Daredevil 335

Fathoms of Humanity Part 3: Not in my Backyard by Gregory Wright and Tom Grindberg

One Sentence Overview:  Employed by the businessmen who set up Ed and Ralphie, Bushwhacker hunts Daredevil and drives him back to the sewers where other enemies await him

Well, I have to say that, on the basis of his work on the Daredevil annuals, I wasn't particularly looking forward to this storyline but, for whatever reason, this story's coming out pretty favourably, in my view.  We've had two decent issues setting things up and this has given space for the creative team to do what comic book readers often like best - some action!

I'm not particularly a big fan of comics that can be read at lightning speed, with little subtext and lots of confrontation - though a lot of current comics read this way - but this one doesn't do too badly.  By bringing back Bushwhacker, Gregory engineers a battle that, unexpectedly, sees Daredevil completely on the back foot early on.  This is primarily thanks to Bushy letting off his shotgun arm right next to DD's left ear.

This plays havoc with his sense of hearing and suddenly the man without fear is panicking, running from the hitman for hire and dropping down to the sewers to avoid him.  This opening sequence works really well and, particularly given Bushwacker's ability to 'morph', it's quite reminiscent of the Terminator movies, Daredevil unexpectedly unnerved and uncertain as to what to expect next from his foe.

Daredevil might have hoped to have been delivered into friendly hands once down below, given the events of the last couple of issues, but it's actually the Underworld Kingpin who's on the lookout for our hero.  Indeed, thanks to a quick piece of minion sacrifice, he's reanimated the Devourer, one of the villains from Gregory's last annual, and has sent him out hunting DD.  This is the same creature whose head ended up on one of Elektra's sai.  This, then, is a good example of the Third Law of Comic Books, namely 'A character who dies can be resuscitated at any time no matter the extent to which this undermines the character's death in the first place'.  Gregory plainly explains here, "The sheer number of the dead who find themselves resurrected these days make anything possible." 

There's not much room for much else, bar one important reveal.  Joshua, who up til now has been the Zen leader of the group, is caught in conversation wtih the surface dwelling Kingpin - and not in a "You're a naughty boy" kind of way.  It seems the two have something going on together, Joshua complaining that Daredevil's interference is endangering his community.  That doesn't look good.

For those of you who have red the above panels, you'll have spotted Joshua refer to our hero as the "new Daredevil".  This has been a recurring theme for the past run of issues, with pretty much everyone of the opinion (though, ironically not Joshua who uses it here - he knows it's the same guy) that the armour plated Daredevil is not the same fella in the red duds.  It's beginning to get a bit irritating - the constant references to how this new Daredevil is a 'harder', edgier character.  I just find it hard to believe that actually many of those who know him would see it's the same guy.  Though, at least, I did like how Bushwhacker takes great delight in telling his foe that the old Daredevil wouldn't have allowed himself to get hit with bullets.  That really gets Matt's goat.

Cast
Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Kingpin/Wilson Fisk

Deathlok/Luther Manning
Bushwhacker
Joshua
Underworld Kingpin
Devourer

Rating: 6 out of 10