Issue(s): Daredevil #304
Cover Date: May 92
Title: "34 hours"
Credits:
D.G. Chichester - Writer
Ron Garney - Penciler
Bud LaRosa - Inker
Pat Garrahy - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
This issue is just Daredevil dealing with ordinary mundane crimes and emergencies for the day, culminating in him stopping several unrelated incidents at once in Central Park (but the highlight for me is when he saves someone playing paddleball in the street from getting hit by a car and still taking the time to return the serve).

It's a nice change of pace from the continued escalation of plotlines in Daredevil and super-hero comics in general. At their core, super-heroes are supposed to be stopping crimes, not engaging in endless grudge matches with super-villains or dealing with end-of-the-world threats. But watching Daredevil stopping muggers might not be exciting enough to sell an issue, so for the most part we get that sort of stuff incidental to the main plot, or not at all. This story is actually a lot like Moon Knight #31, except that story was meant to be a deliberate re-focusing for Moon Knight. In this case, the premise has something to do with New York entering a phase where it is murder free for 34 hours, allowing Daredevil to focus on other matters. I assume that was based on some actual headlines of the time - you can find similar headlines now - but while in reality those headlines are generated by statistical anomalies and/or a special effort by the police, this story makes it seem like it's just a thing that happens sometimes and people know it's coming in advance.

I'd also quibble that Daredevil isn't normally too busy for this stuff because he's busy solving murders. He's fighting Gladiator or getting torn down by the Kingpin.

But regardless of the reason behind the premise, it's a nice issue.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I really liked this one. Just the day in the life (or ok, day plus 10 hours) of a superhero when they aren't dealing with supervillains.

I ran an adventure for Werewolf RPG based on this issue. (A Rite of Passage adventure where the Bone Gnawer sept instructed the players to just help out people for a day, with scenes based on scenarios in this story.) It went over so well, I ran it a couple other times for different people.

What an odd premise. Nobody would know there's an actual respite in murders until....the next murder. At which point the respite is over.