DAREDEVIL #178

"PAPER CHASE"
Story & Art : Frank Miller | Finished Art : Klaus Janson
Colors: Glynis Wein | Letters: Joe Rosen
Editor: Denny O’Neil | Supervisor: Jim Shooter

The Plot: At her apartment, Elektra is attacked by agents of the Kingpin and, after defeating them, she finds a card offering her employment in his organization. The next day, a young man named Sheldon, who claims to have incriminating checks connecting mayoral candidate Randolph Cherryh to the Kingpin, visits Nelson & Murdock. When Kingpin’s men arrive to try and grab him, Matt Murdock changes to Daredevil and holds them off while Sheldon escapes.

Fearing Matt could be the victim of further harassment, Foggy hires Power Man and Iron Fist, Heroes For Hire, to protect him. They fight off the Kingpin’s goons that night, much to the irritation of Matt, who had intended to get a confession from the men on tape. The next evening, Matt ditches the heroes for hire, which sends them off to harass Cherryh. Daredevil overhears the candidate speaking to Sheldon on the phone, and an agreement is made to exchange the checks for cash during a parade the next day.

At the parade, Power Man and Iron Fist search for Matt but come into conflict with Daredevil. Meanwhile, Turk and Grotto, attempting to get back in with the Kingpin, try to kill Sheldon. Eventually Sheldon is caught by the heroes, but realizes he lost the checks among the tornado of ticker tape swirling above when he tried to elude Turk.

That night, Elektra arrives at the Kingpin’s office to discuss her potential employment.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Jonah Jameson puts in another appearance as Nelson & Murdock speak with Sheldon early in the story.

Speaking of whom, the ace attorneys now reside in an office suite high in a Manhattan office building.

The heroes for hire’s boss and benefactor, Jeryn Hogarth (better known from the Claremont/Byrne IRON FIST run), is working for Cherryh in his lawsuit against the Daily Bugle. Some may recall that the portly male attorney was portrayed by notable thin female Carrie Anne Moss in the various Marvel NetFlix series.

My Thoughts: It's another relatively lighthearted issue as Matt struggles to ditch Power Man and Iron Fist several times, lest they crimp his scarlet swashbuckling style. Miller plays the heroes for hire as slightly overbearing and clueless, but he never throws their characterization under the bus for the sake of a cheap gag. They each have time to show off their skills and Iron Fist even puts up a decent showing against Daredevil in a brief skirmish.

(Okay, I suppose Miller does take one jab at the character when he has Iron Fist ask DD what he calls as a move as he ducks one of the Living Weapon’s attacks. Our hero's answer: “Ducking.” Doubtless Iron Fist was expecting one of the flowery martial art move names he used to use nonstop in his solo series.)

On the subject of Iron Fist, it occurs to me that I have no idea what circumstances lead to him becoming a hero for hire. At the end of his solo career, which I reviewed about two years ago now, he had inherited his late father’s fortune and, I believe, was a board member of the Rand-Meachum Corporation. But at some point he must lose all his money in order to become Luke Cage’s partner. Someday I'll crack open my POWER MAN AND IRON FIST EPIC COLLECTION volumes and figure out how that happened.

Incidentally, it's kind of interesting to note -- off the top of my head, at least -- that this is the only issue in Miller’s entire run as writer which features guest-stars who (at the time of publication) headline their own Marvel comic. There was the Hulk back when Roger McKenzie was writing, of course, and the Punisher is coming up -- but he doesn't have a solo title yet. I'm not sure why, but I find it interesting and kind of refreshing that there was an era at Marvel when guest-stars weren't trotted out on a regular basis. You had the characters and their series, and guest appearances were a special occasion rather than an expected matter of course (see also the David Michelinie/Bob Layton IRON MAN and Roger Stern’s Spider-Man for more of this).