Daredevil Art by Marco Checchetto

Daredevil
Art by Marco Checchetto

This was a predone piece done by current Daredevil artist Marco Checchetto and is an incredible representation of Marco’s Daredevil Run. Featuring Daredevil and Elektra as Daredevil it sums up so much of Marco and Chip Zdarsky’s run. Marco works digitally so his any examples of his traditional art are rare. His work on Daredevil has been fantastic. These beautiful pieces on red paper look amazing, Marco has shared that they do present their own challenge as you can't really correct any real mistakes and most times need to start the piece over, which makes these all the more impressive.
Daredevil is one of if not my favorite comic character. My first exposure to Daredevil was the PSA comic “Daredevil vs. Vapora” which was given to elementary school students to make them aware of the dangers of gasoline vapors. It was not until 1998 that I was properly was introduced to Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page and Matt Murdock’s horned alter ego, Daredevil, The Man Without Fear. Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti’s art and Kevin Smith’s words were the gateway to the character of Daredevil and their eight-issue arc “Guardian Devil” in my mind is a classic that define the Marvel Renaissance of the late 1990’s early 2000’s. They wrote it as a love letter to what it means to be a hero.
At the time I was probably too young to be watching Kevin Smith’s View Askew movies but alas, “Chasing Amy” was one of my favorite films. Through the comic magazine Wizard I learned that Kevin would be writing a relaunch of the Marvel character Daredevil. I remember being awestruck by the cover image to issue one they released to announce the start of the Marvel Knights Imprint. The cover, which featured a stunning shot of Daredevil leaping midair, throwing his billy club, the New York cityscape below is incredible. The issue was sold out by the time I was able to get to my comic shop but thankfully my best friend who was much wiser than me made sure it was added to his pull list and he let me read his copy and I loved it!!! This opened my world up to an amazing character this is when I went and started reading the past runs. This is where I discovered Frank Miller’s work on the character and this led to Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev’s run which is still my all-time favorite run in an onslaught of great runs by creative teams like Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark, Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin, and Chris Samnee up to the current run by Chip Zdarksy and Marco Checchetto.
When talking about the character I rarely refer to him by his hated childhood nickname “Daredevil” I bonded more with the hero out of costume then in. I remember reading issue six. After Matt’s battle with Bullseye and the murder of Karen page Matt is bandaging himself up overwhelmed with pain and grief Matt grabs a gun from the fight and puts it to his head, for a moment you are genuinely not sure where this is going. Matt drops the gun and violently thrashes out destroying his apartment and collapsing in tears. This was the first time I had ever truly seen a superhero so despondent, in so much pain, so human. He remembers a time where Karen tells him he can never give up, He pulls on his cowl to continue the fight. These moments of strength and grief are what truly solidified the character as my favorite Marvel Character.