At some point, Nighthawk got blown up. Once a freewheeling, drinking-and-driving playboy, then a way for Daredevil to fight Batman with the serial numbers filed off, then a Defender mostly for the fun of it, now he was dead. And the angel he meets makes it clear there's no way a shallow, selfish guy like Kyle Richmond is getting into Heaven.
But! There's always a chance for redemption, the angel says, because Kyle's really just in a coma, and when he awakens, his eyes are different. They see what's to come, especially the horrible acts people are about to commit. So Nighthawk - in a new, sleeker costume with a chest emblem that reminds me of Blue Falcon - prowls the streets making sure intended victims never meet the fates he sees.
Of course, from the outside, Nighthawk just looks like a nut, running around beating the shit out of random people who haven't actually, you know, done anything. So much for "proactive" heroes. Between that and the fact he's set up shop in Hell's Kitchen, it's inevitable he comes into conflict with Daredevil.
And Kyle kills him. Chokes the life out of him, because he can't let DD stop him. This is his only chance to be saved, to use this gift and make it to the ol' Gated Community in the Sky. At which point, Mephisto rises up to drag Nighthawk and Daredevil both into Hell.
The remaining two issues of this three issue mini-series from '98 are the two heroes trapped in Hell. For most of issue 2, it's Nighthawk talking to himself, because Daredevil's still dead. Eventually, he stumbles across some demons huddled around the flame Daredevil created when he marched through Mephisto's realm in the Nocenti/Romita Jr. Daredevil run, which somehow revives Daredevil.
There's a lot of theological stuff I don't particularly care about. That Nighthawk's got to stop worrying about "saving" himself. When Kyle insists he'll get Daredevil out because he doesn't belong here, Matt responds that it's only in knowing they do belong that they have any hope of escaping. Setting aside that makes no sense, spare me your Catholic guilt, Murdock. Daredevil also insists they can't escape Hell unless someone pays. He offers to sacrifice his life for Nighthawk, Nighthawk offers the same for DD, but ultimately realizes he wasn't dead when Mephisto dragged him down. Which means he still has a chance to turn things around, do better. He doesn't have to accept Mephisto's words that he's damned. Which would seem to run contrary to Daredevil's bit about needing to know you belong there to escape.
But Daredevil also insists that because Kyle stopped those people from doing anything, they weren't guilty, whereas Kyle seems to agree with Mephisto, at least as far as his own actions, that because his eyes saw them, he is guilty, in his heart. But maybe acknowledging that guilt is supposed to be part of accepting you could be damned, but you aren't damned for certain. Because you can make the choice.
(I went back to Nocenti's story to see who "paid." Mephisto kills the young lady, Brandy, in what boils down to a fit of pique because Daredevil's standing up to him and making a big speech, but does that qualify as paying with her life? She didn't offer it, Mephisto just took it. Or was it the Silver Surfer's 12th hour appearance to fight Mephisto? That's when the others escape.)
Case's depiction of Mephisto isn't one I think I'd ever seen before. I'd say the colors are too bright, make him too visible and easily defined, but if you figure neither Daredevil or Nighthawk are seeing in a conventional way, maybe it makes sense he can't hide in shadows. Case's characters are both blocky and kind of angular, limbs oddly long or arranged. The fight scenes aren't great, but are also really just Kyle digging a deeper hole for himself, so there isn't any reason to make him look impressive. This version of Hell definitely isn't as detailed or eerie a place as Romita Jr.'s The frozen wastes aren't given room to convey the vast emptiness, and the other environments seem sort of half-baked. Like what you see when the hero gets dosed with fear gas or hallucinogens.
I think Krueger used the special eyes he gave Nighthawk in one of those Earth X books, where Kyle's become a different sort of "3-D Man", but that's a vague memory. I got about halfway into Earth X before finding it dull - the whole conceit of viewing things through X-51 and a blind Watcher's conversation didn't help - and dropping it. Kurt Busiek and Erik Larsen's Defenders used the idea that Kyle's experiences gave him an interest in the occult and a little more maturity - he still enjoys being a superhero, but likes the Defenders because they just see a problem and step in to confront it rather than wasting time on meetings and charters like the Avengers - but he didn't demonstrate any precognitive visions.
No comments:
Post a Comment