Daredevil #5

History

By 2011, Daredevil had spent more than a decade in near-constant narrative despair — through the Bendis, Brubaker, and Diggle eras — and the post-Shadowland relaunch under editor Stephen Wacker was conceived as a deliberate tonal correction. Mark Waid, announced at the C2E2 convention in March 2011, entered the title with the explicit creative philosophy that Matt Murdock's defining quality was resilience rather than misery, and that the book should recapture a 'superhero swashbuckler' energy. Rivera and Martín were planned from the start as a rotating artistic tandem whose similar sensibilities — both practitioners of a clean, design-forward, classically grounded style — would hold the run's look consistent across their respective arcs, with #5 being Martín's first full interior assignment on the title.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Issue is Daredevil Vol. 3 #5, cover-dated December 2011; written by Mark Waid with interior art by Marcos Martín — Martín's debut as interior artist on the series.
• Marcos Martín's solicitation cover copy for the issue reads 'The Death-Defying Debut of Marcos Martín!' — the issue was marketed around his arrival on the title.
• The plot centers on Matt Murdock taking the case of Austin Cao, a whistleblower who overheard Latverian deal-making between Midas Investments and multiple megacrime organizations including Hydra, A.I.M., and the Secret Empire — the conspiracy that would become the Omegadrive arc.
• First appearance of villain Mr. Zachary, the Midas Investments operative who deploys the super-strong mercenary Bruiser against Daredevil and Austin Cao.
• The issue contains a key scene between Foggy Nelson and Kirsten McDuffie (first introduced in Vol. 3 #1) in which Foggy challenges McDuffie's belief that Matt is Daredevil by suggesting she go on a date with him — an arrangement McDuffie accepts, setting up the romantic thread Waid would develop across the run.
• Editor Stephen Wacker oversaw the issue; the series' rotating art model (Rivera and Martín alternating arcs) was a deliberate editorial decision to maintain visual consistency while keeping both artists on sustainable schedules.
• The Waid run as a whole — including this issue's arc — won the 2012 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series; Daredevil #7 from the same run won Best Single Issue that same year.
• Issues #1–6 of the run (including this issue) are collected in the 'Daredevil by Mark Waid Vol. 1' hardcover and trade paperback, as well as the Daredevil by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 1.

Full credits

Key issues in Daredevil

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#3 1st appearance — Una Stromwyn

Variants (1)