Powerless #3

Story Details

At Watts' apartment, Logan shows up. He has his mechanical claw devices strapped on and makes to kill William. Watts talks him round and Logan comes out of his hypnotic-type state. Watts tells him that he appeared to be under some sort of mental control and suggests that he (Watts) will lie low and let Logan's handlers believe he is dead.

Murdock arrives back home in his apartment but it has been trashed.

In Watts' office, Peter Parker is talking to Watts. He tells him he is worried about Norman Osborn but stops short of the whole tale as he sees an unmarked van outside and thinks 'they' may be listening in. Pete says he's tired of being a victim and the doctor warns him about doing something rash. We get the old power/responsibility line and Pete says that even though he doesn't have any power, he's going to take responsibility for himself.

Outside and Pete opens the back doors of the unmarked van. He tells the two people with satellite listening equipment that they should go back and tell their boss (Osborn) he should talk to Tony Stark directly if he wants to know what's going on.

Murdock is in the gym, boxing with Foggy... except that it's not Foggy. The assailant batters Murdock, then tells him he better check on Karen in the hospital. Murdock does... she's been murdered. Poison of some sort was injected into her drip. A bald guy leads Matt away and they drive off. The bald guy dumps Matt in a field in the middle of nowhere.

At Osborn's, Norman is worried about his oncoming schizophrenia. He is called into another office where Henry Pym tells him all their research on project Juggernaut has been hacked. There is a calling card from the hacker that reads: "Norman. The Spider bites back. Have a nice day."

Peter has hacked his computer. Osborn tells Pym to take no further action... he's going to deal with it by himself.

Matt is absent from the court.

Back at the bar from the end of book 2, Mystique realises Weapon X (Logan) has been compromised when he doesn't respond to hr codeword. She goes outside and phones 'Erik'. She is instructed to kill him but, as she pulls out a gun, we hear that 'Snikt' noise.

As Watts is walking to his appointment with Dr Banner, he stumbles across Matt Murdock slumped in an alley.

General Comments

The first thing you notice is that the cover is very DareDevil-esque - it even has "No Man's Without Fear' as its tagline. Again, things are brewing nicely but it's hard to get too into the book as you get the feeling it will work better down the line as a TPB, as opposed to six individual issues.

The line about Pete taking responsibility is quite corny but the way he fights back, without any powers, is a nice touch and shows the way the book is going. Pete still has the edge to stand up for himself and others in trouble regardless of whether or not he has any powers. There's a few discrepancies around Murdock - I'm sure he would have known it wasn't his partner he was boxing, blind or not. It's also a major coincidence that Watts just stumbled across him on the final page.

That aside, though, it's another very promising issue. Let's just hope the payoff makes it all worthwhile.

Overall Rating

Building up nicely.