{"id":32553,"date":"2025-04-03T16:02:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T16:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32553"},"modified":"2025-04-03T16:02:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T16:02:50","slug":"mighty-marvel-masterworks-presents-daredevil-volume-3-unmasked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/04\/03\/mighty-marvel-masterworks-presents-daredevil-volume-3-unmasked\/","title":{"rendered":"Mighty Marvel Masterworks presents Daredevil volume 3: Unmasked"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Stan Lee<\/strong> & Gene Colan<\/strong> with Frank Giacoia<\/strong>, Dick Ayers<\/strong>, John Tartaglione<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-1-3029-5428-4 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Matt Murdock<\/em> is a blind lawyer whose remaining senses hyper-compensate, making him an astonishing acrobat, formidable fighter and living lie-detector. Very much a second-string hero for most of his early years, Daredevil<\/strong> was nonetheless a striking and popular one, due in large part to the roster of brilliant artists who had illustrated the strip. He battled thugs, gangsters, a plethora of super-villains and even the occasional monster or alien invasion, quipping his way through life and life-threatening combat. His civilian life consisted of assorted legal conundra and manfully standing back and suppressing his own feelings as his portly best friend and law partner Franklin \u201cFoggy\u201d Nelson<\/em> vainly romanced their secretary Karen Page. <\/em><\/p>\n

DD only really came into his own once illustrator Gene Colan signed up for the long haul, which properly begins with the tales in this collection: part of a series of Mighty Marvel Masterworks<\/strong> available as kid-friendly digest paperbacks and eBooks. Gathering Daredevil<\/strong> #22-32 (November 1966 to September 1967) it traces a move from morose masked avenger to wisecracking Scarlet Swashbuckler, offering a marked improvement in overall quality as scripter Lee utilises extended soap operatic plot-threads to string together Colan\u2019s unique fight scenes as he shook off the remnants of predecessor John Romita\u2019s art style.<\/p>\n

In a very short time Romita had made the Sightless Swashbuckler his own before graduating to Spider-Man<\/strong>, so when Colan took over on DD, he initially kept the clipped, solid, nigh-chunky lines for rendering the Man Without Fear, but increasingly drew everything else in his loose, fluid, tonal manner. With these tales, his warring styles coalesced and the result was literally poetry in non-stop motion…<\/p>\n

Without preamble the action opens with \u2018The Tri-Man Lives\u2019<\/em> (inked by Frank Giacoia & Dick Ayers), containing Gangland themes and malignant machinations whilst sharing focus with super-menaces The Gladiator <\/em>and Masked Marauder<\/em>, whose eponymous killer android proves less of a threat than expected. The villains had sought control of international organised crime syndicate The Maggia<\/em> but their master plan to prove their worthiness by murdering the Man Without Fear goes badly awry after the kidnapped hero refuses to simply lie down and die…<\/p>\n

Concluding in #23 with \u2018DD Goes Wild!\u2019<\/em>, the ending sees our hero trapped in Europe, but soon making his way to England and a violent reunion with Tarzan<\/strong> analogue Ka-Zar<\/strong> who has become prime suspect in #24\u2019s chilling puzzle \u2018The Mystery of the Midnight Stalker!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

This tale contains my vote for the Most Obnoxious Misrepresentation of Britain in Comic Books Award as a policeman – sorry, \u201cbobby\u201d – warns, \u201cSTAY BACK, PLEASE! THE MILITIA WILL BE ARRIVING IN JIG TIME!\u201d…
\n\"\"
\nAfter clearing the jungle hero\u2019s name, Matt Murdock heads back to America in time to enjoy the less-than-stellar debut of a certified second-rate super-villain as \u2018Enter: The Leap-Frog!\u2019<\/em> introduces a thief dressed like Kermit on steroids with springs on his flippered feet. Yes, really…<\/p>\n

However, the big event of the issue is meeting Matt\u2019s hip and groovy twin brother Mike<\/em>…<\/p>\n

By the time \u2018Stilt-Man Strikes Again\u2019<\/em> (DD<\/strong> #26, March 1967) Colan is totally in command of his vision and a leaner, moodier hero is emerging. The major push of the next few issues was to turn the hopeless romantic triangle of Matt, Foggy and Karen Page into a whacky quadrangle by dint of fictitious twin Mike, who Matt would be \u201cexpose\u201d as Daredevil to divert suspicion from the blind attorney who actually battled all those weird villains…<\/p>\n

Confused, much?<\/p>\n

Still skulking in the background, arch-villain Masked Marauder slowly closes in on DD\u2019s alter ego. He gets a lot closer in \u2018Mike Murdock Must Die!\u2019<\/em> (Giacoia inks) after Stilt-Man teams with the Marauder and the ever-fractious Spider-Man<\/strong> once again clashes with old frenemy Daredevil before the villains meet their apparent ends.<\/p>\n

The Sightless Swashbuckler has his first encounter with extraterrestrials in #28\u2019s moody one-trick-pony \u2018Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor\u2019s Planet!\u2019<\/em> – an Ayers-inked thriller wherein invading aliens\u2019 blindness-inducing rays prove inexplicably ineffective against the Crimson Crime-crusher. John Tartaglione inked the next tale, a solid, action-packed gangster-thriller entitled \u2018Unmasked!\u2019<\/em> whilst issue #30 opened a protracted and impressive clash with former Thor<\/strong> foes the Cobra<\/em> and Mister Hyde<\/em>. The bombastic first bout comes complete with an Asgardian cameo in \u2018…If There Should Be a Thunder God!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Attempting to catch the rampant super-criminals, DD masquerades as the Asgardian Avenger only to encounter the real McCoy. Sadly, the villains ambush the mortal hero once the Thunderer departs and, as a result of the resultant battle, DD loses his compensating hyper-senses. Thus, he must perpetrate a \u2018Blind Man\u2019s Bluff!\u2019<\/em>… which almost fools Cobra & Hyde…
\n\"\"
\nNaturally, it all goes wrong before it all comes right and against all odds Murdock regains his abilities just in time \u2018…To Fight the Impossible Fight!\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Supplemented by a Colan cover gallery and original art pages, this tome reveals how The Man Without Fear blossomed into a truly magnificent example of Marvel\u2019s compelling formula for success: smart stories, human characters and magnificent illustration. This is pure Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights magic no fan of stunning super-heroics can afford to ignore.
\n\u00a9 2024 MARVEL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stan Lee & Gene Colan with Frank Giacoia, Dick Ayers, John Tartaglione & various (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-1-3029-5428-4 (TPB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer whose remaining senses hyper-compensate, making him an astonishing acrobat, formidable fighter and living lie-detector. Very much a second-string hero … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mighty Marvel Masterworks presents Daredevil volume 3: Unmasked”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[75,85,292,72,79,225,107,39,100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-comics","category-daredevil","category-ka-zar","category-marvel-masters-masterworks","category-marvel-superheroes","category-mystery","category-science-fiction","category-spider-man","category-thor"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8t3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32558,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32553\/revisions\/32558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}