"Hearing Everything Is The Same As Hearing Nothing"
With those words Daredevil spoke to the essence of this book: cutting out the noise and finding specific information. Everything about this book revolves around seeing the tiny clues hidden in the sea of information. From the start, the mobsters/terrorists suss out that Cao's boss is trying to protect him based on suspicion and investigating the clues that Cao's boss failed to properly obfuscate.
In the apartment we also have the literal filtering, with Matt hearing the rifle cock and the hit men attacking him. Hilariously, he's able to turn on the lights on their night vision goggles, flooding the display with light noise and hiding their target, Matt Murdock, from their view. Upon their escape, Matt tries to filter through Cao's noise and get at just what he heard. What was it that he heard that put his life in danger?
It all culminates with Daredevil on Cao's boss' boat. Sea locations are, well, noisy. It's tough to hear details when the sea is bucking and the boat's engines are humming. There's a tense moment as Daredevil's assailant, Bruiser, lands on the boat, but Matt's inability to suss out Bruiser's powers leaves him defeated and thrown into the water.
On top of all that Foggy has recruited Kirsten who, despite clues to the contrary, is not Foggy's girlfriend to try and suss out what it is that Matt is hiding under the surface. His deception is so great that Foggy, his best friend, can't see past the noise.
Per usual, Mark Waid's book is spot on as he elegantly explores what the world looks like to a blind man. Being unable to tell which cabs are free is a luxury that us sighted folk take completely for granted. It's the little touches like that, combined with the thematic consistency of each book, that make Daredevil so good.
Every issue I give Martin or Rivera props on their treatment of onomatopoeia because they absolutely knock it out of the park every issue. Bullets fly in windows in automatic lines of sound while boat-shaking impacts consume the entire boat. It's just so well done that it really makes me wish other books paid as much attention to their onomatopoeia as much as the Daredevil team seems to.
Beyond that, while I still prefer Paolo Rivera's art, Marcos Martin has done a lot to win me over. His face work is a little awkward (notably in the nose area), but everything else is so solidly done that I really can't complain. If they end up flip-flopping artists on this book I wouldn't mind at all now that I have confidence in both artists.
Daredevil represents the bare minimum that a comic fan should expect from a book and that is not meant as an insult in any way. This book is so well-crafted that lesser books should be ashamed at being unable to match it. Read. Daredevil.
