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Wednesday 6 July 2016

Daredevil, Volume 1: Chinatown Review (Charles Soule, Ron Garney)


Charles Soule and Ron Garney have the difficult task of following-up Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s years-long acclaimed run on Daredevil and, unfortunately, they bungle it.

In some ways it’s an undoing of Waid/Samnee’s Daredevil. Matt is back East, having moved from San Francisco to New York City, there’s no more smiling Matt as the grim tone returns (he and Foggy aren’t friends anymore for some reason), and everyone’s forgotten Matt Murdock is Daredevil again (as part of the Secret Wars fallout?). 

What new stuff Soule/Garney bring is pretty bad: a new sidekick character called Blindspot who has a cloaking suit - geddit?! Yeah, it’s another shite Soule original - toss it onto the pile of awful hackneyed Inhuman/Wolverine characters he’s cranked out since he joined Marvel! 

The bland story is a long way from interesting. A Chinese crimelord called Tenfingers, who has ten fingers on each hand, is doing… something bad in Chinatown involving Blindspot’s mom, and he’s stolen… something from the Hand who want it back. Boring ninja fighting ensues and the book’s over. Wow, really generic, underwhelming stuff, Soule! 

I’m not a fan of Garney’s art in this one either. It’s hella scratchy and, mirroring the narrative’s dour tone, it’s practically black and white - I guess that’s what the naff subtitle, “Back in Black” refers to? Garney also draws one of the stupidest gun designs I’ve ever seen: a handgun with triggers for each of Tenfingers’ fingers per hand!! 

Soule/Garney’s Daredevil falls flat on its face right from the starting blocks. Daredevil used to be a fun, entertaining title and now it’s dull, dreary commercial drek - here’s hoping a new creative team takes over quickly!

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