Daredevil 35, Thor: God of Thunder 17

Daredevil 35
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and J. Rodriguez (c)

Matt rushes to the hospital with the news that Foggy's cancer has taken a turn for the worst. He gets there to find a new doctor treating him with a highly illegal but potentially life-saving drug. The doctor claims that he's associated with people who would rather keep Foggy alive and moves aside to allow high-ranking Serpent Society members in. They reveal to Matt that they have done extensive research on him and have figured out his entire backstory, right up to the moment he became Daredevil, meaning they know definitively who he is and how his powers work. Between that and the repercussions of them letting his identity and his weaknesses out into the world (not to mention leaving him disbarred and unemployed and therefore unable to foot the cost of the health insurance Foggy so desperately needs), they feel they have him pretty under their thumb, enough so, anyway, that they are prepared to hire him to defend one of their sons, who is charged with arson and twelve counts of murder. The fire that caused the deaths was a Serpent job but, the men maintain, Donald was not involved. So Daredevil has to choose to take the case and protect an innocent yet not-innocent man or walk away and potentially lose everything. He calls up Elektra to try to make up his mind, hoping that she'll spar with him to get him thinking. Before they can start, though, they run into a pair from the Serpent Society (unrelated to the Sons of the Serpent but clearly hired by the Sons of the Serpent in this case) guarding the ashes of the building Daredevil's investigating. After a quick fight, Elektra imparts some solid wisdom on DD that helps clear his mind and helps him make an unexpected decision. When Matt and Kirsten go into the courtroom the next day, he pulls off a gutsy move on the Serpents as he turns over lead defender duties to Kirsten and she sends him to the stand as their first witness. When she asks Matt's name, he offers "Daredevil."

Huge, huge shakeup to the DAREDEVIL book as this run comes to a close and gives way to another Waid/Samnee run. At least there's no doubt that the new run will be significantly different to this one now, huh? It's a bold choice for Waid and I think it's absolutely the right one to make. Waid came into a book that, as I've detailed plenty of times (most recently in my Top Books of 2013 list), was kind of a mess. Not that it was bad, just that it left its protagonist an angry shell of his former self, exposed but refusing to seem exposed, and very much on his own both by choice and by his actions. Instead of continuing the cycle, Waid broke from recent tradition and made Daredevil fun again. Of course, Waid's artists, from Paolo Rivera to Chris Samnee to Javier Rodriguez, were perfect fits and deserve much of the credit here as their crisp pictures and very sharply defined characters and bright colors went a long way to cement DAREDEVIL as something very different from its Alex Maleev/Michael Lark predecessors (for the record, I very much like both artists and they fit very well for the book at their respective times). Even in this issue, Elektra remarks that Daredevil is very "jocular," a big difference from the last time they met (which would be, if I'm not forgetting anything, SHADOWLAND, the height of angry DD). It's very true and it's perfect and now, even in this giant debacle, we're seeing a smart Daredevil who refuses to be played and who is playing his own game and still manages to have a good couple of moments with Elektra. Really nice issue, very interested to see how this last issue will play out.

Thor: God of Thunder 17
Aaron (w) and Lupacchino and Garney (a) and Svorcina and Loughridge (c)

Thor was the traitor to the League of Realms after all, with a bug slipped into him by one of Malekith's spies at the pub they went to. Fortunately, Thor had the foresight to realize that the Realm of Leagues may be better served if they banded together and used some sorcery of his own (which he offhandedly says he learned from Loki at some point) when he apparently killed Ud the troll. Sir Honeyshot and Screwbeard found Ud wandering the forests with a note from Thor on his back that explained everything and they followed Thor to Midgard, saving him and Lady Waziria from Malekith just as things looked their worst. After a long fight with Malekith and his band of dark elves, the hiding elves of Svartalfheim call on Thor to stop just short of killing Malekith, as they've come to a decision about their future. They've made Malekith their king, which, of course, enrages Thor but the Congress of Worlds has no choice but to accept. The All-Mother demand that Malekith serve the remainder of his time first unless he finds a proxy to do it for him. Lady Waziria steps forth, explaining that this is the only way to stop further bloodshed for her people. Thor knows, of course, that it only means more problems for the rest of the realms but it makes sense for Svartalfheim. Sir Honeyshot encourages Thor, though, saying that his ability to bring the League together as he did is as impressive as anything Malekith could have done. Of course, it won't necessarily help things when Malekith teams with Jotunheim and Muspelheim to form his own league, as the epilogue of the story hints.

Bold move by Aaron as the book ends and one that leaves him no end of stories to tell. I still don't love this arc as a whole but I can respect and appreciate the ending of it. I still a little feel like it's impossible to separate the book from the fantasy trope (thanks Lord of the Rings) of the unlikely banding together of heroes from different fantasy archetypes. It's also, as if there weren't enough things to compare it to, drawn to the audience's attention that this League of Realms is not entirely unlike Thor and the Warriors Three, which did not make things better (despite my affection for that group). Still, I suppose it's worth putting aside my boredom with that aspect of this issue (though not with this arc) to make way for the plot twist that is Malekith being named king of the dark elves. One of my issues with Aaron over in books like WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN and the newer AMAZING X-MEN is that it often feels like the books talk down a little to the reader. Not necessarily the ideas or the characters, but the actual writing. I didn't think it was happening so much in the first two arcs of this series so I was pleased with that but this arc has gone for it a bit, with this issue particularly summarizing and name-dropping like a pro. Every character gets a name-check and, more obviously, a quick heritage-check which feels very forced and incredibly strange as it's the last issue of a five issue arc. Trust that the audience knows these people and where they come from and why it's so crazy they're together. If someone is picking up this issue as their very first THOR: GOD OF THUNDER issue, trust that they have the internet and can look it up or throw a better splash page on the book to briefly catch people up. Otherwise it makes the dialogue seem more than a little unnatural and slows the pace of the book. In the end, it's a nice little set-up that maybe took a little longer than I'd've liked getting ether. Should be some big things coming for Thor.