Issue(s): Daredevil #308
Cover Date: Sep 92
Title: "Dealing from the bottom"
Credits:
D.G. Chichester - Writer
Scott McDaniel - Penciler
Bud LaRosa - Inker
Pat Garrahy - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
It's required by law that every story taking place in Vegas include a scene at an Elvis wedding chapel.

The guys bursting in with high tech weapons seem to be working for Justin Hammer. They're being pursued by Hand ninjas. After the Hammer goons are killed, Tombstone shows up and kills the ninjas.

In the Tombstone's terms, the "politicians" are busy making alliances. The Yakuza and the Hand have joined together, so Werner von Strucker proposes an alliance with Hammer.

And Fenris just continue to be impotently angry.

The Hand and the Yakuza have banded together because of their "mutual ethnicity". Tombstone is really after the Hand because they rejected him in Daredevil #292-293, but i guess in the general confusion and distrust of the conference, he's able to hide the fact that he's pursuing a personal agenda, and Hammerhead has his back (note that Hammerhead is back to being a senior member of the Maggia to Tombstone, as opposed to being from a "splinter" group).

The Secret Empire don't seem to be getting involved in the turf wars, and the Slug is practically a transplant from Mad magazine or something. He's too ridiculous for this story.

Meanwhile, Foggy Nelson seems to finally recover from the concussion that Matt gave him last issue. Matt points him to the 'all you can eat' buffet so that he has more time to stick around and deal with the crimelord problems as Daredevil. He then goes and meets Terror, who tells him that the Yakuza and the Hand are planning a move.

As Daredevil leaves, Terror tells him that he doesn't do favors, he accumulates debts (which is sort of a tagline of his).

It's unclear what the Yakuza and the Hand were planning, because Silvermane happens to show up.

Daredevil drops a slot machine on him, and then gets into a fight with the Hand and the Yakuza. On a horse.

(And they're at the Circus Circus casino, not Excalibur.)

While he's chasing the bad guys, Daredevil gets distracted and doesn't catch that the Punisher has arrived on the scene until it's too late. And the Punisher seems to be more interested in pursuing a grudge against DD than wondering why he's in Vegas.

We'll jump back in time in the next chapter and see how the Punisher got here.

For our check-in with the Kingpin, we see him being attacked in the subway. He runs at first, but then starts to defend himself.

He looks downright tiny in those top panels.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating:

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part five of Dead Man's Hand. Part six is in Punisher War Journal #46.

References: N/A

Crossover: Dead Man's Hand

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A