Weekly Devil #2: Context!
Daredevil #237 by John Harkness, Louis Williams, Al Williamson, and Danny Bulanadi
The final fill-in issue before Nocenti’s takeover of the character feels like it was supposed to be the first issue in a new run. It introduces a plot threat that won’t be resolved before issue’s end, instead going through a sudden shift into a superhero battle. Perhaps this is why Steve Englehart took his name off the issue and instead used the pseudonym John Harkness, a name he regularly used only when he didn’t approve of the final product.
The issue opens with a first-person narrative from Daredevil about how he sees the world. He makes short work of two street criminals before Black Widow appears. Strangely, she’s back so soon after the Hazzard incident, but she’s apparently become the face of a new government initiative to make superheroes staunch anti-drug advocates like so many sports stars of the eighties. Daredevil turns her down, thinking it’s an invasion of the privacy of superheroes.
Black Widow doesn’t believe him, but she also doesn’t think that he’s happy with his life post-Born Again, now working at a diner. She truly sticks her foot in her mouth when she claims that DD doesn’t want anything to do with the campaign because of his girlfriend Karen Page’s history with crack. He tells her goodbye and leaves. Natasha reports to the Senator’s wife that she’s working with and they have a conversation that seems to set up something else for the second half of the issue, but nothing comes of it at all.
Instead, Matt Murdock and Karen Page have dinner at a diner and head home. Murdock detects a troubling presence and sends Karen home. He switches into his Daredevil costume and confronts Klaw, Master of Sound.
Apparently post-Secret Wars, Klaw is trying to regain his credibility. He thinks Daredevil will be a hero that he can easily kill and make a name for himself again.
Daredevil avoids all of Klaw’s worst attacks as he leads the villain across the rooftops of Hell’s Kitchen. He’s moving with a purpose, however, as he leads Klaw to a building with a private sound system. He picks up a tone generator, but Klaw doesn’t feel threatened as the hero would have to know the same soundwave that Klaw existed in. Unfortunately for Klaw, this proves easy with DD’s enhanced senses and a blast from the generator discorporates the villain temporarily.
Matt Murdock celebrates his victory with Karen back at home, happy and content with his new place as defender of Hell’s Kitchen and significant other to her.
Everything about the story seems to indicate that Englehart planned to write more issues after it. His penciller Louis Williams was meant to be the regular artist on the book for certain, as after next issue, he will be back working with Nocenti for another five issues or so, just before disappearing from comics for over a year and a half. He’s clearly young and raw at this point. I suspect the talents of the legendary Al Williamson and the immensely gifted Danny Bulanadi did a lot to make his art shine.
After this strange aside, Nocenti is back with the next issue, a book that ties into some of the titles she’s editing, as the Mutant Massacre comes to Hell’s Kitchen!
"John Harkness" seems to be for comics writers what "Alan Smithee" is for film directors. Did other writers besides Englehart use it?