Daredevil 237

Context! by John Harkness and Louis Williams

One Sentence Overview:  Natasha seeks out Matt with a proposal to front an anti-drugs campaign whilst forgotten supervillain Klaw tries to take out Daredevil in order to make a name for himself

And now the first issue of a long run by Steve Englehart.... Oh, wait.  No, it isn't.  There's a little bit of controversy about this whole thing that I was completely unaware of before I did some background googling as research for this issue.  For whilst the writer credit may say 'John Harkness', this is a comic book 'Alan Smithee', for want of a better phrase (for more discussion of 'Alan Smithee', come back in about a year's time when Alan actually writes a five issue stint in Daredevil in the mid 300s).  In other words, it's a pseudonym for a ticked off Steve Englehart.

Why's Steve so annoyed?  Well, in a marvellous moment of serendipity, Comic Book Resources last week discussed this very issue and the controversy surrounding it (here) - lucky ole me.  Steve was Marvel's first choice of regular scripter for DD but was infuriated by Ann Nocenti's plotting in the previous issue - particularly in regard to the way she wrote the Black Widow (think I'm kidding about Steve being angry?  Check out his own thoughts on the issue here - suffice to say, I hope Ann hasn't read it).  I guess Steve was still obligated to write this issue but, in light of the above, asked for his name to be take off the writing credit.

Anyone who has seen an Alan Smithee movie will have a sinking feeling over the quality of the issue but, you know, it's not too bad.  This is very much an issue of a creator being narked over and against a substandard performance at the desk.  That's not to say that I like everything about it.  Steve was the regular writer of West Coast Avengers at the time, a comic my brother used to read and I, well, didn't particularly like.  So my expectations weren't too high.  (Indeed, the above mentioned CBR article is all about Daredevil - and the Black Widow - becoming a member of that outfit.) 

I guess Steve had the more macho superhero-ings in mind of an Avengers comic when he wrote his version of DD, because I find it something of a contrast with what we've had from Frank and Denny, in particular.  His Daredevil is more assertive and aggressive as opposed to introspective.  This move to a more explicitly heroic style is flagged up early on when a poor hood Matt's knocked around enquires, "What are you, man?  The Captain America of the West 44th?"  When DD replies, "Something like that", I believe Steve was setting out his stall to show you that he was moving the comic away from the overtly dark underworld.

Indeed, the least satisfying aspect of this comic for me is Steve's interpretation of Matt's inner world.  At times the writing reminds me a little of the way Marv Wolfman wrote DD.  When Natasha turns up and talks to DD about having going through the emotional mill, Matt almost disregards this and instead declares that he "stuck it to the Kingpin in the end - stuck it to him good", something one could imagine coming from the mouth of a Steven Seagal character. 

One might think that perhaps Matt's in denial here.  However, at the end of the issue, Steve reinforces Matt's more belligerent character, telling Karen, "I had to choose which Daredevil I was - and I chose not to be the loser". 

I have trouble with this for two reasons.  First, I don't think it's in character for the introspective Matt we know to say such a thing.  Secondly, I'm not sure a statement like this does justice to the mental breakdown Matt's just had -  could that bout of suicidal depression be summed up merely by Matt making a poor choice?

But let's move on to what I liked about the issue - and what we could have seen in future storylines.  Whilst it's clear Steve's trying to move on from the millieu created by Frank Miller and reinforced by Denny O'Neil (and, well, fair enough - writers want to stamp their own mark on a book), he still is keen to keep big issues to the forefront.  Here, Natasha has come to seek out Daredevil to try to persuade him to front an 'Anti-drugs' campaign.  For those of us who are veterans of the 80s, we'll remember the 'Just Say No' campaign inspired by Nancy Reagan (and a certain UK kids' TV show - British readers will know what I'm talking about).  Here Tash has been contacted by a senator's wife with a similar interest - though oddly it's not so much Nancy she resembles as VP wife, Barbara Bush. 

In a passage that could have been written by the 70s idealists, Gerry Conway or Steve Gerber, Daredevil retorts that he'll go after drug dealers but not condemn drug users.  In this, of course, he's reflecting on his own relationship with Karen Page.  It's a well written little scene, taking note not just of how Matt changed from the fairly conservative character Stan Lee gave us, but also respecting his recent personal experience.  Inevitably it drives a wedge between Natasha and Matt.

With all this going on, it's a surprise there's room for a bad guy - but again in a return to the more simple days of more colourful villains of the 60s and 70s, Daredevil faces Black Panther foe, Klaw.  It's fairly run of the mill stuff but for a couple of interesting moments.  A panel that made me smile had Klaw seething at DD that the reason he's tackling him is to prove he's not mad any more.  In his own mind, Daredevil reflects, "Join the club!"

Secondly the denouement actually uses knowledge of Daredevil's unique abilities in order for our hero to down the villain.  And kudos to Steve for a good ending there.  The whole tussle, though, appears, once again, to earmark a change in the book's direction.  When Klaw mutters a less than complementary aside about him not being in the Fantastic Four's league, Matt's response is an angry, "What in blazes do you mean 'Small Time'?"  I get the impression that all this is to move Matt into the bigger league of the world of the Avengers.

So ultimately, an interesting little issue with a clear glimpse that we could have had a very different Daredevil to the one Ann Nocenti goes on to give us.  In the end, though, I think Ann was the right choice for the book.  Daredevil's USP, in my opinion, is in the bleakness of his circumstances at times, in the lowliness of the criminal underworld that he tackles, as opposed to the fantastical villains that were common fare, at the time, for the Avengers, the FF and others.  We can only imagine DD's adventures back on the West Coast.  Though, one note of caution.  Look at what happened to Moon Knight when he joined the West Coast Avengers - a mentally unhinged hero relegated to arm candy for the likes of Tigra. 

All I'll say is, hmmm.

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Karen Page
Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff

Klaw
Barbara Whalen
Jerzo

Rating: 7 out of 10

Daredevil 236

American Dreamer by Ann Nocenti and Barry Windsor-Smith

One Sentence Overview:  Daredevil helps the Black Widow track down a potentially unhinged soldier

Ann Nocenti's debut issue! ...though officially this isn't the start of her 'run'.  Thanks to an old interview by Kuljit Mithra on themanwithoutfear website (here), this was meant to be another fill in issue, with a writer called Steve Engelhart earmarked to be regular writer (more on that next review...).  However, if this was an audition then, damn, Ann hit her high notes to perfection.  Incidentally, this is not the first woman to script DD - that honour falls to Mary Jo Duffy on DD157.

But before we go any further, welcome back (for one issue only) Barry Windsor-Smith.  Barry recently produced the gorgeous cover for DD217, though his pencils have not graced the insides of a Daredevil comic since DD52 (though he did ink DD83).  And, boy, has his artwork matured since then.  By this stage in his career, it appeared as if Barry was wheeled out for special occasions only (Chris Claremont used him on a few iconic Uncanny X-Men stories around this time).  But, Barry, always a pleasure to see your work, dear sir!

Introducing soldier and gun for hire, Jack Hazzard, this story explicitly references Nuke and the psychological damage of war veterans.  Almost straight away, Ann brilliantly gets into the head of such a screwed up character, whose interaction with a waitress is compelling in its sense of combining male testosterone and violence (look at the line "You're all cocked like a loaded gun, you are..."). 

Later Jack tries to recruit his own nephew to his own imagined army in a scene that's a little reminiscent of DD classic, Roulette (DD191).  Jack's sense of delusion is well drawn in a way that is not condemnatory but rather sad and pathetic. 

This story doesn't reference the 'American Dream' for no reason and is scathing about this sentimentalised notion - towards the end, Jack shows a picture of him and his wife to Natasha, but it's no family photo, merely a real estate advert.

This issue is the first I can recall, anyway, to explicitly detail Daredevil as the 'protector of Hell's Kitchen' (as Natasha puts it).  In fact Ann uses positively Biblical language to describe Matt's role in the neighbourhood in the first panel he appears - "The Lord of the Realm keeps watch over all the lost souls below him".  Bold stuff from the new writer who's presumably setting out the ethos for her later run.

Incidentally for those who think it unusual for a woman to tackle such issues, may I direct you to Booker Prize winner Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy, a brilliant series of books on the First World War and PTSD. 

I'm not sure if Ann Nocenti herself felt like she was a woman in a man's world.  But I did wonder if there was some subconscious leakage in a scene very early on where the Black Widow, hired to put down the damaged Hazard, has to negotiate her way through a narrow corridor of Alpha Male shooters.  Well, the put downs are certainly vivid.

Finally there's a little panel about half way through that I really liked as it benignly knocked city bureaucracy.  Leaping from building top to building top (as superheroes do) Natasha and Matt spot Nuke's burnt out helicopter.  Natasha can't understand why no-one's cleaned up the mess - Matt replies nonchalantly that the legal people still can't decide whose responsible for that task. 

A strangely believable little aside!

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff

Agent Jack Hazzard
Tommy
Ma Hazzard
Dr Strike
Sally

Rating: 8 out of 10

Daredevil 235

A Safe Place by Danny Fingeroth, Steve Ditko and Danny Bulanadi

One Sentence Overview:  Whilst on night patrol looking for bad guys, Daredevil hears that his old foe Mr Hyde is on the scene again

Another 'one shot', for want of a better term, whilst Marvel gets their act together.  However, whilst the last issue could have possibly slotted in at any point over the last 50 issues or so, at least this story has the kudos to reference recent events, noting that Matt has been through a breakdown and is back together with Karen.

Writer here is Danny Fingeroth, a guy who has gone on to teach write critically about the medium of comic books.  In other words, he's clearly quite a clever guy.  He's combined here with, again, Steve Ditko, whose breakdowns are beefed up by Danny Bulanadi and are perhaps more representative of his art stylings than Klaus Janson's own idiosyncratic manner in the last issue.  I think this is Steve's last work on DD.  It's always weird to see a comic book icon of the 60s take on mid period iconic Daredevil but never a chore.

With Steve on board, the 60s era never feels particularly far away, especially as old DD villain, Mr Hyde, is in principle bad guy slot.  There are moments when this could be a Stan Lee scripted issue.  But then there are moments when Danny F reveals his intellect with quite a deep subtext to what is going on.  Before Hyde makes an appearance, Daredevil is wrong footed by a two bit hood - actually, quite a cultured hood, given that he's stealing Picassos - who tells him that he (Daredevil) is 'trapped' in his costume.  Whilst the scene is a little contrived, it's intriguing to see a coarse crook spook our hero, inferring that Daredevil is not 'free' in his mind but needs his costumed identity to give himself purpose. 

Daredevil seems genuinely disarmed and is quite grateful to hurl his accuser into the arms of the incoming NYPD.

This scene is then followed by one where, instead of going home, a restless Matt swoops by Josie's Bar, going "where his instincts lead him, where he will not admit where he is going, until he is there".  Ooh, trouble with the subconscious there, Matty boy!  I believe Danny F's telling us that Daredevil is driven by a compulsion to seek out trouble, something clearly unhelpful. 

Methinks Danny had been brushing up on his Freud before writing this tale.  After all, with Hyde as your villain, it's pretty good territory to muse on the Id and the Ego.  Here, Hyde reveals a sense of remorse I hadn't seen in stories about him before.  Whilst he goes about wreaking havoc and satisfying the Id, he returns to his apartment to ruminate on whether to go in the direction of the Ego and take a formula he has developed that will permanently return him to his former identity.  In the issue's masterstroke, Hyde decides that he will indeed take the potion.  At the very moment that Daredevil smashes through his skylight.

Now what's interesting for me here is that Daredevil is satisfying his own Id - wanting to bring criminals to submission to satisfy his own need to be a good person.  But gets it horribly wrong!  Hyde is about to do the right thing and quell his darker side forever.  However, once DD lands on his carpet, it's time for a rethink.  "I should thank you, Daredevil," Hyde scowls.  "I nearly did an extremely foolish thing".  The tragedy is that Matt never realises the mistake he's made.

In all this, Danny dares to point out that Daredevil's crimefighting is not always altruistic, is partially about satisfying his self and, in this case, has poor consequences.  Ultimately that's an admirable theme to put out there.

There are two other very peculiar things about this issue.  Firstly a serious faux pas.  Despite the fact that Danny is clearly writing about recent events, in a recap of his origin, Matt talks about his father swearing to his mother that he would discourage their son from fighting... on her deathbed. 

Now whilst Matt was brought up to believe this, surely one of the key aspects of the Born Again storyline was that Matt had suddenly realised he was not orphaned.  Danny's clearly read what's been going on in the book at the moment so it seems a bizarre thing to get wrong.  Unless it reflected a feeling in editorial that they didn't really want Sister Maggie to be DD's mum?  Who knows?

Secondly, in a strange little coda, which is perhaps added at the last moment, given that it appears to be drawn by another artist, Matt bumps into a childhood tormentor charmingly named 'Stinky McQuade'. 

This is the third bully we've been introduced to in recent issues.  For those interested in creating a visual representation of Matt being beaten up as a kid, do remember to not only include Stinky, but also Stymie Smith (from DD203 ) and John Squarejohn (from DD209 ).  Weird!

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Karen Page

Mr Hyde
Battling Jack Murdock
The Fixer
Thor
Cobra
Stinky McQuade

Rating: 6 out of 10

Daredevil 234

Madcasting by Mark Gruenwald, Steve Ditko and Klaus Janson

One Sentence Overview:  Daredevil is intrigued when a new vigilante with the powers to induce bizarre behaviour in his victims turns up in his neighbourhood.

A little while ago, entzauberung commented in reply to my review of DD 225 that it had always been Marvel's intention that Denny O'Neil return to the book after Born Again finished.  Denny instead went to bat for the opposition (the Distinguished Competition) and so Marvel was presumably left in limbo.  Of course, these days, the company would probably put the book on hiatus whilst editorial tried to figure out what to do next.  Back in the 80s it was imperative to keep the book running and so we enter into a strange hinterland of a few 'guest' issues before Ann Nocenti takes the reins.

I remember reading this issue back in the 1986 and being disappointed at how little it resembled the previous storyline.  Frank Miller had set things up so vividly and dramatically for Matt and yet here it appears that little has really changed.  Whilst Born Again made its mark by being a seven issue storyline with Matt mostly keeping the cossie in the (admittedly destroyed) closet, here we only have Daredevil and not his regular alias.  I can't blame the creators for that, though.  Perhaps there was an instruction issued that, as the status quo had changed so dramatically, character development needed to be put on hold until the next assigned writer could make sense of it all.  As such, it's hard not to be disappointed in this storyline.

However, taken on its own merit, there's a lot of intriguing stuff going on. First up, a very interesting creative team.  On pencil and ink we have Steve Ditko and Klaus Janson!  Now there's a tag team.  When Steve Ditko pencilled DD back in DD162 , I assumed this was a one off, something dragged up from the mists of time.  However, I was really surprised to see Steve, who I always assumed had kind of fallen out with Marvel, take up the pencils for the company again in the mid 80s.  He and Klaus are a bizarre counter-intuitive double act but it comes out okay.

The wrtier's Mark Gruenwald, the regular Captain America scripter at the time.  That's not however what I'm most excited about regarding his appearance here - rather, from what I can gather, Mark is the first guy who had a missive published on the Daredevil letter page whose gone on to write on the book - how cool! Mark regrettably died an early death, suffering a heart attack in 1996 (There's a very nice tribute to Mark here ).

As noted above, Mark does not do much in terms of developing Daredevil.  What he does bring to the table is the very odd character, Madcap (a kind of a 'Deadpool lite', if you will).  

It's natural for comic book creators to want to pitch an idea that's been bubbling in the forefront of their brains when they get the chance on a regular book.  And the fact that Madcap made his first appearance in the first issue of Cap that Mark wrote gives me the impression that this was a guy Mark was keen to make work within the company and, presumably, eventually get his own book (Mark even gives Madcap his own sidekick here - a 'Wayne's World' type cable TV host). 

However, whilst some of his characteristics are fun - healing factor + ability to turn enemies bonkers - he's perhaps just too zany to truly work (though perhaps he was before his time - Deadpool turns up five years later and is loved by everyone).  One scene is rather good though - Madcap retaining his off kilter sense of humour when caught by some gangsters ("Madcap at your cervix, sir," he introduces himself) and then getting an axe to the gut (a side panel reveals that behind his gag he's saying "Wheee!").

Elsewhere there's a brief appearance of underworld villain the Rose. 

This guy had been knocking about the Spidey world for a couple of years at this stage but it's his first appearance in Daredevil.  One of the correspondents to this blog once queried whether this was meant to be an alias for Lt Bert Rose.  Whilst the Rose has had a number of secret identities, poor Bert, who we last saw panicking about financial irregularities in DD144, does not appear to be one of them, however satisfying that proposal might have been.

Okay, so this is clearly a poor sequel to Born Again, in and of itself it's not too bad - well, as long as you have no interest in Daredevil and lots in strange old Madcap.  Unsatisfying but by no means terrible.

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock

Madcap
Dollar Bill
Rose
Max the Axe 
Dennis
Lemar
Davey
Joe

Rating: 6 out of 10

Daredevil 233 - creator credits

Daredevil 233

Armageddon by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

One Sentence Overview: Nuke's high profile assault on Hell's Kitchen alerts Captain America to do a little research on the Super Soldier programme and who has influence in this

The grand finale of Frank's magnum opus (well, in terms of DD, anyway) and it's ambitious stuff. Frank doesn't appear to be just interested in finishing off a saga of Biblical proportions (and that's just the story titles of the last seven issues) but, in effect, lays down the gauntlet for other writers by adding a significant piece of mythology to the world of Captain America.

That's not to say that by bringing in these new themes, the concluding part of this storyline isn't affected. It's a common comic book thing to introduce what's coming up next (sometimes by slipping in just a panel or two of intrigue about a situation that will be resolved in a few issues' time). What was perhaps rarer at the time was to throw in a whole new kettle of fish for a completely different Marvel character (oddly, this is perhaps less rare now with sometimes cynical appearances of other characters and storylines in another hero's book to try to tease the reader into adding another title to their pull list). And in terms of big storylines, the assertion that Steve Rogers' super soldier programme was extended in secret is a huge one for that character. (And in addition there's a hint of conspiracy theory when the Avengers turn up to retrieve Nuke from Daredevil, indicating the psycho is actually a Government weapon.)

I'm not sure what Cap's creative team at the time did with all that ( I think Mark Gruenwald was the guy with the pen at the time). However, about 20 years later, Daniel Way decided that actually this was quite an interesting conceit and resurrected Nuke and a whole convoluted Weapon X/Super Soldier convergence in Wolverine: Origins.

Resurrected Nuke? Did I just say that? Oops, spoilers!  There's much manic fun as Daredevil goes toe to toe with the Vietnam veteran and, ultimately, tries - and fails - to bring some kind of redemption.  But this is a very busy issue and, for me, does not hold up quite as well as what has proceeded because of the mix with others in the Marvel Universe.  We want to see the outcome of what's going on with Matt and the gang - yet we're suddenly reading about Cap confronting US army generals.  It just doesn't quite gel.

It is however a minor criticism.  Where this issue really flies is in the details.  In one compact frame, Ben is too distracted by his flaming coat to realise that Glori's just been shot. 

It makes Ben seem oddly selfish, but of course it's a totally human reaction.  Another little scene gorgeously overlaps Matt yarning with his mother, whilst an oblivious Foggy tends to his shot girlfiend. 

Nuke's death, when it comes is quietly genius. 

And followed up by the big noise of Matt dumping his body in Ben Urich's lap in another beautiful splash page, something with which the Born Again storyline has spoiled the readership. 

And the muted ending is masterly - the Kingpin does not so much get a comeuppance rather than a banal kind of slap on the wrist (when it is leaked he has been leaked to Nuke).

Any writer will tell you that the third act is the hardest to nail.  And so it proves in this storyline.  Strange that everything feels so hurried in this issue, given that there are 30 pages of story.  But this is still very fine stuff and, with Matt seemingly in a totally different place to where he was seven issues earlier (struck off but having discovered his estranged mother and also back with Karen), Frank has well and truly thrown down the gauntlet (gantlet?) to the next writer.  Alas, the status quo was to return perhaps quicker than it should have. 

We must also bid a fond farewell to David, whose art has really soared since he first appeared in the book nearly 30 issues back.  He's served a fine apprenticeship here and ended up producing some stunning art, particularly in this saga.

Cast

Daredevil/Matt Murdock

Foggy Nelson

Karen Page

Kingpin/Wilson Fisk

Ben Urich

Glorianna O'Breen

Captain America/Steve Rogers

Iron Man/Tony Stark

Thor

Sister Maggie

Wesley

Nuke

Glazer

Colonel (Nuke's pilot)

General (Kingpin's contact)

Otto Schnapp

Bertha Schnapp

Winch

Steiner

Rating: 8 out of 10