Written by Mark Waid
Art by Chris Samnee
Published by Marvel Comics
If I ever die, and I’m not planning to, I want to die in a comic book, because it rarely ever seems to stick. Though, it has to be said that every once in a while surviving a comic book death might actually be a fate worse than.
Case in point is the master assassin, Bullseye. Daredevil killed Bullseye during the Shadowland storyline and now he’s back for revenge, but he’s back for revenge in a ginormous iron lung unable to move or speak on his own or do anything that isn’t seeing or plotting. It’s not the most dignified resurrection that we’ve ever seen. As it turns out, all of the trials and challenges that Matt Murdock has faced during the run of this new series has been orchestrated by Iron Lung Bullseye. He even went so far as to try to recreate the accident that gave Daredevil his abilities. But this only seems to have one success, a ninja assassin named “Ikari” who has all of Daredevil’s abilities without paying the cost of losing his sight.
Issue 27 of Daredevil opens with the employees of Murdock & Nelson arriving back to work after being told to return or be fired. They find the offices empty and still in a state of chaos after having being trashed. Plus, there’s a shadowy figure watching them from the shadows, but they don’t see him because of the shadowy shadowness.
The scene changes and we find ourselves with Iron Lung Bullseye, Daredevil, and Ikari. After some posturing and a tale of not-quite-effective medical care, we find out what Bullseye’s ultimate plan is. He wants to see Daredevil fight Ikari so that he can see Daredevil die with his own eyes, the only parts of Iron Lung Bullseye that still actually work. Daredevil, of course knowing that such a course of action would likely end up in having his ass handed to him isn’t keen to oblige. But Bullseye states that if Matt doesn’t fight, his friends will die.
Matt, having spent the past while being scared out of his gourd, has had some time to think as well and worked out that Bullseye would try something like this. So Matt got some of his superhero friends to hide in the shadowy shadows and keep an eye on the normal people in his life, keeping them out of the reach of an iron lung. After a battle with Ikari and Lady Bullseye, for good measure, Daredevil reigns supreme once more. The issue ends with the one aspect of this story line that is likely to run for a while yet, Foggy’s cancer. Cancer is something that isn’t caused by a super villain and can’t be fought by a super hero. So Matt does the only thing that he really can do for Foggy, he supports him the way a friend should.
Matt tells Foggy about the fight and about how it ended. He tells Foggy about what happened to Bullseye and how he’s even worse off now than he was. Bullseye might not be making trouble for a while but I have no doubt that Ikari will be back to stir up it up sooner rather than later. The character is too interesting and has too much potential to be allowed to lay fallow for too long.
And so ends two years worth of a story line, everything that we’ve seen has built up to this. All of the fights and all of the villains and all of the stories were building up to this one issue. In my opinion it was worth the wait. The ending felt good and it felt right. It felt like catharsis and it felt like a new beginning. Foggy has a long way to go, and if we’re really lucky, Mark Waid will be the man to handle his care.
5 out of 5 nerds
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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