“THROUGH HELL” BEGINS HERE! Matt struggles with his inner demons. Duty and honor bound, Detective Cole North continues hunting the vigilantes of New York — his first target? SPIDER-MAN! The Devil still runs the kitchen, but who — or what — are they?
Chip Zdarsky is a Canadian comic book artist and journalist. He was born Steve Murray but is known by his fan base as Chip Zdarsky, and occasionally Todd Diamond. He writes and illustrates an advice column called Extremely Bad Advice for the Canadian national newspaper National Post's The Ampersand, their pop culture section's online edition. He is also the creator of Prison Funnies and Monster Cops.
This version of Daredevil is very off-beat and different from all the others. Marvel is taking their time developing this current storyline. I am in favor of it. Makes for a good story and the characters are very interesting. Keep it up Chip Zdarsky.
Things are really getting turned up a notch all over the place. I enjoyed the 5 issue intermission but I’m glad we are back to this artist. Picking up where we left off in the last issue, with Elektra hunting down Daredevil after his scuffle in the police precinct to save Detective North…it turns out at this point the two of them have a very complicated past with something involving Matt’s identity being reset an Elektra no longer knowing who he is? No clue how that worked h he thankfully she comes to him attempting to help as she sees how terrible he is doing and if he keeps up slacking off like this he is going to end up killed. So she wants in, she wants to be his new stick to train him back into shape again…an offer Matt is not particularly interested in taking right now as he isn’t even sure what he currently is.
Speaking of detective North, he has been assigned a new partner he isn’t too happy about and he is still assigned to the spider-man case. But his mind is split as he can’t help but constantly think about being saved by daredevil, his entire mindset about vigilantes is staring to shift…so who else better to talk to than the web slinger himself. You see tonight North has setup a sting by staring a fake mugging, one prime for Spider-Man to jump in to try and save…except he even realizes moments into it that it’s a setup with a can nearby full of swat with a net launcher to try and catch him, lol. North is in utter disbelief seeing a man jump 15 feet in the air, at least with daredevil he moved like a human. Spider-man moved quickly to web up all their guns, and then when he noticed North he specifically webbed him up to bring him up to a rooftop to have a chat. Spidey ended up webbing North to a wall where they waited for almost an hour as the sun rose before talking. Spider-man did this very intentionally to prove a point with North. Spider-man gives into North’s claims that he is above the law…so what if he is? What laws are there about a guy who can throw cars and jump over buildings and has to wear a mask to keep his loved ones safe…there is no rule book but just like North and a lot of his friends he sword an oath to protect people. And sometimes they mess up, like daredevil, so they solve it and they keep saving lives. Daredevil may never come back now, but he sure as hell won’t be rotting in a cell. Spider-man’s ultimate point is that North needs to stop thinking about legal and illegal and think about what’s right and wrong instead. At this point the hour has passed and spider-man’s webs have dissolved…leaving North free, with a gun in his hand, and a choice to be made…save lives or uphold the law? North doesn’t even think about raising the gun.
It’s about time to check in on the criminal underworld, as due to the Owl’s assassination attempts the Libris crime family is on lock down…making Mindy feel like a prisoner in her own home as her husband barely has a say in anything under his mother’s rule. To help deal with the situation, Mayor Fisk has kidnapped Owl and brought him out to a private airfield to give him a choice…he has broken the one order to respect the boundaries with the fellow bosses and he will now be sent on a jet to a private island to think about what he did while his men are re-educated and reparations are made to the Libris family. But the owl looks cold and stern as he denies the request, the days of kingpin are over and the owl knows all about the big meetings Fisk has planned…so if he doesn’t want his underworld getting dragged into the light for all to see he is going to leave the owl alone. With this the owl slashes through his bonds with his talons and slashes a few guards throats before jumping away.
One thing I wasn’t entirely sure of last issue but this issue has confirmed…is that Matt’s parolee, the brother of the man daredevil killed, straight up witnessed him put on the mask and do a lot of things a blind man shouldn’t be able to do. As such Matt went to go and check on him at the local grocery he now works at as Matt is nervous he now knows the truth of who Matt is. TBH that’s a bit of a self centered stretch, not like he could easily make a jump like that…but that doesn’t stop Matt from noticing how nervous the man is to be around him and his nervous that makes Matt is return. Matt’s heart almost jumps out of his chest when he ends up meeting the man’s mother, who drove him to work, but he stayed calm and avoided another anxiety attack long enough to give her his card in case she needs any help whatsoever. Later that day Foggy ripped into him for that move, claiming that he is just feeding his catholic guilt and he can’t be indebted to them forever. But Matt was pulled away from the conversation, and the brunch line the pair were waiting in, as Mindy called him. She immediately broke down over the phone as she feels like she is loosing her mind, as if every decision is made for her, and for once she just wants to make a decision for her…even if it’s a stupid decision like sleeping with him. Matt pushes her away from this idea, a shock coming from him LoL, and offers to try and help her…but she doesn’t need some white knight and we already know Matt can’t be that. But then Matt hears someone in trouble, a few blocks away daredevil is tied to a chair with a few cops surrounding him ready to beat him up. As earlier this morning a call about domestic violence was put in, and before the cops could arrive a man in a makeshift daredevil outfit came to the scene to try and help…only to end up caught by the cops. And it looks like they aren’t going through the proper procedures today. We all know there is no chance Matt won’t be able to help here.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I had to give this book five srars simply as they had Spider-man acting like an adult. Apart from that, it is a bit of a setup book. One of the fake Daredevils stops a crime, but what will the police do to him? The NYPD is cracking down on vigilantes, how foes Elektra fit into Matts new world, especially with his new "girlfriend" needing help?