By Charles Soule, Ron Garney and Matt Milla

This is not Thor: God of Thunder Ron Garney. I thought I knew what art to expect when I opened this book up and I was wrong. Ron Garney and colorist Matt Milla are brilliant in the series debut.  Garney has always been a solid artist, but he reaches such a rough and shadowy level on Daredevil #1. Garney and Milla make a terrific team and place their stamp on this book in a big way. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about Soule. His lack of definitive style leaves the book cold and boring.

Soule has always been hit or miss. He burst onto the comic scene with a bang and became the hottest writer for hire in a hurry. Unfortunately. either I got used to his style or his work started to suffer. I enjoy Soule on books where he can let his goofiness shine through. Comics like She-Hulk and Lando hit all the right beats, while talking head books like Civil War and Inhumans put me to sleep. The problem with Soule paired with Garney and Milla is that the goofy Soule writing won’t work. Even though Matt Murdock can be sort of a goofy character, at least that is what worked for Waid, Soule finds himself caught in the middle. He is trying to write a tough Matt Murdock to fit the art style while still making him likeable. Somewhere in the middle he is falling flat leaving the reader with no connection to the character. In the end I’m just looking at fantastic art wishing there was something cool to go along with it.

Matt Murdock is set to take on his new role in New York city, that of a Prosecuting attorney. This is part of the new take on Matt as the tough guy. A guy who is sick of defending the guilty and is ready to put the criminals behind bars and I’m not a big fan of the switch. The reason Matt is such a good defense attorney is because he knows when people are lying, so he never has to defend the guilty. Matt starts his first case and is out to prove that he is in fact a hard ass.

Garney and Milla’s panels of Daredevil in costume are so beautiful that I feel disappointed when it’s just Matt. Mix that with Soule’s uninspired dialogue and I completely lost interest by the last few pages. There is even a big twist revealed in the final panel, but with little character development and my attention fading, the “Oh shit!” they were going for felt more like a “Hmmm okay”. If the story improves this could be a great comic, if it doesn’t improve it is a waste of some top notch art. I think Soule has it in him if he focuses the style and figures out who he wants Matt Murdock to be, he just hasn’t found it yet here.

• Dean