Over my years of reading comics, I've come to perceive the Big Two in fairly narrow dimensions. DC was the grimmer of the two, putting out dark and gritty books about semi-realistic characters like Batman and Green Arrow as well as the all-powerful superheroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. Marvel published, well, mostly silly stuff and seemed to be targeting a younger audience. (How in the world, I ask you, did those X-books get so damned popular?

Anyway, Marvel seems to be making a concerted effort to change its image. With the recent relaunch of Daredevil, written by acclaimed film director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy), Marvel has achieved some success. Early issues of the comic sold out, and Marvel has released responded by collecting the first three issues in a single volume.

Smith's writing is paired with the art talents of Joe Quesada (pencils) and Jimmy Palmiotti (inks). It's a winning combination.

The story begins with two pages of no action. The panels pan slowly over the city (New York) before settling on Our Hero crumpled unhappily in bed. The text on those two pages is a letter from live-in lover Karen Page, explaining why she's leaving him for a job in Los Angeles. (Leaving her 'Devil for the City of Angels ... a nice touch.)

Cut to a page of murder in a maternity ward, then to scenes of a young girl fleeing through the streets with an infant clutched to her chest, pursued by men in suits and a fancy car. And that leads us back to Our Hero, in his civilian guise as Matt Murdock, sitting in the confessional of a nearby Catholic Church. His hypersenses (He's blind, if you're not familiar with the character, but his other senses are heightened.) detect the girl's racing heartbeat and the gunning engine of the car, and before you know it, Daredevil is on the scene in his trademark red tights (leaving behind, no doubt, a bewildered priest). The bad guys are stopped, the girl flees, and Murdock goes back to work at his law office.

From here, the story strays afield from the usual superhero stuff. The girl returns, showing up in Murdock's office. The teen-ager claims to be a virgin, the child a gift from God, the reborn Redeemer. Angels have sent her to Murdock and have revealed his secret identity to her, and she leaves the baby in his care before vanishing.

Daredevil might be able to deep-six a cadre of bad guys without breaking a sweat, but Murdock has no clue how to handle a baby. So he does what any single guy in that situation would do ... he calls a woman for help. (Hey, he's a hero ... that doesn't mean he's not sexist.) Enter former Russian superspy and Avenger Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. the Black Widow. She thinks she's been invited over for a little out-of-tights nookie (Matt and Natasha have a history, y'see) and is instead ramrodded into playing babysitter. The scenes where she first propositions Our Hero and is then left holding the baby are priceless.

The plot thickens. Enter a balding, mustached gentleman who also knows Matt's secret, who claims to belong to an organization which manipulates world events from behind the scenes, and who tells him the child is the newborn Anti-Christ and must be killed.

Meanwhile, Murdock's partner, Foggy Nelson, is set up by a female client who seduces him, turns into a demon and "kills" herself, leaving him to be charged with murder. And Karen Page returns, revealing in a tear-streaked confession that her past life as a porn star and drug addict has caught up with her, and she's been diagnosed with the AIDS virus.

Matt is having a bad day.

Smith's Daredevil is certainly a refreshing change to the stock superhero shenanigans flooding the market. The writing is strong, the characters are real, and the story, superheroics aside, seems believable. The religious overtones are certainly unavoidable, but this is clearly Matt's faith we're dealing with, not a generic proselytization seeking Catholic converts. And the artwork is gorgeous, both dark and colorful.

If your taste runs to superhero comic books but you're tired of the same old stuff, give the new Daredevil a try. You won't be disappointed.