Daredevil: Chinatown

"Daredevil: Chinatown"
Publisher Marvel Comics
Publication date December 2015 – May 2016
Genre
Title(s) Daredevil: Back in Black, Chinatown vol. 5, #1-#5
Main character(s) Daredevil
the Hand
Creative team
Writer(s) Charles Soule
Artist(s) Ron Garney
Penciller(s) Ron Garney
Inker(s) Matt Milla
Letterer(s) Clayton Cowles & Joe Caramagna
Colorist(s) Matt Milla
Editor(s) Axel Alonso

"Daredevil:Chinatown" is a five-issue Daredevil story arc under the All-New, All-Different Marvel title' which was Written by Charles Soule, with art by Ron Garney. This series was collected in late 2015 and ended mid 2016. The story is split into 5 issues detailing Daredevil's return to New York in a new mostly black costume after he had erased the knowledge of his secret identity from everyone on the planet and taking in a new apprentice named Samuel Chung who takes on the identity Blindspot, and their fight against a new enemy called Tenfingers.[1][2][3][4][5]

Plot summary

The first issue starts with Daredevil in a new black costume and back on his home turf in New York as Matt Murdock begins a fresh life once again putting San Francisco behind him even though he's returned to New York City, Matt's on a different side of the law now, with a job in the District Attorney's office. He starts off by saving a man named Billy Li from being thrown in the Hudson River fighting off common thugs who are more skilled fighters than they let on, but fortunately he has help from a new partner named Blindspot (aka Samuel Chung); Matt as Daredevil came across him as Chinese immigrant who lives with his little sister and struggles to get by in the City while at the same time does his best to look after his family; Samuel managed to invent an invisbility suit' and secretly decides to use it to fight all the crime going on in Chinatown to protect his friends and family.

Down the line he comes across Daredevil who decides to take him under his wing as his new sidekick; Matt as Daredevil teaches Samuel how to fight, use stealth to his advantage and travel through rooftop without revealing his true identity to Samuel but still keeping him in the loop.

After defeating the thugs, Daredevil gives more advice and tells him to meet up with him again and they part ways after, while Daredevil secretly takes Billy Li while he's unconscious and goes to Franklin "Foggy" Nelson's apartment at night to recuperate and let Billy rest; while he's there he and Foggy argue about the situation going with Matt hiding out at his place from time to time and that Foggy doesn't feel comfortable at all knowing that Matt and Daredevil are one and the same again after Matt managed to make it so that everyone else forgot about his secret identity and only told Foggy again because he trusts him.

Even so Foggy doesn't want the pressure of having to deal with taking on the responsibility again, he also asks Matt about his new partner Blindspot and why's he's trusting him too. Matt assures him it's because feels Blindspot needs his help and guidance with his suit and how to be a crimefighter, and that he's sure he can be trusted too. Foggy understands but tries to tell Matt that tonight is the last time he helps him, while rushes off through the window, leaving Billy in his hands, knowing Foggy will help him out when he wakes up.

Next morning down at Hogan Place, county district attorney's office, at Manhattan. Matt as the new ADA gets visited by a woman named Ellen King who discusses with him about a grand jury witness who also happens to be Billy Li; revealing that Matt didn't save him at random he also saved him as Daredevil because he's an important witness in an ongoing case; despite the fact Billy's a snitch and a low-level street thug who goes by "Bigmouth Li" with charges stacked against him; and has requested Matt as the prosecuting attorney to help him.

It's also revealed that the case involves a man named Tenfingers, a cultist leader with his own Chinese-styled church called the Church Of The Sheltering Hands, within New York's Chinatown' whose been linked to organized crime within the chinatown community, and Billy has information on one of his lieutenants that can help put Tenfingers away. Making a deal with the authorities, Billy promises to give information on the lieutenant in exchange for freedom.

Meanwhile back in Chinatown, one of the men who was in the group who tried to kill Billy managed to return to Tenfingers lair without getting caught by Daredevil and Blindspot, and meets up with Tenfingers himself' revealed to be a Chinese man with long hair in a pony tail in a traditional Chinese garb' with shockingly actual ten fingers! on both his hands! which is why the call him Tenfingers in the first place.

Tenfingers sits before him with his followers, and reprimands him for his failure, and says "of course I'm sure you did your best. such a shame, too. I was prepared to take 2 fingers from you, if had succeeded." The enforcer begs Tenfingers to give him another chance; even offering to cut off two of his fingers for him, showing that he already lost one to Tenfingers. But then two of Tenfingers men with metallic hands; one of them being named "Onehand" take his hand planning to do more than that at Tenfingers command. At the same time they ask Tenfingers what should they do about Billy now, and Tenfingers tells them to kill him at the courthouse, while he also tells the man standing behind him to kill Matt Murdock too,and the man standing behind him is none other than Samuel himself!

The next day, Matt' whose down at New York State Supreme Court building in Foley Square, discusses the case about Tenfingers with the legal team. While at the same time back in Chinatown, Tenfingers talks to his followers; full of Chinese immigrants at the church of the sheltering hands about being shut down by the New York City courts. Matt talks about how Tenfingers has been luring undocumented Chinese immigrants with promises of hope and salvation for their lives; while at the same time taking advantage of their trust and using them to commit crimes for him, taking control of rival gangs, with extortion and killings while at the same time using congregation funds to build his operations. While Tenfingers promises his followers that their church will survive governments assaults, having them pray with him.

Next day at the Downtown Manhattan courthouse, two Tenfingers men led by Samuel' enter the building via rooftop' while Matt is there busy with working on upcoming hearing with Ellen King. Together Samuel break into the Detention Level of the building where they hold the defendants. Knock two guards and make their way to Billy Li; while Matt finishes with Ellen King on the prep work for the hearing. As they go down to the room holding Billy, they enter finding Billy alive and well' but seeing that he had been attacked with two fingers cut off from his right hand, and three fingers cut off from his left hand!

Meanwhile back at Chinatown at the church, Tenfingers questions Samuel about what went wrong and why he didn't kill Billy Li and Matt Murdock. Samuel convices him that killing them both at courthouse would have drawn too much attention to Tenfingers and the church; which Tenfingers understands and so do his main elite team which he calls the "Eights" standing next to them, who are two Chinese women and a bald man dressed up formal combat gear and each have eight fingers! on both their hands! just like Tenfingers himself has ten fingers on both his hands; Tenfingers reveals this is because of the power he gave to them as a reward for their loyalty and trust.

Tenfingers states that Samuel's mother gave him this opportunity, revealing that the first woman of the eights is none other his mother who also happens to be Tenfingers lover as well!

Reception

The whole storyline of "Chinatown" received positive reviews from critics, "Daredevil #5, which concludes the “Chinatown” arc, is a perfect example of what you get from each issue of the series. Garney, who may be best known for his work on Captain America with Mark Waid, has completely reinvented his style for Daredevil, bringing a gritty, edgy look to the world of Matt Murdock that hasn’t been seen since the heyday of Frank Miller".Collecting DAREDEVIL (2015) #1-5 and material from ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT POINT ONE #1

References

  1. Daredevil Vol 5 #1
  2. Daredevil Vol 5 #2
  3. Daredevil Vol 5 #3
  4. Daredevil Vol 5 #4
  5. Daredevil Vol 5 #5

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.