Daredevil 24, Deadpool 6

Daredevil 24
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and Rodriguez (c)

I like Foggy Nelson a lot. I think he's one of the better supporting-cast characters in comics. He's a great friend and he's perfect for someone like Matt and there's never a fear of him turning into a supervillain or a superhero because he's simply not in shape for it. He has cancer right now, Ewing's Sarcoma, and I really hope he lives through it, but I have to say that I think it's a pretty good time in the book's run to give it to him. Where Daredevil has only just started to regain his bearings after snapping in Shadowland, he's now faced with a problem that he can't acrobat around. He's faced with a problem that all of his lawyering and all of his investigating and all of his senses and all of his punching can't help. On top of that, he's come up against a meticulously planned attack from some unknown assailant that has involved uprooting as much of Matt's life as he can. Will Matt walk down the Shadowland path again and snap when he figures out who is behind all of this at such a delicate time? Will he stay above it for Foggy and his own sake? Next issue, if the closing panels are to be believed, will bring Matt to the mastermind behind everything that's been going on, from Klaw to the Spot to Matt's dad's boxing gloves to Milla appearing in his room to the recent outbreak of prisoners and dogs who have been given Matt's enhanced senses.

I like some of the other touches that Waid has put on this series as well. One thing that I wouldn't have expected to enjoy so much but clearly am enjoying is the budding friendship between Hank Pym and Daredevil. Hank is useful in this stage of the game as a biological expert, what with the chemical attack on Matt and with Foggy's cancer, but he's also become something of a shoulder for Matt, who hasn't really had one except Foggy in the past. Obviously Matt isn't going to Hank for everything, but he's in contact with him enough and Hank knows enough about Matt's life that he's able to understand some of what Matt is going through. I don't know if it will spring into a full-fledged friendship or if the extent of their relationship will be like any other two superheroes, but it's a nice touch that I didn't expect and certainly didn't expect to like. For as long as Daredevil's been around, he has very few inroads in the superhero community. Only since Fear Itself has he been an Avenger (and only popped up in New Avengers whenever Bendis seemed to remember him) and he's not really a team-up kind of guy. He's closer to the street level heroes, like Spider-Man and Iron Fist and Luke Cage, who also don't have a ton of sway in the superhero community. It's nice to see him building into a relationship with a long-time Avenger like Pym and maybe even a nicer touch that it's someone who, for as long as he's been an Avenger, has always been kind of on the outside. It's just another example of Waid having a real feel for this character and for the people with whom he connects.

Deadpool 6
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Moore (a) and Staples (c)

The dead presidents opening arc of this new Deadpool series ends with Deadpool killing George Washington in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Then he doesn't get paid and SHIELD is mad at him and Agent Preston, who died last issue, is sharing his mind with him because Michael the necromancer brought her back and put her in Deadpool. Deadpool seems happy about it as he feels, and tells us repeatedly this issue, that Agent Preston was the only person who believed in him. I never once got that sense. There were times, in the last issue, that she said it but I never felt like she actually believed in him. Deadpool was brought on because it was an ugly operation and needed to be kept quiet and brutal and he fit the bill. Maybe she did legitimately believe he could do it, but there never seemed to be a real friendship between the two until it was shoved at us last issue so she could die and he could be upset about it. Other than that, I feel like Preston has watched Deadpool do what Deadpool does, all the while going "oh brother" as he makes some quip or other. I'm not sure if they were going for a Lethal Weapon style buddy cop team-up with those two but it never read that way until Deadpool, this issue, tried to tell us that it read that way. Who knows, maybe that will come back as the twist; Deadpool considers them friends and she doesn't. Even that feels weak because I don't believe in the Deadpool that this easily sees friendships.

Beyond that, I don't have a lot to say. I think my feelings on this book are pretty evident and nothing about this issue or the conclusion of this arc made me change my mind on it. Five presidents were killed outside of Deadpool's watch, three by a bus and two by an LA gang. That kind of made it feel like Deadpool's not that elite after all. He had trouble with these guys who can be killed without even really trying, let alone one of the world's foremost mercenaries trying. It feels like their deaths were just shoehorned in, at that point. Washington wasn't a real threat for Deadpool, even after taking on the powers of two other presidents, but rather was a typical villain espousing lines about how Deadpool's no hero and he's actually dead like them and no one likes him and so forth. It didn't feel tongue-in-cheek, it felt like the things he was saying were supposed to be some new revelation about Deadpool. I suppose if you jumped on board this new Deadpool book without any background knowledge that might come as something of a surprise to you, but I feel like the last five issues would have given enough of that anyway. So that's that. One arc down. Let's see where the next one goes, with hijinks no doubt set to ensue.