A Study in Scarlet

At Ryker’s Island, Felicia Hardy is told that she has a visitor. She is taken from her cell to a private interview room where lawyer Matt Murdock is waiting for her. He tells Felicia that his services have been retained by a mutual friend and he will be replacing the court-appointed attorney that was assigned to her case initially. He has spoken to the prosecutor and he knows the case that has been leveled against her. She has been accused of murdering Garrison Klum, a well known philanthropist while under the influence of heroin. The authorities found her passed out under Klum’s body covered in his blood. The new theory being posited by the prosecution is that Felicia was actually attempting to rob Klum. The mayor, who is up for re-election, is seeking the harshest penalty possible because he is up for re-election and is trying to appeal to his conservative base. However, Murdock is seeking to have Felicia’s past criminal history tossed out due to the fact that her priors were expunged after she turned over evidence on the underworld a few years back.[1] Although her ripped costume is evidence of sexual assault, Matt can’t present that as evidence since Felicia has refused a rape kit. When he asks her to reconsider, Felicia still refuses to undergo the process, insisting that she hadn’t been raped.

He tries to get her to understand that this may be the only way to help her trial as it creates a plausible self-defense defense. Felicia then asks Murdock if he had ever been raped before. She clarifies what she means: has he ever had someone force themselves onto him with force because they want to hurt, humiliate, and break him. When he doesn’t answer, Hardy says that wasn’t done to her and, pointing at the photo of Klum’s dead body, says that as much as she wanted to kill Garrison for attempting to rape her she wasn’t responsible for what happened. When he keeps on pushing the rape kit, Felicia insists that she didn’t get raped and she didn’t kill him and that his job is to exonerate her. This is enough for Matt, who gets up to leave when Felicia points out he didn’t introduce himself. He apologizes for his lack of manners and tells her his name is Matt Murdock.

When Matt returns to his law office he has to fight through a crowd of reporters who are still asking questions about the recent accusations that he is the crime fighter known as Daredevil.[2] There he is told that there is a teacher waiting for him in his office.[3] Entering the room, Matt pretends that he doesn’t know who Peter Parker is until he gets the door closed.[4] Once he is certain nobody can hear their conversation, Matt tells Peter that Felicia didn’t murder Klum, nor did he rape her. He also tells Peter that this doesn’t help her case because of her refusal to co-operate and fears that she might be in heavy denial over something, at the very least she is angry at someone and it’s certainly not Klum, and theorizes that she has some buried animosity toward someone. When Peter asks if he can visit her, Murdock advises against it since her arrest was high profile but offers to pass along a message to her. He warns her that this is going to be bigger than the White Tiger trial and,[5] for the sake of his secret identity, there can’t be any connection made between Peter Parker and Felicia Hardy, because people are going to remember that Spider-Man and the Black Cat used to date.[6] When Peter suggests they break Felicia out of prison, Matt points out how crazy that would be because it would further convince people that he’s actually Daredevil, despite the fact that it’s true, he doesn’t want people knowing for certain. That’s when Peter reminds Matt that he stood by when Daredevil proclaimed himself the new Kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen.[7] Peter manages to convince Matt that this is the right thing to do and that Felicia needs help right now.[8]

Later that evening, Spider-Man and Daredevil break into Ryker’s Island and discover the guards in Felicia’s cell block have been murdered. That’s when they find Felicia with Frances Klum, Garrison’s brother. She tells them to get away, but they refuse to leave her with Klum. Suddenly, Spider-Man and Daredevil start fighting with each other, unable to control their bodies. Felicia pleads with Frances to leave them alone and leave with her. He decides to listen to her and they both teleport away, revealing that Frances is a teleporter just like his brother. Falling to the ground, Spider-Man realizes that Frances also has the power of telepathy. as well.*

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Black Cat, Daredevil, Frances Klum, Foggy Nelson

Continuity Notes

1. This came in the form of a pardon obtained for Felicia by Jean DeWolff in Amazing Spider-Man #227. Matt states that this happened “a few years ago.” Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, Felicia’s pardon was granted roughly five years prior to this story (I am basing this on the publication date of the first three issues of Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do, since the release of this issue was delayed by three years, see below)

2. Here are some of the relevant questions asked by the horde of reports outside Murdock’s law office:

   • Is he Daredevil? Matt Murdock’s secret identity was leaked to the Daily Globe in Daredevil (vol. 2) #32. He has been denying these claims ever since.

   • How much is he paying Luke Cage? Luke Cage was hired on as Matt’s bodyguard when he wasn’t operating as Daredevil, partially to convince people he is Daredevil (because why would Daredevil need a bodyguard?) in Daredevil (vol. 2) #35

   • Is Black Widow your lover? Matt and the Black Widow did have a romance once upon a time that lasted from Daredevil #81 to 124.

3. At the time of this story, Peter was a teacher at Midtown High starting in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #31.

4. Matt and Peter have known each other’s secret identities since Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110.

5. The White Tiger trail Matt is referring to took place in Daredevil (vol. 2) #38-40. The White Tiger, aka Hector Ayala, was wrongfully convicted of murder and was gunned down trying to escape from police custody.

6. Spider-Man and the Black Cat dated from Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #73 to 100.

7. Daredevil declared himself the Kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen in Daredevil (vol. 2) #50 after defeating the Kingpin.

8. Peter brings up some of Daredevil’s more embarrassing moments:

   • He mentions the affair that Daredevil had with Typhoid Mary. That occurred from Daredevil #255 to 263.

   • The time that Matt Murdock faked his death. There were actually two different instances where Matt did this when people were getting close to connecting him to his alter-ego. The first time was in Daredevil #54 to 58, later telling the public that he faked his death to help Daredevil catch Mister Fear. The second time was in Daredevil #325 when a tabloid threatened to out his identity. This lasted until #345

   • The time that Matt posed as his own brother. This was another attempt to distance himself from his Daredevil identity. This was fairly early on in his career and it was his co-workers Foggy Nelson and Karen Page who were getting suspicious. To this end, Matt created the identity of Mike Murdock, Matt’s twin brother, to try and get his friends off the trail. Juggling three identities proved difficult and Matt faked “Mike’s” death, leading everyone to believe that a new Daredevil — trained by Mike — took his place. This happened in Daredevil #25 to 41.

   • Lastly, Peter mentions the time Daredevil was tricked into thinking he was protecting the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. This was all an elaborate trick played on him by Mysterio who later blew his own brains out when he couldn’t manipulate Daredevil into killing him after a terminal cancer diagnosis. This happened in Daredevil (vol. 2) #1-7.

Topical References

• Matt Murdock states that the mayor is going to be seeking a capital conviction. This should be considered a topical reference as the death penalty in New York State was abolished in 2004.

Errors

• At the end of this issue, Spider-Man states that Frances Klum must be telekinetic. This is not correct as Spider-Man and Daredevil were forced to fight each other against their will. Telekinesis is the ability to move objects with one mind. What Frances is doing here — bending the wills of others with his thoughts — is actually telepathy. This proper terminology for Klum’s abilities is used after this issue.

A Small Bit of Background About This Issue….

Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do was written by Kevin Smith who, if you’ve been living in a cave forever, is a filmmaker who has a huge love for comic books (which if you’ve ever seen AMC’s Comic Book Men, it should be obvious) In the early 2000s both Marvel and DC gave him opportunities to write for them. Some of his more notable runs was his work on Green Arrow which saw the return of Oliver Queen (who had been dead for years at the time Smith took on the title) as well as his work on Daredevil (in which he wrote a story where Mysterio blows his fucking brains out) Most of his work in comics after the fact has been panned, either they were poorly written (such as the case with Batman: The Winding Gyre) or they were notoriously delayed.

In the case of his work at Marvel Comics, Kevin Smith was working on Spider-Man/Black Cat as well as a Daredevil/Bullseye limited series for the Marvel Knights imprint at the time. However, the titles went on a hiatus when he started working on the film Jersey Girl (not one of his best films either) This happened after issue #3 of the Spider-Man/Black Cat series which ended in a cliffhanger. This naturally upset fans who wanted to know how this ended. Instead of having a different writer finish off the title, Marvel decided to wait until Smith was available which didn’t happen until 2006, three years after the last issue was published. Since people still gave a shit about the outcome of this series, Smith was allowed to finish it. The Daredevil.Bullseye series on the other hand wasn’t so lucky. Only one issue was published, it ended on a cliffhanger and as I write this (August 2020) Marvel has not indicated any interest in publishing the rest of that title.

At any rate, even though it was published three years after the fact, the last three issues of this mini-series is an immediate continuation of the first three issues, as such it’s placement on the Sliding Timescale of the Marvel Universe places it in “Year 11” of the Modern Age with most other 2002 publications instead of “Year 12” as much 2006 publications.