I’ve made no bones about my absolute love of Daredevil. He’s one of my favorite all time characters, and I always love reading new takes on the character. I haven’t really invested in any of the other Noir books, but when I saw that this one had DD in it, I figured that I would give it shot. The end result is a mixed bag for me. Story-wise, the issue just felt a little…safe. The creators didn’t really stray too far from the DD mythos. It seems that they just placed him in a different setting with a different job. This does help the tone a little, but I guess I would have appreciated more risk taking with the story. As it is, this feels like a storyline that could have taken place in the regular DD book with the time period updated to the current time frame. It doesn’t necessarily make the issue boring, but I didn’t really feel anything special about the issue.My one other gripe has to do with the way the story starts. I sometimes hate noir books that start with the end at the beginning and then recounts the story. It’s such a cliched way to tell a noir story, and again, this would have been made better by a fresh approach to noir.

One of the big positives that this issue has going for it is the art. It’s simply stunning. Dark tones and a muted pallet really set the mood of the book. The art reminds me of Gaydos with a sprinkling of Lark. It’s got this very nice simple line that is enhanced by the darker mood of the book. All of the layouts were dynamic and the characters were all distinctive. It was just an excellent book to look at.