Daredevil #5: A New Foundation

One of the toughest things about reading serialized fiction is trying to see the forest for the trees. An arc can feel lackluster in the moment, only to reveal its purpose once the pieces finally come together. Daredevil #5 is a good example of that. Phillips and Garbett’s first arc stumbles when it comes to the central resolution of Omen, which lands with less impact than it should. What does work, however, is the writing for Matt and Dominic Forte, as well as the thematic groundwork being laid for the rest of the run.

Lee Garbett takes a final bow on this arc with some excellent pages that are clean without ever feeling static. He knows exactly when to lean into Omen’s horrific imagery and when to pull back, giving the violence room to breathe rather than overwhelming the story. Omen himself may not be the most compelling antagonist by the issue’s end, but Phillips has already proven with Grim that she can wring genuine horror from her stories without tipping into absurdity. The confrontation here with a kind of violent sickness that our justice system is not equipped to handle gives the arc’s themes a much-needed boost.

That said, the arc itself feels a little lean in terms of depth. This final issue brings Matt full circle, restoring a rather tired Daredevil to his aura-ridden self while setting the stage for what promises to be a much richer future for the title. Omen falls flat, leaving too many questions unanswered for a new antagonist, but the work these five issues have done to establish a new foundation for the book ultimately saves the arc.

If the goal was to make me care about Matthew Murdock as a character, endear me to Dominic Forte, and plant the seeds for a larger story without simply retreading Miller’s work with Fisk, then Phillips and Garbett have absolutely succeeded. Daredevil feels like it is finally finding its footing, and that is a much more exciting prospect than whether or not the Omen plot stuck the landing.