By Stan Lee, Bill Everett, John Romita, Gene Colan & various (Lancer)
ISBN: 72170 ASIN: B000EQWXLE
This is one solely for chronic nostalgics, consumed collectors and historical nit-pickers… As Marvel grew in popularity in the early 1960s it gradually replaced its broad variety of genre titles with more and more super-heroes. The rapidly recovering publishing powerhouse was still hampered by a crippling distribution deal limiting the company to 16 titles (which would curtail their output until 1968), so each new comicbook would have to fill the revenue-generating slot (however small) of an existing title.
Moreover since the costumed characters were selling, each new title would limit the breadth of genres (horror, western, war, etc). It was putting a lot of eggs in one basket, and superheroes had failed twice before for Marvel.
In the 1960s on the back of the “Batmania†craze, many comics publishers repackaged their old comics stories in cheap and cheerful digest-sized monochrome paperbacks, and it’s easy to assume that those rapidly resized, repackaged book collections of the early exploits and extravaganzas were just another Company cash-cow in their perennial “flood the marketplace†sales strategy. Maybe they were, but many funnybook publishers – including National/DC, Tower and Archie – were also desperate to add some credibility and even literary legitimacy to their efforts, and as well as increased profits these forays onto the world’s bookshelves offered the prospect of fresh new markets and a wider acceptance. Considering how many different prose publishing houses chanced their arm on such projects, their editors also believed there was money to be made from comics too…
Also it’s hard to deny that the book editions were just, plain cool…
As someone who bought these stories in most of the available formats over the years – including constantly recycled reprints in British weeklies from the mid-sixties to the 1980s – I have to admit that the sleek classic paperback editions have a charm and attraction all their own…
Most of the US Marvel collections from Lancer generated smaller (and inferior) British editions from Four Square Books but as far as I know Daredevil never crossed the pond except as a remaindered import…
Heavily abridged and edited and disturbingly printed in both portrait and landscape format, Here Comes… Daredevil was the sixth and last Lancer publication (the others being two Fantastic Four compilations and one apiece for Thor, Spider-Man and The Hulk) and touted a guest-appearance by Spidey, reprinting most of the two-part battle against the mysterious Masked Marauder from issues #16 and 17. Originally entitled ‘Enter… Spider-Man!’ and ‘None are so Blind…’ by Stan Lee, John Romita Sr. & Frank Ray Née Giacoia) the tale recounted how the cunning criminal manipulated the Wall-Crawler into attacking DD whilst his gang of futuristic cut-throats attempted to steal a new super-engine…
This is followed by ‘The Origin of Daredevil’ from issue #1, recounting how young Matt Murdock grew up in the New York slums, raised by his father Battlin’ Jack Murdock, a second-rate prize-fighter. Determined that the boy will be something, Jack extracts a solemn promise from him never to fight. Mocked by other kids and called “Daredevilâ€, Matt 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-senseâ€. 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 elseâ€â€¦?
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 and completely omits the dramatic denouement wherein Matt finally deals with his father’s killers…
Originally tipped for a fill-in issue, Gene Colan came aboard as penciller with Daredevil #20’s ‘The Verdict is: Death!’, inked by Mike Esposito moonlighting 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 cunning two-part revenge thriller – featuring The Owl who had trapped the sightless adventurer on a hidden island overrun with robot raptors and brutal thugs – is a stunning action rollercoaster which perfectly illustrates the hero’s swashbuckling acrobatic combat style.
The spectacular battle concluded with ‘The Trap is Sprung!’ (from #21, inked by Giacoia, Dick Ayers & Bill Everett) and began the artist’s long and brilliant run on the series.
If you’ve not read these tales before then there are certainly better places to do so (such as the Essential Daredevil volume 1) but 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 for us backward looking Baby-boomers these nostalgic pocket tomes have an incomprehensible allure that logic just can’t fight or spoil…
© 1967 Marvel Comics Group. All Rights Reserved.