“Yesterday’s” Comic” Uncanny Origins #13

Oddly, the yellow and red combo ISN’T his worst outfit.

Uncanny Origins #13

Marvel Comics (September, 1997)

This series was a retelling of various Marvel character’s origins that weren’t given to the audience every other issue, like Spider-Man’s was. I picked up most or all of them, but this is one that was in a different pile, which is why it’s being reviewed first.

While some of these stories focused on key moments on a character’s life, this issue is simply the origin of Daredevil, so basically a rewrite of the first issue. There is a framing device that Daredevil comes across a gym on the way swinging over to a banquet where he receives a “Lawyer Of The Year” award.

What they got right: It’s Daredevil’s origin. There aren’t a lot of changes from the story I remember; at best just a better defining of Matt’s powers. The art is good, but be forewarned: Uncanny Origins tended to use a style similar to the “Adventures” tie-in titles of the time (which looked nothing like the cartoon most of the time, but I digress). This was intended to be all-ages, leaning toward younger readers. So it’s not the same as the usual Marvel titles, but for that style is is one of the better issues.

What they got wrong: I suppose this helps new, younger readers be introduced to Daredevil, but his appearance in the 90’s Spider-Man cartoon already did that. His guest-star two-parter featured the exact same origin, except the cartoon tied the death of Jack Murdock (and they go through a lot of trouble not naming Jack’s dad in this comic) to the Kingpin. Like I said, most of these comics chronicled the major events until present day, and I know more interesting things happened to Murdock and his Daredevil persona between the first issue and 1997.

Recommendation: Nowadays this is a good issue to introduce kids to Daredevil and it isn’t bad for adults either, although you can find the first issue of Daredevil online at ComiXology.

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