Part of an ongoing series revisiting graphic novels and collected editions from days gone by....

Daredevil is a character that has been handled extremely poorly in some incarnations, but in Yellow, a book that looks back on Matt Murdock's courtship of Karen Page at some point after her (pointless) death, is a sweet, sometimes poignant recounting of his early years in the costume (back when its dominant color was, as the title suggests, yellow), his father's death is still fresh in his memory, and Karen comes to work in the newly formed New York City law firm of Nelson & Murdock.

The story is kind of sweet, even as Matt sweeps Karen out from under his partner's (and best friend's) best romantic intentions. There are superhero fights in Yellow, but they are secondary to the major plot points, which are the death of Matt's father for refusing to throw a boxing match and, of course, the early stages of his romance with Karen.

The book is presented as a letter written by Matt to Karen who, having died, will never read it. It's a plot conceit that works well in this context.

Writer Jeph Loeb tells a good story here and, while his longtime partner Tim Sale has never been my favorite comic-book artist, his pinched style works well here, especially because his relaxed version of Karen looks especially cute in contrast. Together, the team -- who have also collaborated for DC on the likes of Batman's The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, Catwoman's When in Rome, and Superman's For All Seasons -- have put together a touching story that makes me remember again why Karen's pointless death made me so angry at the time.

Comic-book writers (or is the the editors?) simply don't like their heroes to be happy in love. Sigh.

Loeb and Sale would follow up on Yellow with two similarly color-themed flashback books for Marvel: the very successful Spider-Man: Blue and the less spectacular Hulk: Gray.