After a nearly two-and-a-half-year break, Egmont returns with more adventures of Daredevil. The booklet presented as "volume 0" contains quite unusual, but very important events, not only for the Devil from Hell's Kitchen, but also for the entire Marvel and even the MCU!
It is worth adding here that the notebook consists of four different adventures of Matt Murdock and two short supplements. They were originally released in 1998-2002. So if you wanted to arrange them chronologically between albums released by Egmont, they would have to be placed between Daredevil from the Marvel Classic series and Daredevil: Fearless! volume 1. Hence, the publisher put number 0 on the title. So let’s check if it was worth combining and releasing this album!
Guardian devil
The first adventure to be presented in the latest Daredevil: Fearless! it’s the Guardian Devil. It was created at the turn of 1998-1999, Kevin Smith is responsible for its script, and the cartoonist was Joe Quesada. This is a story in which a young woman drops a baby from Matt Murdock! Our lawyer and superhero is not very good with the baby, so he insidiously pushes them to Black Widow in order to find the baby’s mother himself. Sounds comical? And it really is! But only for a short while. The action becomes more dense and it quickly turns out that both the girl and Daredevil himself have been manipulated and are slowly starting to lose their minds. Besides, not only them. Foggy Nelson also sees things that are not there and is then framed for murder. As if that were not enough, terminally ill Karen Page returns to Hell’s Kitchen. So Red has his hands full and a difficult puzzle to solve.
Guardian devil is an extremely dark, and at times psychedelic story in which the reader for a very long time does not know who is behind the great manipulation. It is also here that two characters extremely important for the entire Marvel universe are lost. Thanks to the mystery, the adventure is really captivating and it is difficult to break away from the notebook until we find out the whole truth. The line used in this comic is very pleasing to the eye. Vivid colors are eye-catching. Additionally, the artist captured the darkness of the whole situation in which our Daredevil found himself. He managed to accurately reproduce the visions that haunt the hero and his friends. The only thing you can cling to is Matt’s eyes, which look more like he’s mentally handicapped, not blind. Fortunately, they are hidden behind sunglasses or a mask most of the time.
Part of the whole
The second story in volume 0 is Part of the Whole, written by David Mack, Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada, and drawn by David Ross, Rob Haynes and the aforementioned Quesada. It was created in the years 1999-2000 and is a kind of continuation of the Guardian Devil.Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson are about to start their own law firm, and their first client is Lenny, a janitor at Wilson Fisk’s office who claims to have evidence of his boss’s criminal activity. Unfortunately, the man dies quickly and Daredevil has to find his killers, while his partner sues Kingpin. Meanwhile, a new woman appears in Matt’s life – Maya Lopez. She is a young, attractive and deaf girl with whom our protagonist falls in love, and it is mutual. It turns out, however, that she is the ward of Fisk, who convinced her that the Devil from Hell’s Kitchen was responsible for her father’s death. The girl, who has the gift of remembering and recreating all movements with surgical precision, begins the hunt for Daredevil.
Part of the whole is a story extremely important to the Marvel universe due to the appearance of Maya Lopez, also known as Echo. It is already known that the heroine will appear in the MCU series Hawkeye, and there are rumors that it will also get a separate title. He will be played by Alaqua Cox. As for the plot itself, it is certainly interesting, especially due to the relationship between Maya and Matt and Echo and Daredevil, as well as the manipulation carried out by Kingpin. If someone likes lawsuits, he will also like the case against Fisk. By the way, we will get to know some of the childhood stories of this famous villain. From the graphic side, it is worth paying attention to a few unusual drawings depicting Echo’s past. In addition, the cartoonists perfectly captured the fights between the girl and the Daredevil. The reader may feel as if he is watching the fight on TV, and not in the next comic frames.
In front of the cameras
Another adventure in the discussed album is Before the Cameras , released in 2001. It was created for us by Bob Gale (script), Phil Winslade and David Ross (drawings). Once again, it deviates from typical superhero stories. Daredevil is sued for the destruction of private property. During one of his actions, he broke several windows, demolished the garden and crashed the car of one of the citizens, and he is now suing him. To make it more interesting, the injured party chooses as his lawyers … Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson! And how do you run a case against yourself? The more so because it becomes even more complicated when it turns out that someone is confusing the minds of both the victim, witnesses, and Daredevil himself. Fortunately, Red can always count on the help of another New York hero.
In front of the cameras is another story in which there is a lot of manipulation. However, it mainly focuses on the trial and looking for evidence. If someone is not a lawyer and his favorite program is not Judge Anna Maria Wesołowska , he may get a bit bored. Everything is very twisted and we don’t get any specific answers. The process itself takes a long time and at times we would like it to end. Drawings also do not stand out above the average. Everything is clear, but it seems as if most of the frames were generated by computer, which gives the effect of artificiality. The only positive thing is showing Hell’s Kitchen in the background. I wonder if the residents of the district who read the comic recognize their skyscrapers and streets in it?
Echo
The last story is the story of the already mentioned Maya Lopez. She is the center of events here, and Daredevil only plays an episodic role. David Mack was responsible for both the script and the graphic design. The events in this notebook take place just after those described in Parts of a Whole. Echo still does not know what to do in the future, looks for his own path and with this problem goes to an old Indian shaman from her father’s tribe. He sends her to the plain to meditate and be reconciled with the elemental spirits. During this trip into herself, the heroine remembers her childhood, her father’s death or being brought up by Wilson Fisk. He also sees Matt Murdock and their short-lived relationship again. There are also symbolic animal spirits that bring advice and warnings. At the end, however, she meets a person who guides her on the right track. And although Echo is not sure if the man actually came to her or was just a dream, she listens to him and starts a new chapter in her life.
Echo it’s a story told in an amazing way. You have to really focus so as not to get lost in it. Here the past is mixed with the future, and the text is scattered all over the page, and sometimes it is not known in what order to read it. In addition, sometimes it is even hidden and only after a close look can we find it. However, this is not bad, and even intriguing. I have never seen a story told like this before. There are also drawings, and this is a real driving school. The artist also applied real chaos here, which is not easy to control. He also referred to all the greatest painters. We have works based on Monet, Picasso, Turner and Munch. We were presented with beautiful paintings, straight from the gallery of fine arts. And this unexpected performance by Wolverine!
Additives
The Polish comic book publisher Egmont deserves much praise. As always, we get a hardcover album in chronological order, but that’s not the most important thing here. It was decided to include some very interesting additions. In Volume 0 we find a story titled Daredevil , marked with the number ½ and written by Kevin Smith. It was prepared as a book, not a comic book, and tells the story of Matt Murdock from the moment he was born until now (i.e. the events of the comic book in 2000). It is of course very shortened, but it will certainly bring closer the character of the Devil from Hell’s Kitchen to many people. At the end of the album we can also find Posłówprepared by Kamil M. Śmiałkowski, which explains exactly why the volume is marked with the number 0, and the genesis of the Red’s adventures themselves. A real treat is also a six-page story called my brother’s Guardian , created by Stan Lee himself, which in a very humorous way tells about the everyday life of Daredevil and Spider-Man. Congratulations to the editors for the great preparation of Daredevil: Fearless!
The return of the devil
Daredevil: Fearless! volume 0 is as many as 636 pages of unusual adventures of Matt Murdock. It should be noted that the plot is not on the same level. The fact that there is a lot of tension here most of the time, a lot of puzzles, and there is also a lot of action. However, there are also fragments that are a bit boring and too long. The graphic design also varies. We have fantastic frames here, which can even be called works of art, but there are also average and artificial-looking pictures. Readers should be very pleased with the additions Egmont decided to include in the album. Most importantly, however, the character Echo appears here, which we will soon see on the screens. In turn, two characters that are extremely important to the whole of Marvel die. And for these reasons, it is a position that cannot be ignored.
