The 1990s could have been better to Daredevil. Not to say that there was some good work with the character, but there was a noticeable decline. Daredevil was considered one of the less popular characters during the majority of the decade. But then, Marvel decided to create the Marvel Knights imprint to focus on breathing new life to a handful of characters. With art by Joe Quesada and the story from Kevin Smith – yes, the same guy behind movies like Clerks & Chasing Amy – Daredevil was brought back into the spotlight. “Guardian Devil” made people care about the character again. But now that so much time has passed, is it worth reading?

Here is a brief breakdown of the story. It starts with Karen leaving Matt a letter. She decided to take a job on the west coast. Shortly afterwards, a young girl comes to Matt with a baby she gave birth to despite claiming she is a virgin. But a mysterious man behind an unknown organization is also after the child. While the mother claims that her child is destined by God to be Earth’s savior, the man claims that the child is the Anti-Christ. Matt is left paranoid and conflicted on what to do and his mental state begins to deteriorate. That is the non-spoiler version, so from this point on, you’ve been warned.

Let’s start easy with the art. It’s decent. Honestly, there isn’t much else to say beyond that. I’m familiar with some 90s artwork so I know it was better than some other titles from the industry. But ti isn’t really special compared to today’s artwork. It’s for the best that we don’t spend too much time on the artwork. Kevin Smith is a good writer, but when it comes to comic books, he is known to often make controversial decisions. And we’ll get to that shortly. But I do want to address some of the strong points as well.

By the final issue, it is revealed that the super-villain behind this whole affair is Mysterio AKA Quentin Beck. This is a genuine surprise, considering he’s often associated with Spider-Man. It’s revealed that Mysterio has Cancer and since that diagnosis, he’s been working on what he calls his swan song. Researching Daredevil/Matt, manipulating people to set-up the story and use his expertise in special effects to help sell the lie. All to mentally torture Matt and force him to kill Mysterio. Yet when the moment finally comes, Matt doesn’t do it. He criticizes him for never coming up with his own plans, getting his scheme ideas from other villains. This leads Mysterio to take his own life. You could make an argument, that based on how the scene plays out, Matt could be at fault for basically talking Mysterio into such an act. But once you realize just how much destruction he brought down on Matt, his friends, and so many other people, we can let Matt use the Batman Begins loophole of not actively saving the villain.

That actually ties into one of the larger themes of the story. Part of the focus is on Matt’s faith and how he often struggles with it. There are parts of the story where Matt does come off a bit as being extra broody. But other characters do point out to him the silver lining of events and what he does in general. And those facts do help ground Matt and make him realize what’s important and why what he does is needed. This could be seen as the story subtly undoing the 90s mindset of how dark superheroes should be. But instead of making fun of how extreme those tropes can get, it points out the reasons why heroes are heroes in the first place. It helps reconnect Matt with his sense of purpose.

But going back to the dark stuff, there are a couple of things in the story that haven’t really aged well. And unfortunately, both center around Karen Page. She does end up returning to Matt during the story. But during a scene at a church where Bullseye goes on a killing spree, Karen jumps in to protect Matt and is dealt a death blow. Pretty much turning this into a “fridging the girl” trope. In addition to the death of such an important character, she discovers she is HIV positive and during an argument with her, Matt blames that on her being a junkie and sleeping with “God only knows who and how many people” in his words. Yea…this is a character that Matt has loved and been in a relationship with for years. And he tells her that she and her reckless behavior are to blame for getting the disease.

This in isolation is bad! Even looking at it from the context that Matt is being mentally tortured and manipulated doesn’t really make it better. Also…this does point out a serious issue in their relationship. Karen’s letter to Matt back in the first issue highlights how she is always going to feel indebted to Matt. Keep in mind, she did sell Daredevil’s identity for a fix. And he forgave her for that, yes. But he doesn’t forget that kind of thing. So Karen always feels like their relationship is based on him letting her back into his life. That he is more in love with the idea their relationship can triumph over any problem, including the ones she causes. They were constantly breaking up and getting together, each time showing their relationship is pretty toxic and destructive.

To this story’s credit, this part of the story is indirectly called out. Black Widow has shows up throughout the story but has an important conversation with Matt in the final issue. She points out to him that he seems to harbor an unconscious hatred for women in his life. His mother left when he was a kid, Karen sold out his secret identity, Typhoid Mary dated him only to get close and attack him. These are just a few instances of Daredevil’s troubled love life. This doesn’t really excuse what he said, but he is pushed to try and do some soul searching. But since this is the closest we get to him being called out for that statement, that problematic moment still has a sour tone to it. But is it enough to ruin the entire story? Speaking for myself, no. I’ve seen comics handle the HIV/AIDS topic far worse from this same time period. At least Matt’s attitude is called out to a certain extent.

With that out of the way, I do enjoy this story despite the major flaws. Although this isn’t a story that I want to have a physical copy of. But I can understand if a group of people have ended up hating how this story aged. Reading it once is probably enough for those looking to get caught up on Daredevil comics. But they should read the other comics from Daredevil’s second volume for a treasure trove of stories. And I think that’s the best praise I can give “Guardian Devil”. Good enough for the time to lead to other beloved stories featuring the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.