Daredevil #18 – Review

By: Mark Waid (story), Chris Samnee (art), Javier Rodriguez (colors)

The Story: The one time when coming home to find a woman in your bed isn’t exciting.

The Review: Due to real-world business, Alex will be on semi-hiatus for a week or so.  Very sad, of course, but stiff upper lip and all that.  On the bright side, it gives me a chance to review Daredevil, one of the few Marvel titles which inspires enthusiasm in me.  Truth be told, I haven’t actually ever picked up the series before, as in handed over money for it and walked an issue out the store; my comics budget is a bit tight these days.  But even skimming, I can see the quality.

So without further ado, let’s get to it.  The first thing I notice right off is how easy it is to jump into the story with almost no background familiarity whatsoever, and still carry on.  The always-helpful recap page has something to do with that, but it doesn’t even seem necessary in this case.  Waid clues you into all the necessary information so efficiently that you barely notice, using Matt’s internal narration to great effect.  Instead of rambling pieces of exposition which suck all the air out of the action, Matt’s recollections seem to build momentum and tension for the scene.