NB of the Week

-THIS DUMB SPOILS IS ALSO MY FRIEND-

Daredevil #10

Written by Mark Waid

Drawn by Chris Samnee

The Purple Man is trouble even when he's not alive (though he didn't stay dead for long). Turns out he's had a number of kids through the years and worse over, when those kids get together, they have a power similar to his but even more scary: they control your emotions. With their daddy, at least you knew it wasn't your choice to take whatever actions he made you take (not that there's much solace in knowing that). With these kids, they bring out all you fear or hatred. You are feeling these things and your actions based off them are extreme and all yours. Matt Murdock included. Last issue, while trying to figure out what's going on with these kids, Matt as hit hard. "They radiate pain and grief and and rage and loneliness and despair... and there's no fighting it." He fell into a ball, everything crashing down on him. He can't move. He can't breath. It's all holding him down and that's when previously dead Purple Man walks up to him.

Purple Man begins to beat on Daredevil while demanding actions from him that Matt can't fully comply with. Until he forces upon him the one thing Matt knows how to conquer: fear. With one swift kick, he sends Purple running and tried his best to compose himself. He manages to get away but not for long as he must now stop Purple from killing his own children. This is where the comic started to lose me (but fear not, the ending brought it all back for a rousing win). Daredevil begins saving the kids and beats Purple and saves the day. The kids are all separated, which stops the powers and he goes off with his girlfriend and law partner Kristen. She walks and talks and tries to help Matt with his flood of emotions that are still on him but he plays it off with a smile, kisses her goodbye and heads into his home. He walks right over to the bed and curls up into a ball of depression. Which is where you think it ends. Turn the page and we're given one more scene. Matt rolls over and picks up his phone, calling Kristen. He tells her he would like to actually talk about things and tells her she doesn't have to come back over for it to which she replies "Of course I don't. I never left." As the door she's sitting next to begins to open, she leaves us with a smile. "Thanks for letting me in."

 The last two pages reminded me why Waid has been the perfect writer for Daredevil. Things have not been easy for good ol' Matt recently. Or really ever. Lost his life and law-practice in Hell's Kitchen, Foggy gets cancer that's eating away at him and on top of all of that, these kids just brought up everything else from the past. The death of his father, of Karen, of Elektra. All his failures flat on his head. And at the end of the day, after beating up the bad guy and saving the day once more, we're given two brilliant pages showing us that with Matt Murdock, the face under the mask needs the time to live and heal. Two pages to show how human Waid has made this book. Two pages to reconnect us to a side of superheroes that we don't see as often as we should in today's world. It was recently announced that Waid is ending his run on DD and Marvel will be hard-pressed to find another writer who will be able to make this book as beautiful as he has over the last three years.