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Daredevil by Mark Waid Volume 5 is his best yet

While I still love Frank Miller’s runs of Daredevil best, this latest hardcover of Mark Waid’s is the best he’s done. Volume 5 collects Daredevil Volume 3 issues 22 through 27. I didn’t really like the start of Mark Waid’s Daredevil with the Omega Drive. It felt a little too mainstream Marvel, like I was reading the Avengers without most of the Avengers. It got better, but this volume just blew the previous out of the water.

Some things were interesting but minor. It was cool to see Stilt-Man again in a funny way, and there was a little fight with Spider-Man. But there were a few things happening that were absolutely great. First, Ikari is a great villain. I know we don’t know much about his personal motivation. No, he’s not a well-rounded character yet. However, I hope we see more of him in the future. We also got to see Stick in some flashbacks. I kind of thought Waid was going to downplay Stick, but apparently I was wrong.

Daredevil begins to piece together who’s after him and who has been sending people to harm him. It was exactly who I expected, but it doesn’t mean it was any less cool, especially how Foggy figured out who it is before Matt. Speaking of Foggy, it’s great to find their relationship getting repaired. The roles flip back and forth, and we see that maybe they perform the same function for each other. They need each other. While Daredevil might be called the Man Without Fear, we see him incredibly scared in this volume, and Foggy is the one who has to keep him grounded, despite imposing health problems.

While I prefer hardcovers over single issues, it’s going to be extremely hard to stay away from Daredevil until the next volume is released!

Daredevil Volume 3

The third volume of Mark Waid’s Daredevil collects issues 11 through 15 of Daredevil volume 3 along with issue 6 of Avenging Spider-Man and issue 10 of the The Punisher volume 8. The Omega Drive continues to be a driving factor, but Waid manages to get other unrelated stories into the comic while still keeping the focus on the Omega Drive.

The story flows seamlessly between the three different series without the art or writing changing styles drastically. By the end of the collection, the Omega Drive story arc comes to what I assume is a conclusion for the time being. It comes as a nice bit of a twist as well.

My favorite story in this book was unrelated to the primary story arc; as Matt talks to his date about his friendship with Foggy, he recounts his college days. It goes into the details surrounding a professor lying in an attempt to get Foggy expelled, Matt risking his college career to defend Foggy, and Foggy repaying Matt. I’ll withhold the details, but it’s a great story.

In the second volume of Mark Waid’s Daredevil, my favorite story was also one unrelated to the main arc of the Omega Drive. The best Daredevil stories seem to be the ones that don’t cross-over with the rest of the Marvel universe. In addition, Waid intends to return Daredevil to the swashbuckler he once was and to take him out of the darkness. I think the dark stories work better. Despite preferring a harsher tone, Waid’s Daredevil continues to be interesting and fun. In the final of this collection, we definitely see some dark things happen to poor Matt again as the story arc changes.

Daredevil by Mark Waid Vol. 2

Volume 2 of Mark Waid’s Daredevil collects issues 7 through 10.1, and Amazing Spider-Man 677. While I enjoy Daredevil best as a noir title, I enjoyed Waid’s continuation with a happier Daredevil. One storyline in this collection involves a villain stealing graves from beneath them, which then forces Daredevil to go underground looking for them. When one of the graves ends up being Matt’s dad’s, his emotional state turns sour. While this brings it a little darker, which I would normally like, the plot seemed rather silly to me, but the rest of the stories made up for it.

Now that I write this, I realize that my favorite story in this book involved Christmas, young children, tragedy, and harm coming to Matt. What did I say about liking the previous, darker Daredevil more? It’s darker than most of the surrounding stories while still ending positively.

Volume 2 also brings some comedy with a cross-over with Spider-Man. The Black Cat claims she’s been framed which sends Spider-Man and Daredevil off together. The switch to the Amazing Spider-Man’s art style seems very jarring because it’s a bit more stylized, but it also fits the comedy of Peter Parker. The cross-over brings plenty of jokes, a bit of romance, and great writing. “I think this is my super villain origin,” says Spider-Man, witnessing Daredevil and The Black Cat kiss.

The Omega Drive story continues as well. Matt contains a drive with terabytes of information on the world’s villain organizations, and they want it back. When one of them makes a move, Daredevil responds in kind.