Issue(s): Daredevil annual #8
Cover Date: 1992
Title: "Maxed out / Disturbingly alike / Growing up?"
Credits:
Gregory Wright - Writer
M.C. Wyman / Larry Alexander / June Brigman - Penciler
Bud LaRosa / Larry Alexander / Roy Richardson - Inker
Pat Garrahy - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
Part two of The System Bytes is almost as much a Deathlok story as a Daredevil story (although Deathlok also has his own unrelated annual this year). Bushwacker has been hired by Mazzilli from Ampersand, the company that the software engineer Max E. Mumm was working for in the first chapter, until Mazzilli fired him. Mazzilli now wants Max dead. Bushwacker is also a crazy religious person.

Max flees, calling for help...

...and Daredevil hears him.

Daredevil manages to knock out Bushwacker. Max has been shot, so Daredevil goes with him to the hospital, leaving Bushwacker for the police. But the police fail to take Bushwacker's ammo away, so he recovers, kills them, and escapes.

Meanwhile, Deathlok is in cyber-space, which has been infected by the Ultra-Max virus.

What is it about cats sitting on your computer when you're trying to use it?

After Max is patched up, Daredevil decides that he needs a lawyer, since Mazzilli has his software/virus. So DD brings Max to Foggy Nelson. Max tries to hack into Ampersand to get proof that he owns the software, but he instead connects with Deathlok. Deathlok hears that Max created the virus, and heads over to Foggy's office. He then goes back into cyberspace to try to get rid of the virus with help from Max, but that's when Bushwacker attacks again.

Luckily, Daredevil also shows up again.

While Daredevil is fighting Bushwacker, Max comes up with the idea to create an ouroboros program that will cause the Ultra-Max virus to devour itself. Deathlok manages to implement that, and he wakes up in time to save Daredevil from Bushwacker.

This is the first meeting between Daredevil and Deathlok. Cute dialogue sequence.

Daredevil says that he's able to get Bushwacker to admit that he was hired by Mazzilli, so that ends Max's troubles. But a final scene shows that the virus is not fully destroyed, and is growing again.

This really is a boring crossover. The virus itself barely registers in this story, only slightly moreseo than in the Punisher annual. Bushwacker is the main villain. And that's fine, but the virus is the thing that threads these annuals together, and it's a mighty thin thread. It does become the major threat in the next chapter, but for the first two parts we basically have standalone stories that just pretend to be part of a crossover. They also aren't by the regular creative teams. So it's basically just a random fill-in story that you got tricked into buying.

A back-up story shows Gregory Wright's favorite character Crippler fighting the Wild Boys.

As is his way, the Crippler ends up terrifying the Wild Boys to the point where they'll be afraid of committing crimes anymore.

That dog is fucking terrifying. I promise to never commit a crime as long as i never have to see that again.

A final story shows the Fatboys gang maybe growing up. Darla has an older boyfriend.

And Eightball likes her but he's not able to tell her. Darla maybe likes him, too.

Eightball later runs into Darla's boyfriend making time with older girls. He confronts him, and nearly gets beat up, but Darla shows up with the other Fatboys.

I do like the older kid's other girlfriends wondering why he's hanging out with a girl so much younger than him. For what it's worth, he refers to Darla at one point as "that little welfare chick".

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part two of The System Bytes. Part three is in Wonder Man annual #1. I've placed the System Bytes crossover before Silver Sable & the Wild Pack #2 because of the Crippler back-up here. Crippler seems to have not yet been recruited by Sable's organization (although he could be acting independently for fun). Daredevil thinking that Bushwacker is dead probably means that The System Bytes takes place before Dead Man's Hand, since in that story, Bushwacker is last seen fleeing the Punisher in Nomad #5. Unless Punisher did manage to catch up to Bushwacker and seemingly kill him again, as he did in Punisher War Journal #13, but that would be a bit much. Daredevil saying that he thought Bushwacker only goes after mutants also wouldn't make sense given Bushwacker's motivation in Dead Man's Hand. Deathlok is living in Coney Island and working as a software contractor, but that doesn't affect placement; there's no mention of whether or not he's spoken to his wife recently (i.e. this can take place after Deathlok #12-15).

References:

• The Ultra-Max virus was seemingly destroyed in Punisher annual #5, but Max E. Mumm had a feeling that wasn't really true.
  
• Daredevil thinking that Bushwacker is dead is probably a reference to Punisher War Journal #13.
  
• Deathlok saved the life of Bushwacker in Deathlok #5, so Bushwacker spares Deathlok when he initially gets to Foggy's office and sees Deathlok's body disabled (since his mind is in cyberspace).

Crossover: System Bytes

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

As a teen, Bushwacker drove me absolutely mental in this annual - his gun arm/hand keeps shifting from his left to his right even from panel to panel. Even after Deathlok shoots his right hand, the next panel shows Bushwacker with his right hand intact and he's cradling his left hand.

Do I misunderstand Bushwacker's weird gun hand? Is it both hands that change into guns? Perhaps between appearances he added the ability to turn his left hand into a gun as well - the shotgun hand seems to be his left as well.

This is the last story with the Fatboys in it, except for a non-speaking cameo at Karen Page's funeral.