Daredevil! #2

The cover, featuring Daredevil standing in a burning church, watching as Father Miller (“played” here by an action figure of Peter Cushing from the film ‘Horror of Dracula’) and Hellverine fight. This is the first second in the series, and text along the bottom edge reads, “A toy comic by Phil Wrede.”

Below the surface of New York City, within the Kingpin’s catacombs, The Hood and a Hand ninja watch as Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, and Hellverine, the weapon of vengeance, converse.

Kingpin marvels at the terrible sight of Hellverine, his bare skull surrounded by a crown of flames, while The Hood catches the Hand ninja up on the events of the previous issue in dialogue. The ninja is not paying attention; it is awestruck by the power Hellverine represents.

The Hand ninja thinks aloud that his organization is better suited to wield the power of the Hellverine, rather than the Kingpin, and The Hood emphatically pushes back. Kingpin imples that the soul of his dead son, Richard, is what has empowered Hellverine to take physical form on the earth.

Kingpin explains to Hellverine that he seeks vengeance against Daredevil, for the death of his son.

As Kingpin and Hellverine discuss the terms of their agreement, the Hand ninja solidifies his intention to steal the Book of the Damned and take the power of the weapon of vengeance back to his organization.

Hellverine touches the Kingpin’s head, and shares in his memories, learning everything he knows about Daredevil, and Richard Fisk.

As the Hand ninja makes a move for the Book of the Damned, The Hood shoots him in the back of the head.

Confronted by the shocked Kingpin and Hellverine, The Hood explains that he shot the Hand ninja because he was going to betray the Kingpin. They seem to accept this answer.

Across town, approaching the now-condemned Clinton Church, Daredevil swings through the air, and reminisces, regretfully, about the events of the night so far.

Inside the church, Daredevil finds the former Father Miller.

In voiceover-style narration, Daredevil reminisces about his relationship with Father Miller, who has returned to the abandoned church to try and rekindle his faith.

Hellverine stalks Daredevil through the streets; via his radar sense, Daredevil detects the approach of the weapon of vengeance.

Hellverine smashes through the church’s skylight. Daredevil and Father Miller try to understand what they’re witnessing.

Hellverine lands on the ground across from Daredevil. Father Miller tries to taunt it, to cast it out, but to no avail.

Daredevil rushes at the weapon of vengeance, and as they exchange a few punches, Daredevil actually strikes Hellverine across the face. Daredevil burns his fist at the touch.

Miller draws a cross and attempts to cast Hellverine out of the former church. The weapon of vengeance laughs in reply.

Daredevil and Hellverine fight some more.

The fighting escalates; in voiceover-style narration, Daredevil senses that the tone of the fight has reached a dangerous pitch.

Miller pushes Daredevil out of Hellverine’s way; the weapon of vengeance stabs Father Miller through the heart.

As Miller falls to the floor, Daredevil prepares himself for the next phase of this fight. Hellverine promises more deaths to come.

The credits for the comic strip, citing the Unsplash users whose photographs were the background art, the use of fonts by Blambot, the ownership of Marvel by Disney, the creation of Marvel characters by actual human beings, the use of stock visual effects by Action VFX, and that the figure photography/script/lettering were by me, Phil Wrede.

Welcome back to another installment of my new Daredevil story! I’m still really pleased with how the first part came out, but I think the panel layouts flow a little better this time (especially from one page to the next), and I think I did a better job of channeling Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin in his dialogue. Your mileage may vary, I suppose.

Just like how the Daredevil figure himself inspired more dynamic page layouts, and the Hellverine figure pretty much incited the entire story so far, the Peter Cushing Horror of Dracula figure (with some of the accessories from the Christopher Lee companion figure) was the genesis of the church sequence in this issue.

Daredevil and I share some cultural baggage: our Catholic upbringing. Matt’s struggles with his morality and his faith have always resonated with me (although I never, and hopefully never will, have had to face most any of the big moral dilemmas he’s stood against). Though the Church and I had our totally mutual* break-up around the time I left high school, I still think it’s appropriate to credit all my years of Catholic school with some of the foundation for the morals I try to live by today (more of the credit goes to Star Trek, though, and more still to my parents). So I can’t, and don’t want to, completely dismiss it, in spite of… everything. I’d feel too guilty (30 Rock’s Jack Donaghy agrees with me, and Matt, probably – Jack’s description of “Catholic guilt” is so potent that it’s in a significant section on the Wikipedia page).

To return to the subject of layouts, I feel like I overdid it with the splash page + three inset panels pages with this issue; I was just having a lot of fun with them! At least they’re not basically the same exact page every time… right? Right?

*It was totally mutual. Totally.

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