Issue(s): Code of Honor #2
Cover Date: Mar 97
Title: "Verdicts"
Credits:
Chuck Dixon - Writer
Terese Nielssen & Vince Evans - Artists
Jason White - Assistant Editor
Kelly Corvese - Editor

Review/plot:
Jeff Piper, still a cop but no longer a rookie, continues to have problems taking control of his life. He's still carrying around the $1,000 bill that the Kingpin dropped some time ago.

He finds it somehow symbolic. I say spend the money at this point. It's not like it would put him on the Kingpin's payroll or anything.

Much more troublesome is Piper's inability to control his relationship with a gangster named Jake Vicuna, aka Jake the Rake.

While Jeff is on stakeout trying to gather evidence against Vicuna, the Punisher attacks.

Remembering his indecisiveness in his last encounter with the Punisher, Jeff shoots him this time. This drives the Punisher away, but ingratiates Jake to Jeff. Later, Jake picks up the tab for Jeff and Janet Ruiz's wedding, and Jake does nothing to stop him. He's not actively being bribed, he just doesn't seem to be able to stop him. As i said with issue #1, it's frustrating but at the same time there's an element of realism to that. The strain that Jeff's marriage to Janet puts on his mother (who is Baptist and not accepting Janet due to her ethnicity or religion) is also pretty well handled.

Jeff's partner, Mike Badilino, is badly injured in a drug raid. Jeff's supposed ties to Vicuna cause tension at the police station and hurt his career.

One thing i like about the personal side of the story this issue is that Janet is very supportive of Jeff, good times and bad. She's not written as a stereotypical complaining cop's wife. That'll change 180 degrees next issue, so let's enjoy it for now.

As far as the super-hero aspects of this story goes, it stays away from specific events to a large degree, which is good because it seems Dixon steps in it big time whenever he tries to reference specifics. The two main events referenced in this series are the wedding of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch, because it has some potential symbolism for Jeff and Janet's multiracial relationship...

...and the X-Men's assault on the Hellfire Club and subsequent battle with the Dark Phoenix.

There are a decent number of additional super-hero scenes, but they're not tied to actual comic events as far as i can tell.

Janet's priest is Father Delgado, the guy who harbors Cloak & Dagger (see the Chronological Considerations section for that particular snafu).

The art, by a completely different team than issue #1, is more sketchy and impressionistic this time. I like it better. I don't think it's ever great (some pictures are nice), but it's not grossly awful like the previous issue.

Generally speaking, an improvement over issue #1. I'm doing my best to not let my frustration over the continuity problems (see below again) affect the Quality Rating, but on the other hand, what's the point of doing a series like this if you're not going to get the continuity stuff right?

Angel is shirtless in his symbolic appearance this issue.

He's shirtless a lot in his Dazzler appearances in 1982, which is a little later than these issues take place (Cloak & Dagger issue aside), but nothing's stopping him from taking his shirt off before that.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The appearance of Cloak & Dagger is problematic because they don't meet up with Father Delgado until their mini-series in 1983. Everything else in this issue takes place earlier than that, and so do events from the beginning of the next issue. This is more unworkable than previous continuity problems. In issue #3 of this series there will be a scene directly out of 1981's Amazing Spider-Man annual #15, and there is no way that can take place after the 1983 Cloak & Dagger mini-series (ASM annual #15 even takes place before Cloak & Dagger's first appearance in Mar 1982's Spectacular Spider-Man #64). I can't even really make up an outlandish No-Prize solution (Delgado, Cloak, and Dagger all met prior to their mini, and then all got amnesia?). I've determined that Jeff Piper is just a very unreliable narrator with a bad memory for the order in which events occur.

Even ignoring the Cloak & Dagger appearance, the events referenced in this issue span a period from 1974 to 1981; approximately 7 years. That's quite a large span, much different than issue #1 which only covered 1973-1974.

References:

• The marriage of Vision & the Scarlet Witch in Giant-Size Avengers #4.
  
• The X-Men's attack on the Hellfire Club and battle with Phoenix in Central Park in Uncanny X-Men #132-135.
  
• Elektra fighting the Hand, somewhere around Daredevil #174-175.
  
• A "Cap for President" bumper sticker, which could appear any time after Captain America #250.
  
• Cloak & Dagger in Father Delgado's church, which could only occur after Cloak and Dagger #1-4.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? Y

My Reprint: N/A

Regarding the scene where the Hellfire goons from Uncanny X-Men #132-135 are found blocking a drain by some police officers: those goons look kinda dead to me, and badly mutilated, rather than merely having been seriously injured with near-surgical precision by Wolverine, as has been suggested elsewhere. One of them is face down in the water. A cop says they've been chopped into fruit salad. But if we're relying on Jeff Piper, and also saying he's a poor narrator with a terrible memory, then I suppose none of this comic is reliable as evidence for anything. So I guess Wolverine gets off on yet another technicality, dammit.