Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: D.G. Chichester
Penciler: Netho Diaz
Inker: J.P. Mayer
Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse
Release Date: 14th February 2024

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Penning a genuinely pulse-pounding “final round”, D.G. Chichester’s narrative for issue four of Daredevil: Black Armor quite simply picks its audience up by the scruff of their necks and doesn’t put them back down until towards the comic’s end when Tony Stark’s golden alter-ego makes a cameo appearance to help save the day. In fact, even then Chichester may well have some bibliophiles holding their breath as Iron Man momentarily contemplates just how the composite material armoured crime-fighter before him suspiciously managed to broadcast a distress message “on the Avengers’ Emergency Channel.”

Much of this momentum is clearly due to the titular character running headfirst through Baron Wolfgang von Strucker’s underground colosseum, initiating a mass uprising by Mole Man’s numerous fungus-based moloids in the process. But to mix things up a bit, Chichester also manages to show just what ‘Jack Batlin’ is capable of by having him successfully stand toe-to-toe against both the Hobgoblin and Sabretooth simultaneously, and impressively walk away the clear victor.

However, despite all the aforementioned adrenalin-charged action, this book’s best moment comes following Daredevil’s failed attempt to get the surviving Hell’s Kitchen inhabitants back to the surface. Cut off inside a creaking, badly damaged tin can, Chichester pens a genuinely touching scene between the Man Without Fear and a terrified Trina, which quite wonderfully demonstrates just how much the super-hero cares for the people who trusted him to save them. Indeed, the heartfelt sentiment between the young, claustrophobic child and her would-be rescuer is arguably the highlight of this book, and shows that Chichester hasn’t lost a step when it comes to the vigilante’s motivation, even after a twenty-five-year long break.

Also wasting no opportunity to imbue the storytelling with plenty of “Fwrak”, “Kwram”, “Twok” and “Thwik” is Netho Diaz, whose pencilling really helps sell Matt Murdock’s flight through Hydra’s secret subterranean lair. Of particular note is the artist’s ability to show the increasing fatigue which falls upon Bill Everett’s co-creation as things slowly go awry with his evacuation plan, and how the street acrobat’s physicality markedly changes at the end of the twenty-page periodical, when a fighting fit blind lawyer confronts some ill-advised, knife-wielding muggers; “When’d it get so hard to intimidate people in this city?”

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The writer of this piece was: Simon Moore
Simon Tweets from @Blaxkleric ‏
You can read more of his reviews at The Brown Bag

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