One Sentence Overview: Daredevil and his companions continue to negotiate their ways through their own underworlds
Hmmm, that title. Feels a bit self-help pop psychology, doesn't it? I guess what Ann's getting at is that, even with our characters trapped in their own kinds of Hell, the solution to their problems is within their hearts. Heck, that sounds like a cheesy movie pitch.
Anyway, this issue continues the peculiar journeys of the four groupings who descended into their own particular circle. The Inhumans, rather quickly, if you ask me (but I guess that's the problem with running four storylines together), persuade the Bicoastal Angel to let others into her realm of privilege (or "This year. One isolated woman. Opens up her heart. And lets the world come in." Or something.)
Daredevil realises that his best course of action against the demons assaulting him is not to fight back. ("This year. One man. Realises the best way to fight back. Is to surrender.")
Matt figures that his acts of violence are actually feeding Mephisto, giving him what he wants. That's perceptive. Though it doesn't appear to have really impacted Daredevil's ongoing use of violence in the next 200+ issues of his ongoing mag...
Actually the storylines involving Brandy and Number Nine are much more compelling here. I've often wondered, during this current run of issues, whether Brandy's actually Ann's voicepiece, the character who most closely articulates her worldview. I'm not sure that's totally the case as here she has something of a comeuppance.
Continuing to articulate her rationalist worldview, she insults the Native American angel who is insulting both Pope and herself. Making a quick jibe at the carving of a Shamen and then demanding the angel lift them to their destination, the hunky one rues Brandy's unwillingness to enjoy the journey she is on, perhaps her reluctance to embrace mystery and ambiguity and to pursue rigourously her own truth. The angel appears then to abandon Brandy and Pope once they reach their destination, telling Brandy that she would be careful not to chase an angel from her door.
Brandy, who appears to be quite taken with the would be male model, is devastated, immediately regretting his departure. ("This year. One woman. Realises that sometimes she has to sacrifice what she holds most dear. To gain what her heart truly yearns for.")
The most contraversial, and theologically deep, storyline involves Number Nine, whose own personal Hell looks at lot like popular perceptions of a somewhat banal Heaven. Given that perfection is her foremost difficulty, Number Nine is bombarded with the kind imagery that assaulted her back on earth. And then she meets Gabriel, an angel so hunky he'd given Brandy's beau a run for his money.
A nerdy looking angel is distressed at how Nine moons over Gabriel's pecks. Both angels incidentally are practically naked - the nerdy guy just wearing a vest and glasses, though like the Inhumans there's not much going on downstairs. Anyway our bespectacled friend approaches Nine, like the weedy school brainbox trying to hit on the leader of the cheerleader team, and introduces himself... as Lucifer.
Basically, Lucy (as he refers to himself) wants to convince Number Nine that appearances can be deceptive and that she needs to look a little deeper. Now how exactly are we to interpret this? Later, Gabriel tempts Nine with fruit from a tree.
Hang on, I'm sure I've read a similar story somewhere else... It seems that Ann's suggesting that Lucifer's the good guy here (and to be fair to Ann, she's not wrong about Gabriel, who turns out to be Blackheart in disguise). Well, that's all rather disarming. ("This year. One woman. Falls for an angel. But is won over by the Devil." Hmmm, not sure that one's going to fly.)
I think the subtext of all this is that Ann wants her readers to challenge and investigate spirituality and religious thought and not reject it (like Brandy) but also not to accept it without wrestling with what it's all about. Maybe. It's all a little esoteric and, no doubt, didn't appeal to every reader who picked the book up.
But, hey, never mind the theology, the Silver Surfer pops by too. More of him next time!
Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Number Nine
Brandy Ash
Karnak
Gorgon
Mephisto
Blackheart/Gabriel
Silver Surfer/Norrin Radd
Pope
Lucifer
Bicoastal Angel
Native American Angel
Rating: 6 out of 10
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