First, let me just say that I've never been a big fan of Daredevil. In fact, I generally downright loathe him. I'll freely admit most of my prejudices come from the terrible 2003 film starring Ben Affleck (I went to look up the year it came out on IMDB and unsurprisingly IMDB told me "People who like this film also like Batman Forever") so I probably went into this comic expecting to hate it.

Turns out, there's very little to hate. It's dark, gritty, and above all human. Nermy hit it right on the head when said Waid used Matt Murdock's blindness as an actual disability. I loved that Daredevil's echolocation was incomplete, missing the very important fine details. I guess I just like my superheros fallible (which probably explains why I absolutely loathe a certain DC superhero who up until recently wore his red underwear on the outside of his blue tights).

Having little contact with the Fantastic 4, I really don't know much about the "artifact." A blind guess (no pun intended) is that it's The Human Torch's badge, so that kind of took me out of the story periodically. Regardless, the story was still interesting and easy to understand for someone who was just jumping in.

I also really enjoyed the art in this one. The fine details, the crisp edges and the complex backgrounds made for a great reading experience and that's something quite refreshing after last week's visual trainwreck.

In the end I'm guessing my prejudices will win out no matter how great the art or the story is. I just don't care enough about Daredevil to continue reading. Regardless for someone just getting into comics who wants something that epitomizes today's dark, gritty super-heroes, this is it. This ain't your daddy's Superman.

Final Rating: 8/10


Added to my pull list: No