Daredevil: 12 Essential Comic Arcs You Must Read

2. Daredevil: The Elektra Saga

When Frank Miller took on the writing/art duties for the title, he introduced the noirish sensibilities and gritty psychological realism that would define the character for decades to come. Daredevil wasn't just a comic about a man in red tights who runs around beating up c-listers anymore, it was a bonafide crime saga with a living, breathing cast of characters, each with their own flaws, ambitions, shortcomings, and insecurities. Revealing Matt Murdock as a Catholic, Miller peeled back the layers of the Man Without Fear's psyche and took a scalpel to the character, picking and prodding. In his hands Daredevil became a multi-dimensional man of conflicted morals, and religious guilt. Hell's Kitchen came to life under Miller's pencils, the writer/artist cloaked the rain-choked streets of New York in shadow, experimenting with panel layouts and composition, and injected the action with a bone-shattering sense of rhythm and realism. You could practically feel the blood, dirt, and grime of Daredevil's NYC on your fingers as you turned the pages. Taking a fairly generic Spider-Man villain in the form of the Kingpin and retooling him as Daredevil's greatest nemesis proved to be a stroke of genius, creating one of the greatest rivalries in comics, and Miller's influence doesn't end there either. From refocusing Ben Urich as a key player in DD's life to introducing a ninja menace in the form of "The Hand", and giving the Man Without Fear a sizzling romance in the form of sexy love interest, Elektra Natchios. Miller really went to town here, shaping a new direction for Daredevil in one of the most ambitious runs of any series.
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Carlos Jimenez hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.