I'm quite surprised at Mark Waid. Fourteen issues into this new Daredevil series and he's still able to make the same ongoing storyline seem interesting. It really takes talent for a writer to do that, and it reaffirms my believe that this is one of the best books that Marvel is putting out.

Despite the cover, however, this book doesn't feature Doctor Doom at all; this was a bit disappointing, as Victor's one of my favourite villains, and we don't see him interact with Matt Murdock a lot. What we do get, however, is one of the most memorable and interesting sequences that I've read this year.

Seeing Daredevil — who already has a disadvantage in the senses department — slowly lose his perception as he goes, well, blind, was interesting because it utilized both the main character's perspective and the one that we, as the reader have.

I felt like yelling "Dude! You're not out of the woods yet!", but knew that DD couldn't hear me. This makes the ending panel all the more painful to watch, and makes me want to check out the next issue.

And ultimately, what we can take away from this is that Mark Waid has somehow managed to make a "superhero loses his/her powers" story interesting and seem fresh. Distilling it to its base elements, the way Daredevil gets put at a disadvantage here is quite formulaic; however, because of the way it was told, it didn't seem as lame as it could've been.

Gold star to Mark Waid.

Daredevil #14
Marvel Comics
$2.99

The Verdict: As I said before, Waid's mastery over the narrative earns this book five billy clubs out of five. After a succeessful crossover with Spider-Man and Punisher, along with this arc... is there anything that can slow this momentum?

B