Here's a look at the dynamic cover art by Alex Ross for Dynamite's Free Comic Book Day offering promoting the Project Superpowers series in which Ross and writing partner Jim Krueger resurrect a number of classic Golden Age heroes including the original Daredevil (now known as The Death Defying Devil). With this series Ross is attempting to make the retro Golden Age heroes he loves cool once again, and he appears to be having some success -- the budget-priced Project Superpowers Issue #0 sold over 130,000 copies (and came in at #4 in ICv2's January list of the "Top 300 Comcs"), while the full-priced #1 issue came in at #29, an excellent showing for a non-Marvel/DC title.
The original Daredevil, who is not related in anyway to Marvel's Daredevil, was created by Jack Binder as a back-up feature for Lev Gleason's Silver Streak. Plastic Man's Jack Cole totally revamped the Daredevil character and pitted him against The Claw in a five issue series that Ross alludes to in his FCBD cover. Bart Hill, the alter ego of the original Daredevil, was raised in the outback by aborigines and was a master of the boomerang. The original Daredevil got his own title starting in July of 1941 in which "Daredevil Battles Hitler" a full five months before the
It is clear that Alex Ross has always derived a great deal of inspiration from the colorful and plentiful pantheon of Golden Age heroes. The costume Ross designed for Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt in the 1996 DC miniseries Kingdom Come was clearly inspired by that of the Golden Age Daredevil.
