Synopsis:
Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Alex Segura (Secret Identity) continues the Marvel Crime series of thriller books for adults with the all-new legal noir story of the Punisher on trial for the murder or the Kingpin—with Matt Murdock as his defense attorney.
When the call comes in that the Kingpin and a police officer have been killed and that Frank Castle (aka the Punisher) has turned himself in for it, Matt senses holes in the narratives the media and the streets are quick to run with.
Both criminals have been Matt’s nemeses when he dons the cowl of the Daredevil, and there’s no denying that New York is better off without its Kingpin and the Punisher behind bars. And yet, while the Punisher is a murderous vigilante, he doesn’t kill cops. And he doesn’t turn himself in.
Castle certainly deserves prison for all of the other crimes he has committed in the past. However, Matt’s indomitable sense of justice insists that nobody should be sent to prison for crimes they didn’t actually commit. Representing the vigilante in court, Matt enters a contest of wills and guile with Castle to try and uncover the game beneath the game. And when Matt’s girlfriend takes the stand and complicates matters, there’s truly no rest for the wicked or the just. As the Kingpin’s absence has passions running hot in Hell’s Kitchen, Matt must decide if justice means the letter of the law, what’s best for the citizens on the streets, or where his heart is beginning to lead him.
Enemy of My Enemy continues the Marvel Crime series that began with Lisa Jewell’s Breaking the Dark, and brings fans into a grittier, street-level side of the Marvel Universe.
Review:
Whether you’re a fan of Daredevil, Marvel Comics or just what you’ve seen on-screen for the MCU, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy Alex Segura’s Enemy of My Enemy, the second installment in the Marvel Crime novel series. At this point, it’s a little hard to separate out Charlie Cox’s work as Matt Murdock and Daredevil and Vicent D’Onofrio’s take on Kingpin, but I think that really works in Segura’s favor in this case. As I read through Enemy of My Enemy, I couldn’t help but hear the characters from the Netflix/Disney+ shows reverberating through my head with the heartbeat of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen pumping through the background. Without even trying, Segura was able to world-build for his characters and it paid off in the form of a really fun read.
Not that this is the universe portrayed on screen most recently in the Disney+ show Daredevil: Born Again. There are plenty of similarities of course, but in this universe, Karen Page is deceased at the hand of Bullseye and Foggy lives as Matt’s “blissfully-unaware of who Daredevil is” lawyer sidekick. Due to those changes and a few others, Segura does have to set the stage for the audience from time to time, but expectations for our characters are baked in already. (No worries though — Chappell Roan is confirmed to be pushing out chart-topping hits in Segura’s Street-Level Marvel Universe).
I didn’t get a chance to read the first in the Marvel Crime series – a multi-author anthology series which featured Jessica Jones in the first book, Breaking the Dark, and will have a third book on the horizon about Luke Cage from S.A. Cosby. I imagine there is some tie-in between the books if for no other reason that in the epilogue of Enemy of My Enemy, both Jones and Cage make an appearance.
As for this book — I had a few questions before starting it, namely:
— Is this just a regurgitated comic book?
— Does this work as a novel?
As for the first question — Nope. This is an original story from Segura, and based on one concept: “Punisher on trial for the murder of the Kingpin.” Alex Segura was able to take this simple, yet complicated plot and weave the main character throughout. This is very much a Daredevil book, but also very much a Matt Murdock book. There is plenty of action and intrigue in the alleys and rooftops from the Man Without Fear, but Murdock gets plenty of time to shine as a lawyer and in relation to Foggy and Ben Urich. There are very few pages of this novel without either Daredevil or Murdock in one form or another.
And the second question – Absolutely. It becomes a bit of a whodunit with Punisher taking the fall for the murder of Kingpin and a seemingly innocent NY Police Officer. But, that’s what tips Murdock that this isn’t a simple Punisher hit — Frank Castle doesn’t usually go after innocent cops. Daredevil turns detective, going after one candidate after another who benefit from Wilson Fisk’s death, ultimately seeing many of them taken out themselves or severely injured in the process. It becomes an almost unending stream of red herrings for Murdock until he and Urich finally uncover the truth.
I had a lot of fun reading Enemy of My Enemy, and it felt as though Segura did as well, jumping into Marvel’s Street-level sandbox and getting to do almost whatever he wanted with this character and that. He goes deep on the Marvel bench and if you aren’t super knowledgeable about Marvel B, C, and D-rank characters, you’ll definitely discover some new ones along the journey.
One of the finest seasons of television we’ve seen in the last couple decades was Daredevil, Season 2 when it was on Netflix, especially the philosophical discussions of good and evil between Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher characters. Segura gives his audience a bit more of that in this novel as Murdock takes on Castle as his client. At first, Castle clams up, but eventually the two of them have some fascinating discussions, echoing what made the TV show great.
I definitely recommend Alex Segura’s Enemy of My Enemy, especially for fans of Marvel comics and TV shows.
Thank you to Hyperion Avenue for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Enemy of My Enemy releases on March 24.
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