Issue(s): Daredevil #195
Cover Date: Jun 83
Title: "Betrayal"
Credits:
Denny O'Neil - Writer
Klaus Janson - Penciler
Klaus Janson - Inker
Linda Grant - Editor

Review/plot:
Alan Brennert, the writer of DD #192, gets a "special thanks" for this issue. The Man Without Fear website provides the reason why.

Daredevil breaks up an attempt by vigilantes to kill a murderer who got released on a technicality.

He's got mixed feelings about it, of course. Not just because the guy was a murderer, but because Nelson & Murdock are the law team that got him off.

Later, Heather Glenn is at a party with Tony Stark (the MCP doesn't list him, but the same party, and some of the same scenes, are shown as in Iron Man #171; O'Neil is writing both books, and it's a cool little "crossover").

She meets a guy named Tarkington Brown. After the party, in a drunken pity ramble, she lets out that Matt Murdock is Daredevil. Tarkington takes special interest in this and quickly ends their "date".

It turns out Brown is the leader of the group of vigilantes that Daredevil chased away earlier. They are a group of police and government types. Brown says Murdock is their next target, but he doesn't tell them why.

Heather wakes up the next morning and realizes what she's done, and she runs to Murdock to confess. He kicks her out of his office.

The vigilantes attack Matt's house but Daredevil handles them easily.

Brown isn't with them. He's actually holding Heather at gunpoint. Daredevil breaks that up and then confronts Brown alone, telling him that if Brown ever reveals Daredevil's secret, Daredevil will blow the whistle on Brown's vigilantism as well. Since Brown is murdering people (deserved or not, and Matt thinks not), it's a very unheroic resolution. Brown also reveals that he's only got a few months to live, so you'd think he wouldn't care too much about his secret getting spilled.

The issue ends with the resolution that the murderer that Nelson & Murdock got free has killed again.

Despite the fact that this is Denny O'Neil's official run, these issues have a fill-in-ish feel so far. Not that they're bad, by any means. But they're short, self-contained and more or less inconsequential stories. I like that philosophical issues are being raised in these issues without them being at all preachy.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue shares a scene with Iron Man #171.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

This could have made a nice tie-in to the Scourge tales, although Scourge earlier on only targeted convicted criminals.

I would have liked more stories on the contradiction of DD being a superhero and a lawyer. The guilt of having to defend criminals he knows as a fact (moreso than anyone) are guilty.

DD works better without supervillains.

"I like that philosophical issues are being raised in these issues without them being at all preachy."

Hmmm maybe this was a dry run for O'Neill's Question series at DC.