At her new agency, the
Black Widow is given a briefing on a process to inhibit someone’s emotions,
memories, their very humanity, in order to maximize their ruthless efficiency.
The process was used on a soldier named Agent Jack Hazzard, in order to craft
him into the perfect soldier. However, after the incident with Nuke (in DD
#232-233), Agent Hazzard started to worry that he would go down the same path,
and his conditioning started to fail. All of his emotions, memories, and
traumas came flooding back. Fearing he will be a danger to himself and others,
becoming the very thing he fears, Black Widow is tasked with tracking him down
and either killing him or convincing him to end things himself. She’s warned
that he may likely be suffering hallucinations and as she exits, she’s forced
to endure the mocking jeers of her peers.
As people light
Independence Day fireworks outside, Agent Hazzard sits in a small bar,
reflecting on his news clippings of the Nuke incident, determining never to
kill again. The bartender recognizes him as someone she went to high school
with, and admits she used to have a crush on him. As she continues to talk,
Agent Hazzard begins to feel sick and hallucinate, the effects of his
conditioning starting to kick back in. He sees her as the doctor that worked on
him and runs out after terrifying the poor bartender. Outside, he runs into a
guy selling fireworks and envisions him as the doctor too. As things escalate,
the guy suddenly starts to have a heart attack as all of his fireworks go off
haphazardly! Not far away, Daredevil hears the commotion and swings over to
investigate, just as Hazzard runs off, realizing he’s to blame! Daredevil
chastises himself for being too late to make a difference, when Natasha finds
him in the crowd. They head back to Matt’s place, where she tells him
everything about her mission to track down Hazzard. After some reluctance, she
agrees to let Matt help her track Hazzard down.
Meanwhile, Hazzard heads
to his mother’s place, where she’s overjoyed to see her son again. They’re then
joined by her nephew Tommy and says that he wants to be just like Jack when he
grows up, a real solider! As Hazzard’s hallucinations continue, he starts to
feel despondent, until his mother feels a sudden murmur in her heart. It passes
as he embraces her. As Daredevil and Black Widow make their way to find
Hazzard, Hazzard spends time with Tommy, trying to teach him how to be a good
soldier. Getting more and more unhinged, Hazzard gives his gun to Tommy and
tells him to point it at him and be ready to shoot! Outside, Natasha reveals
that part of Hazzard’s conditioning allows him to give people heart attacks!
Agent Hazzard keeps rambling more and more, making less and less sense, coming
to the conclusion that the sanctioned killing of a soldier is just cold-blooded
murder when you’re back home.
Daredevil and Black Widow
scour through the wreckage of Nuke’s attack, still there after all these
months, until they reach Hazzard’s mother’s building. Hazzard surprises them,
attacking Black Widow, before seeing Daredevil gives him pause. Seeing Daredevil
as the actual devil, he attacks Matt, and Matt is forced to retaliate.
Daredevil lashes out at Natasha, realizing that she knew the effect seeing him
would have on Hazzard, as a religious man! Hazzard then reaches out with his
ability and starts to give Matt a heart attack! Natasha strikes back at Hazzard
while Matt fights through the pain, before she’s eventually able to knock him
out briefly. She discovers that Hazzard had a gun the whole time and grabs it,
before he springs awake again and grabs her by the neck! He suddenly snaps out
of it, realizing who they are, and says that he just wants what everyone wants,
to come home to a wife and child. Daredevil tries to talk Widow out of killing
Hazzard, as he continues to break down. In a moment of clarity, Hazzard
squeezes Natasha’s finger on the trigger, killing himself and endings things!
As Natasha determines that she plans not to tell her superiors anything, we see
Tommy pretending to shoot his gun, his dreams to be a soldier unfettered…
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