Issue(s): Daredevil #183, Daredevil #184, Daredevil #185, Daredevil #186, Daredevil #187, Daredevil #188, Daredevil #189, Daredevil #190, Daredevil #191, Bizarre Adventures #28
Cover Date: Jun 82 - Feb 83
Title: "Child's play" / "Good guys wear red!" / "Guts" / "Stilts" / "Overkill" / "The Widow's bite" / "Siege" / "Resurrection" / "Roulette"
Credits:
Roger McKenzie & Frank Miller / Frank Miller - Writer
Frank Miller / Klaus Janson - Penciler
Klaus Janson / Terry Austin - Inker
Denny O'Neil - Editor

Review/plot:
Roger McKenzie gets a co-writing credit on #183 only.
Klaus Janson, who has been inking this series for a long time, begins on pencils with issue #184, leaving Frank Miller on writing duty only. Janson also continues to ink this entire run except #191, which is by Terry Austin. Janson & Miller's art had meshed so well that the transition to full art by Janson is almost unnoticeable.

This is another collection of fantastic Daredevil stories. Mostly ninja stuff, some crime stuff, a lot of hints at the broken emotional states of Matt and Heather. Eventually the Hand will become a bit tedious, but that's only because they become overexposed due to how good and influential these stories are.

Oversimplified summaries of individual issues below:

#183-184 - Daredevil goes up against some drug dealers...

...and comes into conflict with the Punisher, who just wants to kill the dealers and not bring them to justice.

Matt asks Heather Glenn to marry him.

The cover of #184 apparently got a Daredevil cartoon that was in the works cancelled.

#185-186 - Heather has discovered that the company she inherited from her father is building illegal explosives.

#185 is written from Foggy Nelson's perspective as he investigates the company for Heather, which is a neat touch.

Daredevil shadows Foggy, watching over him.

Glenn Industries hires Stiltman to intimidate a prosecutor...

...but the inept thug Turk clubs him and steals his armor.

DD stops Stilt-Turk...

...and hands over enough evidence to prosecute the corrupt execs at Glenn. Heather is technically the head of the company, but Matt convinces her to plead incompetence. Her feelings of inadequacy also lead her to accept Matt's marriage proposal (although obviously not for positive reasons; she's clearly got issues).

Meanwhile, Daredevil's senses start to go haywire, providing more feedback than DD can handle.

#187-189 - Daredevil's senses go into full overload...

...and he seeks out Stick for help.

Meanwhile the Black Widow shows up in town (in a new grey costume and short haircut).

She's working for SHIELD, fighting Hand ninja, and failing to prevent them from stealing Kirigi's body from the morgue. In the process, she's poisoned, with less than a week to live.

It turns out that Stick a member of a group of 'good' ninja called the Chaste.

They're being hunted by the Hand and their numbers have been cut. The remaining members are Stone, Shaft, and Claw.

As Stick helps Daredevil cope with his senses...

...and the Hand resurrect Kirgi...

...the Black Widow leaves SHIELD against orders and tries to find Matt.

She arrives just as the poison is taking its toll..

...but the Chaste are able to restore (resurrect?) her.

Stick, Claw, and Shaft are killed when the Hand attack (actually they mystically expend life energy to defeat the Hand)...

...but Kirgi is also killed...

...along with a slew of Hand grunts. Heather continues to be miserably resigned to marrying Matt...

...and Foggy and the Black Widow conspire to break up the wedding.

Natasha forges break-up notes to each of them.

#190 - With Kirgi dead, the Hand require a new champion, so they set about reviving Elektra.

We learn that Elektra was once a pupil of the Chaste...

...but her inner demons prevented her from becoming a full member. She then turned to the Hand. Daredevil, Black Widow, and Stone arrive at the cemetery Elektra is buried at, only to find a Hand ambush.

Meanwhile, the Kingpin has been suffering a rebellion from mobsters that are tired of paying his exorbitant shares of their profit.

Daredevil turns to the Kingpin for help against the Hand...

...and in return quells the mobster rebellion. DD, the Widow, Stone, and the Kingpin's goons clear out the remaining Hand...

...and prevent Elektra's resurrection, but not before Daredevil somehow purges her soul of sin.

An epilogue shows that Elektra was resurrected, and now wears the white of the Chaste.

#191 - Daredevil visits Bullseye, who is still comatose in the hospital, and reflects on some miserable scenes from his life.

This is the famous (well, this whole run is, of course, famous) Russian roulette issue.

Also in the trade, Frank Miller writes, draws, and inks the short black & white story from Bizarre Adventures #28, which details an assassination job of Elektra's prior to her meeting Daredevil for the first time as an adult in Daredevil #168.

Quality Rating: A

Historical Significance Rating: 7 - resurrection of Elektra, first Stone, "Death" of Stick. Heather Glenn and Matt break-up. New look for the Black Widow.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Due to the fact that i have these in a collected trade format, it's a big chunk of Daredevil stories at once. But there's no dependencies on other books and Daredevil's relatively few guest appearances elsewhere aren't affected by anything going on here.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller vol. 3

Bizarre Adventures #28 had a strange history. First, it was supposed to be a full-length Red Sonja story by Claremont/Bolton. Then Jim Shooter and maybe some other folks got confused over whether Marvel still had rights to her, and the Sonja story was pulled and converted into Marada the She-Wolf for Epic. Finally, a bunch of inventory stories were pulled to fill the issue: "Shadow Thief" from 1975, "Huntsman"(a converted Logan's Run story) a Triton story(with announced art by Wendy Pini), Bucky Bizarre, and the Elektra story. Ironically, Marvel did have the rights to Red Sonja all along.

That is an odd panel of Matt and Natasha on the couch. Where is the lower half of his body?

As Mark Drummond notes in the entry for the issues before these, 183's angel dust story had been scheduled for 167. There were code issues and it was withdrawn for the time being, hence 183's story credit for McKenzie, who had left the title.

The original cover for 167 was Daredevil and Punisher fighting in the background, and a little girl in the foreground spilling powder to form the words "Angel Dust." The cover may have been part of the problem. When a version of the story ran in 183 (probably somewhat reworked by Miller), the new cover was Punisher shooting Daredevil in the stomach with an Uzi, complete with a bloody exit wound in DD's back. (Only a tranquilizer in the actual story.) Circa the early 1980s, I suppose this was considered "toning down." I actually find the published cover the more disturbing image, even with the tyke out of the picture.

@Todd: I think Matt's standing behind the sofa, not on the sofa with Natasha. I guess he is leaning against the back cushion or something.

Boy, that middle panel in the "She arrives just as the poison is taking its toll" sure reminds me of the great Gene Colan's shot of Karen toward the end of DD #57 (when Karen is reaching out to unmask DD).

These panels are great examples of how horrid Miller's art work was on DD. The dude is so overrated it hurts.

Almost all of these are Janson's art, though, as noted at the beginning of the review. Miller was strictly a writer beginning with 184.

@Shar: I dunno; if he were standing behind it, his torso would not cover the back of it. Besides which, embracing her that way would be an awkward reach. I think he's all scrunched up behind Natasha, but it's an odd composition and/or a huge sofa. Janson had his strengths and weaknesses. He was good with mood, expression, atmosphere, less so with proportion, form, dynamics.

Miller had a hand in it. Janson finish. They both suck.

But, I'll add - Janson's work when paired with other artists is solid. So, I'll put it Miller. Yes, Miller is overrated.

Ed Hannigan stated around 5/84 that 75% of Miller's Daredevil covers "stunk".

was this also Black Widow's first appearance of her short hair/grey suit look?

That is correct, Russell. Thanks for pointing it out. I've noted it above.

Hand + ambush = hambush?

I dunno, Jack. I love that panel of Daredevil kicking Punisher in the face. But then again, I'd love any panel of Punisher getting kicked in the face.

I prefer Black Widow's 1970s look.

Something recently occurred to me about issue 189- Foggy asked Natasha to use her forgery skills to break up Heather and Matt. What did Foggy expect Natasha to DO? From Natasha's perspective, the forged breakup notes make sense, since she knows about Matt's hypersenses. But as far as Foggy knows at this point, Matt is BLIND. It makes no sense for them to break up with each other by note.