As the Covid-19 pandemic entered its second year comics continued to charge forward, with the unchallenged biggest year in the history of the medium (so far!) in 2021. Great books and a public desperate to be entertained combined to make this a great year to be a comic retailer…or a comic fan!
The Year in Comics
Comics in Other Media
Comic Sales
Notable Comics
Top Comic News
Notable Passings
Marvel
Eisner Awards
Dan's Favorite
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil v6 #24-35, Daredevil Epic Collection #5 and 16, Avengers: Marvels Snapshots #1, Marvel Masterworks: Dazzler #2, Namor, the Sub-Mariner Epic Collection #1, Avenger’s Epic Collection #6 and 20, Power Pack Classic Omnibus #2, Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil #15, Heroes Reborn: American Knights #1, Marvel’s Voices: Pride #1, Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders #8, Phoenix Omnibus #1, Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four #23, Thor Epic Collection #7 and Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, along with Daredevil No.1 Halloween Comic Extravaganza 2021, Shang-Chi: Earth’s Mightiest Martial Artist, Marvel Snapshots, X-Men: Fall of the Mutants Omnibus graphic novels
Writer: Chip Zdarsky (#24-35)
Pencils: Mike Hawthorne (#24, #31), Marco Checchetto (#25, #28-29, #33) Checchetto and Hawthorne (#26-27, #30-32), Stefano Landini (#34), Landini and Francesco Mobili (#35)
Inks: JP Mayer (#24), Marco Checchetto (#25, #28-29, #33), Adriano Di Benedetto (#26, #30-32), Checchetto and Di Benedetto (#27), Stefano Landini (#34), Landini and Francesco Mobili (#35)
As the year begins, we open with Matt Murdock behind bars — two years into a sentence he chose — when Elektra pays him a visit with classic Elektra energy and apocalyptic stakes. She and Stick have uncovered a book that could finally wipe out the Hand, but it requires a King and a Queen. Translation: Daredevil and Elektra. Matt refuses, believing prison is his penance. Elektra walks away… but not from Hell’s Kitchen.
On the streets, Elektra becomes Daredevil — literally putting on the horns to protect the neighborhood while Matt can’t. Her first night nearly kills her until Stick intervenes, confirming the book’s prophecy: only one of the King or Queen survives. Meanwhile, symbiotes descend on the city, targeting a mother and her daughter Alice, and Elektra-as-Daredevil jumps straight into the chaos.
The symbiote crisis explodes everywhere at once — Typhoid Mary joins the fight, Fisk scrambles for control, and the creatures even breach Matt’s prison. Mistaking them for Venom at first, Daredevil is briefly overtaken by a symbiote tied to Knull himself, who offers partnership and power. Matt rejects it the hardest way possible — strapping himself into an electric chair to burn the symbiote out rather than escape prison.
Elektra’s war turns personal as Mary bonds with a symbiote and targets her. In a brutal construction-site showdown, Mary kills Alice’s mother, nearly kills Elektra, and walks away believing Daredevil is dead. Elektra survives, consoles Alice, and quietly takes the orphaned girl under her wing — not to comfort her, but to prepare her. “First you’re sad,” she tells her. “Then you’re angry. That’s when I can help.”
Back inside, Matt spirals — poisoned, hallucinating, and haunted by the deaths tied to his past as a prosecutor. Inmates die mysteriously; the warden circles him like a vulture, and when Daredevil is lured into the yard, he’s jumped, stabbed, and left bleeding out as the warden declares him dead.
Crime shifts hands in Hell’s Kitchen while Matt is down. Elektra shakes down Izzy Libris, demands tribute, and Izzy responds by handing control of Hell’s Kitchen to Butch — an Owl defector and, in a major reveal in the Daredevil Annual last year, Wilson Fisk’s son. Meanwhile, Mike Murdock is posing as Matt on the outside, secretly working with Butch to undermine Izzy from within.
Matt survives the prison attack and wakes up in the hospital to Foggy, Kirsten, Cole North, and the FBI. They want his help investigating a string of inside-job murders in exchange for commuting his sentence. Matt agrees… but insists he’ll still serve the full two years. This isn’t about freedom anymore — it’s about responsibility.
Everything starts breaking loose at once: Elektra and Alice survive an ambush when Alice pulls the trigger herself; Fisk and Mary quietly plan their future over dinner; and Ravencroft calls with catastrophic news — Bullseye has slaughtered everyone inside and escaped. Two Daredevils. A rising crime heir. And the Devil’s deadliest enemy is back on the board.
The final story arch of 2021 is an action packed 6-book story arch called “Lock Down”. Which definitely feels like the spotlight for this week.
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil Volume 6 issues #31-36 from August 2021 to January 2022 “Lock Down”
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
Daredevil Rapid Fire Questions
The Takeaway
This was a “making lemonade” year. Sometimes you need to have something big happen to shake things up.
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
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THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History
DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_English-language_comics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marvel_Comics_superhero_debuts
https://comicbookreadingorders.com/marvel/event-timeline/
https://www.comic-con.org/awards/eisner-awards/past-recipients/past-recipients-1990s/