Back in Action: A Review of Daredevil #26

written by Charles Soule
drawn by Ron Garney
inked by Matt Milla

Following a five-issue story line that was primarily a bunch of talking heads, writer Charles Soule puts Matt Murdock and his alter ego Daredevil right back in the thick of the action with a tale that brings Matt to China, in search of his protege Sam, aka, Blindspot, who, after being blinded by one of the Inhumans a few story arcs back, has disappeared. Matt has been taking up Blindspot's mantle as protector of Chinatown, thanks to Blindspot's sister, a struggling barista who has reluctantly taken on the task of translating the requests that people used to leave for Sam, when she finds a request addressed to Daredevil himself, or as the Chinese literally translates, "Night Devil Hero," and in fairly short order, Matt takes a leave from his job at the District Attorney's office, who are now hugely grateful to him for his incredible feat before the Supreme Court, and heads to China.

Following the engrossing "Supreme" storyline that was actually heavy on consequence but light on action, Soule, joined here by series mainstay Ron Garney, delivers a perfectly judged return to chop-sockey action for the hero of Hell's Kitchen, and while we only get the action towards the end, it promises to be a very interesting three-issue arc as we discover what has become of Sam.

Soule expands Matt's new world a little bit by introducing another new character, Sam's barista sister who flat out resents her brother for not helping her out more and brings a nice bit of variety to Matt's generally noble cast of characters. She doesn't get much "page time" but there's potential for this character.

Garney's in fine form here. He's no Stuart Immonen (the last person to draw a major Marvel book set in China), but it was really nice to see him render a new environment for DD in the form of the mountains of rural China.

Part of me can't help but wonder if Marvel, first with its "Parker, Inc." storyline over in the pages of "The Amazing Spider-Man" and now this, isn't taking a page out of Hollywood's book and deliberately setting stories in China in an attempt to hook Chinese readers and basically expand their readership. It's not too far-fetched an idea. Personally, I won't mind if the stories are well-conceived, like this one is.

8/10