Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller—Volume 1

Comic Info

Daredevil (1) #158

Reprints Daredevil (1) #158-161 and #162-167 (May 1979-November 1980).  Daredevil and his relationship with Black Widow is becoming strained.  As Matt Murdock tries to balance the people his life with his life of Daredevil, he’s finding the line blurring and becoming more difficult.  With the return of Bullseye, a face-off with the Hulk, and a battle with Dr. Octopus, Daredevil keeps taking the punches…but an investigative report by Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich could be the biggest blow.

Written by Roger McKenzie, Roger Michelinie, and Frank Miller, Daredevil Visionaries:  Frank Miller—Volume 1 collects the Marvel Comics classic run of Miller’s Daredevil.  The issues in the volume have been collected multiple times including Daredevil vs. Bullseye, Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson Omnibus, and Incredible Hulk:  Hulk vs. the Marvel Universe.  The volume does not contain Daredevil (1) #162 wish was a fill-in issue by Steve Ditko and Michael Fleisher.

Along with The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil was the stuff of 1980s legends.  It was a storyline that put a rather second (or third) tier Marvel character in the spotlight and really gave Miller a lot of early attention.  This collection features some fun and smart Daredevil stories, but it also isn’t the Frank Miller Daredevil that is often lauded by critics.

Daredevil (1) #161

The collection features Miller just really kicking off his run.  With Roger McKenzie largely writing the collection, the series is primarily one or two issue storylines.  It kind of serves to wrap-up events going on in Murdock’s life and one of the bigger events is parting of Daredevil’s former co-star the Black Widow due to Matt’s growing relationship with Heather.  The Black Widow/Daredevil thing feels like it had run its course by this time so sending off Natasha wasn’t the worst move anyone could make.

While the stories are quite basic, the story also has an issue with bigger (and much, much longer) ramifications for Matt Murdock and Daredevil.  Through the course of the first part of the collection, Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich is piecing together the idea that Matt Murdock is Daredevil which results in a confrontation and origin issue.  At the end, Urich scrubs the story to protect Daredevil, but it further solidifies the character’s ties.  In the Brian Michael Bendis run of Daredevil, this decision comes back and bites Urich when Matt is outed by another reporter and Ben’s actions come into question.  It is a rather strong issue and feels almost like a storyline that you’d read in much more modern comics like Astro City or something like Top Ten.

While this collection feels like the wind-up for what Miller has coming, it is also a necessity to see the set-up and prep for Miller’s bigger stories.  Following the last issue in this collection, Elektra is introduced and the whole saga of Daredevil and Elektra comes to change the comic book series and the character forever.  If you read this volume and ho-hum, keep reading…it will pay off!  Daredevil Visionaries:  Frank Miller—Volume 1 is followed by Daredevil Visionaries:  Frank Miller—Volume 2.