Stephanie Phillips and Lee Garbett look to follow up their debut on the Man Without Fear series with Daredevil #2. The first issue was not as impressive as I was hoping it would be. It did lay the foundation for Phillps and Garbett creative run. Though it was missing that extra element to be a home run of a debut. Let’s see if the second plate appearance will do better with Daredevil #2.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterers: Ariana Maher
DAREDEVIL #2 SOLICITATION
“A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH! MATT MURDOCK, once a noted attorney, now goes by a new title: college professor! But when the mysterious, future-seeing villain OMEN targets Matt himself, it’s DAREDEVIL who’ll be taught a brutal lesson: When your enemy already knows what’s coming, every choice is a matter of life and death!” – Marvel Comics
REVIEW
Daredevil #2 takes what was established in the first issue and solidifies the foundation of under which Stephanie Phillips and Lee Garbett are building their creative run on. Across the board the flow of the story in this second issue is much tighter. Everything that happens has a connection point. This leads to a natural pace being found as we go from scene to scene.
Target on Matt Murdock Back
The big strength of Daredevil #2 is the focus on the big mystery surrounding Omen foreseeing the death of Matt Murdock. Specifying that it is Matt Murdock, not Daredevil, that is going to die creates a lot of questions.
Especially considering that the new villain knows that Matt Murdock is Daredevil. That one fact leads us wondering what exactly is going on with this target on Matt’s back. It isn’t just the usual someone coming after Daredevil.
And we see how discovering that fact changes how Matt reacts once he figures it out. This won’t be a problem he can simply solve as Daredevil. He needs to dig into what and who would target him in this way.
Omen Looms Over Daredevil #2
Showing how effective the entire structure of this story is the fact Omen does not physically appear in Daredevil #2. Even when not physically present you know that he is around. He made such an impact that every character in this issue is reacting to Omen’s presence in some form or fashion.
Adding the NYPD detectives into the story helps this a lot. It shows that Omen’s reach goes beyond just what is going on with Daredevil. There is this bigger mystery of what are exactly Omen’s motives beyond his vision of Matt’s death.
This leading the detectives to now possibly go after Matt adds another level of intrigue. This isn’t a Daredevil problem. It’s a Matt Murdock problem and it is all thanks to Omen.
Juggling New Personal Life
After everything that has gone on in his life it is understandable that Matt would look for a new career. Becoming a college law professor gave him a fresh start to his career. But what he is already quickly learning once again is that juggling a career and superhero life is not easy.
The difference this time around though is that Matt can’t set his own hours like he did as an independent lawyer. He has a set time for all his classes. This creates a bigger spotlight on how he can juggle everything he has going on. Especially as his students call out how beat up he looks after his previous night as Daredevil. How he hides his Daredevil activities without causing greater suspicion will be interesting to see.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Daredevil #2 does a great job at leaning into what Omen’s vision of Matt Murdock’s future is. It creates immediate tension for what direction Stephanie Phillips and Lee Garbett plan on taking the series on.
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
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