REVIEW: Daredevil #1

Story: Charles Soule
Art: Ron Garney
Colors: Matt Milla
Publisher: Marvel
Release Date: December 2, 2015

Everyone’s favorite blind lawyer is back with a new series, and brings with him a new, superstar creative team to tell his story. Charles Soule and Ron Garney have teamed up to bring Daredevil back to NYC to deal with new allies and villains in All New, All Different Daredevil #1

Immediately upon cracking open the issue, you will notice a stark difference in presentation. While the previous run on Daredevil had a more upbeat feel to it, this book leans more toward the dark and gritty. a more uniform, subdued range of colors is being used by colorist Matt Milla in comparison to the wide range of “loud” colors that helped give the previous volumes a unique feel. I found this to be a pleasant change in pace as it presents the character in a more serious light.

Readers don’t have to wait long for the action, as we are treated to full on Daredevil heroics within the first few pages. One of the areas that the previous series excelled at was capturing the various ways in which Daredevil utilizes his abilities. Soule & Garney continue that tradtion while showcasing a terific underwater rescue attempt in the early pages. During the issue’s introductory skirmish, we also learn that Daredevil has a new ally/student that he is training to become a superhero in his likeness. We get our first glimpse of Foggy Nelson in this issue as well, and his love/hate relationship with his best bud Matt Murdock seem to be alive and well in Soule’s story. Later in the issue we learn that upon returning to NYC Matt Murdock has resumed his law career. However now instead of defending people, he is a low level prosecutor and is attempting to get the man he saved in the beginning of the issue to testify against a new villain going by the name TenFingers. The issue closes out giving us our first look at Daredevil’s new adversary, as well as a pretty significant plot twist in the final panels.

As introductory issues go, Daredevil #1 is top-shelf. Charles Soule starts Daredevil’s journey off slow, allowing readers to absorb the changes in his life while managing to supply us with the “Daredevil vs the field” type fight that we have all grown to love from our blind hero. The artwork in this issue is some of the best I have seen from Ron Garney. His art is clean cut and straight forward, while still implementing his own stylized take on the character and his surroundings. Matt Milla’s colors contribute just as much as Garney’s pencils to the absolutely stunning artwork. It’s easy to tell that this version of Matt Murdock will be vastly different than his previous presentation.

Final Verdict: BUY, BUY, BUY..This book is terrific. It’s very different from the last version of Daredevil, but it’s great. I hope this creative team sticks together for the long haul on this title.

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