Random Back Issues #51 - Daredevil #263

Matt, you're going to get so much self-flagellation material out of this fuck-up.

It's a new year. Last year's purchases have been added to the boxes, some stuff has been culled, and things got redistributed a little bit, so let's see what we get randomly this year. First up, part of Daredevil's tie-in to Inferno!

We just missed the issue where Daredevil is nearly strangled to death by a demonically possessed vacuum cleaner, after Typhoid Mary had a bunch of people he'd fought recently kick the shit out of him. Then she took him to the hospital so she could twist the knife (figuratively) on Karen Page. Twisting the knife (literally) will be left to Mysterio. Karen flees and seems to embrace the demons' offer to fall back into her heroin addiction.

Matt gets up and running again on some instinct, after his possessed life-support equipment was either trying to save his life, or eat his heart. Maybe both. He's wrapped up like a mummy, down to his boots, part of his mask, and his costume is basically a pair of Daisy Dukes. But that's not gonna stop him, as he heads below the streets, where a subway train is possessed and ready to take a bunch of people to their next stop. No, not Shea Stadium, someplace even worse.

 

Elsewhere, Typhoid is rocking a nice new helmet and cape as she informs Fisk that Daredevil isn't dead. Kingpin's not too pleased, but Typhoid is, since she can kill him again. And, you know, she's sort of in love with him. Fisk insists she stay with him, and Typhoid just laughs. I appreciated the way that Fisk wanted Typhoid to turn Matt/Daredevil inside out, attack his heart, and while she did that, she also did it to Fisk, too. Now he wants Typhoid, the way Matt wants Mary. And Typhoid enjoys getting the reactions out of both of them.

 

She lets in a demon I don't think is Mephisto, who she describes as Wilson's boss. Fisk denies this, claiming that he's the boss. The demon counters that Fisk sold them his soul years ago. 'A small thing. A tiny soul - an intangible worthless thing - worthless to you, that is.'

Daredevil's attempt to use the controls to stop the Hell-locomotive predictably fails, so he climbs outside and tries to steer it via its horns. It works, and they reemerge on the surface, all the passengers carried gently back to Earth while the demon, a thing of 'A thousand eyes a thousand teeth a thousand horns and spikes a thousand horrors' grabs hold of Daredevil as they crash roughly in the street.

 

It spits hellfire at Matt, designed to burn the soul, little realizing the power of Catholicism means guilt only makes Matt stronger. As long as he can avoid confronting what he's guilty about, that is. DD takes it head on, his billy club growing as he does, until he hits the creature between a couple of its thousand eyes and sends it packing back below. Laying bleeding in the street, he's approached by one of the local kids, Butch, who tells him the legal clinic was closed by the cops, and that Karen's gone, her and Matt's flat burned. Butch is sure Matt betrayed her (true), and then vanished somewhere (not yet).

The next issue is unconnected to Inferno, about the Owl using a bunch of punks who think he's passe to rip off a bunch of cocaine shipments so he can get real wings, and a baby a bum found a few issues earlier getting caught up in. Drawn by Steve Ditko. I'm not doing the tonal whiplash justice, especially when they go back to Daredevil wandering New York in a haze, beating the crap out of demons in the issue after that. A couple of issue later, he does flee NYC for over a year. During which he fights the Blob and Pyro, kills the craziest Ultron ever, and fights Mephisto in Hell, among other things.

[3rd longbox, 54th comic. Daredevil #263, by Ann Nocenti (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Max Scheele (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)]