DAREDEVIL #14

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Story by Mark Waid
Art by Chris Samnee
Colors by Javier Rodriguez
Letters by Joe Caramagna
Cover by Paolo Rivera, Mike Dedodato, Matt Hollingsworth, Ed McGuinness, & Dexter Vines

Size: 0 pages
Price: 2.99

It may be hard to believe but the impossible has happened: Daredevil has no had two mediocre issues in a row. I know, that’s crazy! How can Marvel’s best series, far and away, be anything less then amazing at this point? Last issue I pointed towards the art because Khoi Pham’s art wasn’t up to high standards for a book like this. Luckily (or I thought at the time) the new ongoing artist with Chris Samnee has come in to save the day. His last issue was fantastic and while he isn’t Paolo Rivera his style definitely works for Mark Waid…

…Or so I thought. Cause let me tell you something guys: This is the worst Samnee art I’ve seen. I don’t know if Samnee was rushed or he’s busy getting ready for Waid’s other series, The Rocketeer. Whatever the case is, this issue has some crude pencils. Some panels don’t look finished and the layouts are not well defined. Sometimes I can’t even tell what is going on or where Daredevil is running in the streets of Latveria. Since Samnee inks his own work he doesn’t have someone to at least clean up some of the pages. I literally think there are some pages where Samnee just gave up, cause I can’t believe some of these pages got passed quality control. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but I’ve seen nothing but amazing stuff from this guy for years now. So it comes as a total shock on how bad this is. Not even Javier Rodriguez colors can save the issue (and he even made Pham’s pencils look better).

The story on the other hand is pretty intriguing. I’m not sure if Murdock losing his remaining senses has even been a story line before and if it hasn’t good on Waid for coming up with it. So far I fail to see why this has to take place in Latveria, especially if Doom is no where to be found (yet). You could easily do this story in New York City….Except for the final sequence where Daredevil tries to cross the border. Waid obviously went for a ‘The Great Escape’ vibe for the ending and he execute it well either. I’m not sure how we’re going to see Murdock get out of this one cause it seems pretty hopeless if he can’t even tell he’s being dragged away. But I trust in Waid to make this book interesting regardless of the impossibility.

I really, really hope this trend of mediocrity ends next issue for this title. When November comes around this will be the ONLY Marvel book I will purchase. It is a testament to how great this series has been that it’s the last remaining title for the company I will continue to buy this year. But if the series keeps turning out issues like this, where the art is absolutely atrocious considering the talent involved, then I shudder to think this book will be dropped any time soon. But I trust in Mark Waid and Chris Samnee to bring it back together for the coming months. For Marvel’s sake they better hope the quality comes back.

Story: 3 - Good
Art: 2 - Average

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