Daredevil #601 Review

Writer: Charles Soule / Artist: Mike Henderson / Marvel Comics It’s my favorite time of the month! Daredevil by Charles “Goddamn” Soule came out this week. Number 601 brings a new artist into the world of Matt Murdock — Mike Henderson. An obvious question for this book: the 600th issue milestone gave us a Defenders-plus roster of heroes and concluded the Mayor Fisk storyline. How do you follow that up? “Mayor Murdock” . . . OK, then. Daredevil #601 begins Matt Murdock’s unexpected role as mayor of New York City. With Wilson Fisk incapacitated by means of ninja arrows, Murdock finds himself as the leader of the city during an invasion by The Hand. Mayor Daredevil Hears the News This book was fun as hell, combining two aspects of Daredevil that shine bright: fighting ninjas and political jujitsu. In battle, Daredevil is a serious, disciplined warrior; an appropriate counterweight to his frequent ally, Spider-Man (Spidey’s in this story-line too, btw). It is easy to forget that in the fray of politics and law, Matt Murdock is often a cocky jokester. Soule captures these two sides of our hero well in this book. After recently reviewing another title with prevalent ninja battles, I mistakenly took it for a shallow crutch to make a story fun and interesting. Soule set this story up right, understanding Daredevil’s publication history. In hindsight, I feel like I should have known that weaving the Hand into this political action story would be genius. Color me blind, it took me by …