See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my fourth entry, representing #9 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.
9. Daredevil and Spider-Man
“Devil’s Deliverance”
from Daredevil #8 (Marvel, 1998)
by Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti
This was how I got into Daredevil. I hadn’t liked the first couple Daredevil issues I’d picked up as a young child and thus never really collected them. But in 1998, I was interested in Marvel’s “Marvel Knights” line, and brought all 4 new titles. Inhumans remains one of the best comics I’ve ever read. Black Panther was great. And the Punisher series is infamous for turning him into an angel, but I enjoyed it well enough at the time. Probably haven’t gone back to it in 20 years, though.
This is also how I got into Kevin Smith. Not long after reading this I’d see Chasing Amy and Mallrats and finally Clerks, which remains one of my favorite comedy films ever. I’ve since taken every opportunity to see Kevin Smith talk live, probably a couple dozen times by now.
This story is a loving homage to Frank Miller’s work on Daredevil, specifically the “Born Again” series, which I had not read at the time, so did not appreciate. I’ve come to love that series (hint hint) and it’s complicated the question of how to appreciate this homage series in my mind. In “Born Again”, Kingpin tore at Daredevil’s life, trying to take away hope. In this, a MYSTERIOus villain tears at Daredevil’s faith.
The story is mostly wrapped up in 7 issues. The villain stands revealed and dead. But Daredevil is left to deal with the insanity of just how many people, including Karen Page, died for seemingly no reason.
In need of a friend, Spider-Man is there. As Daredevil struggles to make sense of it all, blaming himself and all superheroes for their failings and these mad vendettas they end up entangled with, Spider-Man provides him the needed perspective to restore balance: “You saved that baby girl’s life.”
