Essential Daredevil

By Stan Lee & various (Marvel)
ISBN13: 978-0-7851-1861-9

As Marvel grew in popularity in the early 1960s it gradually replaced its broad variety of titles with more and more super-heroes. The recovering powerhouse was still hampered by a crippling distribution deal that limited the company to 16 titles (which would curtail their output until 1968), so each new untried book would have to fill the revenue generating slot (however small) of an existing title. Moreover as the costumed characters were selling, each new similar title would limit the breadth of genres (horror, western, war, girls’ comics, etc). It was putting a lot of eggs in one basket, and superheroes had failed twice before for Marvel.

So the inconsistency of the first few issues of Daredevil, the Man Without Fear, seems a risky venture indeed. Yes, the artists were all seasoned, talented veterans, but not to the young kids who were the audience. Moreover they just weren’t Kirby or Ditko…

‘The Origin of Daredevil’ recounts how young Matt grew up in the slums, raised by his father Battlin’ Jack Murdock, a second-rate prize-fighter. Determined that the boy will be something, the father extracts a solemn promise from him never to fight. Mocked by other kids, called “Daredevil”, he abides by his vow, but secretly trains his body to physical perfection.

One day he saves a blind man from being hit by a speeding truck, only to be struck in the face by its radioactive cargo. His sight is burned away but his other senses are super-humanly enhanced and he gains a sixth, “radar-sense”. He tells no-one, not even his dad.

Battlin’ Jack is in dire straits. As his career declined he signed with The Fixer, knowing full well what the corrupt promoter expected from his fighters. Yet his career blossomed. Unaware that he was being set up, Murdock got a shot at the Big Time, but when ordered to take a dive he refused. Winning was the proudest moment of his life. When his bullet riddled corpse was found, the cops had suspicions but no proof…

Heartbroken Matt graduated college with a law degree and set up in business with his room-mate Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. They hired a lovely young secretary named Karen Page. With his life on track young Matt now had time to solve his father’s murder. His promise stopped him from fighting but what if he became “somebody else”?

Scripted by Stan Lee and magically illustrated by the legendary Bill Everett (with assistance from Steve Ditko) this is a rather nonsensical yet visually engaging yarn that just goes through the motions, barely hinting at the magic yet to come, and the second issue fares little better as Joe Orlando and Vince Colletta take over the art: ‘The Evil Menace of Electro!’ guest-stars the Fantastic Four and a second hand Spider-Man villain. The heroic quartet call for a lawyer just as the electrical bandit tries to break into their building, with predictable results. Issue #3 finally gave the sightless crusader a foe of his own when he met and quickly trounced ‘The Owl, Ominous Overlord of Crime!’

Daredevil #4 was a turning point, and just in time. ‘Killgrave, the Unbelievable Purple Man!’ finally gave some character to the big, blind stiff as he strove to overcome a villain who could exert total control over anyone who could see him. Although Orlando and Colletta’s uncomfortable, over-busy art remained for one last episode Lee finally seemed to get a handle on the hero and just in time for a magician-in-waiting to elevate the series to spectacular heights.

With #5 Wally Wood assumed the art chores and his lush and lavish work brought power, grace and beauty to the series. At last this costumed acrobat seemed to spring and dance across the rooftops and pages. Wood’s contribution to the plotting didn’t hurt either. He actually got a cover plug on his first issue.

Number #5 ‘The Mysterious Masked Matador!’ introduced a cool, no-nonsense hero who looked commanding and could handle anything. The moribund sub-plot of Foggy adoring Karen, who only has eyes for Matt who loves her but won’t let her waste her life on a blind-man actually started making sense and progress. Most importantly, the action was intoxicating.

Although a bullfighter who used his skills for crime is frankly daft, the drawing makes it utterly convincing, and the following issue’s ‘Trapped by the Fellowship of Fear!’ is a minor classic as the Man Without Fear had to defeat not only the super-powered Ox and Eel (yet more recycled villains) but his own threat-specific foe Mr. Fear who could instill terror and panic in victims, courtesy of his deadly gas-gun.

Daredevil #7 is a true landmark. To my mind one of the Top Ten Marvel Tales of all Time, Lee and Wood concocted a true masterpiece with ‘In Mortal Combat with… Sub-Mariner!’ When Prince Namor of Atlantis travels to the surface world to sue mankind, he discovers too late that his warlord, Krang, has usurped the throne in his absence. The fiery monarch cannot sit languishing in a cell when the kingdom is threatened so he fights his way to freedom.

This story finally shows Murdock the lawyer to be a brilliant orator, the hopelessly one-sided battle with one of the strongest beings on the planet shows the dauntless courage of DD and nobility of the Sub-Mariner whilst most notably, with no fanfare at all, Wood replaced the original costume with the iconic and beautiful all-red outfit we know today. As one pithy commentator has said “the original costume looked as if it had been designed by a blind man”.

Another all-new villain debuted in #8’s gripping industrial espionage thriller ‘The Stiltman Cometh!’ and Golden Age Great Bob Powell came aboard as penciller to Wood’s layouts and inks with #9’s ‘That He May See!’ Relentlessly badgered by Karen, Matt agrees to see an eye-specialist who might be able to cure his blindness only to become embroiled in a plot to conquer the World.

Wood was clearly chafing after a year on the book. The series’ first continued story ‘While the City Sleeps!’ was also scripted by him, a political thriller that first saw Foggy Nelson run for District Attorney of New York. A mysterious mastermind known as the Organizer and his gang, Bird-Man, Frog-Man, Cat-Man and Ape-Man terrorised the city and only DD could possibly stop them. With Powell now on full pencils and Wood just inking, Lee was left to write the concluding ‘A Time to Unmask!’ and issue #12 saw the return of a 1950’s artist who was to eventually become Marvel’s top – and most loyal – star.

‘Sightless, in a Savage Land!’ was laid out by Jack Kirby and illustrated by John Romita, who had worked for Timely/Atlas in the 1950s before moving to DC romance comics and advertising. He returned to take DD on an epic quest guest-starring Tarzan-analogue Ka-Zar, that ranged from the dinosaur-haunted Savage Land via hi-tech pirates to Jolly olde England-land (#13’s ‘The Secret of Ka-Zar’s Origin!‘) to a US Early Warning Base (#14, ‘If This be Justice…’, with what I’m sure is some un-credited assistance from George Tuska).

With this three-part epic, DD began to establish the wisecracking Scarlet Swashbuckler persona that would carry him all the way to the grim ‘n’ gritty Frank Miller days, far, far in the future.

Romita’s easy, flamboyant style and expressiveness imparted new energy into the character (especially since Frank Ray Née Giacoia had been inking the series since # 14). Issue #15’s ‘…And Men Shall Call Him… Ox!’ returned the dim strongman of issue #6 albeit in a new and sinister fashion, but when a certain web-slinger guest-starred in #16 little did anyone suspect how soon Romita would be leaving. ‘Enter… Spider-Man!’ introduced a new mastermind, the Masked Marauder, who had big plans, the first of which was to get DD and Spidey to kill each other.

With the next issue ‘None are so Blind…’ a sub-plot began that would lead to some of the highest and lowest moments of the early Daredevil as Spider-Man accuses Foggy of being the Man Without Fear! Although the wall-Crawler soon realizes his mistake, others don’t…

Issue #18’s ‘There Shall Come a Gladiator!’ introduced the manic armoured villain in a tale two-thirds scripted by legend-in-waiting Denny O’Neil, where Foggy tries to impress Karen by maintaining the idea that he is Daredevil, and #19 saw the Masked Marauder ally with The Gladiator in the action-packed ‘Alone… Against the Underworld!‘; a fitting farewell for Romita who was moved over to Amazing Spider-Man after Steve Ditko’s controversial departure.

Originally tipped for a fill-in issue, Gene Colan came aboard as penciller with #20’s ‘The Verdict is: Death!’, inked by Mike Esposito thinly disguised as Mickey Demeo. Colan’s superbly humanistic drawing and facility with expressions was a little jarring at first since he drew Daredevil in a passable Romita imitation and everything else in his own manner, but he soon settled in and this two-part revenge thriller featuring the Owl (concluding with ‘The Trap is Sprung!’ inked by Giacoia, Dick Ayers and Bill Everett) is a fine beginning to his long, impressive run on the series.

‘The Tri-Man Lives’ by Lee, Colan Giacoia and Ayers carried on the Gangland theme but also returned focus to the Masked Marauder and Gladiator, whose eponymous android proved less of a threat than expected. Concluding in #23 with ‘DD Goes Wild!’ the ending found our hero trapped in Europe, but he’d soon made his way to England and a violent reunion with Ka-Zar who was the prime suspect in #24’s ‘The Mystery of the Midnight Stalker!‘ This tale contains my vote for the Most Obnoxious Misrepresentation of England in Comic-books Award when a policeman – sorry, “Bobby” – warns, “STAY BACK, PLEASE! THE MILITIA WILL BE ARRIVING IN JIG TIME!”

The volume ends with the less than stellar ‘Enter: The Leap-Frog!’, a crook who dresses like a frog with springs on his flipper (yes, really) but the biggest event of the issue is the introduction of Matt’s hip and groovy twin brother Mike…

If you’ve not read these tales before I’m not about to spoil the read for you because even with all the archaic and just plain dumb bits in this book these are still fine super-hero tales with beautiful art that will never stale or wither, and the inclusion of designs, layouts and sketches from Jack Kirby, John Romita and Wally Wood are a bonus any fan would die for…

© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.