One Sentence Overview: Daredevil returns to New York in a highly confused state and his mental state only worsens when he starts to hallucinate
First time on pencilling duties on DD for Lee Weeks, who I think hangs around for a while (sorry to see John jr go but he'd done a sterling job up until the final panels in Hell, when I think he was looking exhausted - and, hey, wouldn't you be in that kind of environment?). Lee's work is perhaps more classical than John's, though he has fun here drawing an old fashioned gangster and his mob, who look suspiciously like the Three Stooges (plus one).
But more of that later. Let's focus instead on the seminal moment which is Daredevil's return to New York. Recent events elsewhere have had a quite a negative impact on DD - and let's face it, his head wasn't really in the right place anyway when he left Hell's Kitchen to begin with. No, already distressed with doing the dirty to Karen by smooching with Typhoid Mary, Matt wandered out of the city without an aim or plan. He's literally been to Hell and back - and that's causing him some mental trauma. He rationalises that he couldn't have possibly been there as it doesn't exist (another slice of evidence apparently signifying that Matt's Catholic upbringing has translated into an actualised faith).
He can't remember what day it is. There's something clearly wrong in his head as he returns to the city. In addition, I've noticed that, since encountering Brandy Ash and her plans to overthrow her dad's business empire in DD271 (and with the exception of the one flashback issue), Matt has been locked into his Daredevil costume. Now that red suit's gotta smell a bit by now and I'm worried that Matt's lack of personal hygiene routine isn't helping his state of mind.
Not only that but Matt starts to hallucinate as well. Which is interesting as I wondered about how such a thing could occur to a sightless man, but I guess it's that radar sense thing (and people do have auditory as well as visual hallucinations, so it's not that contraversial). This leads to him getting knocked out by a two bit hood, Babyface.
Babyface is a fun character, a parody of the average thirties gangster, Ann doesn't even bother to explain why he and his mob are dressed up sixty years out of date. I guess it's all just part of his shtick. However, he's not meant to be taken too seriously. Before laying DD out, Babyface is even laughed at by the streetwise woman he's supposed to be mugging.
In other words, when Matt takes his medicine, we're aware that he's hit a new low.
By the end of the issue, perhaps aided by Babyface's knockout blow, Matt appears to have lost his mind altogether. Good job that a stranger appears on the scene to help him out when Babyface's mob decide to make mincemeat out of our hero and this new figure's accuracy in battle makes the reader recall... well, who exactly? This issue doesn't answer that question (though it's fairly clear who it was - see cast list below, if you're not sure; I densely didn't pick up on the clues until I perused DD285) but it's not a good idea that Matt unmasks in front of him - something his comrade is clearly thrilled to see occur.
And this leads to a neat turn in fortunes that we'll see fully explored next time.
Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Karen Page
Kingpin/Wilson Fisk
Bullseye
Typhoid Mary
Captain America/Steve Rogers
Babyface
Mephisto
Louie the Lip
Vincenzo
Jack
Rating: 8 out of 10
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