Random Back Issues #166 - Daredevil #356

When Sal Buscema's involved with the art, any object carries the force of a freight train. 

The issue opens with a gun to DD's head, while his caption box notes the day got off to such a good start. At this point, Matt and Foggy are working for famous lawyer (and Foggy's stepmom) Rosalind "Razor" Sharpe's firm. The client is Mr. Hyde, charged with murder and kidnapping of a woman named Angela Parish.

Hyde objects to the kidnapping charge, shattering the table in the prison visiting room. When Murdock points out that won't do much for a jury's opinion of him, Hyde says he just wanted to see one of them panic, and Foggy obliged. Hyde says there's a sealed letter in a PO Box from Angela, thanking him for keeping her locked up until she kicked her drug habit. So he couldn't have kidnapped her.

OK, first off, does Hyde change back to Dr. Zabo after a set amount of time, or does he require a potion to trigger that change? I've definitely seen Zabo change to Hyde by drinking something, but I'm not sure if it works the same both ways. Two, if the letter's never been opened, but he knows what's in it, how do you establish it wasn't written under duress? I guess you have to prove it was written under duress, innocent until proven guilty and all.

Matt and Foggy return to the office, where Karen Page is having a hard time dropping off a gift, because the receptionist is some scowly guy who was probably a Maggia enforcer. Matt and Karen retire to his office, with a lovely view of a brick wall, and Matt finds Karen got him a nice radio. A sign she got a job she really likes? Well, Karen won't commit to that yet. Give her a few days.. Not ominous at all.

Rosalind shows up, generally behaving like a dick. Calling Karen Matt's new secretary, bringing up Karen's rough past when she tried to be an actress. (Matt's putting up with this because Foggy really wants to work here, and Rosalind only hired them because of Matt. If he walks, Foggy's out on his butt.) Next up, a meeting with Liz Allen, currently running Osborn Chemicals (since Norman and Harry are both still dead at this point.) Angela was found in an Osborn warehouse, so Matt wonders if she was killed by someone connected to the Goblins. The warehouse was padlocked, but Liz points out Norman hid entrances into all his buildings.

As Foggy excuses himself for a call from his mother, a member of the moving crew tries to kill Rosalind. She got a senator's nephew off on a drunk driving charge, and six months later, Drunky killed the guy's sister. Matt knocks Rosalind clear, and the shooter is dropped with a fruit basket from the law firm's new neighbor, Misty Knight, hoping to make friends with the neighbors and get some work.

Which brings us back to page 1, as the person holding the gun is Misty, hired to find this secret entrance to help acquit Mr. Hyde. Misty wouldn't normally take the job, but Murdock being sure Hyde's innocent convinced her, and she doesn't think a person should be convicted for something they shouldn't do. Unfortunately, the warehouse is a mess after someone hired a Legacy Virus-infected Pyro to torch it, and he and Daredevil brought the place down.

Still, DD finds the hatch, I guess by his radar sense pinging off the odd shape, or it changed the acoustics in some noticeable way? He can't get it open, but Misty of the bionic arm can. Misty was hired to find the entrance, so her work's done, but the masked vigilante's is just beginning. Into the sewers he goes, where the tunnel is mostly collapsed, but there's silicon gel on the bricks. Could be Hyde's old partner, Cobra, but six hours of crawling through tunnels brings him to a room with several voices, including - Karen's?!

No, Karen Page's new job is not with the Enforcers, but they do have some new members. A contortionist named Snake Marston, who I've never heard of and DD thought was dead. The other, a guy named Hammer Harrision, a big mook with what looks like bricks strapped to his fists. Daredevil uses a nerve pinch to get loose of Snake and throw him into Hammer, in time for Ox and Montana to step in. Daredevil swipes Montana's lasso, but when he tries tying up Ox's wrists, he gets swung into a girder, then kicked by Fancy Dan.

The follow up karate chop hits the girder instead and gives Daredevil enough time to ask about Cobra. And get a bunch of confused and outraged responses in return. They aren't working for Cobra, but they do have one more new member. A guy that can also be slippery, and has electricity powers. Yep, it's the Eel. Please, no shocked gasps.

{3rd longbox, 96th comic. Daredevil #356, by Karl Kesel (writer), Sal Buscema (layouts, pgs. 1-13, 22-31), Cary Nord (penciler, pgs. 1-13, 22-31), Rick leonardi (penciler, pgs. 14-21), Matt Ryan (inker), Christie Scheele (colorist), Michael Higgins (letterer)}

Sunday Splash Page #125

"There's a New Man Without Fear in Town," in Daredevil #360, by Karl Kesel (writer), Cary Nord (penciler), Matt Ryan (inker), Christie Scheele (colorist), Jim Novak (letterer)

After somehow sorting the whole mess with being presumed dead, and running around in a gritty, armored costume for awhile, Karl Kesel's brief run on the book attempted to move Hornhead back more towards what he was originally. More swashbuckling, smart-mouthed, bantering with his enemies. After so much personal disaster, it feels like it should come off as forced, Matt's own more upbeat version of the "inhuman creature" bit Jack Ryder used to pull as the Creeper. But, maybe because Kesel commits to it, has Matt keep cracking jokes and quips, and doesn't provide a lot of internal monologue about how it's an act, it doesn't feel out of place.

The costume is a lighter, if not more brilliant, shade of red. Less of a grimy feel to things. He's out in the daylight a lot more during this stretch, and the days seem brighter than they were during Nocenti's run. New York doesn't seem quite as grimy or run down as it did in Nocenti's run, although maybe that's just because Murdock has moved back up in the world, economically.

Matt's back to being a lawyer with Foggy, although they get hired onto the firm of a notorious lawyer named Rosalind Sharpe, who has a connection with Foggy. Foggy is finally in on Matt's secret, and more than a little pissed about being in the dark all those years, so Matt keeps trying to make it up to him. By working for Sharpe for one thing, since she makes Foggy's employment reliant on Matt also working there. He's managed to mostly patch things up with Karen Page (they were just starting to try during Last Rites).

This is post-Onslaught, so it's perhaps understandable Daredevil moves more outside his wheelhouse, what with most of the other heroes "dead". He's facing down the Absorbing Man, Grey Gargoyle, Mr. Hyde shows up again, Pyro appears for I think, either his last appearance, or close to it. I think he crops up one more time in X-Men post-Zero Tolerance before the Legacy Virus kills him.

Actually, this run in general provides kind of an interesting snapshot of Marvel at the moment. Daredevil teams up with Spider-Man, except it's Ben Reilly in his version of the Spider-Man costume (the one Spider-Girl would appropriate). Reilly's strangely willing to discuss the fact he thought he was a clone with Daredevil, but I guess he has memories of their earliest team-ups. Foggy starts a tentative romance with Liz Osborn/Allan, who is running Oscorp with Harry dead and Norman not yet revealed to be alive. Black Widow pops up, closer to her more professional and ruthless characterization of the last couple decades, but she's acting out of grief and guilt, thinking she's going down as the last leader of the Avengers, who let her entire team get killed.

Gene Colan comes on as artist for the last few issues, which involve Dr. Fear trying to do. . . something involving the radio station Karen is working at as a late night host. I don't remember what the plot was, probably something about driving people nuts with sub-harmonics in the broadcast frequency. Colan makes New York a murky, shadowy place, but still cleaner than it had been for the past 100+ issues. Just atmospheric.

Kesel's run ends at #364, with Joe Kelly and later Scot Lobdell stepping in as writer for the last 15 over so issues before the title was canceled, then started over for the Kevin Smith/Joe Quesada run. Which led to Bendis, then to Brubaker, and a whole lot of miserable crap. All of which I ignored, so next Sunday we'll skip over all that to the next restart.