The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank (#1-12) PART ONE

"Nothing stops me.  Nothing" - Frank Castle.

Time for more Garth Ennis I think, we haven't had him on here in a while.  Now regular readers of this blog will know I covered Ennis's seminal Punisher run on the mature readers label MAX.  However that was not the first time he wrote for good old Frank Castle, he was actually hired to write a reboot of the character in the mainstream Marvelverse in the year 2000 coming off the back of his acclaimed DC Vertigo series Preacher.  The reason it's called "Welcome Back Frank" was that the Punisher had fallen into a notorious Dork Age. Frank had killed himself then an angel had brought him back to kill villains and earn his way back into Heaven using his supernatural guns.  Unlike the awesome "Franken-Castle" storyline, Angel Punisher was desgined to be a permanant change for the character but was so derided by fandom that Marvel quickly decided a rethink was needed and Ennis was brought in to return the character to his roots and make him a viable character again.  And he did this with aplomb, dealing with Frank's rejection of his Angel self and God-given mission in a few pages and then threw him into a storyline in which he takes on the worst of the New York Mafia that won back the crowd for the character and lead to Ennis being allowed free reign during the rest of his run and on Punisher MAX as well. The artists for this story are his Preacher collaborator Steve Dillon on pencils and Jimmy Palmiotti on inking duty.  As this storyline is twelve issues long I have split it into two posts. Let's crack on shall we?

We begin with Frank at a drug deal where he has killed all but one of the particpants who he holds a gun to and says "and get a haircut" too.  Then he leaves and the man excitedly recounts what happened to someone over his mobile phone which was that Frank came in all guns blazing and he's been left alive and oh he now has a tonne of money and all of the drugs enough to set them up for the rest of their lives! Then he senses Frank behind him and realizing what's about to happen, says farewell.  Frank breaks his neck, doses the cash and guns in petrol and sets it all ablaze and walkes away.

Spacker Dave and Mr. Bumpo.

Later he returns in his civilian wear to where he is living.  A small set of flats each one inhabited by a different person.  There's the massively facially pierced "Spacker Dave" who sits out on the stoop all day.  The very obese "Mr. Bumpo" and "Joan" a very timid young woman.  He says hello to all of them and returns to his rooms thinking he uses the alias John Smith"whatever works."

He ruminates that he's back to acting alone, no "Microchip" no fancy ammo, no battle-vans, no surveillance, "just the basics".  He been gone a while, "the scum in the city need a wake-up call and here it comes."  And we cut to the local morgue where the bullet ridden burned corpse of Frank's victim is having revenge sworn over him by his brother "Bobby Gnucci".  Frank enters the morgue and the coroner asks him for one hundred bucks to see the body too.  Frank stuffs him in a locker.

He enters the room and the mobsters tell him to get lost, but Frank goes for his guns, "first they do is freeze.  Like always.  So number one's a freebie."  He opens fire with his shotgun saying the rest he "pays full price for".  The bullets fly and he takes them all down finishing them off with a grenade.  He tells them he has a message, "listen".

Walking away from the scene he thinks they need to remember the terror every time they picked up the phone "because you knew I was out there".  The message is one for all scum but the Gnucci's are a good place to start.  He queues to get into the Empire State Buiding as he reflects that Sticky Eddie was the dealer who liked to choke rivals in their own blood.  Brother Bobbie was a date-rapist.  And Carlo is "Ma Gnucci's number one son."

He's been tailing him since he left a club, he can't have heard about Bobbie yet.  He's taking a woman to the one-hundreth and fourth floor, deck closed tonight apart from a select few.  Carlo slips the manager an envelope and takes a woman up there, he disables the manager and follows them.  He sneaks in telling the woman to shush.

Welcome Back Frank indeed.

Carlo turns and she's gone but the window is open. Confused he leans out and the Punisher grabs him from above  and ties him up before holding him above his head.

Frank: "I caught a glimpse of Heaven once.  The angels showed me.  The idea was I'd kill for them.  Clean up their mistakes on Earth. Eventually redeem myself.  Tried it.  Didn't like it."

And we see him pitch Carlo off the building.  He then thinks that he was taken up to see his wife and daughter and son all finally at peace.  "Then I was cast down", back into a world where rapists, psychos, perverts a brand new evil every minute spewed out as fasts as men can think them up.  The world where pitching a criminal dwarf of a skyscraper to tell the criminal scum was a sane and rational act, "the angels thought it would be Hell for me.  But they were WRONG.  Welcome back Frank says New York City".

We begin the next chapter with the police commissioner on the phone to the mayor as he demands the police turn up the heat on the Punisher reminding him that incriminating photos exist of him and the commissioner on a fact finding tour in Las Vegas.  After he signs of one of the cops says "Gnucci's must be turning up the heat."  The commissioner grumbles that putting his best men on the case will get laughed in his face, then he suddenly says "wait a minute.  Get me Soap."

Then a man called Joe, cousin to Ma Gnucci goes to a meeting in Little Italy to inform the men there that the N.Y.P.D. has been enlisted to do all they can to find the Punisher and when the cuffs go on, "one of you gentlemen will cancel The Punisher's ticket."  Listening to them discretely is Frank, having a meal with a sex worker as cover. He hands out envelopes of cash and then tells them to come back tonight and they'll have all the weapons they need.  Frank gets up to leave and tells the sex-worker to forget this ever happened.

Detective Martin Soap.

Back at the police station a down trodden looking man called Martin Soap is beng told by the Captain that his run of bad luck with cases is about to run out as he's going to be put in charge of finding and arresting The Punisher.   After the meeting he mopes about how the hell he is supposed to find The Punisher when "every cop in the department loves him."  He shown to his office by the Lieutenant whic is jammed full of files in boxes, he's told he's heading up a task force who are going to be meeting him at the crime scene.

Frank stalks his prey, which are the men handed those envelopes.  The first to die is " Harry 'Neck' Thorton".  It is said he outshot four State Troopers, "dodged a bullet.  But not thirty" as he opens up on him with his machine gun.  Then there is "Eddie Lau", expert martial artist, Frank knows a little, but his favourite is "splat fu" as he pushes Lau in front of an underground train. Then there is "Tall Joe Small".  Sniper who capped fifty guys in Desert Storm.   As he runs him over he thinks that the trouble with that was was that it wasn't Vietnam a war where "you don't fight dirty. You do things that make dirty look good."

Soap arrives at the scene of Carlo's death and meets a nervous looking man called "Buddy Plug. Most people call me Bud.  I'm the rest of the taskforce."  Soap tells him they got given the case because they don't have a hope in solvng it.  It's the Captains way of the Captain saying "you got it boss and drop dead to the commissioner simultaneously".  He says well it can't get any worse.  Then Bud reveals he's not a cop he's a "Behavioural Psychologist."

Joan.

Back at Frank's place, Joan presents him with a plate of cookies saying she baked too many and didn't want them to go to waste.  Frank thinks if he takes them she might come back and want to talk.  He doesn't take them and she has a nervous breakdown on the spot.  So he takes them.   As he sits sharpening his knife he eats one and thinks they are actually pretty good cookies.  He leaves going past Mr. Bumpo getting several pizza's delivered and Spacker Dave out on the stoop.

It's ten-thirty and Joe is waiting for the three now deceased hitmen to come.  Joe looks out his side windown grumbling about how unproffesional they are as Frank dispatches the man in the driver's seat next to him.  Joe looks back round and is rendered speechless on seeing him sat there.  He tells Joe to lose the piece and to put his boss on speaker phone.  Ma Gnucci picks up and asks who the hell it is and Joe stutters it's him and The Punisher.

Frank tells her that he thought he let her know his plan so she could plan her funeral in advance, "I got your sons.  I got your killers.  Now I've got your "man-behind-the-man".  Or the "man-behind-the-hag in your case". Then he tells Joe to get out of the car currently speeding down the freeway.  Joe wails that he will die, he's got to gve him a chance.  Frank points a gun at his head so Joe tumbles out of the car, survives the initial impact on the road, but is then run over by an eighteen-wheeler.

Frank notes that Ma Gnucci is screaming blue murder now.  He'll take the guns for himself and ditch the limo in the Hudson river, "almost the end of a rich, full day."  We then cut to a young Catholic priest taking a confession from a gangbanger who tells him all sorts of sordid things.  In a rage he grabs an axe and chops the gangbanger to bits in the Confessional yelling that he'll absolve him all right. When he is done he snaps out of it and says "Oh God forgive me.  I've done it again".

Hector Redondo does his thing.

Next chapter begins with Frank deciding he needs to thin out the army Ma Gnucci has around her.  He goes to a wiseguy bar and shoots the cars parked outside.  When the Gnucci soldiers come rushing out they get what's left in the belt of his assault rifle. Then he unleashes a flame thrower and burns some more.  He then runs saying the flamer is lousy for a prolonged firefight, to much of  a risk in it taking a bullet to the tank.  But he runs into a building and those following see the lift go down.  They race down the stairs to catch The Punisher and open fire as the lift opens, which only has the flamer in it and the die in a firey explosion.  "That's my boys" thinks The Punisher.

Back with Soap, he is reading Bud's psychological profile of The Punisher which is full of the usual psychobabble.  Soap says to him,"don't take this the wrong way Bud... but what does all this actually mean?"  Bud says he thought it would help understand his motives.  Soap says they know his motives, "he kills criminals because he hates them. It's not exactly brain surgery"  He wants more on his methods so Bud should look into that in finding where he'll strike next.  And he leaves the office with an upset Bud left behind.

Cut to the priest.  His name is Hector Redondo and a daft old woman with poor eyesight comes in to clean the church even though it's the wrong say.  She sees the blood and thinks Hector spilled the communion wine and despite Hector telling her she's here on the wrong day she is mostly deaf too and gets to work cleaning up.

Frank returns him, greets Spacker Dave, see's Mr. Bumpo getting a new toilet delivered and tells Joan he liked the cookies.  Inside his rooms he thinks about Ma Gnucci's brother standing trial tommorrow, this time for a crime he didn't do.  He has the slickest defence lawyers in the city and we see a newspaper telling us it's Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson on his case.  He wants Dino dead before Ma Gnucci because Dino would "bathe New York in blood."  So his real problem now is Matt Murdock and "the Guardian Angel that follows him everywhere".

Back with Soap, he returns to his office and finds Bud has committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling using his tie. The Punisher is waiting on a roof close to the jail. Apparently Murdock made mincemeat of the prosecution.  Dino is on his way back to the jail in an unmarked car.  He arrives in seven minutes and dies in ten.  He realises as one of Daredevil's billy clubs bounces off the wall next to him that he'll need every second.

heh heh heh "fap".

Daredevil asks if he ever stops.  He knows Dino Gnucci is a monster but he should fall according to the law and not shot down like a street dog.  Frank says he knows these speeches of his by heart. So Daredevil jumps down and starts pummeling him.  Frank thinks that he's giving him the first round which is easy because in a straight fight he never stands a chance against him.

He thinks that Daredevil is not the enemy but he's sick of his self righteousness and he deserves "a wake up call".  He rigged an ultrasonic device an hour ago and it goes off overwhelming Daredevil's supersenses.  Frank then punches him out.  Daredevil wakes chained securely to a post and a gun taped to his hand.

Frank: "One bullet.  One shot.  Once chance to stop me killing Dino Gnucci. It's time for that choice you were telling me about."

He's got his back to him and he's wearing kevlar, so it'll have to be a headshot.  If he doesn't shoot he has a death he could have prevented on his conscience.  If he does shoot he's a killer. 

Daredevil asks what kind of choice is that?  Frank says "the one I make every time I pull the trigger." Dardevil says he won't kill him.  Dino Gnucci is a dead man then says Frank.  Daredevil begs him saying Dino deserves to be taken off the street for something he's done.  We have laws otherwise the society they have built is completely worthless. "The thought of Dino living one more minute is enough to drive me insane" responds Frank.  Daredevil cocks the hammer, "that's the spirit" says Frank.

Daredevil given an impossible choice for him.

Daredevil keeps begging Frank to not put him in this position but Frank starts commentating on Dino getting out of the car. Finally Daredevil says "God forgive me" and pulls the trigger  But the firing pin had been removed.  Frank assassinates Dino then punches Daredevil out saying the chains will be gone when he wakes up.  The chapter ends with Hector praying to God for guidance to help him with his psycotic episodes.  Then another gangbanger walks in saying he has some "real bad sins" he wants to confesss to and Hector's face contorts in rage saying "of course my son.  For I am The Holy."

The next chapter starts with Soap's captain reading out Buds suicide note that all his life he felt rejection all his life in many forms and Soap's was the last straw.  "Jeez Soap" laughs the Captain, "what did you say to this guy?"

Cut to Frank taking a bullet to the side, ribs and shoulder thinking "that's the sound of my luck running out".  He was scoping out Ma Gnucci, getting a look at her security teams, he wasn't even going to hit her tonight.   But he was discovered and he only has a forty-five and the man who saw him had a sub-machine gun, "my night goes downhill from there."

Ma Gnucci.

Ma Gnucci gets out of her car and orders her men to kill him, "he killed my sons!  he killed my brother!  I want his head!". Three armed men follow the trail of blood into the closed Central Park zoo. Frank hides thinkng the shot to his ribs is the killer.  He realises he's going to have to use what's to hand to kill them and it's the one who made him who walks through the door.  Frank leaps out quickly grabs him and upends him into a tank full of pirahnas. Who start to tuck in.

When the other two men come in first thing they see is the stripped, bloody skeleton of their comrade.  Frank goes deeper into the zoo and finds a snake which he gets to squeeze the life out of one of the other men.  Ma Gnucci catches up demanding to know what they are up to.

Back at the precinct a Lieutenant called Molly Richthofen pokes her head around Soap's door telling him to call her Molly, "I'm the first piece of luck you've had all day."  She lights a cigarette and says he's the departments biggest loser and she's it's biggest embarrassment, "want to prove everybody wrong, crack both cases and then take over the world?" 

Molly, meet Soap.

Soap asks about the whole "biggest embarressment" thing.  She says she refused to sleep with the commissioner which she said at a press conference when the mic was still on.  As a special thankyou he's assigned her to take down the Gnucci family. Which is a farce as half of city hall and the department are in bed with them.  She is a taskforce of one.  And as the Punisher is working his way through them, they should team up.

We return to Frank, he thinks that he has to close this down soon as he's lost too much blood and the cops will be here soon.   He climbs into the polar bear enclosure taking another hit as he does so.  He looks around at something he can use as a weapon and spies the bears themselves.  One wakes up and he punches it hard in the face then quickly climbs out to escape the now enraged bear.  Ma Gnucci and the final goon have climbed in after him and the bears turn on them.  Frank looks back to enjoy the sight of them getting ripped apart, "oh yes.  It's one of the greats."  Then he scarpers as he hears sirens in the distance.

Hector is burying another murdered gangbanger and prays to God again saying God has forsaken him, he could have fought ths madness with His strength but He ignored him and now several people are dead by his hand. Hector asks for anything that could be taken as a sign of what to do now.  A newspaper then blows in his face with a headline about The Punisher and Hector takes that as the sign he needs, "now I see.  I am no longer alone."

The chapter ends with Molly and Soap arriving at the Central Park carnage site.  Molly thinks that it looks like her problems are all over. "So much for the titanic team-up" says Soap.  But then they see someone being taken away in an ambulance.  The cop there says the three creeps are dead, "Ma Gnucci is still alive."

The somewhat diminished Ma Gnucci.

We cut to ten days later.  Ma Gnucci is back home minus arm and legs and hair.  One cousin asks how she is doing and she orders him shot in the head for asking a stupid question.  When the man queries this she asks a second man to shoot both of them in the head. When they won't she demands a third man to kill all of them, and despite their pleas, he does so.

Ma Gnucci: "Ten days ago I was fed to a pack of polar bears.  Anyone doubting I mean what I say would do well to remember that.  Clean up this mess and let's get down to business."

Her goons tell her that finding The Punisher has always been impossible.  So she puts a ten million dollar bounty on his head.

Back at Frank's home, Mr. Bumpo is being taken to hospital via a hole in the wall as he had a coronary and they couldn't get him out through the door.  He tells Bumpo to take it easy and returns to his rooms.  He's been recovering from the bullets that hit him.  But tonight he's going looking for trouble.  Ma Gnucci living was a shock, "old witch is blessed by the devil himself."  Then there is a knock on the door.  He holds a gun behind his back but it's only Joan saying she baked too many pies.

Molly and Soap go to a bar called "Lucky's".  He says it's nice and quiet and the food's cheap. Molly says that her guess will be that Ma Gnucci will hole up while her people hunt The Punisher.  She'll be hoping they get to him before he gets to her.  So if the stake out her place they can be there on the spot when The Punisher shows.  They sit back, watch the massacre and step in and rest whatever is leftover.  She asks if Soap is in or out with this plan?

Before we see his answer we're back with Hector murdering another confessor.  The mostly blind and deaf old woman comes to do the cleaning and Hector tells her outright he killed the man for beating his wife and taking cocaine.  She doesn't register that and goes to clean up. Hector smiles and thanks God for showing him The Punisher, "for showing me I'm not alone."

Elsewhere in a corporate boardroom meeting for Worldwide Investment Corporation, a rough looking man with a mask appears and tells them his name is "Payback".  He accuses them of having millions of gallons of blood on their hands and when one protests he shoots him.   He say they invested in a company that built substandard aircraft and many people dies in a plane crash as a result.  A lawsuit closed down a Kentucky factory cost a thousand people their jobs, and the town became a crime ridden slum.

Another vigilante, Payback.

They set up shop in Taiwan with some of the lowest standards on the planet and colluded with local authorities in the murder of over a hundred union organizers killed by death squads. They are criminal scum, "lower than the filthiest hood on the street!  You are guilty! And now it's time for Payback".  And he fires on them with a submachine gun.

Somewhere else in a nice neighbourhood a masked vigilante called "Elite" is patrolling the street.  He sees some drug dealers sitting in a car saying perhaps they could find somewhere else to deal drugs. They tell him to drop dead.  He responds that crime is minimal here, property values are very high, he won't let them conduct their business within a ten clock radius. "I want you trash to leave because you lower the tone." 

Then he shoots them all in the face with a silenced pistol and walks off thinking "peasants". He bumps into a woman whose dog is urinating on the pavement. He introduce himself to her as Elite and then he shoots the dog saying it's a nice neighbourhood so lets keep it that way.

And Elite.

Back with Frank, he's been walking the streets all night but all is quiet. He says Guiliani has a lot to answer for in bringing the crime rates down.   Then a mugger appears, Frank deals with him by jamming him head first into a garbage can and decides he's as healed as he's going to get.

Frank: "Tomorrow I finish the job I started.  Here I come, Ma.  Ready or not."

We then cut to Ma Gnucci and the first bit of good news for her.  A stuttering man has be brought to her saying he's got information on The Punisher, "he lives right across the road from me."

The weasely man goes onto say he was coming home from his job at an adult bookstore and it was late because they close at midnight.  And he glances up to see a dude staggering down the street, he see's the Skull shirt and the blood and realises that it really is The Punisher, "an' I just about wet myself."

The weasely man then carries on saying he say him cross the street, fall down a few times then go into the building opposite his.  He watched him come and go for a week wondering what to do about it and then heard of the ten million bucks reward.  She says the ten million is for killing him, if his information is true it's worth ten thousand.  She sends Billy and Benny with him to check it out, if he's wrong "make it a messy one."

There is now a double page spread of the news broadcasting a report on the killers who have cropped up since The Punisher came back in the scene.   It reports on Payback and Elite's murders as well as the mysterious deaths of all the Catholic criminals marked on their foreheads with the sign of the cross.  Vox pops seem to show support for the killers, The Punisher most of all except for one who says they are a "bunch of fascist lunatics!  The Punisher's the worst of the lot."

Inside a helicopter are two executives from the company Payback is targetting.   The C.E.O admits that everything Payback said was true and they need to stop him before people start looking into their company more closely.  But as they fly they see Payback with a rocket launcher and he fires on the helicopter, destroying it.

More gang members arrive on Elite's patch intending to show him "what time it is." But using a sniper rifle out of his bedroom windown he headshots all three of them.   He then stashes the rifle in a secret compartment in his bathroom while conversing through the door with his kids.

Billy and Benny and the weasly guy are parked up outside his home. Inside Frank has packed up a bag full of guns saying it's the night he closes the Gnucci family down for good.  His car is parked a block over and he thinks this is a good time to leave as he is getting to well known here. He leaves the house and the two goons confirm it is The Punisher.  They call Ma and she says to follow while back-up arrives, the weasly man gets his money and goes.

Soap and Molly on stake-out start playing a game where one says a film title and the other has to give a film that starts with the final letter and so on. They see the Gnucci's start to leave and Soap wants to follow them.  Molly says that they are unlikely to get him, so best to stay fixed on Ma Gnucci and anyway they can't do what even a bunch of tactical units can do.  So the sit and carry on with the game.

Punisher giving as good as he gets.

The Punisher is under heavy fire, thinking that they came out of nowhere.  He tosses a brick of plastique at them to clear out some in the resultant explosion.   Then he starts with the automatic weapons.  He thinks of the song of the 'sixty as one he remembers from a long time ago.

Frank: "Of fireteams dug in on the breaks between the paddy field tracer lasering the jungle night.  Of hueys screaming through the void... of Lieutenant Castle getting short and hating it, wanting 'Nam to last forever.  A lullaby come all the way to New York City".

His shots find their targets, but one fires a rpg at him and forces him down an alley. He only has his forty-five pistol left now.  He notes a bullet to the chest the kevlar took.  The rest of the goons still left standing come after him he punches the first in the throat and gets out his knife and stabs him.  He takes another to the chest that goes through his kevlar.  He approaches the final man standing and as he fires on Frank just walks towards him and breaks his neck.  Then he collapses next to him and blacks out, prone in the alley.

Frank passes out.

Cliffhanger! So it's a different take on Frank than we've seen from Ennis before in Punisher and Fury MAX.  There's much more of an element of humour and the grotesque more like you would find in Preacher and The Boys.  Sometimes you want an in-depth look at Frank's psychological motivations and sometimes you want to see him punch a polar bear in the face. The resolution of Franks Angel Punisher era is beautifully dealt with.  Some writers would spin that out to a whole arc, but Ennis in his no nonsense manner dimisses it in a couple of pages.  Hell on Earth is actually the Heaven the Punisher wants to do his work in, and he really does get to work in this storyline.  Given Ennis's distate for most heroes who aren't Frank or Superman, Daredevil was treated very fairly in his appearance, with Frank admitting he doesn't stand a chance against him in a straight fight and only wins by using his brains and cheating.  Having Daredevil pull the trigger was probably quite a controversial move back when the comic was first published as he's another hero with a "thou-shalt-not-kill" reputation.  But Frank put him in that position to prove a point and saying that he can't live if Dino isn't killed is pretty much his whole mindset laid out right there.  Soap and Molly are fun characters, Soap rather meekly goes along with her cunning plans to let The Punisher and the Gnucci's war it out until they can step in at the end.  We'll see how this plan plays out in the Part Two of this storyline up in a few days time.

Daredevil Book 2: West Case Scenario (#1.50, 6-10)

"You're a good man Matt. A lot like your father" - Maggie

Time for more Daredevil action with the Mark Waid penned acclaimed Marvel Now run.  Art is by the fantastic Chris Samnee.  Daredevil here is a littl different than he has been in the past, instead of being based in New York, he's in San Francisco.  This because he revealed his true idenity and was disbarred from practicing law in NYC.  Not hiding behind a secret identity has its advantages,  Matt Murdock seems more stable and at peace with himself than he has for a long time.  His law partner Foggy has gone into hiding while he recovers from cancer because Matt revealing he was Daredevil has painted a target on Foggy.  Matt also has two new women in his life, his law partner and girlfriend Kirsten McDuffie and the mayor Charlotte Hastert.  Another advantage of revealing his identity is that he can consult with the cops and be useful to them as a human forensic tool.  This volume contains what appears to be a "What If?" style story that takes place in the future and has Matt with a son.  Then his mum gets herself involved in a diplomatic incident which Matt must resolve and finally the sinister Purple Man is back, how can a man who's commands you MUST follow be beaten?

OK, first issue and it's a look at a (possible?) future for Matt Murdock. Daredevil the comic had it's 50th anniversary and this was the commemorative comic.  It begins with him sitting on a bench, ruminating on how age has only intensified the gifts he has.  He's holding a gift, it's a crown with the note saying "Happy 50th Counsellor" and the box has the label "Enjoy your reign" and it's then revealed he's in the middle of a crowd of people, all of them having lost their sight.

A city of the blind.

It begins with him pulling his son away from his books and making him come and train with him.  Matt notes that he's become just like his own father, he tells his son he needs to be "active and social" and partake of sports.  "There's more to life than mouldy old books" he says.

His son, Jonathan has inherited Matt's supersenses, it hit the poor kid like a storm and it took Dr. Valeria Richards sometime to bring him down to normal.

Matt: "He still jumps at every noise, still flinches at every contact.  Every second of every moment he's like a Jack-In-The-Box with one note left to go."

The doorbell goes and Jonathan jumps in fright, but it's only "uncle Foggy" come to visit. Matt's wife won't be with them tonight, "mayor stuff".

Foggy tells Jonathan that Matt became mayor not long after he moved to San Francisco.  And even handed the Daredevil identity to "you-know-who" (I don't know who) alhough he reclaimed it when he was done mayoring before retiring when Jonathan was born.  Matt says if he hadn't of been elected who wouldn't have met his wife, then he pauses and suddenly his senses pick up chaos going on outside which Jonathan reacts to as if he is in pain.

Matt's son Jonathan.

Then Jonathan goes blind.  And Foggy, looking at the TV, says he's not alone.  Matt is about to leave to investigate but Jonathan cries "don't leave me!" so Matt doesn't and hugs his son.  A watching woman outside says "oh for god's sake."

Later when Jonathan is asleep Foggy and Matt discuss the situation.  72% of the city has been rendered blind.  Then Matt hears his name being called via his supersenses and leaves, this takes us to him sat on the bench holding the crown.  There is a small communications device and a woman speaks to him over it telling him to open the other package.  It has the Daredevil uniform in it.

He puts it on, then Foggy calls him saying he has found out what caused the blindness.  It's an eye-drop like dispenser that people use to put in liquid "cyber-optics" which are what people use to connect to "the Worldstream" to stay connected 24/7.  Matt is annoyed that Jonathan used them, he told him not to spend his life behind a heads up display.

He knows who hacked the feed, the crazy "Jubula Pride."  Daughter of his old enemy The Owl.  He has tracked her down and smashes into her office screaming "you hurt my son!"  She says he's an ingrate who should be flattered by what she has done, "I worked hard to build this world for you!"

Jubela takes on Daredevil.

He detects a radioactive power source and realises she planning to expand her target area than just The Bay.  They fight and she is angry he retired when he has a kid. She says he was master of this city and she can make him "king of the world".  When everyone is blind, they'll look to him for help.

Jubula: "That's my present to you!  I'm going to give you back your courage!"

She says he's giving him the chance to be the father he never had, but Daredevil knocks her aside and says he'd be lucky to be anything like his dad.  And that the one thing they have in common is they both died young.

He starts smashing the radioactive power source.  As he hits it, liquid splashs on his eyes, but it seems to be working and it powers down.  Things go black as he thinks "I saved my son".

Then we jump forwards to Matt with a guide dog.  He has gone properly blind now, no more supersenses.  He talks with his son who wants to stay home reading, Matt says it's fine and walks away thinking he'd like to see some "spark of courage" in him.  Then suddenly a car nearly knocks him down but Jonathan dives forwards and tackles him out of the way.   He holds his son and tells him "I love you so much".  And the story ends.

Jonthan shows his inner hero.

Then there is a short and rather moving text story written by Brian Michael Bendis (whose Daredevil run is one of my favourite runs in all of comicdom) which is a letter written to Matt by one of his million wives, which ends with us seeing Bullseye coming to kill her. Then there is a short and very silly story about how Matt managed to deal with the time he pretended to be his own twin brother and "kill him off" so to speak.  And that brings the anniversay issue to an end and we return to the series proper.

It starts with Daredevil thinking about recently getting caught up in a crossover.  He admits he's pretty useless in these mass brawls, but one thing that happened to him was he and many others got flashes of scenes they had otherwise repressed or were too young to remember.  Matt is super disturbed by his because it shows him an image of his father with his face contorted in anger looming over his cowering mother, he's holding Matt and has his fists balled.  Matt is being super-emo about it, and is kneeling on his fathers grave using mud to cover up the words "A Good Man" on it.

The offending memory.

It's made him question everything he remembers about his dad.  So he goes to find his mum who is a nun in a New York convent, who left when he was very young to ask her about it.  But when he goes to her convent he finds she isn't there.  He manages to track her down to prison, which was hard from him with his lack of lawyerly privileges in New York now.  He has to call in a lot of favours to get to see her.

She hasn't been charged, just arrested for an act of civil disobediance.  She and a couple of other nuns broke into a base that was storing chemical weapons, having exhausted legal methods to bring this to people's attention, they illegally went and graffited all over the walls hoping their arrests would highlight what was going on there.

But they have been treated like illegal combatants, paraded before a military tribunal and then told they will be extradited to Wakanda.  The charges are unknown and when their time she tells Matt "the Lord watches over us.  Have faith".

Matt's mum Maggie is some serious trouble.

Matt keeps looking into it, even going as far as asking SHIELD what it's about, and they just tell him it's a federal matter.   But everyone on a federal level says it's a municipal matter, "it's like a Kafka novel" he thinks dispairingly as he fails to even find out what they have been charged with.

He becomes Daredevil and investigates the facility the nuns targetted, but it's been abandoned.  Matt considers the Black Panther a friend, but he's disappeared and Wakanda is being ruled by his sister.  Hawkeye reminds him Wakanda has an embassy in New York, so Matt goes and sits on the roof and lets his supersenses go into full scan mode.

He hears a conversation between a Wakandan representatve and a US General.  They discuss how the Wakandan's cleared the base and the Wakandan tells the general he did an exemplary job containing the media.  The general is uncomfortable about hiding this from his superiors but he is given a memory stick with schematics of some of their weapons on it.

You are too late Daredevil.

Daredevil bursts in and snatches the memory stick saying he'll release it to the media but the Wakandan says he was expecting him and sets off a high frequency device that overwhelms Matt's senses.  He beats him up and takes back the memory stick, then he hurls Matt out of the window telling him he's too late, the nuns are already on their way to Wakanda as the base was Wakandan soil legally, they have the right to try the nuns themselves, "they left and hour ago".

We then cut to Daredevil leaping out of a SHIELD aeroplane over Wakanda, after a mysterious box is tossed out as well.   He lands safely but is quickly captured and bought before the Queen.  She tuts at him saying she expected someone more "cunning, formidable, unless...you're awake".
And Daredevil knocks out the men holding him and stands before her.  She leaps forwards and attacks him, while they fight he thinks on how he planned to get captured so he'd find her faster.  Then he says to her that he knows she is dealing with a corrupt US general called "Eaglemore" and that he knows the nuns were drawing attention to illegal weapons being held in defiance of International Law.

She says the weapons and research are to keep Wakanda strong and the extradition of the nuns was her defence minister's idea, but she rubber stamped it.  The women would bring embarrassment to Wakanda "If I declare that to be a crime, then it is".  Then Daredevil stops fighting her saying he didn't plan on rescuing them via brute force, he going to "lawyer them out."

Matt gets his lawyer on.

He knew his word against Eaglemore wouldn't work, so he surprised the general, bound and gagged him and put him in the box that was dropped into Wakanda with him. He trashed Eaglemore's office and made it so people would know he was missing, booking him a flight to Wakanda as well.

Now the place is going to be swarming with investigators hunting down Eaglemore, who have probably dug into his dirty dealings as well. The Queen could stand with Eaglemore, but won't, he's a sacrificial lamb:

Daredevil: "Just be aware that it's going to be harder to throw him under a bus if you can't produce his kidnap victims."

The Queen pauses.  Then orders the release of the prisoners.  They meet Matt outside by Queen Shuri's personal airship.  But Shuri then tries to arrest Matt for entering Wakanda illegally.  However Matt's mum stands in front of him as the guns are all aimed at him.  Then Shuri is told US soldiers are approaching and she has no wish to explain a dead nun to them.  Matt is free to go with them.

On board the airship, Matt explains about his memories.  He finally asks her the question he's been dying for the answer to, why did she leave? "To save you" she says.  Then the whole story spills out of her.  She was suffering from severe post-natal depression after his birth which turned into a full blown psychosis and she became severely paranoid:

Maggie: "I began to suspect that Jack was working against me.  That he was purposely negelecting me for you. That you were sent here to tear us apart... that you were both laughing at my torment."

And she attacked Jack as he held Matt, but she slipped on some spilled spaghetti and fell, Jack loomed over her his face contorted for a brief second, then he became distressed and concerned.  But Maggie just ran, even as he tried to stop her.

Maggie tells Daredevil the truth.

He kept looking for her, but she was taken in by the local nuns and became one, staying close by Matt so she could watch him grow up from a safe distance.  Thanks to her faith in God and counselling she became at peace with herself and was able to redirect that energy "towards a bigger, better world."

She asks for Matt's forgiveness for never wanting to tell him the truth.  Matt says there is nothing to forgive and that it explained a lot.  She was dealing with a chemical imbalance and it wasn't her fault.  She says she still thinks she failed him.  He responds that she pulled herself out of depression by sheer force of will and became a source of good for the planet, "we should all fail so tragically".

They finally reach home and she is still apologetic.  Matt says they need to talk more, and she says it would be nice to have her son back.  Matt says he'll also be her lawyer "because you clearly do not understand the statute of limitations".  And they hug warmly.  End of this storyline.

Mother and son sharing a moment.

Next up, a tangle with Zebidiah Killgrave or The Purple Man.  Viewers of the 2015 series Jessica Jones will know that he's a man who can make people do whatever he wants just by telling them too and he's a pretty evil guy.  The story begins with four purple skinned children breaking into another kids home.  Before his mum can call for help, Killgrave appears and whispers that with the loss of her child she has nothing to live for, and she jumps out of the window of their high up flat as Killgrave laughs, and the her son's skin starts to turn purple too.

The next day Matt and Kirsten are walking through a zoo.  She's trying to get him used to identifying all the different animals.  He kisses her saying he's never had a girlfriend with this level of interest in his job.  She then tells him her dad has asked them over for lunch on his yacht and despite her dislike of her step-mother, she wants to reconnect with him like Matt has with his mum.

We then cut to Matt have a charming time with Dana, the step-mother in question, much to Kirsten's annoyance.  They have a pleasant meal and Matt thinks how impressed he is with her father and how down-to-earth he is for a rich guy.  Then "he goes and ruins it" when he tells Matt he has a proposition for him, the autobiography of Dardevil which he's going to hand him an eight million dollar advance for.

Kirsten's dad makes Matt an offer.

Matt doesn't reject the idea out of hand, aware as he is of how his and Kirsten's law practice is struggling.  As they get into a cab after being dropped off at the dock she says that Matt is falling under her father's spell.  Matt says he'll sleep on the idea.  Then Kirsten tells him he's had a message from the Deputy Mayor who wants Daredevil to come over to the Tenderloin district.

He's been called to the scene of the "suicide" of the woman earlier.  The neighbour has got the perp on video but he keeps saying he can't say who it was and if anyone asks... and he grabs the cop's gun and puts it to his head.  But Daredevil knocks it away in time and says the man's vital signs were redlining, he isn't in his right mind.

They check the video on the man's phone and discover it's The Purple Man.  What does he want with a child wonders Daredevil.  Then we cut to Killgrave sitting with the five kids at his feet saying he's always wanted a loving family. He says thanks to his gift he never knows if people are speaking to him from the heart or if their words are hollow.

The Purple Man and his kids.

But the children can give him unconditional love because the five of them together can't be mind controlled by him.  He asks them if they love him.  They are silent.  He yells "Love Me! That isn't an order!".  He asks if they can resist him?  They say they can now and he suddenly gets up and is forced by them to walk out of the house and in front of a train.  After it hits him, the kids then decide to go an explore San Francisco.

The kids walk down the street leaving a trail of panicking people behind them.  The youngest one is "leaking fear" and doesn't seem happy with the situation.  Then they spot a cop car and one of the girls says she wants to drive it.

Meanwhile Matt is out with Kirsten and Foggy who is in a fat suit disguise.  They are discussing his possible autobiography.  While Kirsten and Fogy agree with each other that Matt doesn't have the way with the written word he has over the spoken, he reveals he's accepted the advance and the book will happen.  Foggy says he's concerned because Matt has a lot of sadness in his life and he'll have to relive it, Matt reassures him he can "handle the emotional churn".

Then he hears the speeding car and nips into a public loo to change into his Daredevil costume. He finds the car and stops it by getting into a manhole and attaching one end of his hooked billy club to the ground and the other to the cars axle as it drives over which then rips the front wheels off and brings the car to a halt.

The kids having a wild ride.

The kids get out and use their mental persuasion powers to get the people close by to attack Daredevil while chanting "leave them alone".  In the morgue Killgrave wakes up, his body is shattered but using his persuasive powers on himself, he manages to get up and walk out.

The cops arrive at the scene of Daredevil and the Purple kids, but Daredevil realises they are just more puppets for them.  The cops then fire on Daredevil and he leaps away to a nearby bridge and realises they are the next generation who don't even need to speak to make their victims do what they want.

Daredevil: "They radiate pain, and grief, and rage, and loneliness, and despair and there's no fighting it".

Incapacitated by the overwhelming sorrow he feels lets the kids push him off the bridge.  He thinks to himself that "happy Matt" is just an act and he can't pull it off anymore.  "I can't move. I can't breathe.  I can't do anything".  And as he lies curled up in the foetal position, Killgrave appears and stands over him.

Daredevil:  "This is what depression feels like. Imagine... the people who mean the most to you in the world.  They're reaching out to you with love and concern.  But you can't reach back. You want to, but your arms won't move.  YOu know you should call out, but it's an effort to draw breath".

As darkness envelops his soul,  Matt goes on to describe depression as a living thing that is always hungry.

A depression stricken Daredevil and the nearly fatally injured Purple Man.

He thinks that he hasn't felt this way in a long time but a few minutes with the Purple kids has brought all his "half-buried shadows" back up and amplified them.  The kids have moved on but he's still incapacitated by the feelings, "I am utterly alone" he thinks to himself.

But he isn't, Killgrave is beating him with a plank of wood.  Killgrave can barely speak but he commands Daredevil to put up a struggle, Daredevil thinks that he can't, that he wants to sink into the comforting blackness.  Then Killgrave says "show me some fear".  And that triggers a response in Matt because if he knows one thing, it's how to fight fear.

He kicks out and smashes the plank and knocks Killgrave down.  He commands himself to move, to fight inertia and manages to stand and bunch his fists.  "OK that's a start" he smiles to himself.

Later Kirsten is sitting in their law office going through the red bills and talking to her dad when she hears Matt come in through the window and goes to help him. He tells her that he was forced off the bridge and beaten by Killgrave.  Kirsten helps patch him up and asks if he is OK and that he seems "off." He says he's fine, then worries about not being able to find the kids before Killgrave does.  He asks Kirsten where a kid off the leash would go in San Francisco, she says "too easy!"

The kids having more fun.

And we cut to the kids in a indoor amusement arcade called "Rough and Tumbles".  They have ordered everyone out and are running amok inside.  One of them climbs to the top of a slide and Killgrave grabs him saying he's been a "bad boy".  Then he goes to get another one saying he tracked their "spoor of emotion" and they are forcing him to isolate them because they only have power together.

Then Daredevil appears and hits him with a flying kick.  Killgrave says "drop dead" and Daredevil feels his heart clench, but he resists him.  Killgrave leaves him, and Daredevil finds one of the kids, the youngest, and tells him to be brave and tell him where the music is coming from.

The kid shows him, and Daredevil says into a walkie talkie, "now!".  The cops come bursting in and before Killgrave can command them, Daredevil turns the music up full blast, they can't hear him.  Daredevil then punches him hard and knocks him out.  He leaves while advising the cops that when they find all the kids, to keep them far apart.

Later he is discussing the aftermath with Kirsten.  They have returned to normal, not purple anymore either.  Some of them don't have a family to return to, Kirsten says she's contacted a school that deals with "gifted youngsters".  She says she knows the kids must have done a number on Matt's head, but he says he's fine and kisses her goodnight as he returns to his flat.

He gets into bed and hugs the pillow hard.  Then he reaches for his phone and calls Kirsten saying he just feels like talking, she doesn't have to come over or anything.  She tells him she never left, and she is sat outside his flat's door.  He opens it and she says "thanks for letting me in".  End of volume two.

Some cases hit harder than others...

I think one of the reasons I find Daredevil so appealing is his constant struggle with internal demons as well as external enemies.  Unlike so many other heroes he has a real "inner life" and one I can relate to as a sufferer of bipolar depression.  The part where Matt is overwhelmed by depressed feelings is one of the more accurate I have read in any medium and I like that it's something Matt is personally and previously acquainted with rather than a neuro-typical person being overwhelmed by something they have never felt before.  I wonder if Mark Waid has experience himself, at the least he did his homework, the way it affects Matt physically as well is something people who never have to deal with depression never seem to understand.  When getting out of bed to eat or go to the toilet feels like climbing Everest and you can't even raise a hand in your own defence, that's depression.  It links in quite nicely with the story of Matt's mum suffering post-natal depression and as depression can be inherited when Matt says that it explains a lot he feels like him realising why he's had the feelings he's had.  The fact that Mark Waid can wrap all this stuff up in exciting superhero stories as well shows what a talented writer he is and Chris Samnee rises to the challenge of depicting a troubled and mentally distressed Matt Murdock.  The 50th anniversary stuff is OK, there is some interesting stuff about his relationship with his father that prefigure his angst on acquiring the memory his dad might be a domestic abuser in the main series, but it does make me think how it's a shame most comic characters aren't allowed to age, or stay happily married, or have kids.  So many potentially interesting avenues that go unexplored to keep the characters in stasis.  Ah well.  Overall, good and strong stuff.

Daredevil Book 1: Devil At Bay (#1-5, #0.1)

"Dear City Planners, try putting your buildings a little closer together, okay?" - Matt Murdock

I've apologised for this before but I am acutely aware this blog o'mine has a heavy DC bias when it comes to the Big Two.  This was mainly due to the UK writers and artists I loved when they wrote for 2000AD in the mid-to-late eighties being head hunted by DC editor Karen Berger and the more "grown up" takes they had on various DC properties resulting in the creation of the mature reader orientated Vertigo imprint which of course appealed to someone coming to superheroes in her mid-teens rather than as a kid.  Because I had been drawn into that universe already I picked up a wider love of the DCU overall which has resulted in me jumping into it again on my return to comics a few years ago.  Now, I have started reading a lot more Marvel recently (Garth Ennis's Punisher MAX, Grant Morrison's New X-Men, Brian K.Vaughan's Runaways, Brian Michael Bendis's Daredevil, David Lapham's Deadpool MAX etc), because Marvel have been putting out some really big omnibus volumes of popular runs of various series but I haven't figured out the best way of tackling them yet for this blog.  Now Garth Ennis has made me love The Punisher, and having read Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev's Daredevil run as well as Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's extraordinary Daredevil: Born Again they have made me love that character as well. A few years ago like many other Marvel properties, Daredevil was restarted at number one under the "Marvel NOW" imprint and veteran writer Mark Waid teaming up with artist Chris Samnee gave us their take on Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, a lawyer blinded in a childhood accident involving radioactive waste but who developed super senses to compensate and now fights crime in the area of New York called "Hell's Kitchen". 

Of course this leads us straight into the first change this series has in store for fans, he's based in San Francisco now. Which automatically has my interest because New York has been so integral to his character for a long time.  So seeing him adapt to an unfamiliar setting should be very interesting. And don't worry, his reason for being outside of his New York comfort zone is elaborated upon in the following chapters, this book contains the first five issues drawn by Chris Samnee and the done-in-one prequel "Road Warrior" drawn by Peter Krause.

Matt Murdock, official investigator now.

The story begins with the San Francisco cops dealing with a child abduction and ransom.  The woman in charge is the mayor whose daughter has been taken and is told her expert has arrived.  Another cop says giving this expert access to all the evidence isn't sitting well with the comissioner, but she says "I'm not going to prioritise his ego over my daughter".
The expert turns out to be Matt Murdock using his supersenses to check the dropped doll and panicked recording of the abducted girl out this is our first notification that his secret life as Daredevil is now known.  He has a breakthrough in that he detects the very faintest trace of radioactive waste on the ransom note as well as hearing noises in the background of the recording that indicate a bowling alley is nearby. The radioactivity most likely comes from a naval base in the city, so it's time for Daredevil to check out if there are any bolwing alley's close by.

We then get an introduction to Daredevil.  When he was a kid he saved a man from being hit by a truck, but was hit in the face himself by a loose radioactive waste canister.  He was rendered blind, but all his other senses became superhuman, giving him sight in the form a radar sense.

Matt: "I grew up using those gifts to become a lawyer by day... and a crimebuster by night. All to help balance the scales in an unjust world.  My name is Matt Murdock... and that's my mission".
He quickly finds the girl and scoops her up, but is chased by the costumed abductors.  As they race across San Francisco he notes that although he isn't a stranger to 'Frisco, really needs to reacclimate himself to the city now he is based there.

Daredevil finds Chealsea.

He's tried to cheat the reorientation process with an earpiece link up to his "let's say 'friend' Kirsten McDuffie".  But it leaves him deaf in one ear, and this allows one of the pursuers to crash into him on a glider which causes him to drop the kid.  Birds further interrupt his radar sense, so he concentrates on the ticking of her watch and manages to catch her before she hits the ground.

He takes out one pursuer, but still has another on his tail.  He manages to set the girl, who we find out is called Chelsea down on a window ledge and reassures her she'll be OK.  he says he likes her watch.  She says it's not a watch, it's a bracelet.

Matt: "Wait, what? Then where's the ticking coming... from?  Oh dear Lord, it's coming from HER."

Gently he pinches Chelsea's neck and renders her unconcious, then he yells at Kirsten to direct him to the nearest hospital, and it must be a tall one.  He thinks that the bomb is likely a "microdevice" that was fed to Chelsea while in captivity.

He says that's why he's being chased but not caught, he's "being played."  The kidnappers wanted her handed over to the police, "they want to set her off where she can do most damage!"  Kirsten asks why he is going to a hospital, because there are plenty of crowds there.

Daredevil gets Chelsea to safety.

He races into the hospital and slides into the lift with Chelsea still unconcious.  The lift is a workable "Faraday Cage" designed to block electric electric signals of all types. He leaves Chelsea safe inside and chases down the last bad guy.  He wonders what kind of person would do something as monstrous as use a little girl as a bomb.  "I suppose I'll ask when he wakes up" he thinks as he punches the baddies face in.

We then jump to "three days later" and the start of a running joke involving the signage on Kirsten and Matt's law practice.  This time Matt's name is in teeny tiny writing.  The mayor has come to give thanks, her name is Charlotte Hastert.  Matt introduces her to Kirsten, who helped get them their office here in San Francisco.  Kirsten is thankful and comments drily:

Kirsten: "Strange how so few landlords want to rent to a super hero who got his office blown up every six months even before his identity went public."

Charlotte tells them Chelsea is fine and the bomb was removed safely.  The captured henchman has given nothing up though, he didn't even know what the ransome was for.  Charlotte mentions she thought Matt had a different law partner back in New York.  matt looks pained and says "Foggy... his name was Foggy Nelson" as we see an urn.  But the final panel of this first chapter is Foggy, very much alive watching them as he repeats the word "was" to himself.

Max Coleridge, not a well man.

The next chapter begins with a recap of Daredevil/Matt Murdock's celebrity status in the city.  But it turns out to be a hallucination of a man called Max Coleridge aka "The Shroud" who is lying on the floor of his apartment. He comes round and hears the news story about the "fourth missing persons case in as many days".  All four had links to organised crime. The Shroud then walks into another room in which four men are restrained, ignoring their pleas for mercy, he leaves via the window.

We then cut to Matt Murdock having a meal in with Mayor Charlotte and his law partner Kirsten.  As they eat, Charlotte says that she fears that an old enemy of Daredevil's is in town, "the Kingpin of Crime... Leland Owlsley"  This just elicits laughter from Matt who says he was worried she'd say Wilson Fisk, the real Kingpin of Crime.  He says Owlsley is "manageable" and that he needs a new project.

Charlotte says that The Shroud is being a royal pain in the arse.  Matt doesn't know who he is, so Kirsten says she'll look him up in the Avenger's files.  His story is basically a version of Batman's: parents gunned down by a mugger, threw himself into intense physical and spiritual training, travelled the world and studied martial arts under the "cult of Kali".  The only difference he was given actual powers to command shadow and darkness by them, in return they took his eyes.

Daredevil confronts The Shroud.

Matt then asks Charlotte to describe him and when she does so and asks why, he says "because I can hear him on the roof".  He puts on his Daredevil threads and goes out to talk with The Shroud who warns him that this city is his turf.  This results in the two of them getting into a punch up and Daredevil manages to knock him down.

Matt: "Now, we either have common enemies.  In which case we ally for greater good... or you come at me again and you'll be in jail in less time than it took to lay you out."

The Shroud calls him an "overpriviledged glory hound" and Daredevil is an inch away from giving him over to the police, but The Shroud says then "four men starve to death", giving Daredevil pause.  The Shroud says he can take Daredevil to the "new boss in town" so Daredevil agrees to go with him.

Back in the flat, Charlotte has called the police and tells them to follow Daredevil and The Shroud.  As she leaves she mentions she would like to have met Foggy, and that of all the things that could have got him she never would have thought it would be cancer.  Left alone, Kirsten logs into the Avenger's files again to check on Leland Owlsley.

The Shroud shows off his powers.

Outside The Shroud's flat, Daredevil begins to think he's been led into a trap as he becomes shrouded in darkness, muffling his supersenses.  Then the void fades and he comes face-to-face with the prisoners and realises that The Shroud is in fact San Francisco's new mob boss.

We then cut to a park, a frightened man gives a report to a shadowy person up in a tree he addresses as Mr Owlsley, telling them that The Shroud is definitely making a play to "challenge your empire". The four Capos are still missing bu their four leiutenants have been put back on the street with a mark branding them on their faces.

Owlsley says it doesn't make sense, isn't The Shroud a crimefighter?  Apparently he came down on the wrong side of the superhero registration act and lost everything dear to him.  When the hapless man reports to Owlsley that he knows Daredevil's address, Owlsley rants about who controls the flow of information "who manipulates it? Who decides what's secret and what isn't? WHO?"  And he kills his informant.  Harsh.

Back in The Shroud's apartment, he and Daredevil have come to blows again.  Daredevil wonders what's going on as he thinks The Shroud could kill him easily.  He manages to get him in a headlock and pries some answers from him, "you're a resume builder" says The Shroud.  He was to beat him up, drop him in front of the Tv studio and this would make The Shroud come off as a credible threat.  "The fastest way to get an audience with the Owl".

Daredevil says it wasn't a bad plan as these things go.  The Shroud says they can still do it, Daredevil will pretend to be unconcious and the  The Shroud will hand deliver him to Owlsley who will open the door and they can double team him.  Daredevil is less enamoured of that plan.

Foggy in disguise.

We then jump forward a little to Kirsten chatting with Charlotte in her and Matt's law office.  Kirsten has been doing some reading on Owlsley and is worried that he seems more dangerous than before and Matt might be underestimating him.  Then a bearded man in a wheelchair rides up and says he has an appointment.  Kirsten says it must be with someone down the hall.

Then as she goes to give him a push there he slips his beard off and reveals he's Foggy Nelson underneath much to the annoyance of Kirsten.  She hustles Charlotte out of her office then gives Foggy a very loud piece of her mind.  "A lot of people went to a lot of trouble to fake your death for a very good reason!"  He looks downcast and admits he was going stir crazy.

He defends himself saying he wore a disguise, she says she's seen ventriloquist dummies more convincing.  The only people allowed to know he's alive are her, Matt, Doctor Pym (Ant Man) and his oncologist.  Before she can chew him out some more, Matt phones and asks her for something.

Later that evening at dusk, Max The Shroud takes him to a well guarded estate.  He's tried to break in before and never made it past the dogs.  Matt has a different approach.  He rocks up to the front gate in his civvies and flashes a subpoena at the guards.  They bring him inside for an audience with Owlsley.  Matt hands over the subpoena, which actually turns out to be a restaurant order in the envelope.  Matt was the misdirection, the Shroud is the main event as he looms up behind Owlsley and puts a shadow knife to his throat.

The Shroud threatens Owlsley.

Unfazed, Owlsley says Max won't kill him if he wishes to see his "precious Julia" again.  This gives Max pause and Matt thinks "oh hell, I haven't a clue who "Julia" is."  He feels Max starting to panic and yells at him not flinch, that Owlsley would say anything now.

Owlsley says do not call him a liar.  Julia is someone Max loved before the "law ripped her from your arms and from your life."

Owlsley: "But I know where she is.  Fight me and I will take that knowledge to my grave. Allow me to dispose of my greatest enemy and I will reunite you".

Matt frantically tries to keep to the plan but Max bellows, "Is he lying? Is he?" And matt has to say "no but..." and gets cut off because Max has withdrawn and Owlsley has activated a trapdoor over a burning pit that he drops Matt into.

Old skool traps are the best.

Fortunately Max realises he's being a dick and throws Matt's special cane which had been confiscated by Owlsley to him while covering him with his darkness powers.  Matt is able to extend the cane and flip out of harms reach.   There is a quick fight in which Matt is the only one left concious, which makes him realise The Shroud ran out taking Owlsley with him and he races out to find them.

He can't find them and we cut to him having a meal with Kirsten who says "so you just took your fake subpoena and went home?"  He says it's tempting to leave Owlsley, the "first arch-nemesis Daredevil had" in the hands of The Shroud, but not his call to make and the fact Max is a broken man who might let anything happen to be reunited with Julia means he needs to get a handle on the situation.

Kirsten says that Owlsley has been buying up Silicon Valley stocks left right and centre and is now very powerful in the tech sector.  But there is a cutting edge fibre optics start-up that refuses to business with him and Matt thinks that means it might be ripe for a break-in by The Shroud.  As Kirsten gets in a taxi home she says she'll text him the address.

Super telepathic wifi!

Sure enough, The Shroud attacks the building taking out all the internal security monitors. Max and Owlsley arrive inside, Max have fruitlessly tortured Owlsley is now forced to do his bidding in return for Julia. The item he wants is a wifi prototype that delivers information directly into the human brain.

Owlsley: "True sight Mr. Coleridge.  Utter and total omniscience as illuminating as the light that feeds it."

Then Daredevil drops down and punches him, Max yells at him to stay away and he and Dardevil brawl some more.  Matt thinks to himself that Max is either "unspeakably arrogant or deep down he knows he can't..." and his thought trails off.  Then he realises:

Matt: "No wonder Max Coleridge resents me so much... I've been saving his life."

Owlsley deliberately does.. something with the prototype that causes electricity to arc around his body.  Then we cut to the aftermath.  Daredevil and The Shroud are gone, Owlsley is trussed up in the wreckage of the lab, but he now has scary glowing eyes.

Daredevil lets Max have it.

On the roof, Daredevil has Max tied up and gives him a right talking too.  He tells Max he's been where Max has been, having lost everything including lovers, friends even his law practice.  But he has never once tried to "commit suicide by supervillain".  He offers his hand to Max to help him deal with the pain, but Max just yells that Owlsley gave him false hope.  Daredevil says he can help him find Julia, but Max just activates his darkness powers and disappears saying "I'll be waiting".  Pensively Matt says to himself, "I'll take that as a win."

The next chapter fills us in on why his former law partner Foggy Nelson had to fake his death and go into hiding.  We begin with Hank "Ant Man" Pym inside Foggy Nelson zapping errant "Circulating Tumor Cells".  Sadly Foggy has cancer and this is an attempt to limit the damage to his body.

It's more of an attempt to keep Foggy's spirits up but it isn't working and his relationship with Matt is getting strained.  They discuss Matt's recent unmasking as Daredevil and how this has painted a huge target on Foggy hence his need to go into hiding. They'll say the cancer took him and he can come with him and Kirsten to San Francisco and keep up his treatment in secret.

Matt says he can come back from the dead at a later date, Foggy notes that's something reserved for super heroes:

Foggy: "They go out with a bang.   I'm just a guy.  Dying because he lost a fight.  Who's even going to notice?"

He ruminates some more as they stand on a bridge looking out over the water, "not everyone gets to go out big" he sighs.  Then suddenly the water begins to churn and a huge robot rises up out of the water.

Matt picks up Foggy and makes a run for it as the big green robot comes jumping after them. This makes Matt think it might be an old enemy of his "Leapfrog" now seriously upgraded.  The robot catches up with them and grabs Foggy and tucks him into a compartment inside him and leaps off.

Foggy's hero moment.

Matt, now in his Daredevil costume, gives chase.  The robot taunts him saying if he wants his friend back to come get him.  They confront each other on a crowded street, the robot says it wants people to take pictures and remember this moment.  Daredevil has no idea why, and doesn't care, he just wants Foggy back.

The driver of the robot ejects and tries to run, but Daredevil grabs him.  As they struggle, Daredevil realises he reeks of "rising terror".  Daredevil ties him up and the man screams, "you've killed us both!".  Daredevil realises the robot suit is a timebomb about to go off.  Foggy has managed to climb out of where he was being held and Daredevil shouts to him that he has twenty seconds to get inside the robot and leap as high as he can.

So Foggy does so and the robot suit explodes in the sky above. As the bystanders ask him if that was really Foggy, but he takes off and goes some wayaway and finds Foggy in the arms of Hank Pym drifting back down to earth as minute sized beings.  They grow back to normal size and Foggy asks what just happened.

Matt: "You just sacrificed your life in front of thousands of onlookers in a blaze of glory my friend".

Just before the robot exploded, Hank Pym shrank him down to subatomic size.  So he went out big and small at the same time.

D'awwwww.

Now sequestered somewhere secret, Foggy writes in his journal that this is what it is like to live in the orbit of Matt Murdock.  He will make choices for you and manipulate you and you will want to punch him once an hour, "but he will care about you in a way no one else could".  And as he sees a newspaper headline dubbing him a hero he smiles and thinks that he doesn't need the world to know he exists, just having Matt know is enough.

This is getting a little long, as issue #0.1 takes place outside of the main series I'll just give it a quick summation.  In it Matt tangles with a rogue android that can take on the identity of anyone, including Matt who has to fight it as a Dardevil copy.  He tracks it down to a villain called "The Mad Thinker".  Matt suffers a beating at the hands of the Thinker's androids but manages to convince the rogue android that The Mad Thinker is an android and so the rogue android turns on him and beats him unconcious shutting the other self defence androids down, before Matt stops him by convincing him he's not sentient and causing him to shut down in confusion.  The story ends with him meeting up with Kirsten for a drive.

Overall this is a really enjoyable start to this take on Daredevil.  It's interesting for me, having been reading the much more angsty Bendis/Maleev take on the character to see Matt as a calmer and much more at peace with himself person.  It seems that now he doesn't have to maintain a double life and secret identity he's more relaxed and less wound up.  Of course this reveal lead to him being disbarred from practicing law in New York, hence his move to San Francisco but that just means we get to learn about his new surroundings as he does.  Setting him against The Shroud was an interesting choice, because The Shroud is very much like Matt has been in the past.  Driven to the point of madness having lost everything he cares about.  Through him we get to see how Matt has dealt with his demons and come out stronger on the other side, rather than do what The Shroud is doing and subconciously look for a way to end it all.  His support characters are good as well, with Foggy sidelined, Kirsten makes for a sharp and sarcastic foil for the madness that comes with being around Matt Murdock.  Charlotte the Mayor also gives Matt the link to authority he's never had in the past.  I absolutely love Chris Samnee's artwork.  It has a heavy "blocky" look to it that feels very Jack Kirby, perfectly matching the Silver Age writing style of Mark Waid's script.  All-in-all a swaggering, confident start to an acclaimed run.