Daredevil Vol. 1: Guardian Devil

For better or worse, the current state of mainstream superhero comics can all be traced back to the first story arc of the current Daredevil series, written by Kevin Smith and drawn by Joe Quesada. Sure, intricate storylines that focused more on character development and endless self analysis existed in comics, even superhero comics, before, but those stories were kept in the more "sophisticated" lines such as Vertigo, or maybe brief mini or maxi series. Smith brought all that to the mainstream books, and while it can often be frustrating to go three or four issues without anything happening (Bruce Jones' Hulk), I guess I'm mostly thankful he opened the realm of possibilities for funnybooks. As for this storyline, it's one of the greats; an unknown villain is preying upon Matt Murdock's religion, and thrusts upon him a baby who is claimed to be either the savior of mankind or the Antichrist. Terrific writing from somebody who clearly has love for the character, although can we all please agree that it's been 10 years of agony for Daredevil and it's about time to give the guy a break for once?

RATING: 90%