One Sentence Overview: Daredevil arrives in town just in time to rescue an unregistered mutant elude the grasp of Government sanctioned villains, Freedom Force
Hey, reader, do you like your comic books light and frothy with superheroes fighting supervillains? Do you hate it when comics go all angsty and take the hero through a dark night of the soul? Are you annoyed by a writer who likes subtext and depth but you feel it's all a bit preachy? Well, if you say 'Yes' to all the above questions, then why don't you try new DD269?
Yes, that's right - DD269 leaves out all that nasty stuff and just delivers pure unadulterated biff bash bosh. DD269. Because not everyone wants to be depressed all the time...
I should have known that this was a slightly lighter issue than we've been used to under Ann's watch early on when Matt tuns up in the next rural locale of his merry wanderings with a shaved face. If Matt's felt good enough about himself to take a razor to his chin, he must be coming out of the self imposed funk and maybe thinking twice about his exile.
This issue focuses on a contretemps with Brotherhood of Evil Mutants alumni, Pyro and Blob. Whilst I miss the depth that you usual get with Ann's writing here, the story is pretty good and bringing Daredevil into a senario that reflects what is going on in the larger Marvel Universe, namely that the bad guys have become a Government force, whilst the X-Men are in exile.
Interestingly, this idea would gain greater currency nearly 20 years later with Bendis' Dark Avengers, but the roots of that presumably lay in the foundation of the Freedom Force in the X books back in the day.
I'm not sure if there was any pressure on Ann to do a tie-in - there's nothing on the cover to indicate that the reader should pick up X-Factor or another title to really check out the background to this. Also, I know that Ann was an editor on the X books for a while, so she might have just wanted to have fun with bringing together some characters from both milieux.
For their part, Freedom Force are trying to bring to 'justice' an unregistered mutant (oh, wait a minute, didn't Civil War do something similar nearly 20 years later... well, I guess there's no such thing as a new idea) with only DD in their way. Cannily, Ann realises straight away that Daredevil is out of his league, so attempts to even the odds by having Matt get Pyro and the Blob drunk.
It's a nice idea, resulting in the two villains arguing in a less than sober state over who gets the girl, allowing Matt to sneak her away from under their noses.
The nicest part of the issue, for me, comes right at the end, with the mutant, Amanda, whimsically sighing after the 'lone stranger' who has come into her live and left. In the background, we see Matt leaving town, whilst Amanda muses, "After meeting him, everyone else seems pale".
I like that, for a moment, Ann lets us into a female perception of the attractiveness of the rugged hero, the rescuer, who remains distant, mysterious and, no doubt, sexy.
Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Pyro/St John Allerdyce
Blob/Fred Dukes
Spiral/Rita Wayward
Amanda
Rating: 6 out of 10
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