Daredevil #3
Daredevil (Vol. 3) #3 is the issue in which Mark Waid's reinvention of Matt Murdock stops being a premise and becomes a permanent status quo: barred from practicing law in open court due to his publicly whispered-about Daredevil identity, Matt pivots Nelson & Murdock into a legal consulting firm — a structural change that drives the character's dual-life tension for the entire 37-issue run. That narrative pivot, delivered within three issues of the volume's launch, shows how deliberately Waid and editor Stephen Wacker were reshaping Matt's world rather than simply telling self-contained adventures. The broader Vol. 3 series went on to win multiple Eisner Awards, and this issue's Klaw soundshadow threat is the first demonstration that Waid's 'swashbuckling' Daredevil could still face genuinely superhuman menaces without reverting to the grimdark register the character had lived in for over a decade. The first printing also sold out quickly enough to prompt a second printing, confirming immediate reader enthusiasm for the new direction.
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The volume launched in the summer of 2011 under writer Mark Waid and artists Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martín, following the grim Shadowland storyline that had concluded the previous volume. Editor Stephen Wacker, with Axel Alonso as editor-in-chief, oversaw the creative shift — Waid's stated intent was to acknowledge that Matt Murdock had endured so many catastrophes that the only dramatically honest direction was to have him choose, consciously, to embrace his life rather than collapse under it. Issue #3 was penciled solely by Paolo Rivera (who drew six issues of the run), inked by his father Joe Rivera, and colored by series regular Javier Rodríguez.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Mark Waid; pencils and cover by Paolo Rivera; inks by Joe Rivera; colors by Javier Rodríguez; letters by Joe Caramagna; editors Ellie Pyle and Stephen Wacker.
- Cover-dated November 2011; on-sale September 14, 2011 — the third issue of Daredevil Volume 3 (the 2011 relaunch).
- The antagonist is a sonic 'soundshadow' — a duplicate of Klaw — who has captured Daredevil and is building a device intended to locate and recall the real Klaw; the genuine Klaw does not physically appear in this issue.
- Matt Murdock formally reconstitutes Nelson & Murdock as a legal consulting firm specializing in helping clients represent themselves in court, a direct consequence of being effectively blacklisted from courtroom practice due to widespread public suspicion that he is Daredevil.
- Daredevil escapes captivity by deliberately screaming so the soundshadows reflexively copy and amplify it, using the resulting chaos to break free — a solution that exploits the villain's own power against him.
- The first printing sold out, leading Marvel to issue a second printing (a recolored version of Rivera's original cover) that went on sale October 26, 2011.
- The issue is collected in the Daredevil by Mark Waid Omnibus, Vol. 1 (oversize hardcover, first printed 2017), which compiles Daredevil (2011) #1–27 and #10.1 alongside related crossover issues.
- The Vol. 3 series as a whole earned multiple Eisner Awards including Best Continuing Series and Best Writer, with critical recognition beginning in its first year of publication.
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↩ Reprints Moment of Silence #1 (2002)
Reprinted in Daredevil by Mark Waid #1 (2012), Marvel Knights #2 (2012), 100% Marvel. Daredevil: El Hombre Sin Miedo #1 (2012), Daredevil by Mark Waid #1 (2012), Daredevil #1 (2012), Daredevil by Mark Waid #1 (2013), Die offizielle Marvel-Comic-Sammlung #73 (2016), Daredevil by Mark Waid Omnibus #1 (2017), Marvel. Официальная коллекция комиксов #136 (2018)
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