Weekly Devil #16: Save the Planet
Daredevil #251 by Ann Nocenti, John Romita Jr, and Al Williamson
The second half of the arc featuring the debut of government operative Bullet kicks off with an incredibly striking image, the outline of a hanged corpse. The conversation in the background makes it clear this is due to Kelco’s dumping, but it isn’t until we make the page flip that we learn these are simply dummies dressed like the company’s executives. Along with road spikes, they’ve been set up outside of Kelco to damage the business and call attention to their cause. A conversation happens where they discuss planting a bomb as well, but cooler heads prevail.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, Bullet is also on the scene. After the Save the Planet crowd leaves, he plants a barrel of toxic waste and pushes a corpse down into the vat. It’s a ploy to frame the environmentalists as murderers and it might have worked without Daredevil’s involvement.
Bullet returns home to his son and somewhat insanely has a touching moment with the paranoid Lance before he bothers to even wash the chemical sludge off of his hand.
The Kingpin meets with the general in charge of Bullet’s assignments. The general questions why Fisk was going to such trouble instead of simply cleaning up Kelco. He makes it clear that the plan is his, but it mostly serves to teach an old foe the futility of the legal system, clearly showing that Matt Murdock was back in his sights.
Disguised in a radiation suit, Matt investigates the scene of the crime, immediately detecting several things out of place with the murder. Foggy and Glori are also on the scene, though they don’t recognize Matt in the oversized protective gear. They’re taking pictures of the site and Glori is again questioning how Foggy can continue to represent Kelco.
Back at the legal clinic, Matt speaks with a lawyer named David about the Kelco issues. It seems like David is representing Matt in his case against the legal board and the injunction, but also perhaps working on some of the cases for the clinic’s visitors as well. Bucko and several cops arrive with last issue’s lawyer to see why the injunction hasn’t closed the place down, but several of the young women there break down and say that they’d be back doing drugs and die without the help of the clinic.
Daredevil tracks Bullet to the Last Exit Bar, apparently a real bar that I suspect either Romita or Nocenti actually frequented at the time. Inexplicably, Bullet is there playing pool with Lance in the corner. It also brings one of the most flagrant snubs of the comics code I’ve seen from Nocenti as one of the patrons says to DD, “You pitchin’ or catchin’, red man?” While it’s doubtful anyone at the Comics Code Authority knew that reference in 1987, it seems very clear that Nocenti did. Ann even spells it out, with a thought balloon from DD saying, “I don’t think he’s talking about baseball.”
Daredevil realizes the culprit is Bullet on the scene, but the agent uses his son to lie about his alibi. Daredevil knows it’s a lie, but doesn’t want to fight Bullet in front of his son. Instead, he takes the eightball from the table with a plan to have it run for fingerprints.
Bullet tracks down Daredevil outside the bar and attacks. He crushes the eightball with his bare hands. He proceeds to attack DD with his superior strength and speed, but DD dodges and jabs with little results. The police arrive and stop the fight. Daredevil tells them his plan just to have Bullet straight up admit that he committed the crime, all with a cocky grin on his face as he’s arrested.
Later, Matt and David make plans for taking on Kelco, only for Karen to arrive and reveal that Bullet was released after a single phone call without even his fingerprints taken. In the final panels, Matt crumples his papers and throws them into the air. The final coda of the story comes from him as he does so: “This is the law. This is the justice system. Just so many words. So much paper. So much litter.”
It’s quite a way to end a Marvel superhero comic. Nocenti shows a willingness to tread upon the path Miller and Mazzuchelli left for her while not being afraid to insert her own ideas and interests into the narrative.
Romita Jr and Williamson continue to make Bullet a foreboding presence, a Juggernaut-like being but on a power level on scale with DD. He also seems to have the perfect design for an insert villain across the Marvel Universe, but the bulk of his future appearances remain in books for Daredevil or related characters. It’s a shame as he’s a character with interesting layers already in his first two appearances, with a third coming next issue alongside a tie-in to the event Nocenti was then editing, “Fall of the Mutants.”
We will have more on that one… next week.
A male superhero getting hit on by a gay guy. Who would have thought?