Daredevil issue four. Still pretty crap.
The flashbacks to Matt's childhood are nice. Lee Garbett's art is sick, I've said this from the start. But Stephanie Phillips is leaning on established Daredevil history because this new story isn't pulling its weight.
And here's the actual gripe, the one it took four issues to properly land on. Listen to the main villain. Need to see. Need more offerings. That's it. That's Omen so far. Now put that next to Kingpin in Born Again. Kingpin was terrifying because of his intelligence, his political power, his personal connection to Matt. Omen right now is a creepy looking dude who looks like he's got lost from a horror film searching for eyeballs.
What actually makes a great Daredevil villain
Daredevil has had more genuinely great, sustained villain writing than almost any other character at Marvel. Frank Miller, Ann Nocenti, Brian Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Mark Waid, Chip Zdarsky, run after run, different creative teams, and somehow almost every one of them nailed it. That's not an accident, and it's worth actually breaking down why, because it's exactly the thing Omen is currently missing.
Kingpin, Born Again (Miller & Mazzucchelli, 1986)
The story that set the template. Kingpin doesn't just fight Matt, he discovers Matt's secret identity and systematically dismantles his entire life with it, his job, his reputation, his relationships, before Matt has to claw his way back from nothing. Widely considered one of the best single stories comics has ever produced, and the reason nearly every writer since measures their villain against this one.
Kingpin again, Bendis & Maleev (2001 to 2006)
A completely different attack on the same idea. Kingpin publicly exposes Matt's identity to the press in the opening arc, turning the threat from physical to reputational and psychological. Crime noir through and through, and widely regarded as one of the finest complete runs the character has had.
The Devil in Cell Block D, Brubaker & Lark (2006 to 2009)
Picking up straight after Bendis, Matt ends up in prison alongside the criminals he put away, with Bullseye and Kingpin combined into a single, credible threat from inside the walls. The stakes work because everyone in that story has a real, personal reason to want Matt dead.
Bullseye, Zdarsky & Checchetto, Lockdown (2019 onward)
Bullseye used as a blunt weapon by a shadowy family with their own agenda, culminating in Karen Page's murder, using Daredevil's own weapon against him. Brutal, controversial, and one of the most consequential single moments in the character's modern history. Widely considered among the best Daredevil has ever had, some readers rank it above Miller's.
Notice the pattern. Every single one of those villains is dangerous because of what they know about Matt, or what they take from him personally. Intelligence. Political power. A direct line into his actual life. None of them are scary purely because of how they look.
Where that leaves Omen
Four issues in, Omen's whole presence on the page has been a violent offender with a trail of bodies, chasing Matt down, repeating some version of "need to see, need more offerings." That's atmosphere, not menace. Compare that dialogue to Kingpin calmly, intelligently taking Matt's entire life apart in Born Again, and the gap is obvious. It's not that Omen looks wrong, the design's genuinely unsettling. It's that four issues in, there's still no reason given for why he specifically wants Matt, what he actually knows, or what he stands to gain. Just a repeated need.
And then there's the guest stars
Spider-Man showed up in issue three, before this new version of Matt Murdock had even been properly established on his own terms. Now the Owl turns up in issue four. Both entrances read the same way, a new face brought in rather than time spent building out the actual story already on the page. The Owl's been part of Daredevil's world since the character's very first issues, so his presence isn't the problem. The timing is. Adding names doesn't fix a villain who isn't landing yet, it just adds more plates spinning while the central one wobbles.
The bit that isn't up for debate
Lee Garbett is carrying this book. Strip the art away and look at what's actually on the page story-wise, and it's thin. The flashbacks to young Matt and Battlin' Jack are genuinely well handled, some of the strongest material in the run so far. But leaning on Daredevil's established history to do the emotional heavy lifting only works for so long before the new story needs to start pulling its own weight.
Marvel fans deserve better than a villain defined by a repeated line and a creepy design. Garbett deserves a script that matches what he's doing on the page. Four issues in, that's still the gap.
Where do you land on it?
Reading Daredevil #4 differently, or think the slow burn on Omen is going to pay off? Let me know, always up for talking it through.