After a reality altering Annual, main arc “Truth/Dare” continues in Daredevil #22. Written by Chip Zdarsky, penciled by Francesco Mobili, inked by Victor Olazaba, colored by Mattia Iacono, and lettered by Clayton Cowles, Daredevil #22 finds Matt Murdock inching closer and closer to his day in court. Knowing as such, he reaches out beyond his “street level” world to the penthouse of Tony Stark while Mayor Wilson Fisk and the newly returned Typhoid Mary angle for a “new era of Hell’s Kitchen”. Just another day for God’s Favorite Ginger. Join us as we parse through this newest Hell’s Kitchen fable.
Vishal Gullapalli: Oh, Matt. How you never truly change. So much of what we’re seeing in this run is Matt confronting his own failures, but the entire time I’ve been feeling this rebellious streak from him – he knows that he’s sinned, but he will move heaven and earth to allow himself to not have to deal with the consequences. And even then, he’s still trying to help people, in his broken way. Zdarsky is really laying bare just how messed up of a person Matt is, and I love it.
Justin Partridge: Matt Murdock is selfless. To a fault as we’ve seen time and time again. And now with this issue, Chip and company just continue to make it completely explicit, by having him try to tie up “loose ends” that need to be taken care of before he takes himself off the board once again. It’s tremendous stuff and more top of the line characterization from Chip. I can’t wait to get into it. SO LET’S NOT.
He’s In The Jailhouse Now
VG: So Matt’s going to court hearings with the rule that he doesn’t have to do anything that could compromise his identity. No mask off, no fingerprints, nothing. Which is a really fun way to include the best arc of Charles Soule’s run into what’s going on now. And as always, he’s the luckiest son of a gun imaginable because the prosecutor is both an old friend of Matt Murdock’s and a Daredevil sympathizer. Even more than that, the judge decided there was no reason to keep him in jail until the trial! Matt’s life is just filled with get out of jail free cards, and it’s kind of absurd.
JP: It totally is and I think this might be an unintentional meta-commentary on how a lot of these “street-level” heroes get to dole out truly impressive violence and property destruction and yet…never really face any consequences for it. I mean, what, like Frank Castle has been arrested like six times and never really faced hard time (unless you count Jason Aaron’s MAX run). So it IS nice to see Chip trying to dive into that while also giving us some neat, crunchy details about the actual legal processes Matt is going to be shoved through in his arc.
But you’re right, it does feel SOMEWHAT convenient that Matt kinda sidestepped being truly incarcerated until his trial (probably as to not make this read like Brubaker and Lark’s “The Devil Inside”). But also, again, Chip is REALLY squeezing a lot of pathos out of this stone, like in the scene of Matt being arraigned and nobody being able to look at him or with the verbal abuse the cops throw at him as he makes his way through intake. How did this stuff grab you, VG?
VG: I absolutely love everything being done here. My kayfabe distaste for Matt and how he’s able to evade real consequences is part of the intention of the book – we’re not supposed to be completely on his side at any point throughout this run so far.
JP: (Which is something absolutely brilliant I HADN’T EVEN CONSIDERED until this point. Vishal is so smart, y’all)
VG: There’s some very interesting commentary with the people claiming that superheroes are people who wear masks to avoid consequences for things they do – specifically, Fisk says it in this issue. This is a very blatant comparison to current events in the real world – police and the people in charge vilifying people who wear masks, while themselves avoiding any consequences for their actions. It’s especially ironic that Kingpin, who was made Mayor of New York as a direct allegory for the current US President, is the one making these claims. It’s not something I think Zdarsky isn’t aware of, either. I think what’s being written here is very deliberate.
Won’t Someone Think of the Billionaires?
JP: So while the stuff surrounding Matt’s surrender to authority is the main action of the issue, the “big ticket” item, teased by the wonderful cover, is the guest appearance of Tony Stark. Wanting to “tie up loose ends” with the ongoing bidding war for the Kitchen, Matt offers Tony a pretty solid plan of action for his untold riches.
He is to essentially “buy” the Kitchen, making an offer to stand against that of the Stromwyms (and the Mayor of New York, but more on him in a second) with the stipulation that he would barely charge the tenants currently there for rent just to turn around and SELL said tenants the buildings, taking him out of the equation entirely and allowing the Kitchen to stand on its own.
I REALLY loved all this stuff and seeing Chip’s take on Tony again as well was a real treat. And I think it stands well in opposition to the Fisk and Typhoid Mary stuff, what did you think Vishal?
VG: I LOVED everything with Tony. I’ve had a realization over the past year that I don’t think I like Iron Man as a main character very much – he works when he’s on the Avengers but I don’t think there’s a way to make his solitary existence interesting. So bringing him in here as a side character and using that to point out that he could be doing more to help if he focused on actually helping people instead of saving the world and making profits? It’s a fantastic touch.
I also cannot talk enough about Matt tossing aside the label “street level” in favor of “people level.” The juxtaposition of Matt as the people’s hero (something we’ve seen throughout the run considering when he stopped being Daredevil the people started trying to fill that void) and Tony as someone who only views superheroics as a global enterprise works incredibly well here. This comic is like “what if all those really frustrating batman takes on Twitter were actually worded in a constructive and interesting way?” and I am HERE for it.
There’s something I’m a bit interested in, too – Tony offers Matt an upgrade, but the next time we see Matt he looks the same. What do you think we’re going to get from that, Justin?
JP: Oh, man, honestly I have NO idea, but the idea of a Stark-powered DD suit is just…Very Good. But even better is his conscious choice to decline it and keep his original togs.
But you are absolutely right. Tony really isn’t THAT awesome of a character outside of team dynamics (he says being a huge fan of Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man), but pairing him as a foil for Matt and directly commenting on the wealth inequality between the “A-List” Avengers and street-level types is…almost painfully good.
Also like you say, Matt fully rejecting the moniker of “street-level” heroes is also JUST AS incredible as it throws into stark (heh) contrast the fairly affluent existences of the Avengers and various other “backed” teams and heroes. But Matt totally has a point here and the moral high ground to a degree. One could argue that Matt’s one accidental death paired against the…probable hundreds of the Avengers (which Chip HIMSELF actually touched on early in the arc as Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist all admit that this is “part of the job”) further exposes Tony’s hypocrisy and somewhat blanching at the idea of “throwing his money away”, but it’s a beautiful scene with a lot to chew on even beyond the surface level of “Matt Murdock tells off Tony Stark”.
Also just to be clear, I LIKE Tony. Like to an uncool degree that I’m hesitant to talk about lest I be dragged through the town square of Comics Twitter, but I really loved this scene. Tony is always at his best when he’s being clowned on and you could do worse than a Chip Zdarsky Clowning.
Super Perry Mason
JP: But while Matt is calling the Master of Machines to the carpet for his being a richie, across the city both Foggy Nelson and Wilson Fisk are working hard to turn their new reality into a furthering of their goals. Foggy, of course and as always, wants to keep Matt out of jail while Mayor Fisk wants what HE always wants; control over that which is uncontrollable. Like the newly returned Typhoid Mary, who has now TAKEN OVER the church Wilson installed her in to heal.
It’s all big and pulpy and super broad, but I am WAY into it. Doubly so now that A Certain A.D.A From San Francisco has reappeared in the pages of the title. What about you, Vishal? Are you into these more “superhero legal drama” sections of the issue?
VG: I am always in favor of more superhero legal drama. I love this stuff. While I doubt Zdarsky will handle this with the same expertise as Actual Lawyer Charles Soule, I’m always really interested in the legal side of Daredevil – a vigilante superhero being a lawyer was always something that worked really well as a concept, especially the dirtier that Hell’s Kitchen and the rest of New York becomes. What I’m really pumped for, though, is the return of my favorite Daredevil supporting character and love interest, Kirsten McDuffie!
For people who may not know, Kirsten was Matt’s girlfriend, legal partner (or whatever the term is for two people in a law firm), and otherwise a very important person during Mark Waid’s run, where Matt, with her support, finally officially declared that he was Daredevil. It was a really fun run, and Kirsten was a major part of why it was so enjoyable, but once Secret Wars happened and Soule’s run started, she was nowhere to be found. We would eventually discover that the Purple Children who made everyone forget Daredevil’s identity accidentally also made Kirsten forget – and Matt, who always makes the most self-destructive choices, decided she was better off without Daredevil in her life and ghosted her.
So I feel like it’s pretty clear that this is some incredible drama we were just served. Kirsten is a Fantastic Human Being and Foggy was definitely right to call her, but I am so curious to see how she views Daredevil and Matt after his whole mess. I’m especially excited to see how Matt handles this, as he’s never been one to take exes returning well. Oh Foggy, what a choice you’ve made.
JP: ABSOLUTELY. I, myself, am a BIG fan of that Waid run and Kristen overall so I’m over the moon we are going to get more from her. Chip and the art team also really play up her introduction leading into the cliffhanger and it’s a truly beautiful scene.
From the way Chip frames the dialogue, hyping up a person from his past (“Her perfume…her walk…it CAN’T BE!”) only to then just walk her into the room with a huge grin and a sharp suit. It’s precisely the RIGHT amount of soapy and personable (while also being an unexpected cliffhanger for people expecting like…I dunno, Elektra again or Jen Walters). Francesco Mobili isn’t QUITE as expressive of an artist as Checcehetto is, but the art still sells pretty well.
ALL in all though, it’s just…like…another CRAZY solid entry into the new Daredevil. I know it sounds like a bit to say so, but it’s genuinely surprising and constantly delightful that this book just stays good. Good to great even when it really cooks. And odds are, now that Kristen is on the scene and Chip has a few more plot pots boiling, it’s probably ONLY going to get better.
Marvelous Musings
- I honestly wasn’t really a fan of Francesco Mobili’s art on this issue. It’s unfair because we’re coming off Checchetto, who’s incredible, but it still didn’t really work for me. -Vishal
- Who are Fisk’s investigators????
- WHO INDEED?! Is Dakota North alive right now? Or maybe, Danny Ketch? Wasn’t he a PI at some point? I’m (Justin) trying to think of scuzzy gumshoes that could stand working for Wilson Fisk. What’s Hannibal King up to nowadays?
- Justin is also still trying to think of what a “Stark Tech” Daredevil costume would look like. With our luck it would just be worse shoulderpads and thigh armor.
Vishal Gullapalli is highly opinionated and reads way too much.
