Lol-DD Noir

Word Baloon challange!

Christine at The Other Murdock Papers has launched a word baloon contest with panels ripped from Daredevil issues.
Obviously I couldn't back off from this, especially not when I have my old pal Lol-DD at my side :p.

So... here is my contribution:

Ambush Fail

Ninja fact #322: when attempting to blindside someone, or take him by surprise anyhow, you shouldn't yell at the top of your lungs.

This makes you wonder how Lord Hirochi (seen here attacking Master Izo, in DD II #115) managed to climb the ladder to become leader of one of the Hand's most prominent factions, if he's so incompetent. I'd blame it on the usual favoritisms.

The ambush.

Lady Bullseye's Powers and Abilities.

According to the statistics of trusty Sitemeter, one of the recurring sets of search keywords that make people reach this blog these days is "Lady Bullseye". More than once, the search tags also include "powers and abilities" and the like.
Here's a list of the skills this new character has been shown to have so far:

- Peak physical condition -

From the very first panels in which she appeared - featuring her leaping across the rooftops of New York City with seemingly effortless grace - it was evident that Lady Bullseye is extremely agile and acrobatic.

- Hand-to-hand combat expert -

The above sequence shows the first encounter between Daredevil and the new villainess. She is clearly more than a match for our hero, in close combat. Her fighting style appears to be mostly agility-based.
An interesting note is that she's capable of going toe to toe with a fighter like Daredevil while maintaining a completely relaxed state, with her pulse rate remaining constant. Our hero even comments on how, rather than fighting, it seemed like she was performing a Yoga routine.

- Uncanny aim -

Seeing as how she took the name and insignia of Bullseye - the bad guy who never misses - it doesn't come as a surprise that Lady Bullseye would have been good at throwing weapons.
Truth to be told, she hasn't been seen using this ability that much, so far, and so it is unclear if she's as good as Bullseye at it. Certainly, if one is capable of nailing a human torso from yards of distance using a weapon not normally used for throwing (as shown in the above panel, in which a ninja is killed by a kodachi thrown by Lady Bullseye, in order to prevent him from spilling too much on the Hand's plans), then his/her aim must be quite good.

- Master of disguise -

As part of Lord Hirochi's plan, Lady Bullseye faced Matt Murdock under the guise of legal representative of his parents-in-law (who, behind the scenes, had been instigated to claim the custody of their daughter for themselves).
When they met in their civilian clothes for the first time, even with his heightened senses, Matt wasn't certain to be in front of his new adversary. Lady Bullseye's acting capabilities were so good that she was even able to alter her pulse rate.
Disguising oneself is in itself a pretty good ability in a ninja's arsenal. But being able to also fool Daredevil's heightened senses with a disguise is something truly remarkable.

- Proficient with eastern weapons -


Lady Bullseye favors particularly weapons such as kodachi (in the splendid image above she's shown removing - in a brutal yet coreographical way - two of those from Wilson's Fisk brawny figure), katana...


... and the traditional throwing stars (shuriken).


- Trained assassin -

The sequence above is taken from a flashback telling Lady Bullseye's origins. At that time, she was one of many teenage sex slaves, by chance freed by Bullseye in a raid against some Yakuzas. While escaping, she kills a wounded gangster by slashing his throat with a key.
The ease with which she killed the unlucky dude with such an ordinary object makes me wonder if her ninja training predates her decision to become Lady Bullseye, or if it's all just natural talent.
What is certain is that...

... her ability to slay unlucky dudes as if they were an afterthought didn't diminish with time.

- Professional Lawyer -

As was anticipated by Ed Brubaker (one of her creators), Lady Bullseye has a civilian identity. In it, she's Maki Matsumoto, lawyer for the Werner and Brock law firm. The fact that she's associate to a legitimate law firm is proof enough to say that she has the curriculum needed to be a professional lawyer.

A little identity crisis

(note: originally, this was to be posted two days ago, with a fake label saying "the adventures of lol-Fist")

For those who missed it...

...here's how F's Kitchen looked like yesterday:


(April fools :p)

Iron Fist guest starring outside his book

The following images are taken from Daredevil vol.2 #60, in which Danny - along with Luke and Spidey - helps out his ally Daredevil to wipe out a gang of Yakuzas.

Our hero looks pretty neat here (art is by Alex Maleev), and despite the spotlight obviously belonging to the titular character, he also manages to prove the formidable martial artist he is.

Women. Can't Live Without Them...

As I told in the recap of the latest storyarc in my previous entry, Matt and Dakota's fugacious affair has been discovered by Milla's parents, thanks to the machinations of the Hand and to a private eye they hired to keep tabs (not to mention Matt's negligency in not properly closing the curtains of his bedroom windows when it would've been most opportune).

Be as it may, right after the deed, Matt was pretty tortured over the fact of having betrayed his wife (who, bears repeating, is currently in an insane asylum after having been driven crazy by one of Matt's enemies). Dakota tried to calm him down, in her own peculiar way:

So they temporarily resolve to try and forget about it and carry on with their lives. Until the Donovans show up at their office with the photos, that is.
At that point, it all became much more complicated to digest for the pretty private eye, who ran away without saying a word, leaving Matt and the others to try and figure out what to do. Here's what I would've said if I were Matt when, later, he tried to call her and got her answering machine:

(Disclaimer: the image below has been altered for the purpose of parody)

"Lady Bullseye": The Aftermath.

Man.

...we didst not see that coming!

Confronted with the sudden and unexpected offer of having all of his current problems "solved" (according to the Hand's twisted logic) and becoming one of the Hand's leaders, our boy Matt Murdock refused! And with what a determination!
(I wasn't certainly referring to Brubaker's DD being able to land a hit on an A-list Villain again)

...yet...

Hell hath no fury like a sociopathic asian villainess with eastern martial arts training who gets no as an answer!

And so, Lady Bullseye leaves Daredevil with the promise of returning soon and making his life even worse!
(which, by the way, shouldn't be that much of a big deal by now for one with a personal history such as that of Matt Murdock, but still...)

The ninja organization, led by Lord Hirochi, has in fact temporarily withdrawn their agents, to travel to Europe and enact another part of their as of yet undisclosed plans...


Did I mention that, through their dark rituals, the nefarious Hand have managed to bring on their side the dreaded "Salt & Pepper" duo of Black Tarantula and White Tiger? The two ex allies of Matt are now as evil as they can be, subservient to the perverted will of Hirochi and with totally awesome glowing red eyes.


Plus, they now hate Matt and everything he stands for.


Not all hope is lost, however! Izo, ancient master of martial arts (and mentor of Matt's mentor), whose ninja-hacking skills are only surpassed by his obnoxiousness and love for anything that contains alcohol, is on the hero's side. His cunning and wisdom will certainly prove to be unvaluable to face the coming onslaught of the Hand.


At the same time, Matt had to make another suffered resolve. As part of Hand's plan to forcedly remove his problems, his wife's parents threatened to legally request the relieving of Milla's custody from him. Adding weight to this threat, they also revealed Matt they were in possession of compromising photos attesting his one-time tryst with his friend and P.I. Dakota North.


The decision was hard to make, but in the end Matt resolved to fight in court to maintain the custody of his wife. His trusted friend and associate Foggy Nelson, despite having advised him against this decision (arguing that at this point it could have been the best solution for Milla), will stand by his side on this front of the battle.


And so, the chapter introducing Lady Bullseye concludes with an open ending, nothing clearly foreseeable and several questions yet to be answered. The story will continue with the next five -part arc, titled "Return of the King". It will end with the 500th issue of Daredevil and will feature Wilson Fisk, the once Kingpin, returning to NY from his exile in Europe.

The hand is dealt.

Hindsight is always 20/20...

"Looking" At Things.

This one would probably fit better as an entry to Christine's "Seeing Things" series (though probably for reasons different from the one I'm going to address), but anyway, the following is a detail from a preview page to the upcoming Wolverine: First Class issue, which is going to feature Daredevil and Elektra as guest stars:

Nice visual representation of Matt's radar sense there, but there's a considerable oddity right in that page. And no, I'm not referring to the abstruse combination of color and design of his sunglasses.

...

...why on Earth is Matt tilting is head as if he was looking up in the first panel? He cannot "look" at anything, he's totally blind! There's no reason for him to do that.
As for how his radar sense can detect ninjas that way... I'm leaving that to someone else to comment :p

All of it is mine now!

Previously, in the adventures of Lol-DD...
...

...and so it was when, one night, our hero burst into a typography office in Catalunya...

Lol-DD on a black Lamborghini

DD - Dangerous Derrières

Hola! I'm proud to announce that this year, F's Kitchen participates to the great kermesse declared every year this time of the year by Spanish comic book blogger Jotace: the Big Culo Day!

...

Which means, the Gran Day of Comic Book cu... no. the Great Dìa of Comic Book Ar.. hmm. no. The Big Ass of comique...
Aw, forget about it. Let us speak through images and asses, which are universal languages:

There are certain things you just can't go wrong with. One is Ed Benes drawing women's butts. Another is a good "framed between her legs" shot. And so, for starters, we have Daredevil's femme fatale par excellence:

I wouldn't want to be that ninja. Or maybe yes?
In any case, when you manage to take your eyes off such a fine example of Greek gluteus maximus, check out this Russian one, by Alex Maleev:

Black and explosive. Just the way I like it. I can't possibly imagine anything bett-


(...and the electric tape. All wrapped by it. Wow...)

That's all folks. Feliz Big Culo day to all! I hope you all survived through this entry ;) .

Thought no one would ever do this, huh?

Daredevil's Centrific Feats #5 - Die Hard

Some time ago, I was discussing with a friend the movie Spider-Man 2. The one featuring Doctor Octopus as main villain. In particular, we were agreeing on how nice the special effects were on that one, and how good the scenographers have been in conveying the feeling that...

... being hit by a flailing metallic tentacle gotta hurt a lot.

The above image is taken from DD vol.1 #165, penciled by Frank Miller and written by Miller himself in co-operation with Roger McKenzie. If memory serves, it is also the first issue with Miller as writer. I know this friend of mine really enjoyed this issue.
In it, Daredevil, at a pier, bursts into some smugglers, interrupting the operation of unloading of some crates containing adamantium. The thugs (who are the standard Miller-age goons type, i.e.: talkative lowlifes in undershirts, armed with chains and brass knuckles) fight back, but they are no match for Daredevil.
Suddenly, Otto Octavius appears. He takes DD by surprise, at the same time getting rid of the last thugs standing. Don't ask me how an overweight professor with long, heavy metallic appendages incorporated on him can possibly sneak up on a superhero who's got heightened senses and a radar working on 360 degrees, but he does.
With the intent of claiming that adamantium for himself, he battles DD, and after a brief struggle, he manages to seize him with two of those metallic arms of his. Instead of crushing his foe and calling it a night, he decides to drown him by holding him under the water, so that he can have the chance to go into "egocentric supervillain speech"-mode in the meantime.

There seems to be no hope for our hero. Even Spider-man, who has superhuman strength, can't normally break free from the hold of Doc Ock's tentacles.
Miller aptly accompanies this claustrophobic scene with a sequence of cluttered panels.
Knowing that there's no way to break that hold, our hero goes limp, and rations the oxygen in his lungs.

Whole minutes pass. The villain, certain that DD has drowned by then, lets go of his grip and goes away, having eliminated what to him was only a temporary nuisance.

Daredevil floats in the cold waters of the river, motionless. Hours later, he's found by a police squad. His body is totally inert. They believe him dead.
They are about to call the morgue, when, all of a sudden, he resuscitates. Shocked, an officer sees him getting up and invites him to take it easy, but the scarlet swashbuckler is already rushing away, already on the tracks of his enemy.
Running away, billy-club half extracted, ready to swing across the city. As if he had gotten up not from a near-death experience, but from a ten minute-nap.

At that sight, the astonished police lieutenant can only comment:

- The underworld calls him Daredevil. Now I know why.

Elsewhere, Octopus is in his hideout, stirring a cup of coffee (holding cup and teaspoon with his artificial arms, no less. Nice touch by Miller here). He has abducted Matt's then gilfriend, the rich heiress Heather Glenn, and, after having concluded another of his bloated talk-ins, he announces his intention to kill her.

His expression changes all of a sudden when the lights go off. Another nuisance to his brilliant plans. Undoubtedly a minor electronic malfunction.
Undoubtedly. And yet, what's that silhouette coming down on him?

"...I hold her some more while she sleeps"

"And for the first time in a long, long time... I pray."

Meanwhile, at a bar in Hell's Kitchen...

(I'm being a little busy right now, so I've arranged with lol-DD to keep you company. Thanks to Alice for the inspiration on this one!)