Issue(s): Daredevil #314, Daredevil #315
Cover Date: Mar-Apr 93
Title: "Shock treatment" / "Shock therapy"
Credits:
D.G. Chichester - Writer
Scott McDaniel - Penciler
Bud LaRosa - Inker
Pat Garrahy - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
These issues seem to introduce a Mr. Fear for the 90s, so to speak. The new villain, "Shock", is the daughter of the fourth Mr. Fear (counting Machinesmith), Alan Fagan. The daughter's name is Ariel Tremmor. Tremmor is her mother's name. Fagan was not a good daddy and Ariel grew up poor with her mom and had to resort to prostitution, which is why she hates dad. She gets her powers by hiring some prisoners to cut off some of her father's skin and deliver it to her. Fagan is not being held in the Vault because it's thought that without his costume he's just a normal guy. But Ariel's theory is that Alan has absorbed so much Fear gas over the years that she can extract it from his skin.

I say she's a Mr. Fear for the 90s because she just looks so "extreme"; her design is a hot mess.

Also, her powers are a little different. Instead of just fear, she can regenerate all sorts of emotions, like rage and hatred. And she can cause hallucinations. Basically she just accentuates a person's worst traits.

But i say "seem to" because despite an ending that makes it seem like she's about to escape custody after Daredevil stops her...

...she'll never be see again.

Similarly, a first "prologue" at the end of the story seems to indicate that Mr. Fear is about to come after her. But in fact Mr. Fear won't be seen again for over a decade.

A second prologue does have more relevance. Kingpin is working his way back up.

Probably the most important thing in this issue is that Daredevil is having dreams about Elektra.

The lettercol tells us that it might be "a premonition of things to come!?!".

The most fun bit in the story is that Matt starts off out of costume, and winds up wearing a t-shirt on his head for a good portion of issue #314.

Don't ask me how he knew that was a good shirt to grab, let alone how to line up the eyes. Could just be a lucky coincidence, i guess.

One thing i really don't like is that about half the book is sideways, and yet for no good reasons. Flat, boring layouts, but for some reason you have to turn the book sideways to read them.

And even when pages are oriented normally, a lot of space is devoted to border patterns. Just feels like wasted space to me.

Thanks to the nature of Shock, the writing feels like someone trying to emulate Ann Nocenti and J.M. DeMatteis. Very surreal, very wordy. But even by those standards it falls flat and feels more mundane.

All that said, i was surprised when i finished reading these and looked up Shock on the MCP and found that these were her only appearances. As much as i don't like her character design, she looks like a lot of what was going on in the Midnight Sons books and elsewhere. I can't believe no one ever thought to use her again, even if Chichester never got back to her for whatever reason. I mean, with ties to a classic Marvel villain, she actually seems like a better character than most of the new characters introduced in this year's annuals (including the DD annual). Ok that's a low bar. Actually it wouldn't shock me if someone said that this plot was originally intended for this year's annual but got moved to the regular series for some reason.

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 230,475. Single issue closest to filing date = 161,100.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A