4 out of 5

It’s not quite back to the quality of the initial run of volume 3, but these two issues do feel like Waid settling back into a more fitting style for his pitch of DD, which is interesting since these issues are tie-ins to the gloomy-Marvel-event-of-the-year ‘Original Sin.’  It’s doubly interesting since Sin’s gist is that the Big Event has caused ‘secrets’ from our heroes’ pasts to come burbling to the surface, which for Matt Murdock would be an easy opportunity to spiral back into the depression of the pre-Waid years.

What Matty suddenly recalls is a scene in which his mother – absent since he was a youth, but reintroduced during Miller’s run as a nun – recoils with a bruised lip from his father.  Had the revered Jack Murdock been abusive?  …Thus leading Matt to question Sister Maggie (his mum), which leads to the odd discovery that she’s been extradited to Wakanda for crimes against their nation… huh wha?  In a lot of Mark’s stories, he’ll come up with a fun plot quirk such as this one but the eventual explanation is a bit too pat.  Volume 3 avoided this pretty well, and I was pleased that this two-parter followed suit.  And not only that, but it actually successfully used an event tie-in storyline to add to the main character’s history in a way that really doesn’t need to be retconned.  The exploration of why DD’s mom left is sensible, and believable, and doesn’t require mystic Marvel Original Sins to explain it.  I feel like that’s sorta a first for any tie-in book, which almost always come across as silly pauses in an ongoing story.

Javier Rodriguez takes over art duties for this two-parter, but as he’s been moving away from Samnee’s blockier, poppy art-style influence, I haven’t been as impressed with his colors or layouts, which end up making the book look like a fill-in – static panels which suggests he’s not used to the character, which we knows isn’t the case.  This slight misstep with the art, along with Waid’s too syrupy melodrama at points (yes, Sister Maggie is an amazing woman, fine) keep this from being a 5, along with the overall sense that we’re still not dealing with that same confident, smiling Matt that really grabbed our attention at the start of volume 3.  Still, this is a huge step forward from the first five issues of this volume, so hopefully that progress will continue.