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Matt Murdock is an old man. His powers faded long ago, leading him to give up his life as Daredevil. Now, he's a simple priest, running a soup kitchen in an embattled future version of New York City. But there's something brewing beneath the city streets that will snap Matt Murdock back into action, restoring his powers and his faith in himself as a hero.
That's the set up for Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell #1, a flash-forward comic by former Daredevil series writer Charles Soule and all-star artist Steve McNiven, who delivers some of the most definitive work of his career. It's a kind of Daredevil-centric take on Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, digging into the essence of Matt Murdock and providing a perfect companion story to the current Daredevil: Born Again streaming series.
Spoilers ahead for Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell #1
Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell #1 opens with an elderly Matt Murdock having a one-sided conversation with a headstone that has a hidden inscription. Though it seems that Murdock is speaking to a lost loved one, perhaps Elektra, he's actually speaking to the grave of Wilson Fisk. As Matt declares that the current strife in his world, including NYC being torn apart by war with terrorists, is all "part of God's plan," he makes his way slowly to his soup kitchen.
As it turns out, Matt's aging has cost him his powers, which faded slowly as he grew older. Now, he's no longer Daredevil, and hasn't done any fighting in years. But trouble still seems to find him as he's mugged by two crooks who take his money, barely showing him any pity by leaving him his cane.
Matt, coming face-to-face with the trouble that surrounds him, trudges on to his soup kitchen. But as fate would have it, there's something more going on. When a major terrorist attack blows up the nearby subway tunnels, bathing the surrounding area with radiation that suddenly brings Matt's powers roaring back.
As he ignores his creaking and cracking old bones to leap back into action for the first time in years, Matt comes face-to-face with none other than Steve Rogers, who is protecting a young girl. Steve, who is gallantly holding up a ton of rubble as his strength wanes, begs Matt to protect the girl, as whatever's going on, it all centers on her.
Matt doesn't hesitate to take Steve at his word, even as the rubble crumbles, killing the former Captain America. This sets up a new adventure for Matt, finding his way back to heroism in order to protect a young girl he knows nothing about. And with one of his oldest foes - a twisted, broken Bullseye - waiting in the wings, things are just ramping up.
In a way, Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell #1 forms a perfect companion piece for the current Daredevil: Born Again stream series, in which a retired Matt Murdock finds himself increasingly drawn back to his life as Daredevil by the dire circumstances unfolding around him. But unlike the cynicism that paints Born Again, in which both Matt and Wilson Fisk struggle to overcome their "violent nature," as Kingpin puts it, Cold Day in Hell is tapping into the hope that comes with Matt Murdock's double life.
In a world that has become violent and cold, Matt Murdock never hesitates to help those around him, be it by running a soup kitchen, or by running headline into untold danger without a second thought. Not because he feels a lack of control, but because he knows people are in need. It's a ray of hope wrapped in a dystopian cloth - something that feels as resonant as ever in 2025.
Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell #2 goes on sale May 14.
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