The only time I tolerated his work was when Dick Giordano inked it in issue 102. His layouts were the problem. 

Amazing Spider-Man #71

Script-Stan Lee, Layouts/Finishes-John Romita Sr./Jim Mooney

Spider-Man is wanted by the police for causing Jonah to have an attack after losing his cool and threatening him, and being framed by The Kingpin for a crime in the previous issue. Quicksilver, looking to prove that he's a good guy to the Avengers after his alliance with Magneto, decides to capture Spidey. They have a misunderstanding fight, and then patch things up.



On the subplot side of things, with Jonah in the hospital, Robbie takes over as acting editor of the Bugle. He buys photos from Peter proving that the Kingpin was guilty and not Spider-Man, paying him more than Jonah usually does. There's a funny scene where we see Jonah reacting to this in the hospital.

The Toad and the Scarlet Witch also appear in a flashback scene where they are shown hanging around with Quicksilver. The Toad seems to have completely abadoned his loyalty to Magneto and become friends with the twins.



All in all, it's classic Spidey. Cool superhero plot, interesting focus on sub-plots and the supporting cast members, and nice Romita/Mooney art.

Several months earlier, in Avengers #53 (the conclusion to an Avengers-X-Men multi-issue crossover arc), the Toad rebelled against Magneto. Here are the last two pages of Avengers #53's story:




After Avengers #53 Wanda and Pietro were MIA (except for a couple of Avengers pin-ups), so when they popped up in ASM #71 I was mighty relieved that Marvel hadn't forgotten about them!

I know, right?
Pencils by Big John Buscema, inks by George Tuska.

Yeah, what a convenient plot-driven coincidence!!!

Perhaps Toad isn't all that big on metallurgy and just means the ship isn't made of steel. It could be mostly built out of aluminium and lithium (to make it lighter) or titanium (to make it more solid). Or he simply noticed that Magneto couldn't levitate it or something, and assumed it must be made of plastic.

Or... the writer just needed an excuse for Magneto to fall down without having to shell out no-prizes!

I read Daredevil #351-364, which is the remainder of the Daredevil Epic Collection vol. 20: Purgatory & Paradise TPB that I had started.

Daredevil #351 and #352 are a couple of fill-ins to bridge the gap between the DeMatteis run and the Kesel run. Shawn McManus draws both with John Rozum writing the first and Ben Raab. They're both remarkable, but the #351 is a bit better. Unfortunately, someone working on #351 didn't realize Turk is African-American. I believe Mastermind has two daughters who have been villains, one of whom shows up in #352. It's a bad fit, and Raab uses the bad move of having a random villain know the heroes identity out of nowhere. The ending is also nonsensical.

That leads me to a run I actually read most of when it came out: the Karl Kesel/Cary Nord run. After DeMatteis put an end to the Jack Batlin era, Kesel established the new old status quo. Matt is now known to be alive. His explanation is that Nick Fury directed him to fake his death to hide out from the Kingpin. Matt and Foggy are partners again. Matt and Karen are an item, although that part began with DeMatteis. It has a retro feel. DD is wisecracking like in the Silver Age, and a lot of the jokes are actually funny. He doesn't suffer nearly as much as he often does. There's not nearly so much peril. A lot of the villains are classics, but not necessarily folks with a long track record with DD.

But there are some changes. We get some new supporting cast members, including attorney Rosalind Sharpe who plays an antagonistic role in the Matt Murdock scenes as domineering new senior partner. Misty Knight is a recurring character, and Liz Allan is a potential love interest for Foggy Nelson. We get an actual legal dilemma as Matt defends Mister Hyde in court. After spending much of Chichester run as an anti-porn activist, most of the Kesel run features Karen searching for and getting a paying job. There's a big fake-out, but one of the highlights of the run is an issue (#359) that centers on Karen at her job. She uses the name Paige Angel, a bit of a counterpoint to Daredevil.

It doesn't the avalanche of guest stars to goose sales that we saw in the latter Chichester/McDaniel period, but we do have a couple references to larger Marvel Universe events. There's a Ben Reilly Spider-Man guest appearance. In a post-Onslaught, Black Widow is troubled by the weight of the Avengers' apparent deaths. Also, Kesel gets creative in showing how the disappearance of other heroes impacts DD.

Cary Nord has a very distinctive style. I don't know quite to describe it. It's not photo-realistic, but it's a bit closer to that on the continuum than it is to the cartoony. He's very good at both the action sequences and especially the normal Matt Murdock scenes and inter-personal interactions. He gives Karen Page some very mid-90s styling. He was very early in his career and an interview in the end matter mentions how fought deadlines as he entered the business. Maybe that's why a couple issues have half the pages drawn by guest pencilers (Steve Epting and Rick Leonardi). Also, a couple issues credit other artists with layouts. Those issues don't actually look different from Nord's other issues to me, either in rendering or how the pages are laid out.

I wish Kesel and Nord had more time to develop what they working. But reading the run, I think I can guess at why it only lasted about a year. It moves at a leisurely pace and it seems like Kesel is slowly building up the new status quo. The peril is momentary and not very grievous. It's not all flowers and sunshine though, as Hyde comes across as a disturbing character. We don't get big cover-labeled events. Rather, than high profile guest stars, it's more of an economical deployment of less prominent characters associated with other titles, like Liz Allan, Misty Knight, and the Molten Man. As much as I like Nord's art, it's a contrast to 90s Image-type superhero art.