Guardian Devil was part of Marvel’s Marvel Knights line–an early attempt to draw in mature readers and show that Marvel wasn’t just about ruining the hard-won reputation of mutant comics and Spider-Man. Two years after filing for bankruptcy and lacking in much in-house talent that wasn’t named Busiek, Marvel hired “Event Comics” and started rebooting its characters.
The plan worked. Marvel drew in future big-name talents like the crew on this very title (along with Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, Priest (a successful creator who became an even bigger legend owing to his MK: Black Panther run), and others). Although I have to say…I find this particular story to be overrated.
MK: DD, like most of the Knights line, was more grim and gritty than Marvel’s typical stuff.
Issue #1 started by immediately letting readers know that things were different with this comic.
A teen mom evades pursuers in a black sedan, clutching her baby to her breast. Daredevil, surprisingly, doesn’t leap in to protect her. He’s busy in church atoning and moping about because Karen Page has left him (again).
And his need for faith makes him get pretty…Strange.
What ends up happening is that the baby on page one is Jesus and Daredevil takes the role of protecting him. Or he’s not Jesus and it’s all just Mephisto and Mysterio being dicks.
Along the way, Karen Page has HIV, and Bullseye kills her (not really). Bullseye is hired to kidnap the baby. DD and Karen try to stop him and…
…Bullseye misses.
See, that’s a great scene. There’s a lot of good stuff in this story. There’s also a lot of religion and hand-wringing in this story, which, if you dig it, is rewarding. And mystic reboot-y kind of things…
I tend to find this kind of story a bit tedious (unless Ann Nocenti is writing it), so your results may vary. I don’t mean to be overly critical here–there’s a lot to recommend this story both as a piece of history and as an example of the maturing of the medium. But just because Guardian Devil is “important” doesn’t mean it’s great.
Mysterio’s involvement is interesting. He has a brain tumor so he decides to go after Daredevil and make him believe in a virgin birth, just to compel DD to kill him. Mysterio knows Spider-Man won’t kill him, after all. Or, he just hated the clone version (it was during that period that Quentin was revealed to have brain cancer) as much as Daredevil (Kevin Smith, in another cool twist, reveals that DD knew all along that Ben Reilly wasn’t the real Spider-Man).
When, in the end, Daredevil doesn’t kill him, Mysterio shoots himself in the head. A move he learned…
From Kraven. Very well done sequence. (Also, like Karen, he’s not permanently dead–or at least he’ll come back as a zombie.). Mysterio’s death goes uncelebrated, but Karen gets a big funeral.
They all know about her because she was a porn star, I guess. I’m sure that’s why Stan Lee attended (that’s him in the front pew, close to the preacher).
When we get to the actual superheroics, it’s a good story–there’s just a little too much Mephisto stuff and, like I said, only Ann Nocenti can make that work. Quesada’s art is good, mostly, but he really, really, REALLY likes to draw Daredevil’s cables.
They twist and turn so much they might as well be Medusa’s hair.
Finally, the baby gets a good home and is never seen again.
Also in the last issue of this arc is a cameo by Spider-Man and a certain mild-mannered reporter…
English (US) · 