A collection of comics that tell the origin story of the Marvel superhero Daredevil. Contains Daredevil 1 through 11.

Two and a half years after The Marvel Age of Comics was ushered in the first issue of The Fantastic Four, the first issue of Daredevil, The Man Without Fear! would complete the initial pantheon of Marvel superheroes. It would be another four years before Marvel introduced another new superhero in his own title: Captain Marvel.

Like a number of other early Marvel heroes, Daredevil took a bit of tuning to get right. The first issue, drawn by legendary Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett, showed plenty of promise but for Everett a full return to the comics scene was yet to happen and the Joe Orlando/Vince Coletta team took over for issues 2, 3 and 4. The result is not as good and unsteady plotting doesn't help.

Wally Wood takes over in issue 5 and even writes issue 10 himself but the overall results are still uneven. Wood makes adjustments to the original black and yellow DD costume (including creating the DD logo on the front) before introducing the familiar red suit in issue 7.

Matt Murdock's blindness and day job as a lawyer is used to good effect in the non-action sequences with a characteristic love triangle as part of the mix.

These first 11 issues promise more than they deliver though and it would be issue 12 (in Volume 2 of this hardcover set) which would see the return of another artist after years away from superheroes and the Daredevil saga would really start to take off. ( )