Daredevil - The Man Without Fear #223: The Price

Writers: Denny O'Neil and Jim Shooter
Pencils: David Mazzucchelli

I don't think we've had one of these yet - a Secret Wars II crossover which actually features the Beyonder as one of the main characters.

As a result, this is a stronger story. The Beyonder has already taken-over the world by just using his near-omnipotent power to force everyone's will into submission. However that was too easy, so he's undone it again. (hope noone on Earth collects newspapers) Now he's limiting himself to taking it over legally, hoping that there will this time emerge some sense of satisfaction from the challenge.

Blind superhero Daredevil, in his alter ego of attorney Matt Murdoch, wants no part of representing him, so the Beyonder makes him an offer he can't refuse, even with free will.

Yup, the Beyonder heals his sight.

Matt spends an incomprehensible day drinking-in all the sights of everyday life in New York that he has been robbed of since childhood. This time it's different though. With the wisdom and experience of years he is now able to perceive things that passed him by as a kid - specifically its beauty.

Alas, Matt's convictions are so strong that he still refuses to help the Beyonder, even though he's not even sure why he feels that to do so would be wrong. That's no problem says the Beyonder, and lets him keep his sight anyway as a gift, but Matt still refuses. So the Beyonder finds something else that Matt can accept it as a payment for. Nup.

Matt's real hang-up is that his sight is so precious to him, that it has the power to compromise anything else in his life. That might come to include compromising his sense of justice. He deems that idea too big a risk, and threatens to sue the Beyonder unless he removes it again.

It's an agonising ending. Who among us doesn't want Matt to get his sight back again? Yet the guy's commitment to right and wrong emphasises just what makes him the hero inside that he is.

For a 'man without fear', he seems just a tad afraid of losing that.