The Yellow Devil (not that one.)
Daredevil: Yellow is a 2001 series by Marvel Comics, written by Jeph Loeb with art by Tim Sale,
The series is a re-telling of Daredevil's origin story and early career as well as his budding relationship with Karen Page. The title is an homage to Daredevil's original yellow costume, which he wears throughout most of the story.
The story is part of a Thematic Series, which includes Hulk: Gray, Spider-Man: Blue, and Captain America: White.
Daredevil: Yellow provides examples of the following tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: In this story, Daredevil's title of the Man Without Fear is given to him by Karen after he saves her for the first time.
- Alliterative Name: Matt Murdock. Even his superhero name is alliterative.
- Appropriated Appellation: "Daredevil" was originally an Ironic Nickname given to Matt by the kids who bullied him at school.
- Bait-and-Switch: Daredevil's narration about the Owl's escape, showing the yellow extends only to his costume:My teeth fillings were still rattling from the electric jolts in his punches. If the soles of my shoes hadn't been rubber, I'm sure I would've been hurt a lot worse. So, I did what any blind lawyer with two degrees from Columbia University would have done in this situation. I followed him.
- Color Motif: Yellow, of course. Daredevil's first costume was actually primarily yellow in color, which is due to his father's boxing robe (from which he made said costume) being yellow. He does switch to the more popular all-red costume at the end, after Karen tells him that he ought to be wearing red seeing as he's dressed as, well, a devil. That, and Karen's favorite color is red.
- In addition to the costume, Matt's narration thought bubbles are yellow, every lamp and light in the story is yellow, Karen's hair is colored bright yellow, Daredevil's first supervillain is Electro (whose costume is half yellow and has lots of yellow sparks around him), and the story starts in black and white (except for Daredevil's modern red costume) that was immediately contrasted with the splash of Matt and Foggy's yellow college room wall.
- Bad Guys Play Pool: Not exactly villains, but some pretty rough kids were playing pool at a bar. They quickly make blind jokes at Matt's expense. In response, Matt and Foggy (mostly Matt) swiftly showed them up in a game of pool, with some betting for good measure. What makes them bad guys is the fact that after losing, they gang up on Matt in a dark alley outside the bar. Not that they were any problem for him, though.
- Continuity Snarl: As with many of Loeb's works, the miniseries contains quite a few continuity errors:
- Jack Murdock was shot dead when Matt was in college, which is true to the original comics. However, ever since Frank Miller's landmark run on the title, Matt has been depicted as being only a child when Jack is bumped off.
- Related to the above, Stick makes no appearances nor even gets a mention, even though he's the one who taught Matt how to control his super senses in the main continuity.
- Cue the Billiard Shot: We get this when Matt starts the game. Complete with an awesomely ironic Helen Keller joke.
- Disability Superpower: While we don't see how Matt got his as a child, he does put it to good use as a superhero.
- Dramatic Irony: Karen sees Daredevil and wonders if he'll walk through their door. Matt Murdock then opens the door.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Karen gets the affections of both Matt and Foggy. And the Purple Man, too.
- First-Name Basis: Throughout the story, Matt and Foggy insist that Karen refer to them by their first names (well, nickname in Foggy's case), but she maintains formality by continuously using Mister Murdock and Mister Nelson. Until the very end, when she has become infatuated with Daredevil (not knowing that DD is Matt), she then refers to them using their own names while simultaneously referring to Daredevil as Mister Daredevil, hilariously taking the boys by surprise.
- Also, the first case that Nelson and Murdock take is for the Fantastic Four. When Reed refers to Matt as Mister Murdock, Matt asks him to simply call him by his first name. Reed obliges, and soon after requests the same thing from Matt when Matt calls him 'Sir'.
- Fat Best Friend: Foggy to Matt, although Foggy's merely chubby.
- Framing Device: The whole story is framed as a series of letters written by the Man Without Fear himself to his recently killed girlfriend Karen Page.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Foggy gets progressively more and more jealous of Matt because Karen gives him more attention. He doesn't turn evil, but he does understandably become more irritable towards everything. He even admits that he tried to hate Matt for it, but couldn't bring himself to it because they're...
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Matt and Foggy have been best friends since their college days. Foggy is shown to greatly respect and admire (and is even quite a bit jealous of) Matt, and while he never vocalizes it, Matt thinks quite highly of Foggy as well.
- In-Series Nickname: Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson. Everyone calls him Foggy, even Jack Murdock. Matt wonders how someone with a sharp mind came to be called that, and Karen comments that it's an unusual nickname.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to most Daredevil stories, this miniseries is quite lighthearted, even though it's triggered by a major character's death. Matt noticeably smiles and cracks jokes rather often in the story, which makes sense since it takes place during his early years before any of the messed-up stuff with Kingpin, Bullseye, Elektra, the Hand, or — given the circumstances of said death — Mysterio happened.
- Love Is in the Air: The Purple Man can and does hypnotize people with his aura. As with other versions of the character, he uses this to free himself from jail, brainwash others to fight his enemies for him (or kill themselves as a distraction), and get beautiful women to sleep with him.
- Love Triangle: Matt and Foggy both develop feelings for Karen Page, but Karen only has eyes for Matt. At first...
- Two-Person Love Triangle: At the end of the story, it seems Karen has instead fallen for the superhero Daredevil and ignores advances from both Matt and Foggy. Even though Matt IS Daredevil (but she doesn't know that).
- Mr. Fanservice: Daredevil's body is so well-sculpted that when he saves a troupe of women performers they accost him and ask him if he has a girlfriend or wife. One of them even wishes her boyfriend had DD's muscles!
- Never Found the Body: After an altercation with the Owl ends with both him and Daredevil in the river, Harbor Patrol failed to find the Owl.
- No-Sell: Apparently, the Purple Man's powers only work on you if you see him and his purpleness. Daredevil muses that being blind (and thus color blind) protected him from the Purple Man's mind control, one of the few specific benefits to being blind.
- Origin Story: The story is actually an origin story for three things: Matt's superhero career, the Nelson and Murdock law firm (and by extension, Matt and Foggy's law careers), and most importantly, Matt and Karen's relationship.
- Painting the Medium: Everyone who gets mind-controlled by Killgrave gets painted purple.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Electro is the first supervillain Daredevil fights. It's not a full transplant though, more of a shared custody.
- Self-Deprecation: Matt does this in front of Karen to keep up his cover.Matt: I don't think I'd make a very good superhero, Karen. "Take that, villain! Say, did I hit you or was that the lamp?"
- Super-Senses: Matt, as always. No sight, heightened everything else.
- Talking to the Dead: Well, writing instead of talking, but the principle is the same.
- There Was a Door: When the Fantastic Four came over on their Fantasti-Car to hire Nelson and Murdock, The Thing just smashes his head through their second-floor window. Reed says to him that Nelson and Murdock do indeed have a front entrance.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Slade, the guy who pulled the gun on Jack Murdock, loved pistachio nuts. When Matt went to see him in jail, he requested Matt bring some for him. And when Slade was executed via the electric chair, Matt even considered eating some pistachio nuts in front of him out of spite.
- We Will Meet Again: During his first confrontation with Daredevil, after getting beaten up the Owl flies away, even saying "He who lives to fight another day, and all that."
"TL;DR: If you're going to be a superhero, gooooood luck trying to have a tragedy-free love life."
