I’m Gonna Blow Up The Ark, Rene: Daredevil #36 Review

Editor’s Note: No one on the white hat side has ever hidden his or her spoilers with less than noble intent.

About 20 years ago, I worked in a job that put me in close proximity with many lawyers. And not the kind of lawyers who champion the powerless and regularly make the short lists for major federal benches, but the kind that advertise during the times of day and kinds of shows likely to be shown in hospital waiting rooms. The kind would chase an ambulance, fake a slip-and-fall, and then sue the ambulance. Real lowlives with cut-rate law school diplomas and Rolodexes full of the kinds of doctors who will certify, from their second floor walk-up offices, that their patients have no legs.

One time I saw one of these guy’s clients get busted for insurance fraud after claiming he had permanent debilitating neck pain, and then being caught fronting a thrash headbanger band for a two-hour bar set. I remember another lawyer for whom our standard operating procedure was to immediately counter-sue for frivolous litigation the instant he sent us a letter, not just because he represented the lowest form of Lawrence Brake-Stander, but because he’d lost frivolous litigation lawsuits repeatedly over the years.

Those weasels never got disbarred. In my (admittedly limited) experience, the only way a lawyer gets disbarred is if he wears a mask, but rather than going out to defend the innocent, he uses it to expose himself to the elderly. And even then, they might get a pass for psychological reasons. You know, if they just can find some doctor who will swear before God that, despite all evidence to the contrary, they have a medical condition.

So, while reading Daredevil #36, I had a little difficulty completely believing that Matt Murdock would be disbarred, even considering the extreme circumstances under which he became embroiled in ethics charges. But that’s my problem and not writer Mark Waid’s, who put together a hell of an issue to close out the third volume of Daredevil. This comic doesn’t just shake up the status quo, it puts two into the back of its head… while still remaining somewhat believable and, if you think about it, not being so outlandish that it will completely blow up the character as he has stood for the past half decade or so.

Except yeah: the real New York Bar would just put a strongly-worded letter in his file if he showed up for his hearing sober, speaking English and without the blood of innocents dripping from his Cthuhlu fangs.

Editor’s Note: Real spoilers from here on out, okay?

Matt Murdock, in the middle of trying a case against an accused arsonist in connection to the Sons of the Serpent, is in in a courtroom dock, where he has just admitted under oath that he is Daredevil. This admission diffuses the Serpents’ attempt to blackmail him, but it also means that he has to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions about himself and his motivations, and puts the Serpents – including the judge – into a position where they need to silence Murdock, and fast. While Matt explains why he has kept his secret, including suing a newspaper that printed his identity for millions of dollars, the Serpents put together a strike team to attack Murdock in the courtroom. And a Serpent strike team might be a lot of things, but The Hand they ain’t, which they learn when Matt puts on the suit and kicks their ass handily, while extracting a promise from the D. A. to put the judge into custody to boot. But when it’s all said and done, Matt Murdock has admitted to the world that he has acted as a violent vigilante while simultaneously working as an officer of the court. And that has consequences.

So let me start with the real positive, which is that it takes some balls to finally and completely reveal Matt Murdock’s secret identity to the world. It is a conceit that has been teased and hinted and fucked around with through Frank Miller’s Born Again, through D. G. Chichester’s Godawful Fall From Grace arc with the rotten Daredevil armor and the introduction of Agent Garrett from Miller’s Elektra: Assassin into Marvel continuity (I think that’s what finally drove ol’ Frank apeshit nuts) and as a near-constant ever since Brian Michael Bendis’s run on the book in the early and mid 2000s, so I’m actually relieved that Waid finally pulled the trigger on it.

Here’s why: when you have a superhero who people might know who they are, it allows the creative team to dither around with stories that directly relate to the fact that psychotics with guns, secret lairs and master plans can Google his or her address. But making Daredevil’s identity explicit, it means that Waid will be forced show Matt dealing with the aftermath (at least for a while; this is Marvel Comics after all, which means that a reboot is never more than a call to Mephisto away). And while in this issue, Waid namechecks Iron Man and Captain America as heroes with public identities, those are guys with million-dollar security and S.H.I.E.L.D. protection, respectively. It’ll be interesting to see how a hero with limited means deals with a public identity, which is something we haven’t seen in Marvel since Spider-Man right after Civil War… and it proved to be enough of a pain in the ass that editorial used it as the excuse to finally revert Spidey back to 1973.

Further, having Matt confess his identity under oath feels right, and it felt to me like a concrete example of Waid’s character rehabilitation of Matt Murdock that he has undertaken over the past 36 issues. Ever since Daredevil’s turn toward the noir under Miller’s care, it was believable that Matt would do anything under his power to protect his identity. But Waid has gone a long way toward lightening the character and returning him to his roots. And that Matt Murdock, who is an officer of the court and committed to justice above anything else? Of course he would tell the truth in a courtroom under oath. So the move felt true based on what Waid has done with Murdock…

…but then again, just because Waid has lightened the character doesn’t mean that he’s not the same guy he was under Miller’s pen. And under Miller, the first time a villain definitively knew that Murdock was Daredevil, Matt lost his house, his job, his friends and very nearly his sanity. So I kinda would have liked to have seen some acknowledgement of how dangerous Murdock had to have known this move was, from personal fucking experience, beyond being worried what Saint Peter would think about his previous defense of his identity.

And then there is Matt’s disbarment. Now, on one level, this makes complete and total plot sense, and pretty much had to happen in order for the character to move across the country. But there are problems here. The first being that, if you’re gonna haul Matt Murdock into a public courtroom to disbar him, why not kill some time and try him for the at least attempted murder of Bullseye? Or on RICO charges for his role in Shadowland? Or on about a million counts of assault with a deadly weapon (hell, the billy club itself is illegal to possess under Section 265.01 of the New York Criminal Code)? Further, since this is a public courtroom, there isn’t a force on Earth that would have stopped Captain America, Nick Fury, Spider-Man, and every other hero in New York from showing up in support. And not only the superheroes would have been there; every reporter in the city would have shown up to watch a bunch of New York Supreme Court judges disbar a fucking Avenger. Which would mean each one of those guys could kiss any hopes of a seat on a Federal bench goodbye.

It might sound like I’m nitpicking here, and I guess I am, since I really liked this issue (except for that, “Move to strike!” line. That made most post-Commando Schwarzenegger kill quips look like William Shakespeare). And I really am looking forward to seeing what Waid and Samnee (who continues to be a great artist for this character, with his simple lines and great camera movements – the shadowy opening scene between Matt and Foggy was about the most moody and touching sequence I’ve seen in a comic in a while) do with Matt in a new city with a public face to have to deal with.

But be aware that a lot of it only holds up if you try not to think about it too much. And realistically, you shouldn’t. This is, after all, a superhero comic. And Mark Waid has done an excellent job over the past couple of years attacking the book under those terms. Look at it this way: it’s like that scene in Raiders of The Lost Ark where Indy threatens to blow up the ark with a rocket launcher. Indy knew full well he could never look at what was in the Ark, so in a realist world, he’d have blown it to hell the second Belloq dithered about releasing Marion. But that wouldn’t be any fun.

A realistic Daredevil loses his shit when someone finds out who he is, and winds up in prison for the rest of his life. But that isn’t any fun. I’m having fun with Daredevil under Mark Waid. So let’s see how Matt does in San Francisco, where the buildings aren’t as tall, and running off the wrong rooftop is like climbing Everest.

That said: if I don’t see Daredevil in a car chase in a Mustang by the fifth issue of the new volume, I’m out.