It all comes down to this...

The final page of Daredevil, below:-

Foggy enters the office, to find Heather sitting down and Matt Murdock telling her Glenn industries is finished


The cold, locked impassive look on Matt’s face as he tells Heather he is going to argue that she is ignorant of any wrong doing and incompetent and therefore not liable is very telling, but not as telling as Heathers response in the next 3 panels.


As her face goes completely into the dark and she becomes a very small and tiny thing as she almost whispers (to my mind that what it would sound like words that are barely there) “All right, Matt.  All Right.”  “I’ll marry you”


Let’s hold on that tiny little panel for a moment - as this panel marks the end of Matt Murdock and Daredevils fall.


Yes the fall as depicted on the cover in a abstract fashion was done so to indicate that the fall in question wasn't literal (both Lavender and turk did have a literal fall however) or that the fall would be necessarily immediately obvious.


The fall starts with Daredevil interfering in a Glenn industries business meeting literately threatening to bring the company down, getting copies of copies of evidence of Glenn industries negligence to have his motivations openly questioned by Foggy (and have a attack as a consequence) ,involvement in fraud, dropping those copies off as Daredevil to the District attorney, who questions Daredevils motives, dropping off another set of copies to the NYPD, to taking down Turk as Stilt man to stop him interfering, to finally successfully taking down Glenn Industries.


Although its not highlighted as much in this issue, Heather has dependency issues, back at the restaurant table earlier in this she herself recognizes this and reflects “If I really do lose the business - matt’s all I have got left”


And Heathers reaction to loosing the business, Glenn Industries says it all.


Just to look at that one panel on its own and its juxtaposition of dialogue shows quite how far Daredevil / Matt Murdock has fallen - he has succeeded in destroying everything else that mattered to Heather.


You don't even have to know or have read anything else to know how wrong this panel is, agreeing to get married should be a joyous and happy event in life, everything in the panel alone says it is anything but.


We conclude with foggy - reflecting in the realization that its now too late, much too late to change the twisted path Matt Murdock has set himself down, Foggy must know that there is doing to be consequences on all sides both Heathers and Matts and I wonder just much he know wishes he had said or done more earlier in the story.


We end it here, amidst the defeat and naked surrender of Heather to Matt who has systematically teared her life apart and the shocking possibly horrifying thing is deep down, Matt knows he is doing wrong but how much further will things falls part before it comes to its end?


Thats a question that will hopefully get answered in the next issue of Daredevil, 187 which you will have to pick and read yourself as this marks the end of my odyssey through this issue, Daredevil and Frank and Klaus’s career.


We leave with plenty to reflect on, the thought foremost in my mind being how a light hearted change of pace semi humorous issue could be be blended with such a bleak tragedy and yet still remain as a complete piece, with many shadings in all the characters and read true as a story.


and how difficult it must have been to convince the powers that be that showing the central heroic character is such a negative light, but they somehow succeeded


That is the work of a truly good writer and artist and i am sure we can agree this applies to Frank and Klaus in spades


THE END


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Dedication

My attempt to recreate this issue of Daredevil is dedicated to many people, Matthew J Brady who made the great suggestion to attempt this in the first place, Matt Seneca who has been a constant source of inspiration, Alex Hunt who drew a much better page than I possibly could have done, Dan Nadel of The Comics Journal- Dan I hope you enjoyed the ride

And of course to you all, anyone who has read this blog as this experiment continued, be it here virtually or in the print Images Degrading Forever Weekly, Thank you all

I hope it was at least moderately entertaining?

Next Week
But IDF does not end here - join me next week as I launch head first into an attempt to recreate Issue 1 of Jack Kirby's short lived 2001 A Space odyssey ongoing series

The Last IDFW that will be here


As you hopefully already know this is the last week where I will post the IDF Weekly on this blog, it is still very much alive and kicking in digital and print editions.

Digital subscriptions are completely free and can start from any issue you like, just send a email to robin.barnard@ymail.com

To conclude this chapter of the blog, here is issue 9 - I hope you like it