Daredevil #99

Daredevil #99
The big revelation came so far out of left field that it meant nothing to me! I had to wikipedia it, and afterwards, it still meant nothing to me. There were no hints that this character would be coming back, and no good reason for him to do so. The character hasn't been featured in the pages of Daredevil since volume 1, #315, all the way back in 1993. Sure, he appeared in 2004-05's little-read Secret War, but again, nobody read that. Sure, he was shown breaking out of the Raft back at the beginning of New Avengers, but so many of those who escaped have failed to resurface that it's ludicrous that this particular villain should - and should have garnered enough influence to screw with Daredevil's neighborhood in such a manner, and ludicrous again that he should have such a personal vendetta against Daredevil, after all these years. And that was a different person!!! There have been four individuals to wear the persona of this particular villain, and the one who's actually featured in this book hasn't been seen forever (1995?)! Probably because there are major continuity problems regarding his continued existence.
Ah, to hell with it. I can't critique this book well without spoiling it.













It's Larry Cranston.
Not ringing any bells?
Mister Fear.
Still nothing?
You're not alone.
This character also has major continuity problems which have, apparently, never been addressed. For example:
How did Cranston, who was so dead that his nephew Fagan inherited his Fear get-up and made pilgrimages to his crypt, manage to survive a fall to his apparent death, land a teaching position at a major university despite being publicly known as the third Mr. Fear, hang on to the position long enough to become a full-fledged professor, and then graduate to doing TV commentary in New York without Matt Murdock noticing and saying, "hey, that's my old school buddy, the one who tried to kill me and Natasha when we all lived in San Francisco!"
See? It's stupid.
Shame on you, Brubaker, I expected more.
Plus, this issue's pretty weak. The only good part is where Daredevil beats on some thugs, and that's just one page.

And then Milla kills a man. Actually, she tried to kill Lily Lucca. You know? The lady with the pheromone powers? Or whatever? Yeah, she tries to push Lily in front of a train. But Lily's fall is blocked by some poor guy who takes the fall instead. Right as the train comes. How in the world did the wonderful Devil in Cellblock D ever turn into this tripe? AWFUL. Just AWFUL. This title has gotten progressively worse. It's time to get back to basics already, if this is the best Brubaker can do.