The Goop might be gone, but the Kitchen and Matt Murdock’s troubles are here to stay in Daredevil #28. Written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Marco Checchetto, colored by Marcio Menyz, and lettered by Clayton Cowles, Daredevil #28 finds our leads picking up the pieces after the King in Black’s incursion. In Hell’s Kitchen, Elektra and Mayor Wilson Fisk tend to the fallout of the Symbiote attack while inside Rikers Island, Matt is confronted with stark inequality and realizes he might not be as okay as he claims to be. It’s okay to not be okay and Daredevil #28 shows that not even the Marvel Knights are above said adage.
Vishal Gullapalli: We’re back! And everyone’s sad!
…
This could be the way we open every issue of Daredevil, but it’s especially prescient with this one. They’re so sad.
Justin Partridge: Holy crow, my friend, if that ain’t just a forever mood. BUT AGAIN, this issue reeeeallly gives more credence to our thesis that this book is all about consequences.
They all had to live through a stupid event tie-in. Now they gotta deal with living through a stupid event tie-in. Just…man, I love this book so much.
The Elektra Gambit
VG: So this issue’s got three different scenes going on, all presumably happening simultaneously. And the first one’s a doozy – Elektra has to comfort Alice, the girl she saved from her knullified-then-deceased mother.
JP: And I am genuinely shocked she’s still around!
Not to say that Chip and company are the type of creative team to just drop a plot, but you get it, right? All too often, especially in event tie-in stories, our heroes will go through a side-quest of sorts. Only to then revert back to the story already in progress once the trade dress returns to normal.
BUT HERE, Chip and company are LEAVING Elektra holding the bag! Giving her yet another Hell’s Kitchen problem to deal with in her own way. It’s good stuff for sure. And starts to reveal the deeply shielded heart of Elektra that we know is there (and also realistically know that she can’t show said heart consistently, lest it get her killed again).
VG: Yeah, and Elektra’s unveiling of her heart makes me worry that Alice is going to suffer at the hands of someone trying to punish her. The central theme of the issue is the question “Are you okay?” and I think what’s beautiful about it is that the question is a shield for the person asking. Elektra’s asking Alice how she’s doing, and by doing so is ensuring she doesn’t have to consider how Elektra is doing. Because she’s clearly a mess.
I love watching this person who has spent so long a cold, callous killer finally open up to her emotions. Elektra’s always been capable of empathy, always been capable of everything she’s trying to be. She just never had a reason to try until now.
JP: ABSOLUTELY. And it another neat bit of followthrough with the texture we’ve seen so far during Elektra’s time in the mask. She talked a lot about having to navigate “Matt’s World”, but trying to do it her own specific way, because that’s what’s kept her alive. So I am curious as to how she will continue to navigate through a wholly emotional problem.
And it’s funny, I actually WASN’T super concerned about Alice’s well being UNTIL you said something, so thanks for THAT new anxiety.
The Fisk Files
VG: Fisk’s portion of the issue was pretty quick, but surprisingly emotional. Old Willy’s tired. He truly cares about Mary, which I didn’t expect – but he’s getting run ragged and he hates it. It’s almost like he’s starting to understand how Daredevil feels on a nightly basis!
JP: Aw, man, poor Wilson, right? He tries and he tries and he tries and STILL he can’t get no respect.
You’re right, this section is relatively quick in the overall scheme of the issue, but I still think it’s pretty vital in regards to Chip’s interpretation of Wilson Fisk, which has only continued to grow since this volume’s debut. But you nailed it, the crushing weight of his tenure as Mayor has started to press on him, driving him back into the comforting arms of his ongoing war with Daredevil (“Both of them.”, he intones sinisterly here).
I think it might be a touch regressive as I was excited to see Wilson trying to focus more globally than locally, BUT even that said, you absolutely GET IT. Especially when you think about it from Fisk’s POV. Here he is, finally, legitimately in power with a city rallied behind him somewhat, and then Daredevil is brought up on charges of manslaughter, which then throws the Kitchen into absolute chaos in the resulting turf war with the Stromwyns. ON TOP OF, his just being the Mayor of Marvel’s New York. Which seems to be constantly in a state of exploding thanks to the efforts and battles of her superhero population.
It’s gotta be a LOT. Even for someone as strong as Wilson.
VG: It’s interesting, because it could definitely be regressive. But I see it as a reminder of what Daredevil is, and what his world is. Kingpin did his best to expand, to go global and take his operation to new heights. But he’s learning and constantly being reminded that he might be the Kingpin of Crime in New York, but he’s just a big fish in a small pond. He won’t survive in the ocean. It reminds me of Daredevil’s short tenure on the Avengers – he doesn’t belong there, it’s not at a scale that works for him. It also gives Wilson something to do while Matt is going through his whole introspective cycle, because the last thing we want is to feel like the antagonists are just spinning their wheels while Matt’s not around.
Also, I’m curious who they’re talking about bringing in… my intuition says it’ll be Bullseye, but Chip might pull a fast one.
JP: What if it’s LADY Bullseye?! Man, I would flip.
The Murdock Configuration
VG: The meat of the issue, and the best part of it, is Matt Murdock’s prison stint. It’s a twofold segment – Matt is exhausted after fighting off the goop monsters but refuses to admit he needs help. In addition, he’s finally starting to reckon with the fact that the American Justice System is terrible. This is what I came to see, it’s what’s made Daredevil such a compelling book for the last year and change – Matt has to reckon with the fact that his entire sense of justice is borne of privilege, and that maybe he needs to re-evaluate his entire purpose as a person and hero.
JP: OH ABSOLUTELY. It is tremendous stuff and also a narrative “responsibility” that I think puts it above even some of the more “seminal” works of Daredevil teams past.
Mainly because, while THOSE books slapped at these ideas and never really followed through completely on their confrontations of Matt’s mental state, Chip and company here are just outright having him SAY it. Out loud. While also allowing him multiple foils from across the socioeconomic and racial divides that the system he so hallowed has exacerbated to both show and tell him of said divides.
VG: Matt’s discovery that it wasn’t his superheroics that were the cause of this man’s incarceration (and suicide), but instead his work as a prosecutor, is probably the most important moment in this run so far. Daredevil as a character has always hidden behind the idea that he breaks the law to catch bad guys but he uses the law to ensure they’re taken to justice. It might have taken a bit, but we’re finally getting more than an acknowledgement – we’re getting the book outright saying that by using the legal system, Matt is denying countless people actual justice.
JP: It is powerful stuff just on the surface, but it gets even better when you see that the team and Matt himself are committed to confronting it ALL. Dead on, even. Sure, the first scene with Matt’s new therapist is a little cloying and plays on Matt’s white guilt a little too hard, but that doesn’t make the sentiment or the larger points he (and we) are being faced with any less important or vital.
I know it sounds like a bit at this point, but to me, this volume is all about consequences and these sequences only strengthen this argument. Like, honestly, when and where in any other book would a character (TWO CHARACTERS EVEN) straight up tell the LEAD, whose name is a goddamn logo on the trade dress, that they were privileged and a product of a system that values whiteness? LET ALONE in a major market solo superhero book? Like, that’s AMAZING and worth the calling out.
VG: Yeah I have to admit that I would not expect a nonwhite person to be as kind to Matt as he wallows in his own self-guilt, but I’m admittedly not a therapist. What’s really working about these constant callouts of Matt’s guilt is that they’re speaking at a larger symptom – when white people are confronted with their privilege, they instinctively try to spin the narrative to be about them and about how guilty they feel and about how they need to figure things out, rather than about how the people without that privilege need a hell of a lot more than that. Marcus refuses to give Matt that leeway, and it’s incredibly refreshing.
I do wish that someone who wasn’t white got to write this because while Chip’s doing a great job, it’s hard to forget that this is still being told from the perspective of someone who was afforded the privileges he’s calling out. But either way, this book’s continuing to bring a lot of really important questions and ideas into the world of Daredevil, and the world of Marvel’s heroes.
Marvelous Musings
- The Daily Bugle headline of the day is “Avengers Vs. Aliens!”. That’s a tremendous bit.
- Matt once again being faced directly with the racism and class inequality of prisons also is incredible stuff. I am so happy Chip is continuing to really lean hard into facing Matt directly with a real and complex world that doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable topics.
- “Marcus. I’ve just been poisoned” is probably the hardest I’ve laughed at a final line ever. It’s so refreshing that Chip, while wrestling with complex stuff and heavy topics, still allows this book to be FUNNY. It’s a treat.
Vishal Gullapalli is highly opinionated and reads way too much.
