Things that have me excited for the Daredevil relaunch – Part 5

This time around, I’d like to talk a little bit about the people around Matt Murdock. We already know that Foggy will continue to play a major role in Matt’s life (though they obviously have some things they need to work through), but it seems clear that Waid intends to expand the supporting staff a bit, especially around the law office which makes a ton of sense. In fact, there have been many points in Daredevil’s publication history when the law offices of Nelson & Murdock have seemed a bit understaffed to me.

For much of the Brubaker run, for instance, the only people on staff appeared to be Matt, Foggy, Becky and Dakota. That’s three lawyers and one private investigator, but not a single receptionist, paralegal, personal assistant or secretary. At other times, the firm has had a much larger staff though most of them, with a few exceptions, have been nothing more than mute background elements serving the same function as any other piece of Nelson & Murdock office furniture.

Mark Waid himself had the following (emphasis mine) to say in the supporting staff chapter in Marvel.com series of interviews. This is in response to the question “Are there characters that fit into Daredevil’s world but can’t bleed into Matt’s and vice versa?”

“Uniquely for Daredevil, not really. I mean, there may be someone I’m overlooking, but by and large, everyone fits into both worlds on some level, from Foggy to Dakota North on down. But we will be introducing some new interns and assistants at the Nelson and Murdock law offices who are more “Matt”’s crew than DD’s, including maybe the most infuriating receptionist of all time.“

I have to say, I’m curious about all these new people. Without knowing anything about them (though we’ve already talked about the suspicion that Michele Gonzales might be one of them), I like that there will be more people in Matt’s life. Why? Because a wide range of different kinds of people for the main character to interact with is usually a great opportunity for the writer to explore new aspects of said character and a great chance for us to learn more about him.

Adding new people to a cast of characters that has been fairly static for a long time can be a great way to revitalize it. (And I can’t wait to see who the most infuriating receptionist of all time could be and just why she’s so infuriating.) Bring it! 🙂

PS. I hope you didn’t miss the official preview for Daredevil #1. Superficially, it looks like we’ve seen all of this before, but there are a couple of minor script changes. Can you spot them?