So pleased was I with the ending of Miller and Mazzuchelli's "Born Again" storyline (Daredevil #227-233) that I didn't feel the need to read Daredevil ever again. Sure, I checked in from time-to-time to see what direction one creative team or another took, but I didn't become a regular reader again for a long time. One of those times I "checked in" was the initial "Marvel Knights" storyline by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. Here are some key events leading up to it.
1992: Several "hotshot" artists leave Marvel to found Image Comics.
1996: Marvel outsources four of their titles to the studios of two of those hotshot creators (Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld) for a year to create Heroes Reborn. The results of this experiment were mixed. The problem (as I saw it) with Heroes Reborn is that the four titles in question (Avengers, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man) were broken out of the Marvel Universe proper for the duration.
1998: Marvel learned from its mistakes with Heroes Reborn and, the next time it outsourced some titles to another studio (Joe Quesada & Jimmy Palmiotti), they created a new imprint, Marvel Knights, which was part of the Marvel Universe, "separate but equal" so to speak. "Marvel Knights" was much more successful than "Heroes Reborn" [citation needed].
One of the outsourced titles was Daredevil (but I'm guessing you knew that already). The initial storyline was to be written by independent filmmaker Kevin Smith and drawn by Joe Quesada himself. I was familiar with Quesada's work from Valiant Comics, but I hadn't yet seen any of Smith's films at that time; Marvel Knights Daredevil would be my introduction to his work. It was okay. I read the initial eight-issue storyline but it wasn't a series I cared to continue reading.
2001: Daredevil: Yellow, also produced under the "Marvel Knights" banner, was one of several "color-themed" limited series by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale which focused on a particular time period of a character's history as represented by a particular color. For example, Daredevil: Yellow focused on the first six issues of his original series when he wore a yellow costume. The framing device was a letter written by Matt Murdock to his dead girlfriend, Karen Page. What!? Karen Page is dead? Whan did that happen? I looked into it and discovered that she was killed during Kevin Smith's eight-issue tenure. I read those issues, only three years earlier at that time, and her death had so little impact on me that I didn't even remember it. I immediately decided to read those first eight issues a second time to refresh my memory, and now, only 23 years later, I'm finally getting around to it.
I will be reading from the Marvel Knights by Joe Quesada omnibus and following the order of the comics as presented in that volume. I also plan to supplement this discussion with select other Marvel Kights Daredevil stories I have read, but I haven't yet determined at what pace I will proceed.
Replies
Did I ever tell you about the time a Marvel rep visited my LCS back in 1997? Plans for "Heroes Return" were underway, and one of the questions he asked was whether the returning titles should resume their original numbering or start with a "new number one." There were about seven or eight of us customers standing in a group and out vote was unanimous: resume the original numbering. The rep said that that is the way the vote was running across all the stores he visited. Marvel Knights is not Heroes Return, but the concept is the same. One thing I liked about Joe Quesada's issues is that he wrote in the signature box what each issue number would have been had Marvel not decided to renumber. You can't really see it on the image I posted above, but there's a little "381" penciled in under the "Q./Palmiotti. Quesada really won me over with that ,although he lost me a few years later when, as EiC, he cancelled X-Men: Hidden Years on the basis fans would find it "too confusing." (Let it go, Jeff!)
"GUARDIAN DEVIL" - DAREDEVIL #1-8:
ISSUE #1: The story begins with a wordy letter from Karen to Matt. She has been offered a job in L.A. as "Angel of the Morning," the drive-ime D.J. for the sister station of WFSK, and she has decided to take it. Matt Murdock is in confession. Outside the church, a fifteen-year-old mother, Gwyneth, is running with her baby from a limousine that is apparently trying to run her down. The baby was born the night before, at 11:49 PM. Matt hears the commotion, ducks out of the confessional, switches to Daredevil and saves the girl. He causes the car her pursuers are using to crash, but the mother and child get away.
Matt and Foggy are now junior partners in the firm Sharpe, Nelson & Murdock. Foggy introduces a new client, Lydia McKenzie, but Matt hears the dual heartbeats of the mother and child from ealier and blows them off. Lydia seems to have more than a professional interest in Foggy. "Meanwhile, across town," the employer of the two men who chased the girl earlier has them killed (drowned, actually, in a tricked-out elevator). That night at 3:00 AM, Gwyneth has a dream in which she is visited by angels. The next day, she arrives at Sharpe, Nelson & Murdock looking for Mr. Murdock specifically. She tells him her story: that she is a virgin and the child is the result of Immaculate Conception. She claims that her baby is "the Redeemer" and that the angel told her Murdock would keep him safe. Listening to her hearbeat, Matt knows that she believes what she's saying. Furthermore, she reveals that the angel told her that Matt Murdock was Daredevil. Then she skips out, leaving the baby with Matt.
"At 5:26 PM, the savior was left in the devil's care."
ISSUE #2: Oh. I remember this one.
Last issue, Matt called Natasha on the rebound from Karen leaving, but was distracted before she answered. He didn't call her specifically about the baby, but now that she's here, he tries to get her to babysit. for some reason she agrees. At the office, Matt takes an appointment with one Nicholas Macabes. Apparently the appintment was booked weeks in advance, yet no one in the office remmebers making it. He says he is there to discuss the child left in Murdock's care the night before. He represents a group known as "Sheol" and is very wordy... as wordy as Karen's letter in issue one. The practical upshot of his message is that the baby is the anitchrist and Murdock should turn him over to them for proper disposal. Matt's senses detect that the man is telling the truth (as was Gyneth last issue), but c;mon! His name is "Nicholas Macabes" for Christ's sake! He hints that Sheol is behind the origins of Spider-Man and the Hulk as well as his own. For whatever reason (writer's fiat), Matt believes him.
Meanwhile, Gwyneth is abducted and Foggy has a fling with his new client and is observed by a shadowy figure. Later, Daredevil and Black Widow meet on the roof of his building so that she can turn the baby back over to him. (She points out that the baby is a girl, BTW.) The next thing anyone knows, Daredevil throws the baby off the roof of the building! I cannot even describe how this one act completely yanked me out of the story the first time I read it, but I had completely supressed the memory until I read it for a second time this morning. The Black Widow saves the baby and takes it away, which is about the only thing that has made sense in this issue so far. Next, Karen Page shows up at Matt's apartment with mascara streaming down her face mixed with her tears. she tells Matt that she has been diagnosed with AIDS. I had forgotten/suppressed that, too.
ISSUE #3:
Foggy has been arrested for the murder of Lydia McKenzie. His story is that, once they were in the hotel room, she turned into a demon-thing, scratrched him and leapt out the window to her/its death. It was Lydia's body on the ground. Foggy called the cops, but they didn't believe his story. The "Sharpe" of Sharpe, Nelson & Murdock is Foggy's mother, who refuses to let Matt defend him for the reputation of the firm. Matt quits in protest. Meanwhile, Nicholas Macabes shows up at Matt's apartment, but he's there to see Karen. [She's smoking a cigarette, BTW, which I mention because we so seldom see sympathetic characters smoking cigarettes (although Tom King's Strange Adventures had Alanna strange smoking one as well).] Where was I? Oh, yeah! Macabes convinces Karen that her HIV diagnosis is due to the antichrist baby.
Elsewhere, Daredevil is lured into a trap, a fake mugging. When he awakens, he is tormented by a high-pitched sound his tormentor describes as "the cry of the Fallen--the sound an ethereal being utters when cast out of God's presence." The one torturing him syas his name is Baal, and he looks like a Jack Kirby troll. Daredevil notices a gap in the audio and uses that moment to escape. He runs out into the rainswept street... directly into the path of an oncoming truck!
ISSUE #4:
Daredevil is rescued, off-panel, by the Black Widow. the story resumes ans they discuss recent events. She's carrying the baby on her back. During the course of their conversation, Daredevil's paranoia expands from the baby girl to all females... Natasha, Karen, Typhoid Mary. When Frank Miller pushed Daredevil over the edge in "Born Again" he did it methodically, bit by bit. Here, Kevin smith seems to leap right into it, for no apparent reason. Daredevil again decides the baby must die. He tries to wrest the baby from Natasha, but she is disadvantaged by the fact she's trying to protect the baby. She falls to the rooftop where Daredevil does something to her foot painful enough to cause her to pass out. He takes the baby to the edge of the roof and, this time, decides to make it a murder/suicide. He jumps off the roof with the baby in his arms, but changes his mind halfway down. He sustains several injuries trying to protect the baby, and makes his way to the church where Maggie works and lives (here identified as the "Clinton Mission Shelter").
He remains unconscious for two days, and awakens in Maggie's room rather than the ward in the basement. He confronts her about being his mother, and this time she admits it. they talk, he insults her, she slaps him, he repents. they have a long theological discussion. Maggie tells him a parable about a knight and a monk. Once she has made her point, she reveals that Karen is waiting in the church. (She "had a feeling" he'd be there.) She tells him she's there to take the baby off his hands, then Matt realizes that he never told her about the baby. Then his paranoia kicks into overdrive. He tells her off big-time, and runs from the chapel in tears.
Elsewhere, the shadowy figure behind this mess is "monologuing" to his henchman. He drops hints that he is an old Spider-Man villain, peppering his speech with phrases such as "my old friend, the arachnid." He refers to Daredevil as his "adopted foe" and admits he was snckered at throughout his career. Everything is in shadows and his face is not shown. Later, he interviews a hit-man for $5 million, not to kill Daredevil but to beat him up. He leans into the light and is revealed to be... Nicholas Macabes? The issue ends with a full page panel of Bullseye (and a sly nod to five of Kevin Smith's friends, including Jay and Silent Bob).
The problem with writing these off-the-cuff reactions is that sometimes I make assumptions which prove to be incorrect.
ISSUE #5:
Daredevil consults Dr. Strange. One thing I didn't mention, way back in #2, is that Nicholas Macabes gave Daredevil a little metal cross. Dr. Strange determines that the cross is designed to transfer a synthetic toxin which makes the recipient extremely succeptible to suggestion. Daredevil has been drugged ever since #2 and I had forgotten. I think, back in 1998, I had already made up my mind by this point that I didn't like this storyline and, reading on a month-to-month basis, that idea had a lot of time to sink in before the truth of the matter was revealed. Dr. Strange purges the chemical from Daredevil's system and assures him that there are "no stirrings in regards to a savior child of any faith or practice--especially not the Christian redeemer." Then he summons Mephisto. (This is the J.R., Jr. Mephisto from the Nocenti run, which I have not read but am peripherally familiar with.) Daredevil has one job to do, keep his mouth shut, at which he fails miserably. Strange is able to contain the situation, and Mephisto gives Daredevil a clue which leads him to the Clinton Mission Shelter.
Meanwhile, Karen Page sits in the park reviewing the events of the past several days. A Daily Bugle headline about Matt Murdock leaving the firm of Sharpe, Nelson & Murdock reminds her that Matt needs her and she rushes off to find him. Another item she does not notice is the article about "One-time 'Creature Feature King' John Curtain found murdered." The accompanying picture is of the man we have come to know as Nicholas Macabes.
Daredevil arrives at the mission to find that the chapel is the scene of a massacre, although Maggie is still alive. Bullseye is there, quoting from Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (for some reason), a book he was carrying last issue. He flings some thowing stars at Daredevil, but he manages to dodge all but one of them. Daredevil tosses his billy club and takes out Bullseye's two front teeth, which Bullseye spits back at him. Daredevil blocks the teeth with the other half of his club, but Bullseye has a gun and manages to graze DD's shoulder. They fight. DD disarms him, but Bullseye manages to get the better of him. Karen Page reveals herself to Maggie from behind a pew and asks where the baby is. the next thing we know, Karen is offering the baby to Bullseye in exchange for Daredevil's life. Actually she is carrying a small statue of the baby Jesus while Maggie tries to sneak the real baby away. The baby cries, drawing Bullseye's attention, and Karen picks up Bullseye's discarded gun and holds it to his head. She fires, but he had loaded it with only one bullet so sure was he of his marksmanship. He decides to let her live, but throws Daredevil's own billy club at him. Karen jumps in the path of the oncoming club and is impaled by it. Bullseye gets away as Karen Page dies in Daredevils' arms. This is the scene I had no recollection of in 2001.
As soon as it was revealed (in #4) that the villian was an old Spider-Man foe I remembered who it was. For those of you reading this who haven't read "Guardian Devil" before, have you guessed who it is?
ISSUE #6:
At this point I would like to pull a quote from ClarkKent_DC over on the "Frank Miller Daredevil" discussion.
Too many of [Frank Miller's] successors just can't get away from the milieu he introduced of ninjas and The Kingpin, and I've found it quite tiresome.
This issue begins with the Kingpin reading the headlines of Bullseye's rampage: "Radio Personality Karen Page and Eleven Others Slain in Mission Massacre." The Kingpin seems to know who is responsible, and refers to him as "my prestidigitator friend." Meanwhile, Matt Murdock holds a gun to his head, but is pulled back from the edge by memories of Karen. Next, he shakes down Turk for information, and learns that the party responsible for hiring Bullseye is at 387 Park Avenue South, which is actually Marvel Comics' offices. There are actually quite a few inside jokes in this scene, as Turk is bragging about trailing Daredevil to his "Devil-cave" and tying him to his giant dinosaur. ("I think it was some kinda trophy or something--I dunno.") That was before Daredevil showed up, of course.
Daredevil goes to the address he got from Turk and is attacked by "The Hand" (actually garden variety henchmen). On his way up to the penthouse, the elevator shaft becomes the pits of Hell... at the push of a button. the man pushing the buttons is Nicholas Macabes. Daredevil is rescued from the elevator shaft by Baal, who claims to be his "guardian angel." Without the influence of ""the cry of the Fallen" and the drugs, however, Daredevil quickly realizes "Baal" is just a man in an enhanced suit. Watching on his many monitor screens, Nicholas Macabes begins to remove his life-like rubber mask. By the time Daredevil makes his way to the control room, "Macabes" stands revealed as (wait for it)... MYSTERIO!
Well, this is embarrassing.
First of all, I didn't mean to imply that "Guardian Devil" wasn't it's own thing yesterday when I compared it to the "Miller milieu" yesterday.
Second, something happened on the night the little girl was born, but I wasn't certain what it was; the entire infant ward except the baby girl was killed.
Third (and most embarrassing), the reason I didn't remember Karen Page being killed at the end of #5 is because I think I must have stopped reading after #4... or maybe #5, but I know I've never read #7 before. I continued to buy through #8 so I'd have the entire storyline, but I think I stopped reading at some point.
ISSUE #7:
"This is my denouement, dear listener" says Mysterio at the begiinning of the issue, "which means I'm going to be talking up a blue streak. So if you're looking for action, you're out of luck." That's what Kevin Smith tells us, through Mysterio, and he more or less delivers on that promise. The baby is being held in an air-tight cage with only 20 minutes worth of oxygen, giving Mysterio time to "monologue" his origin to Daredevil. Essentialy, all of the gas and whatnot he has exposed himself to over the years have given him both a brain tumor as well as ling cancer. There are quite a few "meta" references in his story, not the least of which is his disappointment in the "clone" Spider-Man. (He doesn't know he's a clone, but that's what he calls him.) Game knows game, however, and recognizing himself as a second-stringer, decides to take on Daredevil, another "second stringer," in lieu of the original Spider-Man. He contacts the Kingpin and learns everything Wilson Fisk knows about. The majority of the issue is revealing how he pulled off the illusions. He didn't massacre the babies in the hospital ward, however; he simply took advantage of the fact that someone else did. Also, he faked Karen's HIV diagnosis.
After Daredevil has learned all he needs to know, he overpowers Mysterio and points out all of the flaws in Mysterio's, and Kevin Smith's, plot. (See? Meta.) Daredevil rescues the baby and Mysterio commits suicide. Or does he? Actually, in this case, I think he probably does, although it wouldn't take much for a later writer to bring Mysterio back. I don't know if that has happened yet or not. There's still one more part to go.
ISSUE #8:
Todd McFarlane gets credit for redesigning Spider-Man's webs, but I think we have to give credit to Joe Quesada for Daredevil's cable.
This issue leads off with a cameo appearance by Clark Kent anchoring the news. In attendance at Karen Page's funeral can be seen Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti, Stan Lee and Bill Everett. Matt Murdock and Peter Parker make plans to meet later atop the Brooklyn Bridge. Karen made Matt the beneficiary of a seven-figure life insurance policy. Evidence was found clearing Foggy of Lydia's murder, but Liz breaks up with him for cheating on her in the first place. His mother offers him and Matt their jobs back. Later, Daredevil /Matt has deep, heart-to-heart conversations with Spider-Man, Black Widow and his mother. This is where Kevin Smith shines. All the folderol of the first seven issues have led up to this. (I never read this issue, either... unfortunately.) Foggy and Matt turn down Foggy's mother's offer and use Karen's insurance money to build new offices for Nelson & Murdock on the spot when the Kingpin blew up Matt's brownstone in "Born Again" (Matt still owns the lot). The baby girl is adopted by a couple in New Jersey. They inquire whether or not the girl has a name, and Matt tells them it's Karen. The story ends full circle, with Matt in confession, but he has to cut out early again when he hears the sounds of a child trapped in a fire.
That is the end of "Guardian Devil" and of Kevin Smith's tenure, but it is not the end of "Marvel Knights Daredevil" or of Joe Quesada, and the Marvel Knights Daredevil by Joe Quesada omnibus continues with "Parts of a Whole" (Daredevil #9-11, 13-15) written by David Mack, which is up next.
I did read all of this storyline, as well as buying it, and I was no more excited about it than you were.
I don't like it when writers parachute in and kill a long-running character, as Smith does here with Karen Page. I'm not the biggest Karen Page fan there is, but killing a character is about the lamest way to make your story "important." And, some part of me doesn't think it's fair when a temorary writer kills a long-running character, as they haven't earned the right to do so. I know that's a weird thing to say, but it's a gut reaction.
Filmmaker Zack Snyder was guilty of this right from the get-go, killing Jimmy Olsen in the first 10 minutes of Man of Steel. That soured me right away. Whatsamatta, Zack, don't have any ideas on how to write Jimmy, so you just write him off?
Also, I was turned off by Daredevil's wacky behavior, even though it was later explained away. And I was disappointed at the lack of concern by his friends.
I did guess it was Mysterio in back of things. But I didn't care, as Mysterio's whole schtick is illusion, and once you know that, you know not to believe anything you see or hear. Especially things like the antichrist. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and we were offered no proof that this baby was the antichrist.
And Nicholas Maccabes? Why not Lou Cypher? Worked well enough in Angel Heart. Oh, wait, it didn't, because I realized the entire plot of the movie the instant the character said his name was "Lou Cypher." I was then bored for the next two hours as everything I expected to happen dutifully happened. So, no, punny names that give away the plot don't thrill me either. Especially when the characters in the entertainment are too dumb to recognize the pun. Especially Matt Murdock, but no, he's too stupid here to catch the pun.
What I did like, of course, was the art. Just terrific. Quesada also used all sorts of iconography and imagery, mostly religious, that had little to do with the story but was really cool. If I'm remembering correctly. I haven't ever re-read this run, so I'm relying on memory, but I seem to remember DD on church towers and big crosses and stuff. But really, Joe Quesada could have drawn him wrestling the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and it would have been cool.
I don't like it when writers parachute in and kill a long-running character, as Smith does here with Karen Page.
I agree with you completely, and I know exactly what you mean when you say a temporary writer hasn't "earned the right" to kill off a long-running character. I think Smith's final issue was intended to "justify" the death of Karen Page, but it didn't really. "Guardian Devil" is a very "writerly" story in that respect.
What I did like, of course, was the art. Just terrific.
Throughout the course of reading "Guardian Devil" I was remonded of Todd McFarlane's "Torment" (Spider-Man #1-5), both in terms of story and art. First, art. McFarlane and Quesada were both hotshot artists at the respective times these stories were being published and, personal preferences aside, both comics are visually distnctive. The difference between the two stories is that Kevin Smtih is a writer (again, personal preferences aside) and Todd McFarlane most definitly is not. One of McFarlane's contemporaries, "Name Withheld", is perhaps by remebered for his stance that "artists don't need writers"; if nothing else, "Torment" poved that they obviously do. ["His name--SPIDER-MAN! His powers--EXTRAORDINARY! His webline--ADVANTAGEOUS!" Deathless prose.] What I find remarkable is that both McFarlane and Smith employ the same comic book technique leading into a double-page splash, but McFarlane's doesn't quite land. After a brief introduction, McFarlane's leads to "Rise Above It All!" and Smith's to "A Leap of Faith." This is the difference between a story crafted with with inagery around deeper themes and one that is all plot.
"PARTS OF A HOLE" - DAREDEVIL #9-11,13-15:
From this point on, through the rest of the Marvel Knights by Joe Quesada omnibus, I will be reading these stories fr the first time (with one exception). Writer David Mack introduces Maya (a.k.a. "Echo"), a deaf native American who is a combination of Taskmaster and Elektra. Like Taskmaster, she has "photographic refelxes" although she uses them to more productive, law-abiding ends (for the most part), such as becoming an accomplished concert pianist. Like Elektra, she has "daddy issues" the flashback's to her father's death are depicted in a child's crayon drawings. It was the Kingpin who personally killed her father, but she is unaware of this fact. Since then, he has become her patron.
Matt Murdock can suddenly play the piano, and music becomes a recurring motif through this storyline. Nelson & Murdock's first client is a janitor who works in the Kingpin's building. He accidentally uncovered incriminating evidence which could send Fisk to prison, so Kingpin hires a hitman (a pair of hitman, as it turns out) to take him out. The sniper's bullet creases Matt Murdock's skull but does manage to kill the witness. The killer speaks entirely in clichés, but otherwise goes unidentified until #13. I tend to think of him/them as "Cliché," like a bad Dick Tracy villain (Max Allan Collins' not Chester Goulds'). the killers are identical twins who kill only identical twins. Yes, that means that they did not actually kill the witness, but the witness' twin brother. The assassins are also revealed to be responsible for the "hospital tragedy" in Kevin Smith's (which Smith left unexplainsed), the death of at least one set of identical twins. So far, I admit, this plot sounds pretty stupid, but it gets better. These are the worst parts and we are past them now.
The Kingpin sets Maya (or "Echo" rather) against Daredevil, but he doesn't tell her about his dual identity. She makes a date with Matt, luring him with information about the Kingpin. Quesada actually uses three art styles throughout this story: his regular style, a child's crayons drawing for flashbacks from Maya's POV, and a softer style (which looks like and-painted colors over pencils to me) for certain other scenes. Kingpin convinces her that Daredevil killed her father. He also suppies her with the video tape of Daredevil's battle against Bulleye in the TV studio so she can learn both their moves. Matt and Maya hit it off and start dating. They go to see the Kevin Smith movie Mallrats together. Later, Echo tries to kill Daredevil (with the same gun the Kigpin used to kill her father), but lets him go when witnesses arrive at the scene.
Meanwhile, Foggy proceeds with their case against the Kingpin, who has hired Foggy's mother as his defense attorney. Danté Hicks and Randall Graves from Kevin Smith's Clerks make a cameo appearance. Foggy star witness fails to show up in court, presumably killed by the Kingpin. Daredevil shakes down not to "Josie's Bar" but Ennis' Taven" for information. The very early years of Wilson Fisk are revealed in flashback, earlier than even Miller and Romita's Man Without Fear. Without the star witness, the case is dismissed. when the Kingpin leaves the courtroom, his limo driver is the star witness. (It was the limo driver, not the witness who "sleeps with the fishes.") Stopped on a bridge, the witness shoots Kingpin six times in the chest and abdomen (all ofthe right side), then a seventh time in the head, knocking him off the bridge. Presumably, either the shots or the fall or drowning killed him, but his body was not recovered.
At that point, the Kingpin's criminal empire begins to unravel. Echo tries for Daredevil again but shoots the Black Widow instead. Daredevil pursues her into a darkened building, where she is both deaf and blind, and decisively beats her, although she gets away because Daredevil was concerned with getting Black Widow to a hospitial. Upon later refection, Echo realizes that Daredevil must have heightened hearing, so she sets up a bttles where that would be offset (by trains and jackhammers and other background noises). Meanwhile, the Kingpin is shown to be alive in the sewer living off rats. I really don't know how it is Kingpin is supposed to be immune to bullets, but he apparently is. I would say he was wearing a Kevlar vest if it weren't for the blood stains.
Eventually Echo comes to realize that Daredevil is Matt Murdock, and he convinces her that he is innocent of killing her father. She runs away and comes face-to-face with the Kingpin (he comes to her, actually). She shoots him in the head with the gun that killed her father, but somehow, mysteriously, miraculously, he survives. The final kicker is that the wound to the head caused him to go blind.
Looking back over what I have written, I must say that this story is much better than I have made it sound, better than "Guardian Devil" to be sure. It is a bit derivative (Elektra, Taskmaster, etc.) but IMO David Mack manages to combine those familiar element in new ways. He is also an artist. Will I seek out more of his Daredevil work? Probably not, at this point, but it's nice to know it has been collected if I should ever change my mind.
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