Daredevil Villains #73: Project Reptile
DAREDEVIL #236 (November 1986)
“American Dreamer”
Writer: Ann Nocenti
Penciller, co-inker: Barry Windsor-Smith
Co-inker: Bob Wiacek
Colourist: Max Scheele
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Editor: Ralph Macchio
“Born Again” completely upended the series. By the end, Matt has lost his licence to practice law and started a new life in Hell’s Kitchen as a diner chef, happily reunited with Karen Page for a fresh start. Oh, and the star name creators from “Born Again” have left. So how do you follow that?
Well, this is Daredevil, so the short-term answer is “with fill-in stories”. The first two don’t concern us. Issue #234, by the improbable creative team of Mark Gruenwald, Steve Ditko and Klaus Janson, features Madcap (from Captain America) and the Rose (from Amazing Spider-Man). Issue #235 is a Mr Hyde story by Danny Fingeroth, Steve Ditko and Danny Bulandi. Both acknowledge the new status quo, but don’t really attempt to do anything with it.
That brings us to issue #236, by the book’s new regular writer Ann Nocenti and guest artist Barry Windsor-Smith. Nocenti was the editor of Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants at this point, and would remain so for another couple of years. As well as various fill-ins and anthology contributions, she’d written the final four issues of Spider-Woman, the Dazzler/Beast miniseries Beauty and the Beast and one of her signature works, the Longshot miniseries. Daredevil was her first substantial run on an ongoing title, and turned out to be by far her longest run on any book.
Charts – 27 February 2026
It’s a quiet week for new entries, but we do at least have some songs making a march towards the top of the chart.
1. Sam Fender & Oliva Dean – “Rein Me In”
Second week and somehow, after all this time, it’s actually continuing to grow. Once again, if it wasn’t for the downweighting rule, the rightful number 1 would be Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need’ (by a wide margin). And once again, the official number 2 is another Olivia Dean single, “So Easy (To Fall In Love)”.
The top end of the chart actually has quite a bit of activity this week, but not in terms of new entries.
23. Twenty One Pilots – “Drag Path”
This is a new mix of a track that was previously released as an exclusive for purchasers of a digital album. It seems to be a different mix in an attempt to square the demand for wider release with a desire to honour the original promotion of the track as exclusive. Reportedly the original version is better.
The X-Axis – 25 February 2026
INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #2. (Annotations here.) Okay, so this is going pretty well so far. Cable’s got an ulterior motive for putting the team together, but it’s mainly just to figure out which team member needs to be saved from themselves. Boom-Boom not being able to get her head round the fact that the villains are younger than her these days is a cute angle. And Ms Marvel seems to be here to provide a contrast with everyone else – the point is for her to drag the team in her direction, not the other way round. Tim Seeley’s reference point is the original X-Force, after all, and they weren’t especially grimdark at all – that only became the norm in the Kyle/Yost era where nobody seemed able to find a lightswitch. The original X-Force was pretty much technicolour. This is a bit more restrained, but it’s still far from bleak. Hellverine is as grim as it gets, and this issue seems to exist mainly to establish early that he’s not going to be the killer – though I’m not entirely sold on bringing in the Blasphemy Cult as doomsday cult villains, which does drag us a bit in the downbeat direction. Still, having them call up old folklore monsters to fight for them is kind of fun, and Michael Sta. Maria gives them the right balance of backwoods extremists and actual magicians. Pretty solid.
SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE #10. By Marc Guggenheim, Gerardo Sandoval, Victor Nava, Brian Reber & Travis Lanham. Final issue. I honestly don’t know what to make of the farewell message from Marc Guggenheim, which says that “in these ten issues, we have something very rare for comics these days: a consistent creative team”. Uh, Kaare Andrews drew six issues and Gerardo Sandoval drew four, and they don’t even look much alike. In fact, Sandoval wound up drawing the last two issues. I guess you can make the case that at least they consistently had the same fill-in artist, but come on now.
Inglorious X-Force #2 annotations
INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #2
“Hunter of Lost Souls”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Michael Sta. Maria
Colour artist: Romulo Fajardo Jr
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER: X-Force (minus Ms Marvel) square off against… well, a thing in shadow with claws and stuff.
X-FORCE:
Cable. As explained last issue, he’s convinced that one of Archangel, Hellverine or Boom-Boom killed Kamala in last issue’s future timeline (though quite why he’s so convinced still isn’t clear). He’s certain that Kamala is the “last best hope for mutantkind” and is hoping to find a solution that doesn’t involve killing any of them. He seems to be hoping to find out not just who kills Kamala but why, and to be trying to influence the team to steer all three of them away from killing her.
He claims that Cyclops and Rogue don’t know about the Blasphemy Cartel’s anti-mutant weapon and that even if they did, they’d dither instead of doing anything about it. That seems a questionable claim for Cyclops in particular, but that’s what Cable claims. However, Cable also seems to know that if he frees Anielle from the Cartel (see below) then she’ll answer a question for him as a favour.
Charts – 20 February 2026
Alright, then – it’s Monday, I’m still running late, let’s run through this.
1. Sam Fender & Olivia Dean – “Rein Me In”
This has been on the chart since last June, and managed to cling on at the bottom end of the top 40 even during Christmas. The height of Christmas aside, it’s been in the top 10 since November. Despite all that, it’s not quite a default number 1 – somehow, it’s managed to avoid the downweighting rule even after all this time. This is actually the highest weekly consumption it’s ever recorded.
The X-Axis – 22 February 2026
Well, it’s late, and I’m behind schedule, so we’ll see if we can take these fairly quickly.
X-MEN #25. (Annotations here.) Ostensibly this is the X-Men hunting for Revelation, but they don’t really get far with it. So in practice it’s an issue of the X-Men beating up Fenris and their white supremacist pals, plus the reveal of O*N*E’s new leader and a back-up strip with Beast making contact with 3K. I’ve never found Fenris especially interesting – they basically exist to look smug and get beaten up – but hey, maybe in 2026 that’s a worthwhile role. It does ring a little odd, though, to bring in the Crimson Commando as the jingoistic new O*N*E commander and have him publicly condemn Nazis, even for show. Is this guy a Democrat? That aside, though, I don’t mind the idea of retooling the Crimson Commando into this role, even if it rather ignores the fact that he mellowed quickly from his first appearance. I have no basic problem with the idea of a mutant who thinks of himself as American first and foremost and sees everyone who decamped for Krakoa as a traitor to the nation; that seems like something you can do with. For the Beast back-up… well, the 3K/MMM wordplay isn’t really strong enough to work as a reveal, but I’m glad we’re getting to the point of having the two Beasts interact, and I’m pleased we’re not just doing it behind the team’s back.
UNCANNY X-MEN #24. (Annotations here.) What a weird arc. We’re doing fifties throwback with Marvel’s monster movie character and, quite separately, the Rawhide Kid, and what he’s doing in this story is anyone’s guess. It’s presumably tying together somehow, but I don’t find the Legion of Monsters particularly intriguing in themselves, and for the moment this feels more like a bunch of imported concepts that have no apparent connection to the X-Men. Since it’s Gail Simone, she gets the benefit of the doubt that it’ll come together in the end, but I’m kind of puzzled by it right now. Lovely art from David Marquez, of course, who seems to be enjoying the guests; any issue he’s drawing is always going to look good.
Generation X-23 #1 annotations
GENERATION X-23 #1
“A Numbers Game”
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Jacopo Camagni
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER: Wolverine (Laura) and Scout fight robot Wolverines.
This book is effectively the continuation of Laura Kinney: Wolverine with a new creative team. A group of new X-numbers is being added to the cast, but they don’t make much more than a cameo in this issue, so for the moment this is effectively still Laura’s book.
WOLVERINE:
To be honest, there’s not a huge amount to say about this first issue, annotations-wise. Naturally enough, Laura is still dutifully protecting mutants from mobs, and working with her sister Scout. She still regards Kiden Nixon as her oldest and best friend and breaks off to investigate when she thinks Kiden might be in the area – however, the possible romantic angle in NYX seems to have been quietly dropped. When she concludes that other mutants are being created from mutant DNA in the same way that she was, she’s immediately keen to stop more people from being treated like weapons and sets off to deal with it.
Wolverine #16 annotations
WOLVERINE vol 8 #16
“Cardiac Arrest”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Mike Henderson
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER: Alpha Flight stand over a defeated Wolverine.
WOLVERINE: Department H’s device, designed to give him a heart attack when remotely activated, actually works. Quite why they needed biodata to create it isn’t clear – don’t Department H already have records of him? Maybe it got conveniently wiped somewhere along the line. Wolverine believes that this device can actually kill him, but the control unit gets destroyed before he finds out.
Mehta mentions a “special detention order” for Logan, and implies that she expects him to serve Canada. He still sees her as a basically decent person who’s too willing to follow orders; his instinct that she has reservations about them seems to be correct.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Silver Sable. She escapes when Alpha Flight have to break off to keep Vindicator in line. In the way of these things, she does much better against her more powerful opponent when she has time to prepare.
Uncanny X-Men #24 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #24
“Where Monsters Dwell, part two”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: Morbius, about to bite Jubilee.
THE X-MEN:
Rogue. We get a flashback to her watching old monster movies on TV as a kid; she says she finds the Legion of Monsters scary as a result, but also recognises that the X-Men are acting weirdly in this issue – Jubilee isn’t fighting back properly, at least at first, and the group allow themselves to fight separately instead of working as a team. So everyone’s behaviour (in the core team) should be taken with a degree of caution. Their opponents in the Legion of Monsters are out of character to carying degrees as well.
Wolverine. Rogue thinks he’s a bit more violent than usual here, though it’s not really outside normal parameters for him – more a slight throwback to earlier days. An attack on his carotid artery can cause him to bleed out enough to remove him from the fight temporarily. Somehow – presumably because of the bite – he apparently gets turned into a werewolf.
X-Men vol 7 #25
X-MEN vol 7 #25
“Involved Again”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Tony Daniel
Inker: Mark Morales
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The new leader of O*N*E in silhouette, with the X-Men viewed through sniper scopes behind him.
This is an anniversary issue (aside from the current numbering, it also has legacy number #325), which means we get a normal length story plus a five-page back-up strip.
THE X-MEN:
As usual, our field team is Cyclops, Kid Omega, Juggernaut, Psylocke, Temper and Magik. Cyclops’ top priority is for them to find Revelation and make sure that the “Age of Revelation” timeline is averted. (Beast points out that driving Revelation away from the X-Men may have made this more difficult, but on the other hand, it also creates a deviation from the history of the “Age of Revelation” timeline.)
In practice, they don’t get very far with their mission this time – on their way to Rio Verde, they run into Fenris and their white supremacist followers and have a fight with them instead. As you might expect, the X-Men take particular pleasure in defeating and humiliating these guys.
