Today, Ethan and Drew are discussing Daredevil 25, originally released April 17th, 2013.

Ethan: At the heart of Daredevil #25 is this question – which is more important; ability or determiniation? If we’ve learned anything from comics over the last half-dozen decades, it’s this: it doesn’t matter if you’re out-classed, out-gunned, or out-witted. As long as you’ve got a plucky, stubborn streak, you’ll pull through in the end. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The show’s not over till the fat lady sings. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose; it’s how you play the game. Or in Daredevil’s case, it’s how you end up lying in the street, bleeding from a dozen lacerations, uselessly reeling in the grip of a concussion, utterly failing at what you set out to do.

Matt Murdock begins the episode with two big problems: first and foremost, Foggy is still dying of cancer. Second, someone is recreating the conditions of the industrial accident that gave Matt his powers with some reliable results. As Patrick pointed out in the coverage of #23, this latter point is in and of itself a pretty crazy starting point. No problem though – Daredevil will pull the pieces together and save the day in short order. Someone claiming to be an escaped test subject shows up at the hospital, leading Matt to the alleged testing site. Surprise! The “test subject” is acting under orders to bring Daredevil to an abondoned warehouse and is promptly killed by Remote-Controlled Pacemaker Zapping (or some nearby teen was playing Fruit Ninja at exactly the wrong time). Dropping down into the interior of the warehouse, Matt meets his latest foe – a radar-sense enabled ninja called Ikari. This Daredevil wannabe – armed only with a pair of mini-sickles and a pair of wannabe mini-devil-horns – kicks Matt up,down, and sideways across the city. Finally overwhelmed, Matt heads into a sporting goods store and hopes to distract his opponent with the sprinkler system, only to finally discover that Ikari is no mere Daredevil-copy; not only does Ikari have the radar-sense, but he also retains his normal sight, and uses this advantage to beat Matt within an inch (more like 1/8 of an inch) of his life.

Oof. It’s always a little hard to watch the hero bite the dust, isn’t it? Even though you know he’ll pull through and win the fight in the end, kiss his sweetheart, slap bad guy in chains, and ride off into the sunset. For a moment, there’s still that fear that comes along with a suspension of disbelief – oh no! will the villain win this time? Thankfully, our Obsessively Formulaic Fiction Factory delivers a steady stream of stories in which Our Hero Wins Against All Odds. Right up until he doesn’t, if Mark Waid and Chris Samnee have anything to say about it.

More than anything, I’d say this issue was a nails-on-the-chalkboard, textbook, painful study of the art of well intentioned denial. First-person narrative is always powerful, and Waid and Samnee do a great job of following Daredevil as he talks himself step-by-step into a defeat at the hands of Ikari. Calling this inner monologue “wishful thinking” is a bit too strong, but taken as a whole, it starts to get a little sad. Say them with me:

Argument #1: Ikari chose an empty warehouse as the battleground; as soon as I draw him out into the city, his radar-sense will be overwhelmed and I’ll have the upper hand.

Argument #2: Those kusurigama blades are his only trick; now that he’s scored a hit against me with them, it won’t happen again.

Argument #3: Ikari is new to the whole realm of sightless combat; on the other hand, I’ve been mastering it all my life

Argument #4: The world is beginning to fade to black, but now he’s unarmed and I still have one more telescoping billy-club/nightstick.

Argument #5: Turning on the sprinkler system wipes out 95% of my radar-sense; his will be completely useless under the same conditions.

Argument #6: It hurts just to breathe, but I can still win this one.

If you know my reading habits at all, you’ll know I’m a bit gullible; I’ll follow the writer to some pretty crazy places as long as they keep the ride fun. So maybe it’s not that much of a surprise that I was still feeling pretty good about this fight right up until the end. Right up until this little gem of a scene:

In the moment that we realize that Daredevil’s last gambit has failed, that his opponent has been toying with him using both visual and radar senses, I imagine that for each reader there’s a slightly different reaction. Maybe some of us thought Matt still had an ace up his sleeve. Maybe some of us thought Thor would zip down through the night sky and bonk the bad man in the face with the really big Asgardian hammer. Whatever last bit of hope went through your brain at this moment, I think that even the most optimistic among us started to panic right about then.

Drew, what do you say – did you figure out Ikari’s advantage sooner? What did you think about Matt’s goofy b-list samurai-bad-guy line “You carry your weight like a blind man. Leaves you vulnerable in seven ways”?

Drew: When I walked into my LCS this past Wednesday, my trusted Comic Shop Guy (hi Paul!) insisted that I read this issue while I was in the shop so we could talk about the very sequence you included, Ethan. He was so excited about the surprise of that reveal, that he wanted to see my reaction to it. “Try the red one” is certainly a menacing way to reveal that 1) Ikari knows what Matt is planning 2) isn’t scared, and 3) CAN FUCKING SEE, but for me, the real gut punch was Matt’s reaction.

It’s the perfect example of audience surrogacy, and really drives home the point of how surprising the reveal is. I have to admit, since my first reading, I had actually changed Matt’s voiceover to simply “Oh Shi–,” but the point is the same — this was an unexpected and game-changing reveal.

Actually, I remember joking with my friends when the Daredevil movie came out about how Daredevil was basically a blind man with the power to see. Obviously, I had no familiarity with the character (or what radar sense actually was), which has since changed, but I’ve never really settled the notion that Daredevil could be outmatched by a person that could see. I suppose that’s one of this series main conceits — that Matt exceeds our expectations of what a blind man can do — which I think makes this reveal all the more impressive. We expect Matt’s opponents to be able to see. Waid shouldn’t have been able to surprise us with that bit of information, yet he turns it into a moment so shocking, people are forcing their friends to read this issue right in front of them.

Ethan, I’m glad you highlight Matt’s determination — sure, he has heightened senses and impeccable training, but I’ve always seen his real superpower as his fearlessness. Normally, that makes him an unpredictable, ever-underestimated adversary, but Ikari manages to turn that into Matt’s greatest weakness. Matt has no fear that he will be able to hobble Ikari enough to defeat him that he doesn’t care that he’s tying his own hands the whole way. Ikari really just has to keep up while Matt steadily digs his own grave.

Come to think of it, Matt’s gambit here bears a striking resemblance to chemotherapy, where a person poisons themselves in hopes that their cancer will die first. I have every bit of confidence in this creative team to highlight that parallel as Foggy heads into treatment. I mean, now that Matt knows, he just has to try the same plan, making sure the lights are off.

But will there be a rematch? Every story the Obsessively Formulaic Fiction Factory has ever produced — from Rocky II to The Mighty Ducks — tells us that there must be. The hero will regroup, learn a lesson, and his grit and determination will carry the day during that rematch…only, this fight was all about showing what a liability Matt’s determination was. Moreover, it seemed designed to specifically break that determination, which it really looks like it accomplished.

Everything, from Matt limping away impotently to the “Man With Fear” teaser for the next issue, suggests that Matt has been rather hopelessly defeated. Hell, Ikari makes it clear that he may never even encounter Matt again — his boss might just deploy a sniper to finish the job — which is perhaps the most unsettling idea of all. I know Ikari is too interesting to never return, but the idea that there might just not be a rematch upsets our expectations of formula more than anything.

This series continues to be masterfully deployed, with Waid expertly manipulating our expectations, but its quality goes much deeper than earth-shattering surprises. I love Matt’s framing of his interrogating Larry as a cross-examination, and this issue is littered with similar knowing character details. This issue’s fight scene was action-packed, but every step was a reflection of Matt’s most central characteristic. It’s character-driven storytelling at its best, all wrapped-up in a mystery that keeps getting more and more interesting. I’ll probably read #26 in the store, whether or not anyone asks me to.

For a complete list of what we’re reading, head on over to our Pull List page. Whenever possible, buy your comics from your local mom and pop comic bookstore. If you want to rock digital copies, head on over to Comixology and download issues there. There’s no need to pirate, right?