Daredevil: Woman Without Fear #2 Review

Written by: Chip Zdarsky
Art by: Rafael de Latorre
Colors by: Frederico Blee
Letters by: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: February 2, 2022

Daredevil: Woman Without Fear #2 puts Elektra in Kraven crosshairs as Kraven wants the ultimate challenge. Who better to satisfy his “kraving” than the world’s deadliest assassin?

Was It Good?

I’m sorry about the pun. These things can’t be helped.

Daredevil: Woman Without Fear #2 picks up immediately after the cliffhanger reveal at the end of issue #1 with Kraven the Hunter announcing his attention to capture or kill Elektra using Fisk’s file and at Aka’s behest. To Zdarsky’s credit, the story is clean, simple, and straightforward but not at all lacking in emotional tension or drama.

The plot explores what it means to have a weakness when the nature of being a super, hero or villain, is to be beyond human frailty. The weakness, in this case, is knowledge used as leverage. Knowledge of what Elektra has done and what it means if that knowledge were to be given to the only person she loves – Matt Murdock. Kraven know it’s not enough to be an expert fighter, so he tries to use that knowledge to manipulate Elektra to follow him to a fighting place and time of his choosing.

There’s not a lot of complexity to the story, and that’s a good thing. You can’t beat simple and clean when it comes to storytelling, so this issue succeeds in the writing. While it’s almost a certainty Elektra will eventually find her way out of this challenge, Zdarsky is making the journey entertaining enough to hang on.

Of course, Zdarsky needs great action to pull off his story. Thankfully, de Latorre, Blee, and Cowles are up to the task. The emotional moments hit with subtlety and focused impact, the fights scenes gracefully mix super athletics with gritty realism, and the color shading is excellent.

Final Thoughts:

Daredevil: Woman Without Fear #2 is another strong example of simple-yet-effective storytelling. Zdarsky and the art team expertly intermingle small yet powerful emotional moments with rough and tumble hand-to-hand action scenes for brisk and entertaining read.