Daredevil (Vol.3) #8

Background

In Amazing Spider-Man #677, Black Cat was arrested by the police for stealing a hologram machine from Horizon Labs. Spider-Man of course knows she didn’t do it and went to Daredevil for help. Felicia escaped from a prison transfer and ended up back in New York. Spidey and Daredevil went to interrogate Wasserschmidt, the inventor of the hologram device but found him held hostage outside his apartment. Spider-Man was fooled by what he saw but Daredevil knew there was nothing there. Even so, Spidey’s spider senses were tingling and they headed into an underground electrical work area. The structure trembled and collapsed on top of them. Spider-Man tried to grab a hold of something but grabbed an electrical cable just as he saw Black Cat looking down at them.

Story 'Devil and the Details'

Foggy Nelson was at Suncourt Cemetery on the behalf of his clients, who claimed negligence regarding the caretaking of their deceased loved ones. The groundskeeper said the soil had been shifting due to heavy rain but Foggy insisted that other cemeteries had complaints about unsafe conditions. A backhoe began digging and Foggy said the groundskeeper should be happy to be dealing with him and not Matthew, as his father was buried in the cemetery.

Meanwhile Daredevil freed himself from the rubble and pinned Black Cat to the ground. She seductively said she could fill his life with bad luck and he invited her to do it. She said she wasn’t trying to kill Spider-Man despite what it looked like, just hurting him. Spidey said the mission was accomplished and she said it was payback for him turning her over to the police just because she refused to sleep with him. He didn’t know what she was talking about and she accused him of putting a spider tracer on her that lead the police to her door. He denied that that happened and it was a frame up.

The three showed up at the apartment of Dr. Wasserschmidt and Daredevil was annoyed by their constant bantering. He covered their mouths and heard breathing from behind a wall. Spider-Man tore away the fake wall and found Wasserschmidt hiding in a tiny safe room. He was in a panic, telling them that he confessed and he shouldn’t have stolen the device. Cat barged in and wanted to know who he stole his own machine for. Spider-Man already had it figured out and said that he had stolen the machine and sold it to a third party. When the heroes arrived at his apartment, he hid and pretended to be kidnapped. Wasserschmidt confessed that he sold the device to a telecom upstart. As Spidey continued the interrogation, Daredevil smelled a chemical coming from the scientist’s sweat and realized he’d been poisoned. He said Wasserschmidt had ten minutes to live and Spidey took him to a hospital. Daredevil told Cat that he needed her to steal something.

He didn’t tell her but he had recently taken possession of a device called the Omegadrive. It was a hyper secure storage device filled with data regarding the world’s biggest crime organizations and their legal fronts. He feared that such information could topple governments and destroy global finance.

They arrived at a helipad and well dressed goons opened fire on them. Daredevil took them out by throwing his billy club into a helicopter’s spinning blades, which whipped the guards. They went into the building and worked to undermine the security system. They split up and Daredevil heard the same humming sound that came right before he and Spidey had been fooled in the alleyway. He entered a doorway and a guy turned on the hologram machine, filling the room with various bad guys. He smiled and soon had the crooks defeated and the device in hand.

Black Cat could tell that he wasn’t satisfied with the ending and he silently agreed. She kissed him but he kept thinking about two dangling questions: who set up Felicia and why. What he didn’t know was that she had been forced to steal something from Daredevil. The plan had been to make a deal with Felicia as a prison convict and the Black Spectre organization. In return, she’d get unlimited freedom. Even she was incredulous that the mastermind thought she had to be coerced to steal something. Gesturing to a suitcase of cash, he said he admired her enough to move to a more attractive offer. Matt Murdock had in his possession a device that the mastermind could not allow to fall into enemy hands.

At Matt’s apartment, he and Felicia were interrupted by a call from Foggy, who said his father’s grave was missing.

General Comments

I’ve always heard good things about Mark Waid, he has a good reputation as a writer. I don’t really keep up with who writes what, except for a few exceptions. I’ve probably read more of his stuff than I realize but this…wasn’t good. It feels lazy or rushed. I like a good political thriller, like I said in my review of Amazing Spider-Man #268.

The problem with thrillers is that they can be confusing, overly complex or just dumb. In Amazing 268, we have a strange but clear scenario of a skyscraper turned into gold and the government trying to keep it secret before it ruins the global economy. Meanwhile, Kingpin devised a way to trick the government into thinking the gold had been destroyed when he had stolen it. It’s silly but makes sense.

Here we have a plot to force a thief to be a thief. Even Black Cat doesn’t understand why he is forcing her to commit the robbery. And who puts all of that incriminating evidence all on one flash drive? Why didn’t the Black Spectre kill Dr. Wasserschmidt right away instead of poisoning him so he can blab to the heroes? (We never did find out what happened to him.) Black Spectre must be the dumbest criminal organization ever. Granted I’m sure that more of the story was revealed in Daredevil’s book but as the Spider-Man involvement was finished, so was I.

Felicia was not especially sympathetic in this book. Peter gave her benefit of the doubt that she had been framed but she actually electrocuted him because she thought he turned her over to the police. This is why I’m team MJ and not team Black Cat. He is way too forgiving of her. MJ looks just as good and isn’t a sociopath, Pete.

Also, in Amazing, Spider-Man starts by webbing up a guy in an alley. For what? He didn’t do anything illegal. He wasn’t mugging anyone or breaking in to some place. He was just suddenly webbed up.

The art was much better than the first half in Amazing Spider-Man 677. Good God that was ugly.

Overall Rating

Weak.