Daredevil Gets Emotional In My Favorite Comics Panel This Week

Daredevil: End of Days #8 Daredevil’s a superhero who’s constantly in thrall to his emotions It often seems like Matt Murdock’s passion is in control of him and not the other way around. In this issue of potst-mortem miniseries, we see the Devil’s emotions in a calmer, more poignant light.

I recently started co-worker Tina Amini on Mark Waid’s current run of Daredevil. She had a bunch of questions about Matt Murdock and his backstory, which I answered. When I asked her what she thought of the Man Without Fear, she replied “He’s kind of a jerk, isn’t he?” I’ll admit to being take aback, especially since Waid’s been delivering the most even-keeled, in-control version of the character in decades. But when you look at Daredevil’s long history after Frank Miller re-invented the character, you can see how he’s been a catalyst of chaos in the lives of the people he loves, moreso than with other superheroes.

That’s what makes the moments Daredevil shares with the person he’s talking to in the panel above so meaningful. He’s able to step back and offer the kind of positive reinforcement that he rarely got. Matt Murdock’s father died when he was a boy and even when Jack Murdock was alive, the gruff boxer never seemed to be one for tender emotional sharing. Then, when the scrappy blind ninja sensei Stick became Matt’s mentor, there wasn’t a whole lot of ‘ya done good, kid!’ in that relationship either.

Despite all of that, Daredevil was able to lift someone up in his last days. This series started with Matt Murdock’s death but the best part of this last issue comes from showing that he might’ve found some fleeting inner peace before he met his end.

Astro City #1 There’ve always been capes and masks aplenty in Kurt Busiek and Brent Andersen’s much-acclaimed series. And those heroes have generally been cleverly angled pastiches or homages to the icons of superhero myth: a Superman analogue who comes not from another planet but a possible future or a would-be Batman who’s a vampire. These do-gooders have been so interesting that it’s easy to forget that Astro City’s true epicentre has been in the hearts of the common men and women that live in the titular city.

So, while it seems like you’re supposed to be drawn in by new characters like the fourth-wall-shattering Broken Man and manga-influenced American Chibi, it’s really ordinary guy Ben Pullam who’s the pivotal figure here. Wherever this first story arc goes — and it’s almost certainly gong to be a trippy, cosmic adventure — Ben will be the axis around which the drama turns. It’s the sort of thing that’s made Astro City an all-time classic: showing that the courage and heroism of people who don’t wear spandex can be equal to or greater than that of the metahumans flying above them.