Issue(s): Daredevil #204
Cover Date: Mar 84
Title: "Vengeance of the victim!"
Credits:
Denny O'Neil - Writer
Luke McDonnell - Penciler
Dan Bulanadi - Inker

Review/plot:
The Next Issue blurb for last issue promised "DD's Strangest Foe Ever". That's a bold statement regarding a guy who counts Stilt-Man and the Ani-Men amongst his rogue's gallery.

And the villain is a guy with a crossbow named... Crossbow, so maybe "DD's Most Straightforward Villain" would have been more accurate.

Not a criticism of the guy; it's a well written issue.

Micah Synn is still visiting New York.

Someone's put a hit on him, and Crossbow is the hitman. Daredevil puts a stop to it. The incident nearly gets Synn's remaining wife killed, and i'm not sure if Synn understood what was happening, but he already doesn't like DD from their previous encounter.

Of course, Synn doesn't have much sympathy for other human beings, including his wife.

The man who hired Crossbow is Lord Barrington, a relative of Synn's who finds the re-emergence of these long lost savage relatives to be an embarrassment. Crossbow is also British (his manner of speech is on the outrageous side) and comes across as deliberately old fashioned, and not accustomed to dealing with New York super-heroes. He's not meant to be a super-villain; just an eccentric assassin.

Barrington flees the country when Daredevil discovers that he put out the hit.

Meanwhile, Foggy's wife Debbie is throwing a party. We're still seeing her ambitious side.

Tony Stark is invited.

And so is Micah Synn.

Debbie had been exhibiting an attraction to Synn, culminating in that kiss, but it's definitely with some reservations and guilt. It's developing well right now.

Her ambition and disdain of people less fortunate than her (as shown in a scene in the beginning where she says, "Can't the police do something about this kind of trash, Franklin?" when approached by a pan-handler) is a little over the top, but it's not that badly done. I just wish we got some kind of reaction from Foggy on these changes. She's different than the woman he married, and while that's certainly something that might happen in real life, i'd like to see it acknowledged.

Crossbow makes another attempt on Synn at the party, and while Daredevil fends him off easily enough, Synn still holds a grudge over their previous encounters, so Daredevil finds himself fighting both Crossbow and Synn. He still wins, and tells Synn that he's not tolerating any more crap from him, regardless of any cultural differences.

Tony Stark stumbles into the fight at one point.

Luke McDonnell, Denny O'Neil's partner on Iron Man at this time, is on pencils instead of William Johnson. I like McDonnell's art. This is a good issue, continuing to develop the Micah Synn story.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Tony Stark appears here between Iron Man #177-178.

References:

• Daredevil says that his fight with Micah Synn in Daredevil #202 happened "yesterday" which means DD's had a very busy day (it's actually not possible; issue #203 makes a point of telling us what time of day it is the whole issue, starting at 5am. So i think getting zapped by the Trump's electric wand may have made Daredevil forget the day of the week.).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

O'Neil's chronology was undoubtedly confused by a fill-in issue. The weird thing is that this happened to O'Neil a couple of years later, as you'll see when you review Iron Man 201-205- 202 is a fill-in issue but everyone acts like 203-205 take place just a few hours after 201.

a pity crossbow never met hawk-eye