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| DAREDEVIL No. 5, September 2014 |
Created in 1964
by Stan Lee and Bill Everett, the character of Franklin P. “Foggy” Nelson
appears to have always been overshadowed by some of the more colourful (and
villainous) supporting cast members found within the “Daredevil” comic book
series. This is despite the fact that he has been Matt Murdock’s friend (and
later partner) since they were roommates whilst studying at Columbia Law
School, and thus been there since the series' very beginning.
With Issue Five of “Daredevil” storytellers Mark Waid and Chris Samnee
have attempted to do something to redress this imbalance, focussing on the
Harvard graduate’s battle with Ewing’s sarcoma and purported death at the hands
of (a new) Leapfrog. Unfortunately the creative team do not really seem to know
what sort of story this twenty-one page tale is supposed to be or seemingly
what direction to take it in. Initially appearing a sentimental yarn, as a
sombre Matt Murdock addresses a crowd filled street at his friend’s large-scale
funeral, the atmosphere suddenly turns prickly as Nelson, fatigued following
his medical treatment, angrily protests at the suggestion that he needs to
fictitiously die in order to be safe now everyone knows he’s Daredevil’s best
buddy. But then without warning the plot becomes something of a light-hearted
action romp as one of the most ludicrous-looking villains to ever grace this
title’s pages literally leaps from beneath the surface of a boating lake and
threatens to gun down the two friends.
Bizarrely however, that isn’t what the
“giant green metal tank” operating assassin has in mind though. Rather than
simply shoot Foggy with his mini-gun or crush him to death with one of his
pincer arms, the criminal stows the sick lawyer within his metal shell and then
sets the robotic-looking suit’s self-destruct so that “people will remember
Daredevil in this moment forever!”
Fortuitously this overly complicated and
destructive plan provides old Hornhead with the perfect situation for him to
engineer Nelson’s fake death with the help of a microscopically-sized Hank Pym;
who co-incidentally just happens to be travelling inside Foggy as Ant-Man, in
an effort to eradicate any circulating tumour cells. Preposterous is an
understatement as the situation smacks of being an unconvincing concoction of
events solely engineered by the former “Captain America” writer to allow him to
supposedly ‘kill off’ the former District Attorney in as explosive a manner as
possible.
Doubtless as disappointed with the substandard storyline as the
title’s slowly diminishing audience, artist Chris Samnee fails to provide the
comic with anything more than workmanlike pencilling. In particular the design
and look of Leapfrog’s giant large-limbed walker suit is dishearteningly awful,
as is the mint-coloured technologically enhanced leotard which the villain
himself is shown to be wearing once he has evacuated his murderous machine.
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| Storytellers: Mark Waid & Chris Samnee, and Colorist: Javier Rodriguez |
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