Daredevil #31, by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee (storytellers), Javier Rodriguez (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - The event depicted on the cover does not take place. At least not in this issue.We open with Foggy leading the discussion for his cancer afflicted group at the hospital, which is very sweet. Part of me says it's a little hokey, but I am not struggling with cancer, so what the hell do I know? In conversation with Matt, Foggy lets it slip he asked Kirsten to take over for him. I think Foggy's trying to play matchmaker. Incidentally, I wish we'd see his girlfriend, Kirsten's roomie around sometimes. It'd be nice to see that Foggy has more than just Matt supporting him.
From there, we jump back to the office, just in time for Matt to hear the verdict on what is essentially the George Zimmerman trial, with the names changed to protect the litigious-concerned most likely. The verdict goes the same way, but afterwards, it appears the D.A. releases the names and addresses of the jury and incites the city to violence against them. Matt realizes this is not what happened, that his old foe the Jester interrupted the broadcast and did that, and that he's probably working for the Sons of the Serpent, since they would a) enjoy seeing a young black male shot with the killer going free, and b) would probably jump at the chance to blame a black District Attorney for a subsequent riot, assuming they don't take the chance to use their crooked cops to just kill him. Fortunately, Daredevil's on the scene to protect D.A. Priest (the name makes me wonder if Waid and Samnee are referencing Christopher Priest), and he placed a little call to Hank Pym for some help dispersing the citywide riots. I'm not convinced a downpour would work that well, but again, I haven't been caught up in riots so what do I know? It probably isn't as fun or easy to break shit in the pouring rain. As it turns out, the Jester couldn't resist replacing one of the jurors' name and address with his own, and Matt rushes off in a disguise to investigate. What we see at the end - that he hasn't yet - is someone has been hung, that they're wearing one of the shirts Foggy distributed to his cancer group, and there's a letter addressed to Matty. I have a lot of ideas, and none of them are good for Murdock.
It's a good thing I don't read the letters pages (though I appreciate that Marvel still has them). I don't want to know what some of the responses to the Zimmerman thing are going to be. I can guess, or hell, I've read some of them from the real one, but I don't need a refresher course. That being said, I appreciate that Waid has the Sons of the Serpent changing things up. I'm not clear on why they seemed to have intensified efforts now, but the fact they're operating in different ways gives a sense of the size of their organization and its goals.
Samnee did an excellent job, as usual. The last two panels on page 2, the very slight upturn in the mouth of the guy next to Foggy from one panel to the next. The little grin on Matt's face on page 4 when Kirsten says she's glad he's back, only to be deflated an instant later when she explains why. Page 9, the bottom two-thirds, with the succession of three lines of three panels each, all showing a different tiny aspect of the rioting. It adds to the sense of confusion Matt mentions dealing with at the top of the page. There's so much going on, he can only sort out pieces of it. I like the odd font he uses for all the ant-related sound effects. The letters and punctuation are more loose and less rigid than for the sound of Pym's phone ringing, which makes a certain amount of sense for an animal noise, but even the cloud-seeding compartments Pym attaches are different. The letters are thin, and just a small sliver isn't colored in on each letter, which creates this odd, but pleasing look to my eye. It's almost like a parody of fancy lettering that you might see in a cartoon.
I do have a question. If Matt can't read the images off a tablet with his radar sense, I'm still not clear how he could read Pym's text message with his fingers like he did when he was running scared from Ikari. I still have to guess different letters cause different heat patterns on the screen, but I don't know if that works.
Empowered Special #5: Nine Beers with Ninjette, by Adam Warren (story, prologue art), Takeshi Miyazawa (art), Susie Lee (lettering) - Having read the story inside, I would not have pictured Oyuki being a red/pink haired girl. Dangers of black and white art, I guess. It lets the reader make all kinds of assumptions. Largely irrelevant ones, I suppose, but hey, I also never figured Ninjette for being a white girl from Jersey. I simply assumed she was Japanese, 'cause you know, she was a ninja. I know, bad Calvin.So this is the story of Emp's best friend, Ninjette, told by Ninjette, through memories triggered by each beer she consumes that night. As you might expect, most of the memories are pretty lousy, especially those that involve her father. Ah her father, the major alcoholic with rage issues and, hmm, misogyny is about hating women, right? So does it qualify if Pops thinks women are only for having babies, or is it that he's willing to chop off Ninjette's hands and feet if he even suspects she might run away that pushes him across the line. Anyway, he's a piece of garbage. Maybe he was better before her mother died, but now he takes out whatever pain and resentment he feels over her loss on 'Jette. Miyazawa does a great job on him. Never see his eyes, just that terrifying grin and his hair hanging down over his face in disorganized strands. He's all huge muscles, looming large in panels, either behind Ninjette, or leaning forward towards her, dominating the panel. And Miyazawa (I'm assuming) shades him just a little darker than everyone else, so it's as though he generates a shadow that encroaches on others even further.
But even the happier memories are kind of sad, because they're always tinged with some regret for something Ninjette did, or something she lost, a friend, an illusion of something being shattered, whether that's about others, or herself. Ultimately, the crap she did to survive, so she could live her way, has changed her so much she's not sure she can undo it, or that she even wants to. Her dad may have won after all, in the end.
So yeah, kind of depressing, which was not quite what I expected. Especially if the aside during beer #7 was foreshadowing for something really stupid she's going to do in an upcoming volume. Not that I figured it would be all sunshine and lollipops, but that was quite the downer. You know, I never was clear on why Ninjette was trying to capture Empowered in the first place. She had her own crappy goons, which suggested she wasn't working for another villain, but I can't see why she would have gone after Emp of her own accord. But I only read Volume 1, years ago, so maybe they addressed that down the line.
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