Marvel's third hardcover originally came out in 2002, and has just been released in trade paperback format as part of the book blitz. Daredevil: Yellow is writer Jeph Loeb & artist Tim Sale's look back to the character's early days: when our hero was wearing an ugly yellow-&-black costume. (It only lasted six issues, 'til artist Wallace Wood took over the title: I guessing the redesign was his idea.) Long-running comics titles often resort to this ploy - rewriting story history that was first created on the fly gives the writers a chance to act as if the first flubs never happened. As reboots go, this 'un is successful.

Loeb starts w./ the origin, natch, but where he tweaks the tale is in focusing on the nascent romance between our hero and doomed secretary Karen Page. The whole story is presented in flashback - spurred by a series of letters that Murdock is writing to his departed lover at Foggy's suggestion (ever get the sense that Matt's partner would be more satisfied as a therapist than a lawyer?) - rendered more brightly by Sale & colorist Hollingsworth. Sale's art lies somewhere between Sienkiewicz caricature and Maleev's shadowy realism, which suits this nostalgic flashback. Not much here that'll surprise those who know the character, but at least Loeb eliminated some of the more outre plotlines. This may be bad news for lovers of oddball comics, but, hey, I've read somewhere that comic books aren't for kids anymore, so that's probably no big loss, right?

The highlights in the book are the triangle scenes 'tween Matt, Karen & Foggy, which the creative team treats like an old movie romance. The approach is smoother than the original Yellow Period stories, though at some point you've gotta wonder whether this reliance on slick Hollywood script moves isn't a reductive spiral: comics feeding movies feeding comics and so on. . .

What about the actual comic mags, you ask?

At this writing, Daredevil is presently appearing in two putative monthly titles: the Bendis/Maleev book plus a Marvel Knights mini-series written by movieman/comics fan Kevin Smith and illustrated by Glenn Fabry entitled Daredevil: The Target. (Smith has had his hand on the character before; an earlier mini-series is available in as a Marvel Visionaries trade.) Fabry has a knack for making all of his characters look constipated - which seems appropriate for a "monthly" title that's only seen one issue since its November debut.