By Roger McKenzie, Frank Miller, David Micheline, Jo Duffy, Michael Fleischer, Mike W. Barr, Frank Robbins, Gene Colan, Steve Ditko, Klaus Janson, Frank Springer, Josef Rubinstein & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-60537 (TPB/Digital edition)
This book contains Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.
Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer whose remaining senses hyper-compensate, making him an astonishing acrobat, formidable fighter and living lie-detector. He also developed a kind of biological radar, granting him complete awareness of his immediate environment. A second-string hero for much of his early career, Daredevil was nonetheless a striking and popular one, due mostly to the captivatingly humanistic art of Gene Colan. DD fought gangsters, super-villains and even the occasional monster or alien invasion, quipping his way through life and life-threatening combat, utterly unlike the grim, moody, quasi-religious metaphor of justice and retribution that he became.
Under the auspices of Jim Shooter, Roger McKenzie and finally Frank Miller & Klaus Janson, the character transformed into a grimly modern figure, but here we find him navigating choppy relationship waters. After a disastrous on-again, off-again relationship with his secretary Karen Page, Murdock took up with Russian émigré Natasha Romanoff, infamous and notorious former soviet spy Black Widow, but their similarities and incompatibilities led to her leaving and Matt taking up with flighty, fun-loving trouble-magnet heiress Heather Glenn…
Spanning cover-dates November 1978 to October 1981, this crucial compilation comprises relevant material from Daredevil #155-176, plus spin-off material generated for a readership that simply could not get enough of their newly darkened avenging devil and his secret paramour, as first seen in What If? #28 & Bizarre Adventures #28. The visual tumult and tension begin sans any delay or debate…
Heroic endeavours resume with writer Roger McKenzie describing the repercussions of a massive ambush on the hero by his worst enemies. Guest-starring Black Widow, Hercules and The Avengers, aftermath episode ‘The Man Without Fear?’ is illustrated by Frank Robbins & Frank Springer, wherein a brain-damaged Murdock repeatedly attacks innocent bystanders and his allies before collapsing. Keenly observing, macabre mystery menace Death-Stalker spots an opportunity and follows the hospitalised hero into #156’s ‘Ring of Death!’ (McKenzie, Colan & Klaus Janson). As DD undergoes surgery and suffers deadly delusions of fighting himself, the teleporting terror with a death-touch seeks to end the scarlet swashbuckler’s meddling forever, but finds the Avengers almost too much to handle…
The assault ends in DD #157’s ‘The Ungrateful Dead’, with Mary Jo Duffy scripting from McKenzie’s plot. Now, after frustrating the vanishing villain, Matt is cruelly kidnapped by a new squad of the Ani-Men (Ape-Man, Cat-Man & Bird-Man) all leading to Miller’s debut as penciller in #158’s ‘A Grave Mistake!’ With McKenzie writing and Janson inking, all plot threads regarding Death-Stalker spectacularly conclude as the monster gloatingly shares his true origins and reasons for haunting the Sightless Swashbuckler for so long. As always, Villain underestimates Hero and the stunning final fight in a graveyard became one of the most iconic duels in superhero history…
From this point on, Daredevil was increasingly repositioned as an outcast urban defender and compulsive vengeance-taker: a tortured demon dipped in blood. The character makeover was carried on initially by McKenzie from his predecessor Jim Shooter, and fully manifested in collaboration with Miller until the latter fully took control to deliver audacious, shocking, groundbreakingly compelling dark delights, making Daredevil one of comics’ most momentous, unmissable, “must-read” series.
That revitalisation resumes with ‘Marked for Murder!’ (McKenzie, Miller & Janson) wherein infallible assassin-broker Eric Slaughter comes out of retirement for a very special hit on the hero of Hell’s Kitchen. Meanwhile elsewhere, veteran Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich works a nagging hunch: slowly piecing together dusty news snippets that indicate a certain sight-impaired attorney might be far more than he seems……
The spectacular showdown between the Crimson Crimebuster and Slaughter’s hit-man army inevitably compels his covert client to eventually do his own dirty work: brutally ambushing and abducting former flame Natasha Romanoff, aka The Black Widow…
After a single-page fact-feature on ‘Daredevil’s Billy Club!’, the saga continues in #160 with our hero having no choice but to place himself ‘In the Hands of Bullseye!’ – a stratagem culminating in a devastating duel and shocking defeat for the villain in cataclysmic conclusion ‘To Dare the Devil!’
Next issue offered a fill-in tale by Michael Fleisher & Steve Ditko wherein another radiation accident impairs our hero’s abilities and induces amnesia just as a figure from his father’s pugilistic past resurfaces. Becoming a boxer for crooked promoter Mr. Hyle, Murdock unknowingly relives his murdered dad’s last days in ‘Requiem for a Pug!’… until his own memories return and justice is served…
Stunning David & Goliath action belatedly comes in #163 as the merely mortal Man Without Fear battles The Incredible Hulk in ‘Blind Alley’ (McKenzie & Miller, inked by Josef Rubenstein & Janson) wherein Murdock’s innate compassion for hounded Bruce Banner inadvertently endangers Manhattan and triggers a desperate, bone-breaking, but ultimately doomed attempt to save his beloved city…
In #164 McKenzie, Miller & Janson deliver an evocative ‘Exposé’, retelling the origin saga as meticulous, dogged Urich confronts the hospitalised hero with inescapable conclusions from his diligent research and a turning point is reached…
The landmark tale is followed by accompanied by Miller’s unused cover for Ditko’s fill-in yarn, and precedes a mean-&-moody modern makeover for a moribund and over-exposed Spider-Man villain. DD #165 finds the Scarlet Swashbuckler in the ‘Arms of the Octopus’ when Murdock’s millionaire girlfriend Heather is kidnapped by Dr. Otto Octavius. Her company can – and do – rebuild his mechanical tentacles with Adamantium, but “Doc Ock” stupidly underestimates both his hostage and the seemingly powerless Man Without Fear…
A long-running plot thread of Matt’s best pal Foggy Nelson’s oft-delayed wedding finally culminates with some much-needed comedy in #166’s ‘Till Death Do Us Part!’, with true tragedy coming along too as old enemy Gladiator has a breakdown and kidnaps his parole officer. With visions of Roman arenas driving him, tormented killer Melvin Potter only needs to see Daredevil to go completely over the top…
David Michelinie wrote #167 for Miller & Janson, with a cruelly wronged employee of tech company the Cord Conglomerate stealing super-armour to become ‘…The Mauler!’ and exact personal justice. Constantly drawn into the conflict, DD finds his sense of justice and respect for the law at odds when another avoidable tragedy results…
The tale is backed up by an info feature revealing the ‘Dark Secrets’ of DD’s everyday life before segueing neatly into the story that changed everything.
With Daredevil #168 Miller took over the writing and with Janson’s art contributions increasing in each issue, rewired the history of Matt Murdock to open an era of noir-tinged, pulp-fuelled, Eisner-inspired innovation. It begins when Daredevil encounters a new bounty hunter in town which prompts recall of lost college-days first love. Back then, diplomat’s daughter Elektra Natchios shared his secrets – until her father was kidnapped and murdered before her eyes, partly due to Matt’s hasty actions. She left him and vanished, apparently becoming a ninja assassin, but is now tearing up the town hunting Eric Slaughter. Matt cannot help but get involved…
When Daredevil last defeated Bullseye, the psycho-killer was diagnosed with a brain tumour, and in #169 escapes from hospital to enact another murder spree. He is deep in a delusional state where everyone he sees are horn-headed scarlet-draped ‘Devils’. A frenetic chase and brutal battle results in countless civilian casualties and great anxiety as Daredevil has a chance to let the manic die… but doesn’t.
Yet another landmark resurrection of a tired villain begins in DD #170 as Miller & Janson decree ‘The Kingpin Must Die’. The former crimelord of New York had faded into serene retirement in Japan by impassioned request of his wife Vanessa, until this triptych of terror sees him return, more powerful and resourceful than ever. It all begins when the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen hears rumours the syndicate that replaced Wilson Fisk are trying to kill their old boss. Apparently, he has offered all his old records to the Feds…
When Vanessa hires Nelson & Murdock to broker the deal, all hell breaks loose, assassins attack and Mrs Fisk goes missing. Further complicating matters, having survived brain surgery, Bullseye now offers his services to the syndicate, mercenary killer Elektra senses a big business opportunity and a murderously resolute Kingpin sneaks back into the country resolved to save his Vanessa at any cost…
The title at last returned to monthly schedule with #171 as the city erupted into sporadic violence with civilians caught in the crossfire. DD dons a disguise and goes undercover but is soon ‘In the Kingpin’s Clutches’, and seemingly sent to a watery grave prior to Fisk gambling and losing everything.
The saga ends in all-out ‘Gangwar!’ as, with Vanessa lost and presumed dead, Wilson Fisk destroys the in situ Syndicate and takes back control of New York’s underworld. At least Daredevil scores a small-yet-toxic victory by apprehending the Kingpin’s assassin, all the while aware that every death since Bullseye’s operation has been because Murdock was not strong enough to let the monster die…
… And deep in the bowels of the city, an amnesiac woman wanders, a future trigger for much death and destruction to come…
With the city increasingly awash in mobsters, monsters, assassins and deviants, Daredevil 173 returns to the difficult, painful redemption of mentally-ill former foe The Gladiator. Having suffered an emotional crisis Melvin Potter prays his violent old life is over, but when a woman is brutalised in the streets, she identifies the anxious supervillain as her attacker. Murdock begins a stout defence of the ‘Lady Killer’, but despite his truth-sensing abilities, even his confidence takes a battering when his own assistant Becky Blake reveals Potter is the man who put her in a wheelchair years previously. Shocked and betrayed on all sides, Matt lets DD take charge and exposes a world of horror and abuse while tracking down a cunning, opportunistic human beast who tortures women just for kicks…
Elektra co-stars in #174 as her former master The Jonin demands ‘The Assassination of Matt Murdock’, introducing resurrecting zombie ninja cult The Hand just when the Potter trial is going badly and faithful partner Foggy Nelson has abandoned him. The cult’s expansion into America is lethally and effectively countered by Elektra, but when Daredevil joins the fight he is wounded and loses his greatest supersense, leaving him to depend on her and Melvin reluctantly returned to his Gladiator persona…
Now targeted by immortal super ninja Kirigi, Elektra goes after Jonin in ‘Gantlet’ and leaves DD to his own devices prior to ‘Hunters’, showing severely impaired Matt hunting for the old guy who first taught him to use his super senses. He rattles his old foes and street sources so badly that even Z-grade thugs Turk and Grotto are scared enough to steal a super-armour suit and settle with the Scarlet Swashbuckler for good…
To Be Continued…
Here, however, the events sparked a number of ancillary delights represented here by What If? #28’s ‘Matt Murdock, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ (by Mike W. Barr, Miller & Janson, and cover-dated August 1981), seeing what might have been had Anthony Stark and Nick Fury been nearby when young Matt was hit by that senses-altering radioactive cannister. That’s followed by spectacular monochrome prequel ‘Elektra’, crafted by Miller for Bizarre Adventures #28 (October 1981) with the hired killer going off-book after she finds out an unsavoury truth about her client.
Supplementing throughout with the covers by Colan, Springer, Janson, Rubinstein, Al Milgrom, Miller, Ditko, Bob McLeod, George Roussos and Bob Larkin, this roster depicting the resurgent rise in comics form is further bedecked and bedazzled with contemporary house ads; the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page heralding Miller’s debut; original art and Miller’s full Daredevil character bible, written in 1980 as he prepared to take over the writing. Also on view are Miller & Janson’s pages from Marvel Comics 20th Anniversary Calendar 1981 (June) and their Spider-Man vs DD plate from Marvel Team-Up Portfolio One. Those are supplemented by Miller covers & frontispieces for Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller volume 1 & 2 (with Steve Buccellato) before closing with M&J’s iconic Amazing Heroes #4 cover from September 1981.
As the decade closed, these gritty tales set the scene for truly mature forthcoming dramas, promising the true potential of Daredevil was finally in reach. Their narrative energy and exuberant excitement are dashing delights no action fan will care to miss.
… And the next volume heads full on into darker shadows, the grimmest of territory and the breaking of many more boundaries…
© MARVEL 2025.
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