Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios have not wasted any time as the leaders of The Fist in making a statement. They did that by breaking into Myrmidon Prison to recruit the villains locked up to join what they are building with The Fist. Making this an even clearer statement is that Matt and Elektra made sure to leave evidence of what they did for the Avengers to easily find. It is hard to believe our Daredevil duo would do such a sloppy thing unless they have bigger plans up their sleeves. Let’s find that out with Daredevil #6.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Rafael De Latorre
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
SYNOPSIS
After one-on-one therapy sessions with various villains, Doctor Leonard Samson Agony attacks the doctor. Daredevil (Matt Murdock) calms the situation down by speaking about how he is trying to give these villains a chance at peace and to be reformed.
Bullet (Buck Cashman) does not buy this so Daredevil takes him inside for a one-on-one talk while cooking. Daredevil says that what he is building is to help break the unhealthy cycles and create new paths for people. Bullet is still not buying it as he knows Daredevil broke all the villains out of prison to make them fugitives so they all have no other choice but to join Daredevil’s side.
Once he is alone Matt freaks as his senses have gone into overdrive after his power upgrade.
Meanwhile, over in Paris, France during the G8 Summit Daredevil (Elektra Natchios) sneaks into the United States President’s office. Before Daredevil can do anything she is confronted by Iron Man. Working with The Fist ninja she brought with her Daredevil is able to quickly incapacitate Iron Man.
Seeing all this the US President freaks out while saying he is in hell and jumps out his hotel window. Daredevil tries but fails to save the US President. Mysterious the US President completely turns into dust.
All of this is captured by people on the streets with their phones. The videos they play all over the news with Daredevil now wanted for assassinating the US President.
Meanwhile, Punisher tells Aka to prepare The Hand to punish the murderers. End of issue.
REVIEW
Daredevil #6 is one of those comics that has so much good that you are disappointed by how the way the questionable plot decisions trip the entire story up. Because to be certain there are a lot of things that if you are enjoying Chip Zdarsky run you’ll enjoy. But then there are the things that are outside of Daredevil that get in the way of the impact of the story.
Before getting into what brought Daredevil #6 down there is a lot to be said about the fascinating way Zdarsky is exploring both Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios as co-leaders of The Fist. Both are taking very different approaches to things. With Matt, we see he is trying to turn The Fist into his own image by using the villains The Fist broke out of Myrmidon Prison as examples of redemption that can be found anywhere. Meanwhile, with Elektra, she is going down more of a traditional path of acting immediately in the most efficient manner possible by following the leads she has about the G8 Summit leaders’ ties to The Hand. It’s two different ways of doing things that do show how Matt and Elektra balance each other out as co-leaders even if they don’t share screen time together in Daredevil #6.
But as we see for both Matt and Elektra things aren’t going as planned for either one. On Matt’s side of things we once again see how he is getting pushback about the truth of what he trying to do as The Fist leader. This time around it’s the villain known as Bullet to call Matt out on him not being 100% honest with even himself. Bullet’s words ring more true than false when we see how Matt isn’t taking the pushback to his vision well. It speaks to how new he is to all this that even while he maintains control when talking to others, once he is alone his own inner thoughts are his worst enemy.
At the same time, Matt trying to find his way as a leader is showing results as he has picked people in Cole North and Leonard Samson that can help him with his vision for The Fist. Both Cole North and Leonard Samson are able to speak on more common grounds with the villains Matt broke out of Myrmidon Prison. Showcasing this more with the therapy sessions and training The Fist puts everyone through is something that is hopefully shown in every issue.
On the other side, there is Elektra who finds her own trouble while trying to uncover what The Hand are doing. The initial confrontation with Iron Man shows that Elektra, and by extension Matt, won’t let even their superhero allies like Iron Man get in the way of what they are trying to accomplish as The Fist. While Elektra does make sure not to kill Iron Man she has clearly trained her personal elite ninjas to be able efficiently to incapacitate their targets.
This leads to the trouble Elektra does find as she was unable to respond quickly enough to how The Hand has manipulated powerful world leaders. We see how Elektra is unable to save the US President, who was willing to kill himself rather than betray The Hand. This immediately makes the statement that Elektra and Matt are far behind everything The Hand have been doing for decades if not centuries. Now that Daredevil is wanted for murder there is no telling how even further behind this puts Elektra and Matt in being able to stop The Hand.
That all leads us to the pitfall that Zdarsky is unable to avoid and that involves what is directly going on with The Hand. As was feared, the actual developments about what The Hand has been up to is all going on over in the current Punisher series. That leaves out a huge chunk of information that when referenced by Punisher or Aka it completely falls flat.
Even if Zdarsky and the editors for Daredevil try to give context to what issue of The Punisher is being referenced it is just a reminder that the reader is likely required to spend more money to get the full story of The Fist vs The Hand. Forcing the reader to buy another comic book is just not the best storytelling and I fear will get worse the more Punisher is involved in this story.
On a more positive note, Rafael De Latorre’s artwork was once again phenomenal. Latorre’s art combined with Matthew Wilson’s works incredibly well to give every scene in Daredevil #6 its own tone. From the therapy session to Elektra’s mission at the G8 Summit, every scene had its own unique way of telling the story through the artwork. And you can see how much Zdarsky trusted Latorre and Wilson to tell the story with how Matt’s emotional statements are showcased compared to Elektra during her mission. It’s little things that really help the artwork elevate the story being told.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
Daredevil #6 continues to up the stakes as The Fist vs The Hand war escalates even more. Chip Zdarsky and Rafael De Latorre do a phenomenal job with the story being told around Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios. That said, now that Frank Castle has been introduced into the story as a physical presence Zdarsky and company need to do a better job with how they bring in plot beats from the ongoing Punisher series into their Daredevil work. While it is a concern, I do trust Zdarsky to deliver a compelling story.
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10