Random Happenstance

I wrote a bunch of posts before going on vacation, and this is my first one in a bit; yet we're jumping in the deep end here: it's a great issue, but I can't for the life of me decide how it might play out if it had been written today. From 1988, Daredevil #252, "Ground Zero" Written by Ann Nocenti, pencils by John Romita Jr, inks by Al Williamson.

This was the crossover issue with "The Fall of the Mutants," and unbeknownst to anyone we see here, Apocalypse and his Horsemen have just attacked New York City. We see Archangel briefly, but Pestilence and War cause the most damage, even if they are largely unseen. For the general populace, as near as anyone can tell, this could be the big one, the bomb may have dropped. Since Pestilence's powers infect people with symptoms not unlike radiation poisoning, that may be the only conclusion they can come to.

Currently in Daredevil, Matt Murdock had been disbarred, but worked at a community center legal clinic and "ghost-lawyered" cases. The Black Widow is also here this month--and I think it would be her last appearance for a while, until maybe #262, since she had no aptitude or patience for that kind of work with people. Matt's also working with the young Cain, who seems to be roughly the same age as those annoying Fat Boys kids but not with them. He brings in a younger child that had been beaten by his mom, but confesses he kind of had to force himself to, that being 'good' didn't seem to be his first instinct. Matt doesn't have time to hand-hold him, though, since they're first interrupted by the first legal victory for their clinic, then by the blackout caused by the attack.

Matt takes the lead, as himself here: blind already, he wasn't afraid of the darkness, and leads the people through the subway tunnels to a nearby hospital. Which, conveniently enough, is about to be the next target of post-apocalyptic gang leader Ammo. He wouldn't realize it, but he's on the same page as the instigator of this disaster, Apocalypse: the strong will survive, the weak won't, and helping the weak only drags you down with them. Ammo's forces take an armory for weapons, then plan on pushing onto the hospital for drugs. (I didn't scan it, and I don't always note letterer credits here, but Joe Rosen's work on a crowded panel where Ammo "sniff sniff" remembers he'd like some drugs--slow clap. Just the best.)

(Oh, why not, let's scan it.)

DD and the Widow are joined by a small group of Vietnam vets defending the community--your "good guys with a gun," and DD has to strongly dissuade them from killing. The vets make bombs, to try and force the gang into position. Meanwhile, Cain fails to stop an injured woman from committing suicide: she didn't want to live in the apocalypse with only one leg, and opts to take a bunch of pills instead. Cain runs looking for Matt for guidance, and is instead told by the Widow to "quit sniveling and make yourself useful" and given a gun. (Cain's age is wildly indeterminate, so it's not clear if Natasha is showing good judgement or not; but considering Cain seems to be asked to do a lot here, maybe he's older. He's also referred to as a 'boygirl' later by a thug, which may or may not be supported by the art either. For good measure, there's a gang member, "Bad Seed," that resembles Cain enough that the GCD thought they were the same character!)

The plan works fairly well: when the bombs smoke out the gang, Daredevil and the Widow beat the tar out of most of them; until Ammo smashes through a wall with an armored vehicle, guns blazing. Most of his victims seem to be his own gang, although that's less mouths to feed in the apocalypse, right? And he does manage to stray-bullet a kid imitating him, down to the face-paint: that's no way to treat a fan. DD throws down with Ammo hand-to-hand, the kind of fight that stops the rest of the fighting down cold to watch. Cain tries to get a wounded man into an apartment for help, and the elderly couple inside pretends they aren't home, leading to a bit of overwrought dialog.

With Ammo down and the gang contained, some of the citizens decide maybe they deserve some spoils, or some payback: several, including Cain again, are about to rape one of Ammo's gang; claiming she tried to kill them with a grenade. DD is disgusted with them, and easily able to stare them down from trying anything, then leaves Cain to watch the girl until the cops can cuff her. Then, with the hard stuff over, the army shows up, megaphones announcing it wasn't a war, go home. With Natasha, DD muses how quickly everyone bought into the 'apocalypse,' like they always knew it was coming. Cain is somewhat dismayed that he may have let someone kill themselves for no reason, so he's distracted; giving the gang girl the chance to shank him. (And apparently escape; she's not seen again here.) Dying, Cain asks DD to tell Matt he was like a father to him, and that he died well, and maybe leave out anything else. This maybe might've had some more weight if Cain had appeared before...

I'm not a New Yorker: I'm closer to Homer Simpson on that one, focusing on the "pimps and C.H.U.D.s." Post 9/11, we've seen New Yorkers come together better than most probably would've figured, but we've also seen 9/11 used as a cudgel for a "War on Terror" that's probably not going to end in my lifetime. (In-universe, I think the X-Men's "sacrifice" in Dallas offset the damage Apocalypse did to the mutant community...) We mentioned Ammo's age and inexplicable sartorial choices before, so this story had good and bad guy Vietnam vets, but today I think both the "good guy with a gun" argument doesn't hold any water, while there are way more guns now then in 1988. (Are there more guns in New York City? I don't know if people are necessarily stockpiling them there, and crime in NYC is actually way down.) It may come down to if you think people will live up to their better angels, or if you suspect Daredevil would have far more people to punch out.