Daredevil 268

Golden Rut by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr

One Sentence Overview:  Whilst staying at a bed and breakfast, Matt overhears how his host, Raymo, is stuck in a rut, earning money by immoral means

As we saw last issue, Matt's left New York and is wandering around a rural hinterland unfamiliar to the city slicking lawyer.  This suddenly nomadic existence seems a little more in keeping with Bruce Banner (certainly the TV Bruce Banner anyway) or even David Carradine's character from the old TV show, Kung Fu.  Whilst its unusual territory for Matt, it's not unique to see him in a less urban environment - the mysterious wordless stranger has already been seen in the Frank Miller scripted DD219 and much later Andy Diggle has Matt retreat in a similar fashion in Daredevil Reborn.

Here, though, he comes to the aid of a couple, trying to live the American Dream, but, in doing so, have compromised themselves so that the male party is working unhappily for his criminal brother, whilst his partner appears trapped, stuck at home, running a guest house.  It's a curious set up - the scenes in the bed and breakfast are quite stagey and melodramatic, almost like a soap opera.  We see a couple who love each other but are unhappy because of the choices they've made.

Whilst much of the issue dwells on Raymo's job working for his brother as a debt collector - and the inherent violent enforcement within that role, Ann beautifully draws out Sally's own misery and frustration at how unfulfilled she is.  There's a lovely bit of reflection from Matt early on as he takes a room at the couple's home.  Noting her perfume, he adds, "But it doesn't hide the laundry soap... the meals she cooks... floors she scrubs... the heaviness of her steps, the hundreds of times she's climbed these stairs, walked this hall..."

More explicitly than usual, there feels like a feminist message coming across here.  This passage is immediately followed by a run of three panels captured from a very unusual perspective by John.  It's kind of a Daredevil eye view (ironic, I know) - Sally showing Matt the rooms, in a dishevelled just out of bed look, the very antithesis with how young women are often portayed in comic books.

Why show Sally in this way?  I'm not sure but it may be to give a sense of servitude - the reader is being shown round by a lowly character.

Later, Ann gives Sally her own voice to reflect on both the blind, near mute stranger skulking in his bedroom upstairs and her partner, Raymo, who she wishes to persuade does not have to pursue a violent path to be like a man.  "My house is just full of brooding men," she sighs, giving a sense of her frustration with the inarticulacy of men, unable to express their emotions outside of violence or passion. 

Indeed, whilst Daredevil steps in to help redirect Raymo's life, he does so in his usual aggressive (though quite spectacularly sadistic) fashion, without bothering to explain himself to Sally or Raymo, merely leaving the bed & breakfast at the end, with Sally frustrated by their guest's apparent non-involvement with his hosts.

So in some ways a story that might be more at home on theatre or a mid afternoon soap.  But it's also enlivened by some fine art by John.  There are unusual views - I loved the scene of Sally and Raymo talking at the foot of some stairs but drawn from the perspective of the top of the staircase, allowing the reader to understand that Matt's listening in on them. 

Better still are the way John portrays Raymo's nightmares, suddenly entering Bill Sienkiewicz territory. 

Or another scene where Raymo thinks back to his childhood and it's like we've entered Peanuts or another such cartoon. 

All in all, for all its ordinariness, a strange and very serious little tale.

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock

Sally
Raymo
Hank
'Fido'
Billy
Queenie

Rating: 7 out of 10