Daredevil #2: Omens of Life and Death

Coming off the back of a strong first issue, Daredevil #2 continues to build out the first arc of this fresh volume with methodical intention. Perhaps one of the biggest struggles in the monthly comic game is the dance between compression and pacing, but Phillips and Garbett have found great footing in how they’re approaching this title.

It’s been structured in a way that has allowed them to put Matt and Detective Forte at the thematic forefront of this first arc. Both find themselves undergoing a sense of derailment in their lives that has them spiraling in different ways. Forte is confident in his status quo work ethic, but the horror of Omen’s murders is leading him down a path that poisons his staunch understanding of the system he works in. He’s confronting horrors that aren’t in the playbook, but seeing his personality shine through in how he confronts them head-on is very endearing to his character. There was some worry that he was going to be another Cole North type, but he doesn’t carry the same jaded attitude that North did in the early days of Zdarsky’s run.

As for Matt, he’s finally found himself in a place where he’s able to live a life of relative quiet. Sure, he’s still got the horns, but the smallness of his new job and social life has led to a new sense of stability that Omen threatens. Seeing him rush from place to place, trying to get ahead of our new antagonist, is anxiety-inducing given how it’s Matt Murdock who’s being hunted, not his alter ego. There is a brilliant sequence in which Matt races out of class, growing overwhelmed by the voices around him as he tries to pinpoint Omen, and Garbett’s work on those pages is exquisite.

The presence of Spider-Man, both in a last-page splash and in solicitations for the next issue, makes sense, as Matt has found himself in a very Peter Parker-style storyline. Getting a threat this small and personal is very refreshing, given how big Daredevil stories have gotten in the last decade. The team is building up their thesis with an approach that is deliberately slow, but still all killer with regard to the actual plotting of this issue. There’s a great blend of grounded anxiety that both of our protagonists are facing, which is quite delicious and looks to be building into something truly unique for this new volume of Daredevil.