Daredevil 261

Meltdown by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr

One Sentence Overview:  At the behest of Karen, the Human Torch hits the streets of Hell's Kitchen to look for Daredevil, whilst the Kingpin shows his anger towards Typhoid Mary for disobeying his instructions

Daredevil is dead.  The district's guardian and protector is gone.  Well, at least that's the rumour going round Hell's Kitchen - as Ann tells us, "The streets are open turf now, and everyone who's hot to trot wants a piece of the action".  But it's all a bit presumptuous, isn't it?  In the UK, a missing person isn't declared legally dead until there are seven years without any sightings.  And this is probably, at best, a few days since Matt tumbled from an old bridge at the hands of Typhoid Mary.

But anyway, let the Kitchen posse believe the mistruths if they must.  Truth be told, the way they're presented here in a very entertaining bar scene gives the impression that most are blessed with a whole lot of brainpower.  But how do we get to the bar in the first place...?

Well, over at the legal clinic, Karen's losing the plot.  Not surprising really, given that her lover's missing (and she's also curious as to whether anyone will make a connection with Daredevil's 'death').  So it's up to that famed legal eagle, Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, to come down and lift spirits.  Which is kind of exactly what he does.  He isn't doling out advice (thank goodness).  Instead he's joyfully impressing the Fatboys with innovative ways to light a cigarette. 

A very funny little vignette that wouldn't make today's books for health reasons but nevertheless captures the spirit of the neighbourhood - and Johnny's character.

Karen persuades the younger Storm sibling to help her look for Daredevil.  Johnny wonders if he can fill DD's boots, even if for a moment, and so changes his look when he calls at a local dive (for once, not Josie's) in an attempt to, er. blend in and seem cool.

It's a great piece of writing showing an iconic character completely out of his depth.  There then follows a fun fight scene between Torch and the extraordinarily named Baby Elmo. 

Some of the dialogue here, for once, is leaning towards parody, though in some ways, that's okay - the scenes with Johnny Storm, in stark contrast to Matt's perilous situation, are atypically largely played for laughs.  The net result is Johnny recognising he can't be Daredevil.  I really liked the end of this book as it gave a terrific contrast between the territory of Daredevil and what a hero had to be to survive in such an environment and the most whimsical world of the Fantastic Four.  They may save the world, but aren't so comfortable with the coalface of a deprived inner city neighbourhood (though perhaps that's a bit unfair on Yancy Street's Ben Grimm).

The fun with Johnny is contrasted with some of the darkest writing yet about sexual politics.  In a very disturbing scene, Typhoid Mary goads the Kingpin until he snaps and starts to knock the crap out of the woman.  

Having dramatically roused his passions, Mary manipulates him into having sex with her.  It's uncomfortable stuff, a little prescient of the likes of John Dahl's 'The Last Seduction', a few years hence.  Indeed, I'm not sure a male writer would have got away with this - at Ann's hands, you feel there's a point being made about sexual violence and power.  Having manipulated matters, Typhoid Mary is not a victim, as such.  However, the scene certainly doesn't show Wilson Fisk, whose wife remember is an invalid, in a very good light - moreover, it confirms that this is a frighteningly powerful character and not some rotund jolly villain.

Which brings us to the Gratuitous Panel of the Month:

Before winding up the Kingpin, Typhoid does a little flirting with one of his bodyguards.  In a piece of dialogue resplendent with double entendre, Typhoid slinks up against the poor sod and whispers, "Oooh!  You're so hard, so rigid..."  Blimey!

But where's Matt in all this? I hear you cry.  Well the poor soul spends the entire issue face down, unconscious, in a bunch of long grass underneath a bridge, his fate uncertain.  I love it when writers do something like this.  Will he finally rise again next issue...?

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Karen Page
Kingpin/Wilson Fisk

Typhoid Mary
Human Torch/Johnny Storm
Butch (Fatboys)
Darla (Fatboys)
Eightball (Fatboys)
Hilda
Baby Elmo

Rating: 8 out of 10

Daredevil 260

Vital Signs by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr

One Sentence Overview:  Typhoid Mary's gang of disgruntled DD combatants team up against the man without fear on Independence Day

A seminal issue for me… but we’ll come to that at the end of the post.

There are basically two plotlines struggling for supremacy here.  One is a seemingly straightforward (initially) battle between Daredevil and a bunch of C-list villains.  The second is the subtext, the violence of men, which provides the backdrop of an anti-nuclear warfare march taking place on 4 July in New York.  For once, it’s actually the superhero biffing and bashing that is perhaps the more compelling of the two.

But before we get to that, there’s a lovely little prologue involving an uncharacteristically upbeat Daredevil riffing with Karen Page in their little apartment (the calm before the storm, folks).   With Mary nowhere nearby to screw up his emotions, Matt is somewhat remorseful about his relentless flirting with the dark haired girl and is celebrating his love for Karen instead.  The kookiest moment is where he lists the shopping Karen’s just brought in thanks to his enhanced smell – even she’s taken aback when he identifies the bottled water!

But that’s enough pleasantries for now.  Things are about to go seriously downhill.  Outside the aforementioned peace march is going on, resplendent with pretentious left leaning cultural commentators to one side arguing about the semantics of the language of Armageddon.  Talking about ‘Mutual Assured Destruction’, one sniffs that the phrase is ‘insidious’.  “It means everyone dies but they use reassuring words to ‘camouflage’ that reality”.  It’s like being back at school…

Daredevil’s keen to join the march, given that he was blinded by radioactive material to begin with, so he feels he has some ownership on the issue.  However, when he decides to join in, he’s shocked to see he isn’t invited – “Superheroes are ‘warheads’,” one marcher shouts to DD’s embarrassment.

Later a badly injured Daredevil is treated to a lecture from a learned bystander and talks about how even geniuses are seduced into destructiveness, telling the man without fear, “Einstein’s big and brilliant thoughts created a bomb”.  The bystander looks at Daredevil sympathetically though.  “Sometimes even peaceful, well-thinking men create destruction,” she says.

But who is this strange herald?  Hmmm.  Young female New York citizen with long brown hair and well thought out liberal views.  Wait a second…  It couldn’t be, could it?  Has John Romita Jr just drawn Ann Nocenti into her own comic?!?  Okay, that’s just a guess but, hey, it’s not a bad theory, huh?  (Not sure about that big perm, though…)

Let’s move on and focus on the foreground.  Last issue big bad Typhoid Mary rounded up the usual suspects – Bullet, Ammo, Bushwhacker and, er, Jet and Spit (the Wildboys) – in order to take out DD.  With Mary leading events, we have six villains on Daredevil’s tale.  Six, eh?  Why does that number ring a bell…?  Wait a second… It couldn’t be, could it?  Is this whole thing a homage to the brilliant Spidey tale, the Sinister Six?

Well, it’s not a bad thought.  Like the Amazing Spider-man Annual that featured Doc Ock and co getting low down and dirty with Mr Parker, this story features sequential battles between DD and the above named which are announced by splendid splash pages.  These display some delicious artwork from John jr – I particularly liked Ammo’s entry.

Unlike the Sinister Six, however, after seeing off Bullet without a lot of difficulty, the man without fear comes rather unstuck.

 

Interestingly, one could argue (quite strongly, actually) that Daredevil faces his most formidable foes first – namely, Bullet and Bushwhacker – before moving on to the pretty decent but let’s not exaggerate Ammo and finally on to the nadir of DD bad guys, the strictly low rent Wildboys, Jet and Spit.

However, by the time DD’s ended up with these two losers, he’s not high on confidence from seeing off three pretty decent heroes, he’s battered senseless.  And I pretty much mean that literally.  At one point he starts hallucinating, believing his father is in front of him – in a strangely moving and disconcerting section, Matt calls out to Battling Jack “daddy” and then receives a pasting from the ghost, mad at the career path he’s taken.

Before that, though, things build badly.  Whilst tackling Bushwhacker, DD’s radar deserts him so disastrously he starts attacking a poor disabled war veteran, shaking a can for trash – one of Daredevil’s lowest moments ever, surely.

Well, I say that.  The pasting he gets from Jet and Spit is quite possibly lower still.  We aren’t talking Magneto and Dr Doom here, we ain’t even in the league of Mr Hyde and the Cobra.  Even Turk and Grotto have a bit more going for it than these two.  Hey, let’s face it, I think Laurel and Hardy would usually make a better fist of things.  Despite that Jet and Spit very effectively manage to dump DD in a garbage truck and then drag him off to a bridge to throw him to his death…

…Which is where Typhoid is waiting for him and we end with a quite stunning denouement.  Typhoid tells Daredevil he must die.  DD doesn’t understand why she has it in for him.  Typhoid doesn’t explain her connection to him.  Instead she just drops him off the bridge.  The final two pages are outstanding – Daredevil falling whilst Mary finally appears to break through Typhoid’s façade and a tear falls down her painted face.  It’s incredibly moving.

I have a vague recollection back in the late 80s of being somewhat miffed at seeing Daredevil being disposed of so easily by a bunch of losers.  And I remember not liking Typhoid Mary at all.  Who was she to deliver such a blow to Matt Murdock?  Despite this, I still loved Daredevil, the comic.  Well, up to a point.  Lots of things were going on in my teenage life and one involved whether or not still to read and collect comic books.  This, my friends, was the last issue of Daredevil I would read for over 15 years (until volume 2, issue 61, to be precise). 

A month or two after this appeared on the shelves, a guy I knew came round to my house and started flicking through my collection of 60 or so issues, including a sizeable part of Frank Miller’s run, bought at extortionate prices (for the time) a couple of years earlier.  “You can have those,” I told the guy.  His eyes lit up, unbelieving.  “Really?”  He merrily gathered up my bunch of Daredevils and went home with them.  I’m not even sure if I ever saw that young lad again.

But that was that.  What it means, is that I haven’t read anything else in Daredevil Vol 1 – so from next issue onwards, as far as I’m concerned, it’s virgin territory.  Hope you’ll stick around for the ride.

Cast

Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Karen Page
Kingpin/Wilson Fisk

Elektra Natchios
Typhoid Mary
Bullseye
The Gladiator/Melvin Potter
Battling Jack Murdock
Human Torch/Johnny Storm
Bullet
Bushwacker
Ammo
Jet
Spit

Rating: 10 out of 10

Daredevil 259

The Children are Watching You by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr

One Sentence Overview:  When the Kingpin tells Typhoid that her Mary persona is becoming too dominant, Typhoid recruits a deadly gang to kill Daredevil to spite her

I think Ann Nocenti's writing is at its most compelling when she's writing about the bleakness of the lives of those living in Hell's Kitchen.  Since her debut on the book and especially since the arrival of Typhoid Mary and the success of the legal clinic, she's toned down on the pessimism.  But here she turns her focus on to how, on one hand, the most vulnerable are treated and, on the other, how hope can be fragile and snatched away.

We readers have been aware, as part of the ongoing Typhoid Mary narrative, of the war between Mary's two psyches and how dominant Typhoid can be.  It's also been highlighted that Typhoid is 'playing' the Kingpin.  But when you play power games with Wilson Fisk, don't think you're taking on an amateur.  Here, the previously powerful Typhoid is cunningly outmanoeuvred by Wilson, who traps her in a weights machine, tells her, rather amusingly, to "never call me fatman" and then moves in for a sneaky smooch. 

Typhoid is hardly a victim (and Wilson goes no further than a kiss on this occasion).  However, outplayed by the Kingpin, Typhoid takes her revenge out on someone much weaker and more vulnerable than she is - Mary.  "I hate her!" she seethes.  "If I can't have Daredevil, no one can!"  As such she sets in motion a plan that will have a devastating impact on Matt - though not in this issue.  This plan once again involves her using her own seductive powers to take control over a bunch of men, who aren't on Matt's Christmas card list - namely, the guys Ann has introduced in the book over the last dozen issues or so.

One such character is Bullet, though its Bullet's troubled young lad, Lance, who Typhoid alights on initially.  As the story title reveals, it's the children, in particular, in this story who are the focus and who come in for the most grief.  Being the absent father that he is, Bullet is not around to prevent Typhoid from twisting Lance's already fragile psyche into near breakdown.  Seeing that the kid has a fixation on global nuclear meltdown, Typhoid's method of reassurance leaves a lot to be desired.  "Lotsa crazies out there with bombs," she tells him.  "It's all gonna blow, violently too."  It's a revelation to Lance, who suddenly feels that the adults in his life have been lying to him.

Bullet turns up to try to rescue his son.  But instead of doing the right thing, seconds after admonishing Typhoid, she's calling him a "sexy lady" and getting saucy with her... in front of Lance, naturally. 

Lance isn't the old kid suffering this issue.  The story starts with Fatboy alumnus, Butch, catching a prostitute selling a child to her pimp for a heroin hit.  It's implicit but the story focuses heavily on a child prostitution video ring - boy, we're moving into some dark territory here.

Later, Karen Page goes undercover to try to get to the bottom of who it is preying on the vulnerable in such an awful way.  As one might expect, her initial enquiries are met with suspicions.  However, cleverly (and amusingly) when someone realises she's the former 'film star' Karen Page, she's suddenly allowed access to the dark world.  It's not explicitly mentioned that Karen's been in the porn industry but the implication's pretty strong.

Good old Butch dashes off to see Matt to alert him of the problem and seeks reassurance from him.  What follows is a terrific piece of writing.  Butch shows how he's worried about the missing kids in the city - will they end up the same way as the girl?  Will he end up this way?  He thinks his mum won't even notice should he disappear.  Matt pulls him to him and says, "I'd notice."

It's a lovely moment that is stunningly undermined by what happens next.  Matt turns to leave but Butch has one more question.  Dashing after him, he follows Matt into an alley where he catches him in a close embrace with Mary.  Mary, not Karen.  He's devastated.  He had finally found an adult who he could look up to, who he could depend upon but he's trampled all over his trust by showing his own human frailty and his desire for Mary.  "Poor Karen," Butch muses and then adds, "I hate him!" 

It's a small but breathtaking moment.  Where will Butch go to from here?

There's some terrific artwork in this issue from John jr.  There's some lovely late 80s fashion moments, especially in a park scene early on.  However, best of all is a terrific scene that invokes Superman where DD swoops over the city with the mistreated Karen in his arms. 

At his best, John's stuff can be just wonderful.

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Karen Page
Kingpin/Wilson Fisk

Typhoid Mary
Bullet
Lance
Butch (Fatboys)
Ammo
Bushwacker
Jet
Spit
Joe
Sheila

Rating: 9 out of 10

Daredevil 258

I Heard the Jungle Breathe by Fabian Nicieza and Ron Lim

One Sentence Overview: Willie Lincoln looks for Daredevil's protection when he becomes aware of a mysterious killer tracking down members of his old Vietnam platoon

Willie Lincoln's back! But here's hoping no diehard DD fans were holding their breath for his return because his reappearance here occurs precisely 199 issues on (and 19 years) from his last guest spot in DD59. However, it's Willie's first appearance in DD47 that's explicitly referenced here. For those not in the know (and given that 19 year wait, one has to assume there were many back in the day), Willie was a character who initially turned up, having returned home for Vietnam, blinded for his troubles in that campaign.

That first story, by Stan Lee and Gene Colan, allowed the creators to contrast Willie's condition with Matt's as well as make a comment on the hardship suffered by war veterans. This tale, told by fill-in writer, Fabian Nicieza, fills out that original story but gives it an interesting twist. Originally, in DD47, Willie turned up at a morale boosting 'benefit' featuring a guest appearance by Daredevil (I guess the more patriotic Cap or Iron Man was unavailable). He's dragged along by his pal, Sam Birulin and already losing his sight - there's no back story to tell us exactly what happened. Fabian makes up for that lapse now by showing that Willie lost his sight protecting his comrades from an enemy grenade.

What immediately follows, however, is a tale that couldn't have been told even by the most liberal objector to the war back in 1969. It is a tale that strongly references the cultural interest in the plight of Vietnam veterans, especially in Hollywood movies, led by the likes of Oliver Stone. 'Platoon' had hit the screens two years before this story, with Stanley Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket' the year before. Stone's 'Born on the Fourth of July' and Brian de Palma's 'Casualties of War' would come out the following year, 1989. All these pictures portrayed the conflict as an amoral mess and de Palma's picture, in particular, would show how young American soldiers were corrupted into committing horrendous acts, far beyond what one would condone.

This story's protagonist is a guy called the Bengal, who was just a boy when Willie Lincoln and his platoon were burning up the Vietnamese jungle. In fact, it is he who witnesses an act of atrocity carried out by the Americans, when they vengefully burn down a village in retaliation to Willie's blinding. It's not the worst thing they do, however, The Bengal is the only survivor of the massacre and grabs hold of the helicopter that is lifting the American soldiers to safety. The most vicious of the bunch, Janes, spots him and ruthlessly, over a run of panels to increase the impact, stamps down on his hand and lets him fall to his supposed death.

However, the Bengal does not die. In fact, here he is two decades on all grown up (whilst Matt appears to be the fresh faced young lawyer he was since his first meeting with Willie) and using a telephone innovatively to take care of Willie's old pal, poor Sam Birulin.

Grasping the moral ambiguity of the matter, Daredevil tackles the Bengal, whilst musing on the futility of it all.

This passage may be an explicit reference to another in DD47, where Stan and Gene regretted the loss of young American lives. Fabian takes things a stage further here, clearly identifying with the impact on the Vietnamese as well. It's not necessarily an original thought, this was clearly in the air at the time and, more than a decade on from the conclusion of that war, there was acceptance in the media to acknowledge the same.

Still, whilst by no means a classic, the story does pack a punch and continues the Daredevil tradition of looking seriously at social issues. And, let's face it, it's always nice to see young Mr Lincoln, huh?

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock

Willie Lincoln
The Bengal
Sam Birulin
Janes
Carl Brasel
Chin Fong
Talltrees
Rhodes

Rating: 7 out of 10

Daredevil 257

The Bully by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr

One Sentence Overview:  Whilst Typhoid Mary seduces both the Kingpin and Matt Murdock, the Punisher and Daredevil tussle over what to do with the criminals over-running Hell's Kitchen

After a compelling piece of writing about sexual politics, Ann returns to another of her favourite themes, that of male machismo and control.  However, whilst our previous story was vibrant and daring, this tale doesn't work quite as well.  In some respects, the dynamic between DD and the Punisher has already been compellingly told by Frank Miller back in DD183 & DD184 in particular.  Despite this, there's a close to shocking opening here when the Punisher comes across a group of crack dealers and, with the story's title 'The Bully' emblazoned on a splash page, lets rip with his machine gun.  This is judge, jury and executioner and no resorting to establishing why.

Of course, this is a key difference between Frank Castle and Matt Murdock.  Both men are on the trail of a guy called Alfred Coppersmith, who has become redundant because a computer system can do his job better.  The bullies in question here are not the superheroes imposing their rule but the cold technology that is shedding Alfred of a reason to keep on the right side of the law.  Ann builds a story with a foundation on a destroyed man, not a psychotic.  Indeed, at the story's end, whilst Coppersmith has been clearly cited as a murderer, Matt tells him he nevertheless deserves a good defence because "society must take care of the people it crushes".  This is an explicitly 'bleeding hearts' liberal viewpoint that, I guess, may not have gone well with every reader of the book.

Earlier though Alfred witnesses a long battle - for the right to take the mulleted murderer in - between the Punisher and Daredevil.  It's a little strange to see Ann give so much time over to a bunch of fisticuffs but she does this with a very detached eye.  There is no dialogue between the two protagonists, instead Alfred muses on their different worldviews and his own fate - this fight taking place over six long pages. 

John sure had fun but I was slightly bemused at how prolonged this was, though have no doubt that Ann wanted to make a deliberate point here about male violence.

Elsewhere Typhoid Mary continues to appear and lights up each page she's on.  Last issue I commented that the Kingpin had not given in to her charms.  Well, turns out I spoke too soon.  It's clear that he and Typhoid are making whoppee to some degree - and Typhoid makes it clear she's in charge of the dynamic. 

So we have Kingpin having an affair with Typhoid and Matt having an affair with Mary.  Interesting!  Indeed, we move close to the realms of Greek tragedy when the Mary persona visits the Kingpin and Wilson becomes repelled when he is confronted by a woman whose eyes are only for Matt Murdock.  Sheesh - this storyline's becoming one for the Freudian analysts!

Gratuitous Panel of the Month

More great late 80s artwork by JRjr - look at the mullet, thinning hair combo.  And those horrible airpits too - yuck!

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Kingpin/Wilson Fisk

Typhoid Mary
The Punisher/Frank Castle
Bucko Leary
Alfred Coppersmith
Jackie

Rating: 6 out of 10

Daredevil 256

Blindspots by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr

One Sentence Overview:  Matt finds himself increasingly drawn to the mysterious Mary as his court case representing Tyrone Janson draws to a close

Okay, before you start reading, make sure the heating's down, the's window open nearby and there's a glass of ice cold water in your hand.  Why?  Because this is hot stuff, baby!  Ann's ramping up the sexual intrigue big time this issue and the pages drip with desire and jealous lust.  And it's all served with a side order of guilt and ambivalence.  Hmmm, just the way you like it.

It's very easy to read the current Typhoid Mary storyline at face value and come to the conclusion that Matt's being completely manipulated into an affair against his will.  But is that the full story?  I'm not sure it is and there's some great plotting here that hints at Matt's own emotions swinging like a pendulum.

This is evidenced early on with Matt on his way to work thinking about how Karen loves him whilst simultaneously his enhanced senses are honing in on Mary - well may he ask, "Who protects her from me?"  Matt knows he's being pulled into something he seems powerless to resist.  But is he powerless?  Isn't he actively pursuing his desire as well?

Typhoid Mary, when later in conversation with the Kingpin, says something very telling.  "You told me Murdock was so moral," Mary teases Mr Fisk. "Well, I'm finding him as willing to cheat as any guy."  This may indicate that Matt may be complying as some level with the affair.

As for Wilson, even he is finding his new employee difficult to resist.  There's a terrific scene where she plays off her regular boyfriend/sex (and violence) slave, Rip, against the mob leader.  Unusually for the Kingpin, he appears to lose his cool as she flirts.  "Why did you do that, sir?" our seductress asks.  "You don't know?  Well, baby, I do..."  To be fair to Mr Fisk, and in contrast to Mr Murdock, he isn't jumping out of his seat to do some lip locking.

Heck, never mind Matt, Fisk and Rip.  Mary's smouldering sex appeal is even putting statues of angels in compromising positions, as evidenced by this wonderful panel!

As their sordid goings on increase, Matt and Mary become less and less hidden about their desire.  Poor Tyrone is once again the gooseberry in quite a tragi-comic little panel.  "Guess they figure having a blind kid around is just the same as being alone," he muses ruefully.

What's interesting in all this is that Matt's not the only one feeling guilty about what's going on - Mary is too.  There's a great run of panels showing Matt and Mary doing the same thing - coming home, jumping into the shower, with the same feelings coursing through their heads.  They feel the need to get clean - and mainly because of the influence of Typhoid.

Indeed, this scene immediately follows Matt and Typhoid tangling in a sewer, with Matt feeling repulsed by a woman he is not quite aware is the same he's keen to toss between the sheets.  There's an intriguing, uncomfortable line whilst they battle together.  "I love the hate in your eyes," says Typhoid (erroneously, given that DD's costume doesn't have eyeslits, but we'll let that go).  "It's so close to something else..."  A very bold statement, hinting at the darkness behind lust and violence. 

Through all this, Matt continues to represent Tyrone in court and has a bit of a result as the case goes his way.  A thrilled Ross Janson turns to his attorney and tells him, "You're a good man, Matt Murdock".  You can feel yourself cringe as you hear Matt reply uncertainly, "Sure.  Yeah, sure." and the panel cuts to Mary lurking in the background.  Ouch!

Now, I know what you're thinking.  Never mind the subtext, what's actually going on in this issue?  Really?  You really want to know after all this?  To be honest, this issue is all about the uneasy, heartbreaking desire of unbridled lust and that's much more important than anything else (though the story does involve a female juror being ambivalent over whether or not to take a bribe, which is, of course, all about the moral lines individuals cross and may just have a teeny weeny bit to do with the story's main theme). 

Ultimately, though, it's intriguing to ask, is this a story about one woman's seemingly hypnotic desire over a bunch of men?  Or is it about how men are so easily led astray by their lust for an attractive woman?  I'm not sure what Ann's intentions were, but given her intelligent writing to date, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there's more going on here than at first meets the eye.

There's a ton of other stuff here that I could draw out, practically every page makes a great emotional point.  Some truly excellent, thoughtful writing with Ann unafraid to tackle some difficult aspects of sexual politics.  Now switch the shower on and turn it right down to its coolest setting...

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Foggy Nelson
Karen Page
Kingpin/Wilson Fisk
Glorianna O'Breen

Typhoid Mary
Tyrone Janson
Ross Janson
David
Rip
Judge McCarr
Ambivalent juror

Rating: 10 out of 10

Daredevil 255

Temptation by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr

One Sentence Overview:  Typhoid Mary continues her seduction of Matt Murdock whilst the Kelco Industries trial begins

Hot on the heels of his beginning to be seduced at the end of the last issue, this story's title, 'Temptation' gives the reader a good idea about where things are unfortunately heading.  Yes, the more sympathetic part of Typhoid Mary's personality is on show here early on when she brings Tyrone Janson (first time we get his surname this issue - wonder where they got the name...) on a visit to see Matt.

What follows is another brilliant dramatic sequence which would perhaps be more at home in a soap opera than a comic book.  But it works really well.  Whilst poor unsighted Tyrone stumbles around the office, Matt is mesmerised by his carer.  Mary pulls the erstwhile lawyer close to her, whilst in the background the answering machine clicks on and one Karen Page leaves a lovey dovey message, amping up the pathos as Mat and Mary finally embrace and kiss passionately.  And Tyrone's still wondering where everyone is.  Great little scene.

Interestingly, when Daredevil encounters Typhoid Mary for the first time later on in the book, he has no idea that this is the same gal.  Of course, that runs counter to Matt's intuitive powers.  But don't worry, Typhoid explains everything - "When I'm that stupid, sappy Mary I have a completely different smell, heartbeat, gesture, pulse rate... no one can tell we're the same woman."  For dramatic purposes, handy that...

Typhoid reveals herself to be a well read, superior type, getting into a philosophical wrangle with Matt in what is the only real action sequence in the book.  I can imagine a lot of readers raised on the biff pam pow school of superheroics being frustrated that a potential punch up being rendered impotent by a brief precis on Nietzsche.

This battle's soon over and we're left with probably the first real significant courtroom contretemps in the whole run of Daredevil and, heck, Matt's not even involved.  A character who's been lurking around in the background in the past few issues is a young guy called David, a clean faced lawyer, probably straight out of college and with the kind of high ideals that Matt and Foggy had when they first approached the bar.  Early on, he hits Matt with quite a good, caustic gag aimed at his profession.  "Why are scientists experimenting on lawyers instead of laboratory rats?"

"Because there are some things rats just won't do!" ...No?  Well, I thought it was funny.

Here David takes centre stage when Matt uses him as his 'front' in his ongoing battle with Kelco Industries and his attempts to achieve justice for Tyrone.  Defending is a certain Franklin Nelson, suddenly panicking when he sees Karen turn up with the blinded boy.  What is interesting in this passage is that it reads very well in terms of being even handed in its arguments - Foggy gets reasonable lines that could come from a genuine court case as opposed to looking like a moron - and the scenes feel like something Grisham could have come up with. 

That it plays out in the business end of a comic book, where the brightly coloured boys usually sock it to each other, is another indication of the maturity of the writing and that Daredevil appears to be aimed at a slightly older audience than other books.  It depends, I guess, on how much you love courtroom dramas whether you really dig this issue or not - I'm kind of agnostic on them but this is still a pretty good read.  What it does signify is that the lives of the characters remain central to the book's concerns and that's always a good thing.

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Foggy Nelson
Karen Page
Kingpin/Wilson Fisk

Typhoid Mary
David
Tyrone Janson
Ross Janson
Judge McCarr

Rating: 8 out of 10