Post-Matt Murdock: A Review of Daredevil #14 (Minor Spoilers)

 written by Chip Zdarsky

drawn by Marco Checchetto

colored by Matt Wilson

In the wake of Daredevil's heroic sacrifice last issue, the people nearest and dearest to him look back fondly on him and can't help but feel like he's still around.  Foggy Nelson, in particular, has moved on, continuing his legal practice, but this time with the assistance of former police officer Cole North who works as his investigator and muscle, and Elektra is trying as best she can not to fall back into her old life of killing people, whether for hire or otherwise, and instead tries to keep Hell's Kitchen safe, as Matt did. Both of them, however, struggle with their loss.

I basically called it when I said in my review of the last issue that this issue, which is also extra-sized, would be spent with the supporting characters mourning the loss of Matt Murdock, though I didn't quite figure on the tease for the new status quo in the last few pages of the issue; I thought it'd be something a lot more coy than that.

Anyway as predictable as this issue's story beats were I liked seeing Foggy Nelson's new status quo with the non-lawyer North as his business partner, which is basically a new twist on Nelson and Murdock.  I may have had my issues with Chip Zdarsky's five-year run on this title, but I think that ex-cop Cole North was one of the truly good things to come out of it. I honestly hope Marvel keep him this way and not power him up through some story contrivance.  

I was less enthused by Elektra carrying on the Daredevil mantle, something she has shared with Matt for a couple of years now, but I do appreciate how Zdarsky has really tried to do something different with her character than what's been written all the years before he came along, where she'd either be stoical or tortured about her past. 

I like that Checchetto is closing out his run with some pretty strong art, the kind that was on full display in the "Devil's Reign" miniseries that remains, for me, the high point of this creative team's now-finished tenure. 

I am genuinely excited to see what Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder can bring to the table in the upcoming series reboot. 

9/10