Daredevil #7: The Devil’s Lacking the Details

Comics, by their nature, are an odd beast when it comes to the succession of status quo. In company-led, periodic storytelling, the status quo is either a thing to uphold or rebel against for a creator coming onto a new title. Though, more often than not, the set-up of a new status quo at the end of a run is ignored for a return to square one. This is a boring default position that makes it easier to construct a story while ignoring the specific hallmarks of the medium. 

A book like Daredevil has always stood out due to the transition between arcs, as modern writers like Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, and Charles Soule have made it a point to leave the character in the most difficult positions possible. For the series, this has led to an elevation of tensions as the book tries to grapple with and evolve with the character over time. Typically, the challenging tone is palpable on the page in each final issue, even if the follow-ups struggle to deliver. 

Daredevil #7 – written by Saladin Ahmed with art by Aaron Kuder, colors by Jesus Aburtov, and lettering by VC’s Clayton Cowles – continues Matt Murdock’s mission to rid the world of the embodied seven deadly sins, which found their way to earth when he escaped from Hell at the end of the previous run. Each one of these sins has searched out a person in the orbit of Daredevil, including Ben Urich, She-Hulk, and now Wolverine. The two clash just as Matt begins to remember more about his previous life-fighting crime with Elektra, which triggers a transformation into his white costume. 

Just like the previous of the series, the fight provides a bulk of the story’s momentum, as the opponent’s battle sprawls out of a bar. Ahmed leaves a little room for other plot developments like an example of Father Matthew in his element, offering a light of kindness to one of his orphans and the hint at a Daredevils reunion. The fight drags on too long without providing any sense of satisfying resolution or experience, trading in empty spectacle instead. The standout moment of the issue is the last page reveal, which excels thanks to a previously established relationship. 

The designs and narrative thrust serve as the reheated leftovers of the Zdarsky and Checchetto run, especially in the use of the white costume. In the previous volume, that costume was the natural progression of the larger arc, aptly named “To Heaven Through Hell.” It is a powerful moment of transformation after Matt has embraced his faith to defeat the Beast. It was a metaphysical crystallization of the book’s larger themes, taking the form of a new visual. In Daredevil #7, it’s evoked as a Super Saiyan-style power-up after Matt stumbles his way through a half-baked vision quest. Removing the fact that Kuder draws a direct comparison between his art and Checchetto’s, the evocation of the costume reduces it from a natural endpoint for the character to a glorified video game skin. 

Kuder’s linework is fine if a bit lackluster, turning a drag-out fight between a demonically possessed Wolverine and a divinely powered Daredevil fight into a basic, rote series of images. There’s a lack of urgency in a bloody fight, with the artwork playing on an elastic style that looks good in certain still moments but lacks any weight or heft that belongs in a street-level book. Even with the grappling of supernatural elements, Daredevil has also managed to retain a certain level of grit and concrete imagery that is lacking in this issue. The layouts can’t elevate the artwork past stiff and rubbery, proving that a strong idea on paper does not always translate well on the final page.

The coloring tries its best to add a sense of scope to the issue, but Aburtov struggles to capture a similar sense of magic from the previous run as well. There is something off-putting about the way the white of the Daredevil costume is rendered on the page, lacking the grace of its original appearance without returning to the realm of the gritty. The coloring works at its best when it plays in the hues of red and orange, like when the demon crawls out of Wolverine’s body or blood begins to spray. The rest of the time, the book takes on a bland, cartoony sense of color that clashes with the attempts of art and writing, undercutting the human elements of the story.