There’s Something About Matty
On Daredevil, Marvel’s G.O.O.A.T., and why it has always continued to deliver.
If you surveyed comic creators about which Big Two title they’d most want to work on, you’d probably receive a wide variety of responses. That makes sense, of course. Everyone has their favorites, as each person’s connection to these worlds is created in our own, singular journeys with them. No matter what someone picked, though, there would be no wrong answers. Each would be equally valid, even if someone gravitated towards something unexpected. 16 That said, I suspect one title would stand above the rest in the end.
That’s Daredevil, the nearly 60 year old Marvel series 17 about a blind man with special abilities and a gift for fighting who acts as a lawyer by day and superhero by night.
It would likely lead the way for two main reasons. One is going to sound like a hot take. I’d argue it isn’t. Simply put, Daredevil is Marvel’s greatest ongoing of all time. 18 You may scoff at that idea, but it’s hard to find a title that has shown more consistency or a higher ceiling. While it has its own down times, we’re going on several decades of greatness from the series, even as it’s shifted to different volumes and creative teams.
The second reason connects to that latter idea: the creators who have worked on it. Whether you’re talking early names like Wally Wood, Stan Lee, and Gene Colan, the generation that fueled its rise in folks like Klaus Janson, Ann Nocenti, and David Mazzucchelli, or more recent ones like Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, and Charles Soule, these names helped turn what could have been a comparative lightweight into the best pound-for-pound series in all of superhero comics.
And it all really started with Frank Miller.
While greatness preceded Miller on the series, particularly in Wood and Colan’s time on it, 19 once the artist-turned-writer/artist-turned-writer made his presence felt starting with 1979’s issue #158, Daredevil started to find a new level. It isn’t just me who believes that either. Writer Brian Michael Bendis was in high school when Miller began his run, and he described the legend’s arrival as being “like a hurricane.”
“This young creator showed you all the ways comics could be cooler and better every month,” Bendis emphasized. “It’s hard to describe pre-internet how someone could come on a title that was selling so low and change the entire industry. Everyone got better.” 20
Miller’s time on Daredevil acted as a gauntlet being thrown down, particularly when he returned to pair with Mazzucchelli on Born Again. 21 From that moment on, everyone had to bring the heat. You weren’t just taking on any project; you were working on Daredevil, the title where greatness was the expectation. That looming “precedent” is one of the main reasons Zdarsky believes it has been great for so long, with another key name helping solidify its position.
“Miller changed the game and it worked, so Marvel obviously realized they could just let creators go wild on the title and they’d probably be rewarded,” Zdarsky said. “But really, that idea didn’t sink in until Ann Nocenti proved that Miller wasn’t a one-off on the title. She inherited the most groundbreaking book Marvel was doing in the 80s and made it her own, no fear.”
Nocenti’s work with artist John Romita, Jr., amongst others, helped cement Daredevil as not just a flash in the pan but a hotbed of great stories. It turned what could have been a one-off peak into a baseline for others to live up to. Eventually, present and future comic book royalty tackled the series and rewarded readers for their faith. No matter if your favorite is Bendis, David Mack, and Alex Maleev’s extensive run, Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin, and Chris Samnee’s one, or Zdarsky and Checchetto’s recently concluded tour, 22 if you were reading Daredevil at any point in the past 45 years, you were likely enjoying one of the finest superhero titles on the stands.
But what makes Daredevil so great? And how has the title managed to achieve such a sustained level of quality? There are a whole lot of reasons, as we’ll get to, but it in part stems from its own history and how that creates expectations for each new creative team. Working on Daredevil can create pressure for creators to deliver. That’s even true for those who asked for the job, like Zdarsky did.
“There’s definitely a feeling of weight with the title,” Zdarsky told me.
“You don’t want to fuck it up.”
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Like, say, Strikeforce: Morituri or Star Hunters, as just two examples.↩
One that’s now eight volumes deep.↩
I’d even argue it’s the G.O.O.A.T, or Greatest Ongoing of All Time, for both of the Big Two.↩
Biased take, but that was especially true when the former co-created my guy Stilt-Man in issue #8. Wally Wood was spitting fire during that stretch.↩
Bendis insists it really was everyone. He noted that “a year later, almost every book at Marvel was better because there was just a sense of, ‘Oh, the bar’s here now, so meet us up here or you’re going to embarrass yourself.’” It made everyone up their game.↩
Which I’d argue is the greatest Marvel story ever.↩
Fun fact: Those are the three longest writer runs in Daredevil history!↩
Especially consider he was following Bendis’ acclaimed run on the title and wanted to “honor” the work of Miller, who was one of his mentors.↩
For example, the reason Daredevil’s fight with The Spot in Rivera’s first issue was mostly “hands coming out of portals” was because the artist simplified his approach to catch up with deadlines. But this actually made it much more visually interesting, at least to me.↩
With artist Joe Quesada and inker Jimmy Palmiotti.↩
The creators who have worked on it were number one with a bullet, though.↩
Speaking of storytelling, I wanted to give a quick shout out to Rodriguez. I talked with Samnee about my perception that his run with Waid and everyone else was happier than the rest, but his take is that was the case simply because of how Rodriguez’s colors controlled mood and brought joy to a run filled with dark moments. Interesting!↩
Much of which he chalked up to the art being as good as it was and as snug of a fit it is to “traditional” Daredevil art.↩
And he emphasized afterwards that he was not joking.↩
Apparently other Marvel editors wanted to move the artist to other titles, but he elected to stick around and finish the job with Zdarsky. The writer openly asked, “How lucky was I?” when thinking about the longevity of their run together.↩
Like, say, Strikeforce: Morituri or Star Hunters, as just two examples.↩
One that’s now eight volumes deep.↩
I’d even argue it’s the greatest for all of the Big Two.↩
Biased take, but that was especially true when the former co-created my guy Stilt-Man in issue #8. Wally Wood was spitting fire during that stretch.↩
Bendis insists it really was everyone. He noted that “a year later, almost every book at Marvel was better because there was just a sense of, ‘Oh, the bar’s here now, so meet us up here or you’re going to embarrass yourself.’” It made everyone up their game.↩
Which I’d argue is the greatest Marvel story ever.↩
Fun fact: Those are the three longest writer runs in Daredevil history, with Waid surpassing Bendis and then Zdarsky beating Waid by one issue.↩