In the late 1970s, writer Roger MacKenzie took over the book. Using his background in horror comics, he started to take the book in a darker direction. Halfway through the run, McKenzie would be paired with a young artist named Frank Miller. Miller had a dislike for McKenzie's scripts, so he would be fired off the book, leaving Miller to write it as well as art.
With Miller in the driver's seat, the 1980s would see Daredevil be transformed into a dark anti-heroic character. The run would have aspects of film noir, and ninjas (It was the 80s, everything was better with ninjas in the 80s). Sales of the book would rise rapidly, and Miller's run would be regarded as one of the greatest runs for the character, if not some of the best comics Marvel was putting out in that decade. It would be an iconic run that would influence Daredevil's portrayal for decades. Miller was responsible for much of the Devil of Hell's Kitchen's modern mythos, introducing the Hand, Elektra, establishing Murdock's Irish-American heritage and Catholicism, and revamping Daredevil's radar sense to make it more realistic.
One of those stories in that era was called Born Again. Basically in this story, Wilson Fisk, aka former Spider-Man villain the Kingpin, arranges to have Matt Murdock's life be destroyed and for him to descend into madness after he learns of his secret identity as Daredevil. Despite this, Murdock survives. He finds a new job as a diner chef in Hell's Kitchen. Desperate to kill the former lawyer, Fisk sends a super-soldier named Nuke to Hell's Kitchen to draw him out, assaulting Hell's Kitchen itself. Murdock suits up as Daredevil once again to take the fight to the super-soldier, and that's the point we'll take a look at. With that out of the way, let's take a look at the final Daredevil issue by Frank Miller: Daredevil #233!
The cover is an interesting one. The placement of Cap and Nuke makes some sense, as they both are super-soldiers. However, I do think that Cap should have been placed on Daredevil's side as he was hardly on Nuke's side in the actual story. Still, it's a good cover.
"Armageddon"
Writer: Frank Miller
Artist: David Mazzucchelli
Inker: David Mazzucchelli
Colorist: Max Scheele
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
The story beings with...well, what else should a story called "Armageddon" begin with? An explosion.
I see the issue is dedicated to Jack Kirby. I wonder why, Daredevil wasn't a Kirby creation. Anyway, The Man without Fear himself is trying to find cover from Nuke. The super-soldier is hanging on a helicopter/gunship, firing at him with his custom-made weapon. The pilot tells Nuke that they're pulling out, as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen has vanished. Nuke refuses and leaps down, saying he'll find him, ranting the entire time about "our boys". Daredevil's super hearing picks up Nuke's heartbeat, noting it's too fast, wondering if he's on amphetamines.
Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, watches this joyfully. Wesley, his assistant, tells the crime boss that Nuke's rampage is all over the news, and pleads with him to stop it. Kingpin does not, as he is enjoying the show far too much. Daredevil tries to engage Nuke, but it's no good. The super-soldier is able to easily shrug off a kick to the jaw, and Daredevil gets a gun butt to the face in response. The gunship fires at him as well.
The Devil of Hell's Kitchen tries to use his marital arts skills to paralyze Nuke, but it's no good. There's something rather wrong with Nuke's body, like there's something artificial about it. He can't seem to hurt Nuke...but Nuke can hurt him. In desperation, Daredevil tries to break Nuke's arm, but he can't. He decides to stop "being clever" and kick him off the building. Ben Urich spots this and gets a photographer, an Irish woman named Glorianna O'Breen to capture the fight on film. On the way down, Nuke lands on some power lines, getting electrocuted. He then lands on a police car.
That kind of fall would have killed a normal man. But Nuke is anything but a normal man. It barely phases him. He continues firing his custom gun at Daredevil. However, the devil is able to take a leap and smashes Nuke further into the police car. Ben Urich notices the car is on fire, and tries to get Glorianna to safety. If that car fire hits the gas tank...
BOOM.
The car blows up, but Daredevil is able to leap to safety, getting Nuke's gun. Ben's coat catches fire. Nuke emerges from the fiery wreck, his body ablaze, but refuses to go down. Glorianna tries to help Ben while Daredevil breaks the gun's butt trying to give Nuke a broken face. The gunship fires, causing Glorianna to get shot. Enraged and saying "No more", Daredevil fires the gun at the helicopter, blowing it up.
Then out of nowhere, they appear. A man dressed like the American flag calls for a medic for Glorianna. He then yells for the fires to be put out, as they could hit a gas main. The scene falls to silence as a Norse God of Thunder, depicted almost covered in shadows, calls for the rain. The only ones speaking are Daredevil and Nuke. Daredevil has his hand on Nuke's throat, demanding he confess he was sent by the Kingpin. Nuke is begging for a "white", a pill that calms him down. However, a man in an iron suit demands that Daredevil hand him over, as he's got federal authority. Matt backs away, and Captain America looks away from Nuke in sadness and shame.
I do like the way the Avengers are shown here. Born Again was a street-level story, and it makes sense to portray the Avengers as these almost god-like figures that tower over Daredevil. Thor, being an actual god, being shown as almost completely covered in shadows is a nice touch. It's also a nice touch that the "Big Three" of the Avengers: Cap, Iron Man, and Thor are the ones used. Their appearance here also makes sense. With Nuke on the rampage, this has become more than just a street-level story. Nuke is a big problem, an enhanced super-soldier on the rampage that Daredevil can't beat on his own. His regular tricks don't work. He can't injure him with his martial arts skills, and I doubt his billy club would have been helpful to him, either.
Anyway back to the story. In another building, the Kingpin is having a conference with some other gangsters in the sauna. One of them, a Mr. Glazer, is furious about the rampage. It caused a lot of damage, which really hurts the organization's drug trade. He then goes on to rant that the Kingpin is screwing up and letting his obsession with Murdock overcome him. He thinks that Fisk's losing his wife Vanessa may have unhinged him a bit...then Glazer realizes with horror that he just pressed one of Fisk's Berserk Buttons. Fisk explains this to Glazer by grabbing his throat and choking him to death with one hand.
Dawn then breaks. Foggy Nelson races to a church, not realizing Matt Murdock is right behind him. The nuns in the church are caring for some of the victims of Nuke's rampage, including Glorianna. Sister Maggie, a nun at the church who helped nurse Matt Murdock back to health earlier (And is also Daredevil's mother, long story), tells Matt that he needs to go get some rest. Matt finds Karen in the church, and the two share a kiss. In the background, Foggy and Glorianna are conversing about the pictures she took for Ben Urich. Matt senses something outside, and heads up to the roof.
Yup. Captain America has been tracking him. Matt wants to know what the Sentinel of Liberty wants. Cap just wants to know who Nuke is, but Matt retorts he should ask the military, his employers. Cap explains that he doesn't work for them, and that all he was told was that Nuke was a terrorist. Matt doubts that, as he was too well-made. There are plastics in Nuke's skin, his body doesn't burn easily, and he's only partially human. Whatever Nuke is, he is not human. Matt does wonder what the big deal about him is to Cap. Cap's answer? "He wears the flag", referring to Nuke's American Flag facial tattoo. Matt leaps away, remarking he hadn't noticed. Get it? Matt is blind.
Ben Urich looks at the Daily Bugle copy, happy with the headline and Glori's photo of Nuke on the front page. And the scene shifts again to...this building.
Yeah, a big black building with a big eagle-and-shield logo on it. You'd think the military would want to house themselves in a building less obvious. Inside, the Kingpin is talking to a general that is on his payroll. The general assures Fisk that the Nuke problem will be handled. Captain America bursts into the office, holding up a copy of the Daily Bugle. He demands to know who Nuke is. The general tries to use flattery on Cap, saying that Cap isn't cleared to know about Nuke, and going on about how Cap is held in the highest regard because of his commitment and loyalty, yada yada yada. Cap, being Cap, has no patience for the general's butt-kissing, and reminds him of one thing:
This moment here has become a bit of an iconic one for the Star-Spangled Avenger. It really does help encapsulate the character. Back with Daredevil, he has another problem. The diner he worked at was one of the buildings wrecked during Nuke's rampage, and the insurance company refuses to pay on the policy. Insurance shenanigans are still a thing in a superhero universe, sadly. I would not be surprised if shadier companies did stuff like this more often. Matt suggests suing them, but the owners are reluctant as they think it won't help anything. Thanks to this, Matt and Karen are unemployed. Karen notes that Matt has something in mind.
Meanwhile, back at the big black military building, Cap is in an elevator with a guard. He tell the guard to take him to the vault. The guard tells him that Cap doesn't have the clearance, but gets KO'd. Up above, Nuke is being given a blue pill. You see, Nuke is given different pills for different things. When he's given a red pill, he's amped to fight. A white pill calms him down, and blue pills keep him calm. The pills would be retconned as placebos.
Anyway, Nuke is constantly demanding a red pill. The general tells him that he's got to stick to whites and blues for now. The general tries to pacify Nuke by telling him that he's being relocated for his own protection, not because he did anything wrong. Nuke begs to stay, as he is an American, and America is his home. The general tells him that Nuke can serve his country better overseas, where the enemy is. Nuke insists the enemy is in America.
Down in the vault, Captain America is hacking a computer to find out more about Nuke. He tries not to get resentful at the computer, as that's something old men do. He pulls up some files on Project: Rebirth, the government experiment that made skinny sickly Steven Rogers into the All-American Super-Soldier he is today. He discovers there were attempts to revive the program after him, and one of them turned a man named Frank Simpson into Nuke. Meanwhile, Nuke is getting...rather antsy.
He's ranting about how the press is making people feel ashamed of "our boys", and attacks a guard. A doctor tries to tranquilize him, but it doesn't go well. He shoots the doctor and the guards and breaks his cuffs. The general tries to calm the super-soldier down, but Nuke tells him he won't let the general down. He opens up the doctor's medical bag, and finds a container of pills. He downs a bunch of red pills. In the vault, Cap is still processing what he just learned, when he hears alarm klaxons. Daredevil suits up. He said he had a plan...
We also see the Kingpin accepting an award from a Businessmen's Association, the narration revealing that he obtained it through...rather insidious means. Despite this, Kingpin still feels haunted by Murdock. His assistant Wesley alerts him about Nuke. Speaking of Nuke, he's fighting his way out of the big black government building, but he runs into the unstoppable force: The Mighty Shield of Captain America.
Nuke proves to not be a very good immovable object, as Cap sends him through the building's wall. The two super-soldiers then full through a nearby building's roof. Meanwhile, Daredevil had beaten up some of Fisk's goons. They were running a gambling scam, that funneled money into the "technically legitimate" side of the Kingpin's financial empire. Daredevil also takes the money, planning to use it to rebuild the diner. Yeah, Daredevil showing more of his anti-hero side here, folks. And based on the last panel of the story, he may have given the money to the diner owners. You'll see what I mean. He then hears a phone ring. Daredevil listens in and learns that Nuke has escaped.
As he goes to check it out, Cap wakes up and starts thinking about life before WWII. He finds Nuke, clearly injured by the fall. The dazed super-solder mumbles he'll hold the line, but Cap picks him up. Daredevil hears some helicopters...and the radio chatter between them. Cap tries to take Nuke out of the building, but one of the helicopters fires at them when they get out in the rainy night. Daredevil tries to save them, but Nuke gets shot. As Cap stops the soldiers, Daredevil steals a cab and tries to drive Nuke to a hospital. However, Daredevil is blind, and the windshield and rain are making his radar sense useless. He picks up Nuke's heartbeat...and it's not good. He tells Nuke that he's going home, and the super-soldier dies in the back of the cab.
Daredevil realizes there is still one purpose the now-deceased super-soldier can serve. In a helicopter, Cap spots Daredevil's cab...and something else on a roof. The Kingpin is alerted to Daredevil's making off with nuke. Kingpin realizes Daredevil is heading for the Daily Bugle. He thinks Nuke must have overcome the Man Without Fear, and calls for his gunmen on the Bugle's roof. However, Cap dealt with them. And Daredevil delivers a present to Ben Urich.
"Oh hey Ben, how ya doing, buddy? Got a dead body here for ya." Thanks to this, the next few weeks do not go well for Wilson Fisk. One of the hitmen on the Daily Bugle's roof names Fisk as the responsible party for Nuke's rampage. He is under legal assault on various sides, from disgruntled ex-employees to even the Senate. His lieutenants obey his orders much more slowly, realizing Fisk has lost much of his fearsome unstoppable aura thanks to Daredevil. He's also become seen as a villain by the people thanks to this. As he works out, he plots revenge on the blind lawyer who brought this on him.
As for Daredevil himself? Well, he may have to deal with Fisk again in the future. But for now, he has found himself a moment of genuine peace and happiness. The story ends with Matt and Karen happily walking down a street in Hell's Kitchen, his inner monologue basically stating who he is. He is Daredevil, and he protects Hell's Kitchen.
Hey look, Mazzucchelli signed it. That's pretty cool. And as I said, I think we can assume that Matt gave the money he stole from Fisk to the diner owners to rebuild, so he and Karen can have some regular work.
This issue is awesome. It is an amazing climax to one of the best Daredevil stories ever written. It's action-packed, and like a film noir, there is a tragic element to it. Nuke is a bit of a tragic character, as it is clear that despite his rampage, he is also not quite all there in the head. It's what helps make his death powerful. Some may not like the idea of Cap playing such a big role in this issue, but it does make sense for his character here. Cap would not stand for such corruption in the military himself (Remember, he himself is a military man), and considering the context of the story, his role is rather minor. The ending is very nice. This was Frank Miller's last Daredevil issue as writer, so it has the feeling that he's cleaning up some final stuff, and preparing a new status quo for the next writer. Reading Born Again does make me feel a little sad in retrospect, considering how far Miller has fallen in quality as a writer nowadays.
Mazzucchelli's artwork is very well done. He was a good choice for this story, as his art has a grittier style that fits it very well. If you want to read it yourself, Born Again was collected in trade paperback form.
Next time, join me as we return to the DC Universe, as the Crisis on Infinite Earths rages on...
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