Publication date December 2015 – May 2016 Main character(s) DaredevilFoggy NelsonThe Hand | ||
"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.
Contents
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! But he's not actually working for Tenfingers because he wants to, he's only doing it' to find out more about Tenfingers, and how to stop him.
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 convinces 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!
The night after; Samuel changes into Blindspot again and goes on the rooftops to find Daredevil in the spot he told him, so they can do some training, while Daredevil is frustrated and thinking to himself about Billy Li getting his fingers cut off, and how he could have stopped it' if he hadn't allowed himself to be distracted!
During training with Blindspot he rips out the transistor on his suit giving invisibility, demonstrating on how to fight and telling him that he can't just rely on his suit alone for protection in battle and needs to use his mind to help him adapt. But Blindspot can sense his frustration and asks what's wrong, but Daredevil doesn't tell him much to protect his secret; despite that Blindspot tells him his own problems with Tenfingers and how he's messing up Chinatown, hurting people he knows, doing terrible things and that he became Blindspot so he could do something about it and stop him!
Daredevil realizes that he's right and not been doing a good job being a mentor to him; at the same moment' Blindspot tells Daredevil that Tenfingers has special powers, and anyone working for and proves themselves to him will be rewarded with power themselves making them stronger in the process. Daredevil realizes this is the reason why the thugs he encountered later in the week could fight like professional martial artists and why Tenfingers managed to build up his own church so quickly.
Blindspot also tells him that he plans on going down to the church right now and finally take down Tenfingers. Daredevil understands and joins to help him. When they make their way across and break into the church unnoticed; they see Tenfingers magically giving power to 2 more of his men Onehand and Nonefingers. Daredevil soon realizes the source of his power and immediately jumps in and tells Tenfingers to stop! while also telling him he knows how he got his powers and warns him that the people he stole it from will be hunting him down to take it back!
At that moment, Onehand and Nonefingers are both shot in the chest with arrows by none other than The Hand!, who say they will take back what was stolen from them!
Daredevil tries telling Tenfingers to get his people out and run; but Tenfingers assures him that his subjects can handle it. He orders his elite guards The Eights to fight The Hand ninjas, while Daredevil reluctantly decides to stay and fight; not for Tenfingers sake' but to make sure no one gets killed in the fighting, along with Blindspot joining in the battle too. During the fight, one of the ninjas tells Daredevil that Tenfingers was one of them, but then betrayed them; and says The Hand will kill anyone who stands with him.
The situation quickly explodes into a massive brawl between The Hand, Tenfingers men, plus Daredevil & Blindspot. But then The Hand decide to retreat and pull away in smoke pellets' with Tenfingers telling his followers that everything's alright now, and also telling Daredevil that he knew there was no real danger, his people protected him because they trust Tenfingers as he promised to protect them in return. Daredevil tries warning Tenfingers people otherwise and that The Hand doesn't give up, but they don't believe him' while Tenfingers tells him to believe what he wants, and that he forgives his doubt. After that Daredevil and Blindspot simply decide to leave.
Later that night, Daredevil meets up with Blindspot again on a rooftop explaining about The Hand, and how Tenfingers must've got his powers from them. He also notices that Blindspot got hurt in the fight; he gives him the number to Linda Carter, one of the Night Nurses for superheroes.
The next morning, Matt goes in to see superior Mr. Hochberg at The Manhattan District Attorney's office, he explains to Matt about his disappointment in his actions on the case against Tenfingers' with Matt failing to produce any real evidence to indict him and shut down his church, and how he failed to protect Billy Li from getting attacked by Tenfingers men. He also told Matt that until further developments' he'll have to have Matt assigned to ECAB night court cases instead; and dismissed him.
Matt ponders about how things have spun out of control, and how he's supposed to be Daredevil while now being assigned to working night cases at the same time. At that moment Ellen King walks by and tells Matt she's been looking for him and leads him to his next client - who turns out to be none other than Tenfingers himself!
Together they sit down at Matt's table shake hands while Tenfingers introduces himself and tells Matt about clearing up a misunderstanding, with Matt thinking he's "some sort of villain".
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