Daredevil (1964 series) #196

A man runs through the hospital, frantically yelling that there’s a bomb set to go off! The man is knocked out by Wolverine who surmises that the man would only know that if he set the bomb! Wolverine then makes his way to the fifth floor where three masked guys are trying to escape with the still immobile Bullseye. They shoot Wolverine, and he wakes up later none the worse for wear. Daredevil arrives and they get acquainted. Wolverine mentions he got a call informing him that a crew of Japanese criminals were planning to abscond with Bullseye and thinks they may also be connected to the people who grafted his bones with adamantium. Since Wolverine knows Japan and Daredevil knows the New York crime scene, the two decide to work together for the time being. First stop: Josie’s!

Meanwhile, the head of the Japanese outfit, named Lord Dark Wind, meets with Kingpin, asking for his help. The Kingpin agrees to provide muscle in order to help them get Bullseye to Japan where they hope to reconstruct his shattered spine. At Josie’s, Turk is showing Grotto a new spray weapon he got to deal with Daredevil. One spray, and it’ll leave anyone gasping, choking, and temporarily blind! Daredevil arrives just then and offers him to just try it. Just when Turk is about to spray Daredevil, DD opens the door and the resulting wind blows the spray right back in Turk’s face! Now the one gasping and choking, Turk tells them that the Japanese are planning to escape on a ship called the Osama Maru at the pier. Wolverine threatens to come back and carve Turk up if they find out he’s lying. Before they proceed further, Wolverine stops to call his initial informant, who turns out to be Tarkington Brown. Wolverine tells Brown everything they’ve learned so far.

Daredevil notes who Wolverine was talking with and tells him what happened last issue with the death squad. The two reach the pier but see no sign of anyone. On the ship, Lord Dark Wind tells Bullseye his plans, to travel to Japan to replace his broken bones with adamantium. Then, he’ll have Bullseye train his men and kill for him. Daredevil and Wolverine step foot on the pier and find themselves surrounded by the Kingpin’s loaned men. The two take on the men in their own ways while Lord Dark Wind watches from the ship, feeling regret he won’t be able to recruit the two of them. After having been holding back, Wolverine finally pops his claws to deal with their enemies more lethally, as they note the ship is starting to depart.

During the scuffle, Tarkington Brown arrives in order to shoot Daredevil while he’s distracted. Before he can, Brown is severely wounded by Wolverine and Daredevil decries Wolverine’s use of deadly force. Wolverine runs off to chase down the last few guys leaving Daredevil with a dying Brown. Daredevil contemplates what to do, leave Brown to die or hop aboard the escaping ship to get Bullseye back. He reasons that Brown is going to die soon anyway and would probably deserve this fate. Even still, Daredevil finds himself unable to let Brown die here and rushes him to a hospital. There, Brown notes how he’s going to recover, likely just in time to die anyway. Daredevil leaves, not feeling all too broken up about that. Finally, Matt heads to the airport, and requests a ticket to go to Japan! To be continued!