Daredevil Noir

The idea behind the Marvel Noir books is that instead of coming to being in the early 1960s, the Marvel Universe explodes in the 1930s or 40s. My first experience with the Noir universe was Nicolas Cage's voice over of the gumshoe Spider-Man from Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. Thanks to that occurrence, I know that the Marvel Noir books are supposed to be more edgy, sexier and deadlier than what you'd expect from an Earth-616 based comic.

Daredevil Noir was given an Parental Advisory rating. While it wasn't as tawdry as a Vertigo Comic, there was definitely an edge to this story. Probably because there was such a huge body count. 

Instead of being doused with radioactive chemicals, the Noir Matt Murdock was born blind but always imbued with his radar-like abilities. Known for being fearless and a bit of a daredevil as a child, Murdock works for attorney Foggy Nelson as his private detective. Nobody suspects a blind guy as being a snitch. 

Nelson and Murdock are hired by the girlfriend of an up-and-coming gangster. She's been abused by this thug and seeks revenge by having the guy brought down a peg or two. The fact that the crime boss is also the man who killed Matt's father in cold blood is just the icing on the cake to take the assignment.

This is one of those series that I have to blame my qualms on the inker or the colorist. Or both. The story by Alexander Irvine (Iron Man: Rapture) was pretty good. And the artwork by Tomm Coker (Black Monday Murders) was absolutely brilliant. But the coloring of this story is so dark that I had trouble making out characters. I'd know who were the main characters. But you throw in some smaller roles and with that constant addition of rain and shadow, this made it impossible for me to figure things out from time to time. 

Being published in a slightly larger format than that of a digest didn't help the visuals either.

Don't get me wrong. The ending was great. Open-ended but tremendously well choreographed. The big reveal towards the end was jaw-dropping. However, I wasn't such a big fan of including characters that had zero parallel to a modern Marvel counterpart. But I guess if you did that, then that major twist would've been ruined. 

When you add everything up, I think the pluses and minuses equal each other out. I was entertained. But it's not something I will consider keeping in my collection.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.