Page 45 Review by Stephen
The two gaze out to sea in the downpour, the tiny girl and the big burly man barely covered by her umbrella.
"It's beautiful... no? But it does require you to appreciate the rain sometimes as well. Here... please... take it. I have, myself, personally always loved the rain. See? Beautiful."
"Yes... I suppose it is."
"I knew you could not actually be sneering at the ocean. I'm sorry, my English is not yet too good."
"You do just fine, actually."
"I'm Marta. I saw you in the village the previous week."
"Call me Wilson."
"Wilson? You are American, yes?"
"I was, but don't hold it against me. I never voted."
"Well, shame on you, then, Mister Wilson."
"Yes, I suppose so."
Lord, but David Aja and Michael Lark do a mean coastal rain. Here’s a voice-over:
"Happiness is always so fragile. The unhappy aren't raised knowing this, of course, and the happy simply forget. But you know. Because it feels foreign, just like its companion... fear. Walking hand in hand. That's how you know you're happy. Because every evening as you walk to Marta's house, you worry... You walk faster as you go... You expect to see flames... You expect death... You expect a squad of mafia soldiers... You expect the worst... And every night you are wrong."
“"What is it, Wilson? Did you run here?"
All Wilson Fisk wanted to do was disappear. He promised to do so and now more than ever that he has found love in Spain, he does not want to be found. But someone just has to go and wake the giant up, don’t they?
The first chapter here was the finest issue in Brubaker's run, and this is its conclusion which leaves the status quo as radically redefined as Bendis did.
Matt's made some crazy decisions of late, but not as crazy as the way in which he greets Wilson Fisk's return to America. He didn't have many friends left and now he has one fewer. But perhaps he's gained a new ally in Mister Izo, the long-lived associate of Matt's sensei Stick, a boozy but brilliant practitioner of the martial arts and the perfect puncture to Matt's self-pity. Over the rooftops in the snow they will now wage a war. A final war between The Hand and Lady Bullseye, The Kingpin and The Owl, with Iron Fist, Dakota North, the new Tarantula and White Tiger all caught in the middle. And then there is the not inconsiderable matter of Matt's wife Milla:
"I'm sorry I loved you... Sorry you loved me..."
Everyone's going to be sorry in the end.
