Warning: Daredevil (2023) is a direct sequel to events in Daredevil (2019), Devil's Reign, and Daredevil (2022), so Late Arrival Spoilers for those comics may be unmarked on this page.
Daredevil is 2023 comic book series from Marvel Comics, written by Saladin Ahmed with art by Aaron Kuder. A relaunch and the eighth overall Daredevil series, the series picks up Matt Murdock's and Elektra Natchios' storylines following the conclusion of Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto's Marvel: A Fresh Start-era tenure on Daredevil (2022).
In the aftermath of Zdarsky's run, the war between the Hand and the Fist has come to a bloody end. Both organizations suffered heavy losses, with the Punisher disappearing and Matt Murdock dying to save the soul of Foggy Nelson from the Hand's demonic patron the Beast.
However, as with so many deaths in the Marvel Universe (to say nothing of keeping with Catholic tradition), it didn't stick.
In the war's aftermath, Matt Murdock has been mysteriously brought back to the land of the living — but with a catch: Matt has no memory of his devilish identity.
Instead of returning to his legal career, Matt has instead forged and embraced a new life as a man of the faith. He is now Father Matthew, a priest who watches over a local church that cares for orphans and runaways.
However, not everything is as simple seems. There was a price to pay for Matt Murdock's resurrection — and the bill's coming due. To protect his new charges, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen must rise again...
The first issue was released September 13, 2023.
Daredevil (2023) provides examples of the following tropes:
- Badass Preacher: Matt Murdock as a Priest goes exactly as you'd expect it would.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Even with his memory of being Daredevil repressed, Matt's heroism is still in play as a Priest and with his orphanage project.
- Continuity Overlap: Ahmed's first six months on the book run parallel with the events of Gang War (2023). So, the repercussions of the conflict are acknowledged and have some minor impact on Matt's fight against the Heat (and Butch Pharris' involvement).
- The early run also overlaps with Fall of X, as Wolverine's on the run and pops up in issue #6.
- Costume Evolution: Preview artwork
for Daredevil #1 reveals that while Aaron Kuder has preserved the broad strokes of Marco Checchetto's Elektra-as-Daredevil, elements of her costume have been tweaked (the horns and gloves especially). It's also worth noting that these preview pages were uncolored at the time of the final press release, so it's unclear as of this writing if the costume's coloring template has also been changed or not. - Demonic Possession:
- Elektra is possessed by a mysterious demonic entity that seems to be like the Sin of Sloth.
- Ben Urich is revealed to be possessed by a demonic spirit, but Matt is able to drive the demon out with his crucifix.
- Eyeless Face: The first demon has no eyes on his face.
- Face–Heel Turn: Seems to apply when Matt learns that the source of the articles claiming that he's taking in teen criminals and training them to commit more crimes is Ben Urich, although he soon learns that Ben has actually been possessed by a demon.
- I Hate Past Me: The semi-amnesiac Matt is frightened by his ingrained predilection towards violence and how accustomed he was to it in hindsight.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Most of Matt's memories have been repressed, but having to embrace his need to defend people as a devil breaks some of it.
- Mugging the Monster: A bunch of thugs try to harass Father Matthew when he defends a teenage girl from her abuser. He makes short work of them.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Matt and Joe Robertson both note that Ben Urich is acting out of character, more concerned with staying "relevant" and grabbing public attention than researching the facts behind new stories, but they initially have no idea what is specifically wrong with him until Matt confronts him directly and confirms that Ben is possessed by a demon.
- Retired Badass: Matt starts the run having abandoned the role of Daredevil in favor of a priest. His reawakening memories start to drag him back into being a hero again.
- The Reveal: #3 ends with Daredevil discovering that the person behind the new attacks on his orphanage is Bullseye.
- Starter Villain: The demonic entity in issue #1. He's defeated, but makes it clear he's just the first wave.
- Status Quo Is God:
- After having gone international during the 2022 relaunch, Daredevil returns to Hell's Kitchen. Likewise, Matt's retirement from Daredevil-ing barely lasts the first issue.
- Subverted with Elektra, who's still initially sharing the Daredevil mantle with Matt instead of returning to her pre-Zdarsky assassin identity. It's too early to know, of course, whether this will change or not.
- Issue #1 ends with Matt Murdock back in his more iconic spandex-based costume rather than the Fist's armor or the Civvie Spandex costume that was predominant in Zdarsky's run.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The final press release was published several weeks before Zdarsky and Checchetto ended their tenure. So, elements of their finale were spoiled in advance.
- Unexplained Recovery: The big mystery with this run is Matt's revival following him rescuing "Foggy" and what this has to do with the demons coming after him and his loved ones.
- Variant Cover: The press release reveals Variant Covers will be drawn by Kuder, Daredevil luminary Frank Miller, Ejikure, Pepe Larraz, Alex Lozano, and Whilce Poracio.
