to Matt's status quo as he is now working as a parole officer. It makes for a very intriguing switch from his recent stint working for the District Attorney's office and is made even more so when it forces him to face the culpability of his prior actions as Daredevil.
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| Daredevil (2019) #9 (Sharma/Leisten/Tartaglia) |
Meanwhile, Detective North is similarly dealing with the fallout of his own actions as he has become the target of corrupt police officers no longer receiving payouts to keep tabs on Daredevil from Fisk and the criminal element now that DD is MIA.
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| Daredevil (2010) #9 (Sharma/Leisten/Tartaglia) |
The No Devils, Only God arc sees Zdarsky joined by the art teams of Lalit Kumar Sharma/Jay Leisten and Jorge Fornés, both of which fill in wonderfully for Marco Checchetto (as he got a break/jump start on Zdarsky's third arc). Java Tartaglia and Jordie Bellaire picked up the muted color palette that Sunny Gho introduced in the first arc and carry it through without missing a step. Fornés will be returning for Zdarsky's fourth arc, once again spelling Checchetto who has said he is part of the long term plans for this run (which is excellent news). It seems as though he is being utilized similarly to the way Ron Garney was during Charles Soule's run (primary artist with planned breaks to allow everything to stay on schedule). Clayton Cowles letters everything beautifully, making for a smooth transition from panel to panel and page to page. And top it all off, Julian Totino Tedesco continues to provide great covers for the series (Zdarsky contributed covers to issues seven and eight - including the cover image for this collection).
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| Daredevil (2019) #10 (Fornés/Bellaire) |
There are a handful of sequences that really stood out to me in this arc: Matt sitting in his apartment, reporting various emergencies and criminal activity; the telling of the Libris family history and their rise to power in Hell's Kitchen; the brilliant conversation between Matt and Reed Richards about the existence of God (over a game of chess in the park - complete with a chess board for the visually impaired, an amazing touch of detail); and the police station action sequence in issue ten.
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| Daredevil (2019) #10 (Fornés/Bellaire) |
We're now ten issues in on Chip Zdarsky's run in a collected format (and fourteen deep in single issues) and I feel pretty confident in saying that his run is shaping up to be another great entry to Daredevil's history. If you haven't jumped into this run yet, do yourself a favor and check it out in one format or another. Chip Zdarsky is proving himself to be not only the "serious writer" that he proclaimed himself to be on Twitter, but also one of the best writer's going for Marvel right now.
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| Back Cover (Totino Tedesco) |
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