Daredevil #275 (December 1989)

The Man without Fear has swung by this blog before, mainly with my review of Daredevil #233 (August 1986). It would be the last issue of the influential Daredevil run by Frank Miller. After Miller departed the book, three fill-in issues were made. Steve Englehart (using the pseudonym John Harkness) was supposed to take over next, but lost the post after one issue thanks to a plot conflict with one of the fill-ins. Enter Ann Nocenti.

Nocenti was originally brought in to write a fill-in, but she stayed on the book for four-and-a-quarter years. This made her the series' longest regular writer. Nocenti had already cut her teeth writing for Marvel, having written stories for the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman, Doctor Strange, and Star Wars. She also wrote the 1986 miniseries Beauty and the Beast (December 1984-June 1985), a miniseries that focused on the X-Men characters Dazzler and Beast. She also wrote the Longshot miniseries (September 1985-February 1986), which was the introduction of the titular character. Nocenti's run dealt with themes like feminism (which was a regular theme of her work), drug abuse, and nuclear proliferation. She also introduced Typhoid Mary to the Daredevil mythos. This would cause her to come into conflict with editors on occasion.

Before we begin, we also have to talk a bit about a crossover Marvel was doing at the time called "Acts of Vengeance". Going between December 1989 and February 1990 (and bringing in many of Marvel's books at the time), the crossover was basically an excuse to have Marvel's heroes face off against villains they normally didn't fight. For example, Moon Knight fighting Hydro-Man or the Fantastic Four fighting the Leader. Made for some interesting match-ups. Daredevil would be among the heroes brought into the Acts, as he finds himself battling one of Marvel's most dangerous villains: Ultron. So, how did that go down? Let's find out as we take a look at Daredevil #275!

The cover is pretty awesome. You go Ultron holding Daredevil by the neck while he is standing over the beaten bodies of Karnak and Gorgon. Behind them is a what looks like a bunch of Ultron heads on pikes. It's pretty macabre, and shows the insanity of Ultron rather well.

"False Man"
Writer: Ann Nocenti
Penciler: John Romita, Jr.
Inker: Al Williamson
Colorist: Max Scheele
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Editors: Ralph Macchio, Mike Rockwitz
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The story begins with Doom holding up Ultron's head, like he thinks it will impress Reed Richards or something.

"Alas, poor Ultron. Doom knew him...not very well."

Doom rants about the Kingpin's ego always letting him get in the way of defeating Daredevil. As such, Doom will show him who is the better man, by using a robot to kill the Man without Fear. And he won't just use any robot. He'll use the robot that has given teams of Avengers trouble. No kill like overkill, I guess. Doom hasn't just got the body of Ultron, he's also got the mental systems of the previous twelve incarnations of the robot up to this point.

Doom has mixed them together to create the perfect new Ultron...Ultron 13. He places the head of the robot on the body, and activates it. Ultron is reborn, his first thoughts being that the Ultron minds are no one's servants. They serve themselves...against each other. As Doom gives him his orders, Ultron thinks about how flawed his creators have been.

Meanwhile, in upstate New York, Daredevil is chilling in a barn, where he notes that there's a lot of various different skulls there.

"If I could see, I would be rather uncomfortable right now."

Uh, Matt? You may want to run. That loooks like the lair of a psycho killer, man. Using his super-senses, he listens in on the happenings below.

We see two of the Inhumans, Karnak and Gorgon, alongside their faithful dog Lockjaw. They're with a man named Skip, who owns the farm. There was some strangeness going on with Skip's farm and Attilan, the Inhumans' home. The two are also looking for a child that is the heir to the Inhumans' throne. Likely Black Bolt and Medusa's kid Ahura. I think this was brought in as a leftover from an Inhumans story Nocenti wanted to do. She did write the Inhumans graphic novel a year earlier.

Daredevil feels like this whole thing is completely absurd. I don't blame him. I read the issues before this, and it's pretty crazy, ha ha. Matt finds himself feeling like he doesn't care about any of this, and wonders how he turned off his compassion.

Meanwhile, Ultron is making some extra weapons to fight Daredevil.

Page 159, Panel 2

Yup, he going to throw Ultron heads at Daredevil. Ultron finds himself thinking about Jocasta, his first attempt at a mate. He then laments that he himself is flawed, and all flawed creators must be destroyed. Meanwhile, Daredevil is preparing to leave. He realizes that he needs to be alone. Can't fix himself up if he's too busy helping others.

It's then that a blonde woman known only as Number Nine walks in with Gorgon. Yeah, there was whole weird story beforehand with Number Nine. It was weird. Basically, Nine was genetically programmed to be servile, the "perfect woman". A woman named Brandy (Skip's daughter) has been trying to teach her basic feminist principles, and it's left her a little unsure of herself. As I said, it was a weird story. Gorgon tries to point out that everyone is "programmed" in a way, by parents, by society, by status. And everyone struggles with it. Even Inhuman Royals.

In the woods, Ultron has...gotten weird.

And here we see Ultron perfoming a ritual to summon Calculon, God of Microchips.

You know, Ann Nocenti went on to edit a magazine for pot smokers. I'm sure that it has nothing to do with this. Ultron decides to just wander off, questioning why he's going to kill Daredevil. After all, Daredevil is just a human. Ultron hates all of humanity, and Daredevil is just another human. So why just kill this one human? Ultron 13 has the voices of all the previous 12 incarnations in his head,
and it's leading him to wonder who 13 himself is. I smell a theme...

Number Nine goes out for a nice jog. On the run, she encounters all of Ultron's extra heads. She then runs into Ultron, who demands to know where Daredevil is. She screams that she never will, and tries to flee...only to get zapped by the mechanical menace. He discovers that she survived the blast...and is already healing up. Ultron thinks he's found her: his perfect, indestructible woman.

Gorgon and Karnak get ready to leave. After all, they got a lost kid to find. Brandy offers to help out, and she wonders if Daredevil will, too. It's not like they have to worry about Number Nine. Her creators think she's dead (again, crazy story), so she's safe.

Speaking of Number Nine, she and Ultron do some talking...while he takes her to show off his totally not wonkybonkers head display.

I guess you could say Ultron...lost his heads?

She tells him she has no idea who she is, and so does he. He admits that he is flawed, which doesn't bother Number Nine in the least. Ultron examines her, while his previous incarnations argue in his head over what to do with her. It seems his urge to kill is winning out (Makes sense, the majority of Ultron's incarnations were all about killing people), and Nine screams.

Daredevil hears it (He's got super-hearing), and goes to check it out. It leads the others to realize that Number Nine is missing. Ultron starts ranting about being a mockery of man, as humanity is flawed, and since humans created Ultron, he is flawed, too. He screams he must be destroyed, and so must his creators. Nine tries to talk him down. Gorgon and Daredevil take the fight to the robotic rogue.

Karnak tries to use his power to find the weak points in objects to break Ultron, but he angrily blasts the three off of him. The story ends with Ultron grabbing Number Nine. Yup, this is a two-parter.

This story is...alright, but it feels really weird. Keep in mind, it's continuing on another storyline that also was rather weird. At least, I felt it was weird. I admit, rereading this issue, I did feel a bit lost. I got the scans for this issue from Daredevil Epic Collection Vol. 14: Heart of Darkness. It had been a while since I read that trade, so I was a bit confused at first as to what is going on with the Inhumans, Skip, Brandy, and Number Nine. So, I'd recommend getting the trade to get the whole story.

The big thing about the story is the theme of being flawed. I did like the interactions between Number Nine and Ultron. They both were artificial beings in a way. Number Nine was created to be perfect, but she struggles to figure out who she is, and in a way...Ultron is as well. They were both intended to be "perfect", but have inherent flaws due to being created by flawed beings.

John Romita Jr. is a second-generation artist, his father John Romita Sr. was famous for his work on Spider-Man back in the 1960s. His art style is more gritty than his father's, and he seems a bit more..."blocky" for lack of a better term, a bit stiffer.

Nocenti's run on Daredevil, from what I read of it, does come off as different to the classic Miller stuff, but it brings plenty of weird. Again, if you want to give this story a read, track down Daredevil Epic Collection Vol. 14: Heart of Darkness. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you enjoyed it, spread it around! Next time, we'll see how the Man without Fear survived the Mad Mechanoid...