Daredevil in the Detail

I polished off Daredevil: End of Days in one go. There is a hook in the very beginning that isn’t answered until the very end and it was definitely the curiosity to know the meaning of a whispered word that kept the midnight oil burning.

I don’t have any particular affinity with Daredevil. I didn’t come across the character much in my youth. I remember a Spider-Man-Daredevil comic cross-over I must have got as a freebie somewhere and I had no interest in the Ben Affleck film. It was only with the Netflix series did I become familiar with, and enjoy, the character.

However, End of Days seems like a true fan’s comic book. It follows a reporter trying to figure out what Daredevil has been doing the past few years that he has been away from the spotlight and what the aforementioned whispered word means. This journey takes us through a collection of old enemies and friends, most of who have left the old crime doing or fighting days behind them. Whilst the story holds up well enough without knowing their backstories, I feel much would be gained by having some idea of who they are.

The drawings and artwork are very impressive. The story has dark undertones but the colouring really emphasises this – it looks gritty and dirty. However, I wasn’t enthused by the revelation at the end and, overall, the story did become a touch repetitive with the visiting of canon characters that revealed less and less each time.