(writer) Mark Waid
(artist) Chris Samnee
(colorist) Javier Rodriguez
Now a resident of and practicing lawyer in San Francisco, Matt Murdock is still adjusting to the single biggest status quo shift his writers have ever given him. Deputy Mayor Charlotte Hastert pays him a visit, telling him that one of his old enemies, the Owl, may be coming to town. In the meantime, Matt faces a more immediate threat; a washed-up superhero named the Shroud who, like him, is a blind martial arts expert, but who also has some darkness manipulating power, and who may turn out to be more of a pain that Matt originally imagined. Also, there's an interesting development regarding the fate of Foggy Nelson.
This issue doesn't quite have the bombast of last month's debut, which is quite understandable given that Waid and Samnee are now settling into their narrative rhythm, but they nonetheless maintain the standard of excellence they established when they started working together way back in issue #12 of their previous volume of this series.
I loved the "fake-out" depicted in the first four pages of the issue, which featured the Shroud basically dreaming about the kind of life he wanted, only to realize it was being lived by someone else. I've only encountered this character once before, in a throwaway "Spectacular Spider-Man" storyarc back in 1993, and even then I found him somewhat unremarkable, although notably it was never mentioned that he was blind. Like Deadpool, who was originally a parody of DC Comics' Deathstroke, the Shroud was a deliberate mashup of preexisting characters in this case Batman (orphaned when his parents were shot dead in front of him, studied martial arts to be a hero) and the Shadow (has some kind of supernatural power over darkness), but unlike Deadpool he never really took off as a property.
Given his physical impairment, it's interesting that it took so long to pit the Shroud against the Marvel Universe's preeminent blind martial artist Daredevil, but now that Waid's finally gotten around to it, round 1 is pretty spectacular to watch. Matt doesn't quite flex his brain as much here (though he undoubtedly will next issue) as he did in the first issue, but it was fun to see him show off his extraordinary hearing to detect someone sneaking around on his roof. The main highlight of this issue was the fight scene, and what a throwdown it is, courtesy of Chris Samnee.
I'm fairly sure I've praised Samnee in other reviews I've written, but quite honestly I cannot seem to praise him enough. I could wax lyrical about how his depiction of Daredevil in action is like visual poetry, but I think it's sufficient for me to say that I like this guy's work better than that of anyone who's ever worked on this character, including Frank Miller, John Romita, Jr. and Joe Quesada. In fact, if Jim Lee himself renounced DC tomorrow and declared that he wanted to work on Daredevil, I honestly cannot imagine him doing a better job on this book than Samnee is doing right now. I can think of no higher praise. The irony is, I didn't even think Samnee would be a good fit for this book when I first found out he'd be working on it. I have never been happier to be proven wrong in my life.
Anyway, I'm hoping Waid and Samnee have big plans for the Shroud, whether as a misguided hero or a headache for Daredevil because this issue has shown a lot of promise. Also, I continue to wait on bated breath to see how Foggy Nelson's story will unfold.
9/10
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