::Dan hops around the office in shiny shorts and Everlast boxing gloves, floating like a wounded duck, stinging like week-old sweat socks::
K: What’s up there, Sugar Ray?
D: …left jab, right cross…That’s right…left jab, right cross…
K: Nice form, Muhammad Ali. Dare I ask what you’re up to this time?
D: Working on the ol’ footwork here. ::dance, dance, tangle, fall:: … DAMNIT!
K: ::hands on hips, taps foot:: I ask you again, Rocky. What are you up to?
D: ::pulls out DAREDEVIL #25 from pocket of silk robe:: All good “Men Without Fear” are down with the sweet science. Me, I just tend to fall down.
K: Daredevil, eh? I do seem to recall Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner on the big screen. I don’t see how a comic book could be better than Ben’s buns in red pleather. But I’ll give it a go, I guess.
….
K: Things don’t look good for Mr. Matt Murdock. It’s never a good sign when the hero is lying at the feet of a bad guy on the cover of the hero’s book.
D: Life hasn’t ever really gone Daredevil’s way. As a young boy, radioactive chemicals spill on his face and cause him to go blind. His dad, a boxer, is killed after he refuses to throw a fight for The Mob. He’s lucky to be a good-looking lawyer and the ladies love him. ::buffs fingernails on collar:: Just like me.
K: ::rolls eyes:: Whatever, Mr. Short-Skinny-And-Not-A-Lawyer.
D: On top of all of his troubles, awhile back the press revealed that Matt Murdock and Daredevil are the same guy.
K: Like Jesse Ventura says, “Jackals”.
D: It’s kind of hard to have a secret identity when everyone knows who you really are. Now Murdock in on a mission to convince the city of New York that he isn’t Daredevil. He even has a t-shirt that reads, “I’m not Daredevil”.
K: No one believes him, right? He didn’t develop the old brainwashing kiss, like in Superman II?
D: Nope. Still blind with all of his other senses enhanced. In DAREDEVIL #25, Murdock is lead knowingly into a trap. He knows someone is out there attempting to recreate the chemical slop that robbed him of his sight, while heightening his other senses to superhuman degrees.
K: You sound like such a goof.
D: QUIET! The trap leads to the introduction of the new ninja villain, Ikari.
K: “Japanese for fury.”
D: It was a pretty sweet line.
K: The villain is introduced fairly early in the story. The rest of the issue is a pretty badass fight. Usually I’m kind of bored by book-length donnybrooks, but this tussle held my attention pretty well.
D: That’s because Mark Waid is writing this run of Daredevil. Waid has long been acknowledged as a master storyteller. He injects a human touch into the most fantastic stories, letting the reader become emotionally attached to these stories of wonder and awe. (Oh man. I kinda DO sound like a goof!) Also, you can tell he just really loves comics.
K: I was really digging the pictures.
D: Gotta have good pictures!
K: Chris Samnee is one of the few artists I can identify just by paging through a comic. His work has a neat shadowy-quality that is just great to look at. This issue really showcases his skills as a fight choreographer. As the battle between Daredevil and Ikari gets more and more intense, Samnee gets more and more brutal.
D: Can’t look away?
K: Can’t look away.
D: Add in the psychological warfare that Ikari adds by wearing Matt’s dead father’s fighting togs, and this fight becomes even more intense.
K: So what do you think is most responsible for making this such a great comic: the pitch-perfect writing or the spot-on art?
D: … left jab, right cross… left jab, right cross…
K: It is a perfect combination, isn’t it Joe Lewis? The bout between writer and artist may end in a draw, but the readers of DAREDEVIL are the real winners!