Natasha: …It was called Project Heart Attack. Doc used biofeedback, hypnosis, electronics…
Matt: And now Hazzard can explode a man’s heart at will? Great.
Hazzard: No matter where you sit in my mama’s house you can always see a crucifix. She dusts her golden eagles everyday. My mama, my country. I was born of a star-spangled union, Tommy. My family was one nation under God. I’m a grade-A inspected piece of All-American meat. You understand? Keep that pointed at me. Be ready to shoot.
Natasha: Don’t the fireworks ever stop? Sounds like a war. And why doesn’t the city clean up Nuke’s mess?
Matt: Can’t find out who’s responsible. Legal entanglements.
Natasha: Looks like we’re crossing enemy lines.
Matt: We are.
There’s an obvious thematic resonance between Natasha and Hazzard, because she too was born of a patriotic moment, and the play between agents and agency is the basic litany of her canon. Nocenti positions her (a tad incorrectly, imho) as the sort of heroic arm of the military-industrial complex, both in this story and in the wider scope of her run. Notice that she assumes the city and authorities would have taken care of the Nuke mess. Matt, by contrast, represents the religious side of Hazzard’s delusion. Notice how he is dressed up like a devil.
This was, incidentally, well before the 2000’s retcons that would establish Natasha as something mass-produced herself, well before her canon would try to make her into a bit of a science experiment, or a psychological drone. The shape of the Red Room, the mysterious serum stuff, the fake memories (especially the fake memories)— these are a lot more recent, ergo a lot less essential to Natasha than I think people might realize. The themes of this story and Agent Hazzard still resonate without them.
From Daredevil #236, by Ann Nocenti and Barry Windsor-Smith.
