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The ninja organization, led by Lord Hirochi, has in fact temporarily withdrawn their agents, to travel to Europe and enact another part of their as of yet undisclosed plans...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