Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1988-01-01 01:10:10 |
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Daredevil #251
Issue(s): Daredevil #251
Cover Date: Feb 88
Title: "Save the planet!"
Credits:
Ann Nocenti - Writer
John Romita Jr. - Penciler
Al Williamson - Inker
Ralph Macchio - Editor
Review/plot:
Environmentalists stage an ill-advised protest against Kelco...
...and to make matters worse, Bullet shows up after they leave and leaves a dead executive with the protestor's props, to implicate them in a more serious crime.
Bullet then goes home to his son, who is still obsessed with nuclear war, and gets toxic goop all over him.
Meanwhile, the General that hired Bullet turns out to be in the Kingpin's pocket, and he wonders why the Kingpin is bothering to fight the legal fight on the Kelco factory.
The Kingpin says it's because he wants to see the legal system subverted. He's still obsessed with Matt Murdock.
Daredevil shows up at the scene of the protest sporting a new costume, and realizes that the murder was a plant. There's just no limitation on his super-senses!
After dealing with the continued problems at his free clinic, Daredevil hunts down the real murderer, Bullet.
Bullet's son Lance vouches for his father's whereabouts, and even though Daredevil knows he's lying, he lets Bullet go to avoid a fight in front of the kid. But he takes a pool ball with Bullet's prints that he knows will prove he was the killer. But Bullet just follows him and continues the fight.
Bullet recognizes Daredevil as the guy he fought out of costume last issue, but he doesn't know who Matt Murdock is. And he eventually turns himself in to the police, knowing that he'll simply be released since he's a government agent.
And between that and the fact that his clinic is getting shut down, the Kingpin's goal of ruining Matt's faith in the justice system is realized.
I am really starting to get into the groove on Nocenti's Daredevil run. I'd attribute a lot of that to JRJR, who is just stylized enough to match Nocenti's writing style while still reigning it in a bit. A little more Sienkiewicz and it would all feel too abstract to me, whereas earlier artists on this run have been too straightforward, creating a mismatch between Nocenti's surreal writing and, say, Louis Williams' art. But JRJR is hitting a sweet spot. The other thing is that we are getting into continued stories, with this Kelco environmental issue turning into a proxy battle between Daredevil and the Kingpin (that is also pitting Matt Murdock against his former partner and now corporate lawyer Foggy Nelson). And Bullet and his weird kid are a point of interest as well. Nocenti's run has always had some degree of critical acclaim but my random forays into it weren't fruitful; going through everything in order i'm now starting to see the appeal.
Quality Rating: B-
Historical Significance Rating:
Chronological Placement Considerations: Next issue takes place during Fall of the Mutants so i've pushed this back a bit in publication time.
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
I've stated my dislike of Nocenti before but the book does improve by leaps and bounds with John Romita, Jr. on art. One point for the artist in the eternal "who's more important" debate.
Sweet spot indeed. I often wonder how this particular creative team might have fared on MOON KNIGHT after Moench left for good.
(Re)Reading along, I definitely think the dialogue in these two issues is more grounded. It's still heavily stylized, but not as stream-of-consciousness as it has been in past issues.. Also, there's some real subtlety amid the over-the-top stuff; it seems like the idea is that Lance's traumatic reaction to hearing about the bomb is his way of displacing the horror of who his father is and the effects of Bullet's visible neglect. (There's an implication of abuse with the whole thing about Lance fearing that his father will "explode" like the bomb.)
Granted, Ammo and especially Typhoid go back to the older dialogue style, albeit with the excuse that they're both raving psychopaths, but the scripting stays comparatively lucid from here on out until the whole "Number Nine/Daredevil goes to hell" stuff.
