Lee Weeks revisits a favorite hero in 'Daredevil' series

Brian Truitt, USA TODAY | USATODAY

Lee Weeks is returning to the blind superhero from Hell's Kitchen who was his big break in comic books more than 20 years ago.

Weeks writes and draws the first three-issue arc of the new Marvel Comics anthology series Daredevil: Dark Nights, debuting in June.

It's the first time he's ever written the character, but as an artist, Weeks and Daredevil go way back. In the early 1990s, Weeks penciled the memorable "Fall of the Kingpin" story line in the flagship Daredevil series and closed out the first volume of the book launched in 1964.

While out of the continuity of Mark Waid's current Daredevil series, Weeks' Dark Nights tale originated with the creator seeing a lot of grayness in the heroic storytelling of today.

"And not just in comics but in the culture," Weeks says. "I was taken aback by some of the things some of the characters had done. So I just wanted to tell a story about what it is to be a hero.

"It seems like there's been a love affair with ambiguity sometimes."

Weeks says his arc is a very stripped-down one. A massive blizzard has hit New York City, and Daredevil loses his identity — physically, briefly, thanks to a severe concussion — but finds that he's the only hope for a little girl in desperate need of a heart transplant after her donor heart goes missing.

"In Jack London-esque fashion, and with compromised radar, Daredevil must trek across an icy, immobilized Manhattan, find the lost organ box, and deliver its precious cargo before the ticking clock of the heart's viability runs out," Weeks says.

And in the recovery of it, Daredevil spends much of the story reclaiming his inner identity, as well: who he is and what makes him tick.

"It's a story about hope against hopelessness and redemption," Weeks adds. "No matter how heroic or how big anybody might be, there's also a big element that nobody's doing it alone."

Daredevil is a favorite of Weeks', as well as most creators he knows.

"Visually, the simplicity of his costume is brilliantly beautiful. I love the elegance of his motion," he says.

While he does resemble Spider-Man in some ways, there's a tremendous amount of difference in the way Daredevil moves. Weeks realized that the first time he got a crack at drawing Spidey.

"Spider-Man is more wiry and you never know which direction he's going to go in — like a spider — but Daredevil, because of his blindness, it's just ultimate focus at all times," Weeks explains. "So all of his movements have a controlled grace and symmetry that I don't think you see in any other character.

"And of course the inner stuff, the pathos that comes with him. This element is played up quite a bit, touching on his faith at times, and he wrestles with it. I always love the wrestling match internally to do good."

Writing is always the challenging yet also most rewarding part of the creation process for him, and as an artist the favorite part of any job is the storytelling, Weeks says. "I always looked at (illustration) like I am solving the puzzle that somebody has put before me, and in (Dark Nights), I get to write the puzzle. I get to create the puzzle and solve it at the same time."

And in the case of Daredevil, years of drawing him has been integral for Weeks in getting into his head while writing the hero.

"After a few issues of my first run, you're groping to find out who these guys are. But there's a certain point where, they do begin to tell you what they would say and what they would do," says Weeks, who's working on Dark Nights with colorist Lee Loughridge.

"The interesting thing is finding some of those surprise moments and what he would or wouldn't do in certain situations, but knowing the character is a huge plus: how they stand, their posture, facial expressions, all of those things. They really do have a different personality."