Penciler: Klaus Janson
Inker: Klaus Janson
Colorist: Klaus Janson
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Review: Madman
Every once in a while I have been known to throw down some cash on a few issues of old school Daredevil, especially the Frank Miller books. At last years Kokomo-Con I plucked this gem out of a dollar box towards the end of the day. Having spent my wad earlier in the day and only having a few Washington’s left; I was only able to evacuate two or three issues of DD out of the twenty or so issues that had no business being on the island of misfit comics.
Frank Miller handed over DD’s artistic reins to Klaus Janson eight issues prior, near issue #185 give or take, and if you want someone to replace a Frank Miller, a Klaus Janson will do just fine. I’m sure you’ve heard of Mr. Janson as he has had his meat hooks in just about everything a comic book artist could. Klaus also followed Miller to DC and helped out with some miniseries about Batman called The Dark Knight Returns…whatever that is.
The issues’ glorious cover is what made me choose this DD book over the others. It truly is magnificent on so many levels. It proudly displays Daredevil wielding an axe, and by axe I don’t mean Flying V guitar. I’m talking a Lizzie Andrew Borden parent choppin’ axe, not just any Lizzie Andrew Borden parent choppin’ axe, but a Lizzie Borden parent choppin’ axe that’s so sharp that the blade edge is gleaming with crosshairs. First of all, the artwork is fantastic. Second of all, why the hell is DD looking all psycho and menacing with said chopper, and by chopper I don’t mean…
The issue is called, “Bitsy’s Revenge”, adding to the mystery. Daredevil’s buddy Sarge is murdered by a couple of thugs as they robbed his weapons stash. As it turns out, the stash is quite extensive, including his Sarge’s pistol and some high-tech armor-piercing missiles. Ol’ Sarge manages to fight through the pain of a mortal sucking chest wound just long enough to flashback back to ‘Nam and the day his lucky pistol, Bitsy, saved his life. DD catches one of the thugs and tortures him into spilling his guts as to the who, where, and why. He then follows the lead to a cruise ship and assumes the mysterious bad guy thug boss plans to blow it up in order to steal all the valuable diamonds stored in the ships safe. Turns out the bad guy or gal didn’t need Sarge’s missiles to blow open the safe but to blow up the radar/radio tower, so the ship couldn’t call for help. As you can probably surmise, the malfunctioning radar made Matt’s radar sense act up, essentially blinding the blind man for real. Daredevil breaks the, “In case of fire”, glass and snatches up the mysterious axe as he finishes off the radar tower, righting himself back to blind man seeing. That’s it.
Props to Janson for turning the issue’s most forgettable panel into a memorable cover worth space in my collection. I enjoyed this comic on all fronts and found myself greatly entertained from majestic cover to the Atari add for Reactor (which looks like the lamest game ever...just sayin’).
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