Shut Your Eyes and Trust in Me - Daredevil 163

Daredevil #163 (March 1980)
"Blind Alley"
Roger McKenzie-Frank Miller/Klaus Janson

Doug: If you can recall our April conversation on mismatches, and if you've checked our list on the sidebar that touts upcoming reviews, then you know my inspiration for today's post and the upcoming Thor retrospective. As many of us remarked a few months ago, underdog stories are fun. Sure, we generally know how they'll turn out, but the question remains: can the creators make the telling of the tale interesting along the way?

Doug: Here's your helping of the meat and potatoes of this yarn, courtesy of a 100-Word Review:

While Matt Murdock and crew are attending a fundraiser for the re-election of DA Blake Tower, Murdock picks up the sound of the Hulk’s heartbeat nearby. Ditching Foggy Nelson and recently ex-girlfriend Heather Glenn, Matt does his thing in pursuit of ol’ Jade Jaws. Finding him, Murdock actually talks the Hulk down from his rage and coaxes Bruce Banner out. But Banner can’t stay in one place, so the next day he leaves Murdock’s brownstone. Trouble ensues, and the Hulk is loosed in downtown Manhattan. This time DD is forced to fight the Hulk, and is beaten nearly to death.

Doug: I would have bought a Frank Miller-drawn Hulk series. It's interesting to see Miller and inkers Klaus Janson and Josef Rubenstein play around with the Hulk's scale and overall look as the story plays out. So why not let this just lead us into...

The Good: Of course it's the art, right? To finish my thought, the artists pretty much stick to "the Hulk is 7 feet tall", and it works great. If I remember correctly, when we had our conversation about the Thing and his listed height/weight in the Marvel Handbook, someone commented that the Hulk increased in size the angrier he became. While that may be true, it seems to me that it's a post-Bronze Age convention; please correct me if I am wrong, as I was never a regular reader of the Hulk's comic or magazine adventures. Here the Hulk stays the same size - big. Not huge, just big. It's perfect. From Daredevil's non-super-powered perspective, the Hulk is an engine of destruction. Miller conveys that to us. He's appropriately well-muscled, but without all the extra lines, no popping veins, etc. -- none of the excess we'd see a little over a decade later. I'd say that facially the Hulk is drawn about right, too. He's angry, but again, not bloodshot-eyes-angry. Am I getting across that I was pleased with this aspect of the story?

Another oft-used element of Miller's art that doesn't ever get old for me is the use of the motion panel. Miller uses it twice (we've seen it before here on the BAB) in this issue and it's quite effective. The pink silhouette is perfect to convey where DD had been and the direction in which he's moving. Did you ever make a flip-the-pages book (I'm sure there's a better name for it -- showing my ignorance) using stick figures and depicting walking, running, or falling? I did, and these panels remind me of that.

I'm digging Ben Urich when I re-read these 35-year old DDs. The guy's just one of those stereotypical "gumshoe" reporters. The slow reveal of Matt's alter ego is well-handled, and the pay-off in the issue following this one is solid. Urich's appearances in DD added depth to the existence of the Daily Bugle. I will add that I'm glad Urich had been in the cast for many issues prior to this McKenzie/Miller/Janson run. Had Urich been added only a half dozen issues prior and then this secret identity thing dropped, it would have been wholly rushed and quite artificial. The way it was executed showed some organic development.

The (Not so) Bad: What to do with the Hulk? We've all talked recently about the addition of the Hulk to any story automatically creates that Civil War-like trope. And so here you have a tale where the outcome is pretty set in stone, powerset-wise. But overall it was satisfying... but just that. I enjoyed the angle the creators took, with Murdock able to calm the Hulk by convincing Greenskin to trust him and then befriend Bruce Banner, culminating in a nice little twist at the end -- Daredevil actually getting the Hulk to quit fighting by uttering the same request about trust. I did not have the same feeling at the end of this yarn as I did the first time I read DD #7 (vs. Sub-Mariner) or Fantastic Four #25-26 (Thing vs. Hulk). In each of those previous cases, one hero was classically overmatched against his opponent, but the will to win ended up being the true triumph of the story. And although Daredevil was certainly knocked around to the point of hospitalization here, I just didn't have the same sense of awe as I've had in other stories of this type. Could it just be me? I wouldn't deny it. But don't leave here thinking that I thought this was a bad story; quite the contrary.

I'll say this as well -- a real challenge for a creative team is handling the Hulk in a Comics Code world. The recent films have dealt with this better, showing that his very presence seems to cause millions of dollars in property damage. We get a taste of that here, when he bursts not only through the top of the subway car but clean through the street. The Hulk also totals a taxi and a city bus, and rips up some asphalt. But it's nothing like the end of that first arc in The Ultimates, which was of course outside the Code and a bit more "realistic".

The Ugly: I can't admit to being put off by anything in this story, but in the interest of not leaving this space blank, I'll just throw out as a point of conversation that I tire of the love triangles/difficulties of heroes, their secret identities, and significant others. I even noticed that sort of thing when I was a kid.

Oh, wait -- thought of another. Purple pants. How in the world did Matt Murdock give Banner (and moreso, WHY?) purple pants to wear when Banner was staying over after the initial Hulk-out in this tale? Diversify your wardrobe, Banner. Sheesh...

 

Carnival of Madness - Daredevil 161

Daredevil #161 (November 1979)
"To Dare the Devil!"
Roger McKenzie-Frank Miller/Klaus Janson

Doug: It's been a fun series so far, hasn't it? Today we'll wrap up our month spent with Frank Miller and the team as they changed comicdom's perspective on Daredevil, perhaps forever. Maybe at the end we can have discourse on the impact of Miller's tenure on the character -- specifically, did said tenure really do anything for Daredevil? Or was any critical acclaim short-lived in the larger 50-year history of the character? Maybe Miller's art and stories are the book's golden age -- but why is that window of greatness so narrow? Would the general public, in spite of the Hollywood film, recognize the name or visage of Daredevil?

Doug: When we ended our visit to Daredevil #160, we'd just seen one of the great comic bar fights of all time, rivaling anything Conan was ever involved in. DD had gone looking for information about Bullseye's whereabouts. The assassin had kidnapped the Black Widow and was using her as bait. Ol' Hornhead wanted nothing more than to take that bait. As we begin, we're at Coney Island and watch from above as one of the informants DD had so wanted to squeeze comes sprinting into the area Eric Slaughter is using as his base. You'll recall that in issue #159 an unmasked Bullseye had hired Slaughter and his men to either capture or kill Daredevil; Bullseye used that ruse as a means to videotape Daredevils movements for study. "Turk", he of the lisp and fast feet, runs right up to Slaughter and tells him how Daredevil wants him. Trouble is, DD tailed Turk and is right above the gangsters as Turk begins to relate his tale. Remember -- this is a very impatient vigilante. As we've now grown accustomed to, Miller is just dynamite in these fight scenes. Although static images, the reader can feel the pop in each blow and hear the jangles of chains and the crushing of jawbones. And for my money, you can't beat Miller's efforts in providing motion through the use of multiple images, sequentially presented and overlapping. Great feature of the art.

Doug: Daredevil emerges from the scrum to face Slaughter, and he basically tells him to give up Bullseye or else. But just then DD hears the Astrotower kick into gear -- in a deserted theme park? Scaling the tower, he knows that Bullseye can see him -- but what's he to do? Of course there are gunmen on a perch, but DD evades their fire in another great series of panels. Miller seemed to have his finger on the pulse of the radar sense and when would be a good time to depict it; he also gives us another "motion" panel that nails it. Bullseye gloats over a loudspeaker that he indeed has Daredevil's "woman", and it's a shame that she has to die; after all, she's quite beautiful. And then the rollercoaster cars begin moving. DD knows he has a very limited amount of time to a) locate Natasha, b) avoid additional gunfire and/or Bullseye himself, and c) free her from however she's bound on the tracks. Swooping low over the 'coaster tracks, he begins his search. And of course, the gunfire commences. DD's able to take out several gunmen, actually swinging right at them -- pretty unnerving I'd guess, trying to get off an accurate shot while knowing you're going to get buried in about 10 seconds...

Doug: As Daredevil scrambles back toward the tracks, he suddenly wheels and veers in a different direction. The flunkies can't believe it, and as the train hits the Widow's body there is a large impact, knocking "her" off the tracks! But hey -- no heartbeat = no Natasha, right? Bullseye, ever watching, cannot believe it. Of course he has the real Widow, a goon on each arm and a very large gun to the back of her head. While he taunts her, Bullseye has her moved and strapped to a large board; the assassin throws a knife at her, pinning it just below her shoulder. Sceneshift to a musty and dirty old gym, where an old man is talking to Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich. Urich's come for some information on "Battlin'" Jack Murdock. The old man relates a story of the old pugilist, and of course Murdock's son comes up in the conversation. He's a lawyer now, you know. Urich says he knows. "K.O." tells how hard Murdock pushed his son to study, and how the neighborhood kids always made fun of him for it. Called him a name... "Daredevil?" says Urich. "How'd you know?" "Just a hunch." The plot thickens...

Doug: Back at Coney Island, DD has caught up with Turk again and drags him to a very high point in the park -- in the fork of a devil, no less. Turk decides that giving up Bullseye's location gives him a chance to get away; not giving it up, and the pavement's going to be coming up real fast. Inside the arcade, Bullseye has a marksman throwing knives at the Widow. Bullseye orders him to stop missing and kill her before DD arrives. But the Widow begins to wriggle, and her catlike reflexes allow her to avoid several knives... until she gets the right one. She maneuvers her wrists into just the right position, where a blade cuts her bounds. Now it's butt-kicking time, Soviet spy-style! I was really glad they did this and didn't keep Natasha as some helpless female, which would greatly have disrespected the character. Tasha easily takes out the biggest of the thugs assembled, and shows no fear as she turns to face Bullseye -- he armed with a knife. But as he is about to throw it, the cord from Daredevil's billy club encircles his wrist. DD whips him backwards, totally killing his enemy's balance. And then Daredevil proceeds to kick his butt -- hard.

Doug: But it couldn't, and shouldn't, end that easily. DD tosses Bullseye across the arcade, but the villain lands in the baseball toss game. Coming up firing, DD takes several baseballs off his face and chest. Trying to recover, he fires his billy club toward Bullseye, who snatches it out of the air. Bullseye fires it back, catching DD square on the jaw. While Daredevil struggles to catch is wits, Bullseye uses the club to crack our hero on the back of the head. However, through sheer will, DD takes advantage of the close quarters and punches Bullseye in the face, following that up with a hand to the face. Bullseye's head is driven back into a wall. Daredevil then delivers a roundhouse, which sends his foe reeling -- right toward a gun. But Bullseye's nerves are shot, and his hand shakes as he grips the weapon. At close range, DD knows he's done for, so he takes the only chance he has left: he goads Bullseye. And the assassin cannot pull the trigger. Calling out to Eric Slaughter and his men, Bullseye orders them to shoot Daredevil. Slaughter calls back that DD has earned his respect, and if Bullseye wants him dead he should shoot him himself. Bullseye collapses to the ground. The Widow steps over by Daredevil and remarks that Bullseye seems to have lost his mind. DD says that it's over now. He binds Bullseye's arms behind his back, lifts him to his shoulder, and DD and the Widow walk off hand-in-hand.

Doug: Sentimentally, I'd have liked to have seen Daredevil and the Widow get back together. But as I said when we began this tour back near the end of June, this was the last issue that I read for a very long time. And even saying that, I've never read Miller's complete run. Really, I've only picked at it here and there, even though I have access to almost all of it. So the Elektra stories? I wouldn't see those until around four years after they were released. In fact, when I was first going about filling in the massive holes in my collection, it was Miller's collaboration with Bill Sienkiewicz on Elektra: Assassin that was on the newsstands. I thought it was weird (I never warmed to Sienkiewicz's style). Bullseye is a great villain, and I think Miller was onto something (by now co-plotting with Roger McKenzie, I'd guess) in reaching into the head of the villain and going after the pathological elements of his psyche. While the "anything in my hands is a weapon" schtick is cool, depth was needed. I think in this 3-parter we started to get a little of that. All in all, these four issues would equate to around 80 minutes very well spent!

Doug's Favorites - Daredevil 160

Daredevil #160 (September 1979)
"In the Hands of Bullseye"
Roger McKenzie-Frank Miller/Klaus Janson

Doug: This is the second-to-last issue of Daredevil that I purchased before my five year hiatus from new comics buying. I was fortunate enough to also purchase next week's conclusion to this Bullseye 3-parter off the spinner rack, but then I quit cold turkey. I don't know that I overall stopped with the November 1979 cover dates (next week's issue), but it was close. I've always loved the cover to this book, despite it's depiction of violence against women. White covers always tend to grab the eye, and I'm a well known sucker for floating heads. But the expression on Bullseye's face -- his "Ta-da!" exuberance, and the hopeless state of the unconscious Black Widow make it one of the best covers in Frank Miller's run on this book.

Doug: If you'll recall, back in DD #158 the law offices of Nelson & Murdock had been trashed by the so-called Unholy Three (I always find that a dumb moniker. They're the freakin' Ani-Men!) when they came to kidnap Matt Murdock for delivery to the Death-Stalker. Heather Glenn, Matt's girlfriend, had asked the Black Widow to go search for the blind attorney -- even though she knew that Matt could take care of himself. So today's story actually begins with an epilogue. Natasha Romanoff arrives back to her penthouse apartment after a night on patrol. She thinks to herself that every time she gets close to someone, death ensues. She's brooding, and perhaps that's why her guard is down. As she begins to ready for bed, a voice comes from the other side of the room -- the voice of Bullseye! He has not come for pleasantries. Had Natasha not been trained to be hard, fought alongside the Avengers, the Champions, SHIELD, and Daredevil, she surely would have died instantly. As everything is a weapon in the hands of Bullseye, it's spellbinding that he attacks the Widow with a hairbrush, a picture frame, a flower vase, a blowdryer, one of his own explosive throwing projectiles, and a chandelier. While the battle lasts 15 panels, we get the impression that it does not last 15 seconds. Pulling a clipping from the newspaper he'd read at the end of the previous issue, Bullseye pierces the photo of the Widow with a stiletto and hurls it into the wall. She is his captive; his hostage.

  

 

Doug: Sceneshift to a cemetery, where the DD cast is gathered at the grave of Maxwell Glenn, Heather's father. Matt has brought her here to come to grips with his death -- the others provide moral support from a distance. It's pouring rain. Heather is perturbed that Matt made her come, and especially on a day as it is. She chafes at him, saying that when she needed him the most he was away playing Daredevil. She asks for a promise that it won't happen again... and gets no answer. Matt begins a "with great power..." speech, and gets a slap to the face for it. Heather storms off and Matt is left alone. Foggy encourages the girls to let him be. We next find Matt in his brownstone, brooding. He's poured himself a drink, and thinks about why he became DD in the first place. He figures there's one person who will "get" what he's going through -- Natasha. So it's into the red suit with the hornheaded mask, and away he goes to seek his former lover.

Doug: Matt billy clubs it across town and arrives to Natasha's to an open window. There's no sign of her, and his radar sense tells him that there's been a scuffle. His keen sense of smell tells him that there's been blood in the room. And then the breeze raises the paper pinned to the wall. Using his heightened sense of touch, he recognizes the scrap as the picture of the Widow that had run in the paper a few days past. DD hightails it to the Daily Bugle offices, where he pumps Ben Urich for information on Bullseye. Urich tells him that they have nothing that hasn't already seen print. DD wants to know how Bullseye made it back onto the streets. Urich relates how he broke out of Bellevue Psychiatric by strangling his therapist, knocking out a security guard, taking a nurse hostage, and finally commandeering a police car, which he later abandoned. Before Urich has finished this recounting, ol' Hornhead is nowhere to be seen. Urich shuffles over to his file cabinet and pulls a folder out. There's a picture of Daredevil clipped to the outside, but the filing had been in the "M" section... for "Murdock".

Doug: You know, if you were or are a reader of Conan, whether under the pencils of Barry Smith or Big John Buscema, then you've seen your share of bar fights. I'd say there's nothing either of those two masters ever put to bristol board that would surpass what Frank Miller and Klaus Janson give us over the next five pages. In fact, it's so strong an action scene that I just decided to include the entire thing rather than attempt to pick-and-choose which panels were the best. The premise of the scene is that DD has come looking for Bullseye's location -- he wants information and he wants it now! It's kind of funny -- DD had a chance to get what he wanted, but I guess there was a sense that all hell was about to break loose so he figured he'd rather be the orchestrator rather than a reactionary. His strategy seems to work just fine.

Doug: This second act in the Bullseye trilogy is mostly set-up, isn't it? So why the heck would I have scrapped my original title (which wasn't very satisfying; it was a work in progress) and changed it to one of my "favorites"? Seriously -- why do most of us read comics? That's right -- same reason people go to hockey games. For the fights! Obviously, there was more to this issue than that, and I recall at the time finding the "Urich knows Matt is DD" subplot intriguing. It's nothing we hadn't seen before from J. Jonah Jameson over in the Spidey books, but this was fairly new territory in DD (hey, that Mike Murdock thing really threw everyone off back in the day!). I personally never warmed to Heather Glenn, so that she and Matt may have been heading toward "over" was OK with me -- I thought it would have been much cooler if he'd gone back with the Black Widow. And I guess that's one of the elements of the story that really gripped me then, and now on the re-read: Bullseye tries to hit Daredevil where it hurts, by kidnapping his partner (and presumed love interest?). He accomplishes this relatively easily when he shouldn't have. And then we see DD go after her like a man possessed. There was some serious passion involved in every scene and from every character -- from Bullseye to Heather Glenn to Ben Urich to Daredevil. Although we only had half a dozen scene shifts, the pace was frenetic. I loved this book 35 years ago, and it's still one to check in on every now and then! Enjoy the more-than-usual full-page art samples today!

Every Breath You Take - Daredevil 159

Daredevil #159 (July 1979)
"Marked for Murder!"
Roger McKenzie-Frank Miller/Klaus Janson

Doug: Last week we entered the realm of Frank Miller's Daredevil, and I don't think anyone was overtly disappointed. While some may not care for Miller's present style of drawing or the level of violence in his works (such as the Sin City stories), it would be difficult to argue his impact on the DD book as one of the highlights of the twilight years of the Bronze Age. Certainly he would be a major architect in the segue to the Dark Age. But here, very early on (when Daredevil was still a bi-monthly), it's pretty straightforward superhero fare. And this particular issue, and the subsequent two installments, would establish Bullseye as one of the baddest dudes in the Marvel pantheon of villains. Onward...

Doug: We open in some sort of film room, as the narrator tells an assemblage to look carefully at the film. It's a recording of Daredevil's circus battle with Bullseye (DD #132) in which the Man Without Fear thoroughly kicked the tail of the assassin. At this meeting the narrator is offering some serious cash ($200K -- how times change. That's about three years pay for some middle class folks in the States these days) for the capture of Daredevil and his deliverance, whereafter he will be marked for murder! If, however, DD's body is returned dead, an additional $300K will pay out. The proposal is addressed to a Mr. Eric Slaughter and his goons. We don't know it at the time, but the man with the Benjamins and making this offer is Bullseye. Oh boy... Around three years ago, frequent commenter Fred W. Hill said this in my review of Daredevil #131: "Funny that it took about 10 years for anyone to come up with Daredevil's own great villain, although it would take Miller's handling to really make Bullseye a significant foe." That begins here!

Doug: Cut to the steps of a courthouse, where Matt Murdock is being questioned about his kidnapping the previous night. The Ani-Men had taken him to the Death-Stalker, where all three men ended up dead by the end of the night. Murdock wasn't at the scene when it was over, having been replaced by his alter ego; but the press nonetheless has questions. Off to the side is Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, listening intently. He thinks to himself that all is not what it seems about Matt Murdock. Once inside the court room, Murdock approaches the bench and asks for a continuance in the case he's working. He gets it, so he and Foggy head back out and cab over to their offices. But in the court room, on the street, and back at the offices there lurk some shadowy figures, each one whispering to a comrade. It's apparent that Murdock's every move is being tracked, and there is a plan afoot.

Doug: Matt is able to hear the whispers around him; Foggy asks him why he's so jittery. Just then two muscle-types emerge and mug our lawyer friends. With a knife held under his nose, Murdock is told that it's known that Daredevil sometimes does investigative work for Nelson & Murdock. So it would behoove Murdock to tell his hornheaded friend that Mr. Slaughter would like to see him, alone, at Pier 42 at midnight. No Daredevil, and it won't turn out well for Matt and Foggy. Then the hoods run off. As Foggy collects himself, he calls to Matt... but Matt is gone.

Doug: DD arrives at the waterfront silently and scopes it out. As he settles in, his keen senses detect gunmen throughout the area -- the sounds of their guns being readied, the scent of cigarette smoke, and of gunpowder give everyone away. Daredevil works behind some of the men -- everyone is skittish, as it's past 12:00. Surely Daredevil would not have put Murdock's life in danger -- why hasn't he shown? DD dives into the water and swims to a ship tied nearby. The men aboard tell us that it's a really dense fog that's settled this evening. Perfect for a sightless swashbuckler.  DD climbs high enough to launch his billy club to the deck, creating a loud clanging diversion and taking out a goon.

Doug: You know, in last issue's review I led you in a discussion of Miller's art, especially as compared to Gene Colan's. I made no mention of the scripting of Roger McKenzie, and that was an oversight on my part. He really has the pulse of this character and the mood of this corner of the Marvel Universe. We might expect Daredevil to be handled as we are seeing last issue and this as Miller is aboard. I cannot tell you anything in regard to who was doing the plotting, but the tone of these stories, as well as the dialogue, is top shelf. So kudos to McKenzie, who had been on the title since #151. Miller's choreography is again well-played, and of course Klaus Janson is along to take us into Miller's noir world.

Doug: What follows Daredevil's ascension to the ship deck is seven pages of all-out butt-kicking. One of the elements of watching DD in combat is his use of the billy club. It's not unlike the manner in which Captain America uses his shield -- for offense and defense. Miller really varies the camera angles throughout the scene, which even goes underwater for a spell. And it's worth noting that the wise-cracking Spider-Man knock-off that could be Daredevil is nowhere to be found in either of these first two issues we've looked at. Instead, we are finding a hero who is just a bit perturbed at the way he's being treated -- kidnapped, mugged, and with a contract on his head. There's no time for banter when you're 24/7 PO'd. Miller gives the readers a phenomenal climactic panel for this scene when DD uses his billy club to whack a bullet right out of the air. Pretty dang awesome.

Doug: As the last tough is corralled for questioning, another thug hops into a motorboat and begins to speed away. As DD shakes his would-be informant, and is about to get the name of the contractor, a life preserver strikes the man square in the back of the neck, shattering his spine. No more talk. Daredevil turns his head toward the craft, and "sees" that the driver is pointing something at him -- but not a gun. He is confused, a countenance not lost on the man getting away. Sometime later, we see the arms and legs of the man who had apparently led off our story. It's a familiar look, and as the camera continues to pull back in each panel, there's no mistaking who had ordered the contract. Bullseye. And what was he pointing at Daredevil? Why, a movie camera. You see, he had been in hiding during the entire fracas on the pier, up to the very end when he had to kill the informant who was about to spill his identity. And what use will the film be? For studying Daredevil's every move and tendency. It's a bloody revenge that Bullseye seeks. And oh yeah... he knows that the Black Widow is back in New York. See you next Monday.

It's Miller Time - Daredevil 158

 

Daredevil #158 (May 1979)
"A Grave Mistake!"
Roger McKenzie-Frank Miller/Klaus Janson

Doug: Does anyone around here have an explanation as to why in the past five years we've never gotten around to reviewing one of the hallmark series of the latter Bronze Age? Will someone please tell me? You know, it is funny. One would think that with 52 weeks of partner reviews in a year that we'd have gotten to some Frank Miller DD. But what you may not know is that in all of our meetings to come up with four-issue blocks to fill out the various months, this just never came up. It was always, "Hey, sometime we need to get to some Miller Daredevils!" and then we'd say, "But we haven't done the FF in awhile so let's find a good storyline." In fact, back in January when we were on vacation and plotting out 2014, we were going to do the Frightful Four storyline that we mentioned in our last Super Blog Team-Up. But no Daredevil. Today that changes.

Doug: With this issue, we're right up against the wall that symbolizes my departure from comics buying for around a five-year period. As I've remarked in the past, I left just as the "Dark Phoenix Saga" was getting underway over in X-Men. Ditto here. I know I had this issue, and DD #s 160-161. Then nothing until I got back into the hobby circa 1985. Sheesh. Talk about a ship sailed. But I've caught up on most of what I missed in one form or another (the "Golden Age of Reprints", indeed), largely because in this case I liked what I was seeing before I left. I'd like to start off with a question for everyone, aside from any thoughts you'll leave on the plot and my thoughts. That question is, who do you think is the quintessential DD artist: Gene Colan or Frank Miller?

Doug: Talk about dropped right into the middle of the action! We open with a splash page featuring Daredevil's then-cast of characters, and it looks like a scuffle has taken place. Natasha Romanoff is front and center, and bloodied. In the background we see a prone Foggy Nelson, and Matt Murdock's love interest at the time, Heather Glenn. A page turn later we find out what's up -- the Ani-Men (I can here you all gasp in horror all the way over here in Chicagoland) are on the scene and have busted up the place! You know, I've come across these goons a few times, and I just can never bring myself to say, "Holy snot! It's the Ani-Men!!" But apparently the fellows in this version are pretty nasty, particularly if they bloodied the Widow. But they've come for Matt Murdock, at the behest of "the boss". Natasha was out as far as secret IDs go, so she had no trouble jumping right back into the fray; Matt couldn't so easily do that. So while 'tasha tried to give Matt a chance to escape, she took some further physical abuse from Ape Man. Finally Matt called out that he'd go peacefully if no one got hurt. As the "Unholy Three" makes their move to leave, a lady in a wheelchair named Becky (help me -- I don't have my DDs anymore, so I'm going to need to be reminded here) fires something at Bird Man and knocks him for a loop. This gives the Widow an opening to launch herself onto his back, even as he flies out the window. She disables his flight pack, which drops him. Ape Man and Cat Man make it safely away with Murdock in tow.

Doug: Heather comes to the window to call Natasha back inside. She says that Foggy needs her help. Then she remarks that Matt can take care of himself. This shocks the Widow at a couple of levels, but mostly wounds her. Previously, only she and Karen Page had known Matt was Daredevil. How serious were Matt and Heather? thought Natasha. Cut to the mean streets, where Murdock's kidnappers make their way through Uptown. Along the way, Ape Man divulges the name of "the boss" -- Death-Stalker! Murdock suddenly pipes up, telling them they need to not deal with Death-Stalker -- he's a cold-blooded killer and their lives are in very real danger. Of course, it's the money for delivering the lawyer that they care about and blow off their charge's words. Shortly they are in a small cemetery, where they tie Murdock to a large stone crucifix. Death-Stalker emerges from a mausoleum. While his look was in no way original, I did think he was a cool-looking villain. One of my first DD comics was #128, and I was sold on Death-Stalker after that. The Ani-Men get their money, and huddle in the corner to count it. They're most happy to now only have to split it two ways.

Doug: Death-Stalker waves a hand toward an open grave, with a headstone bearing Murdock's name and the inscription "May he burn in Hell". He then narrates an origin that stretches back to DD #41, when he was known as the Exterminator. He had built a time-displacement ray, and after the defeat of the Ani-Men Daredevil had thrown the switch to the machine. This forced the Exterminator into the time stream, where he drifted in limbo. He was able to anchor himself at one point and steal AIM tech that allowed him to craft his death gloves. And now Daredevil would pay a price for the Death-Stalker losing his former life (it seems that this is all about the destruction of the time-displacement ray, which for some reason could not be rebuilt? -Flimsy...). As the Ani-Men count their loot -- all $100K of it -- Death-Stalker leaves Murdock to walk over and kill both of his mercenary assistants. That distraction was just enough time for Murdock to finish loosening his binding. It's swashbuckling time!

Doug: Matt removes his clothes to reveal his DD costume. Death-Stalker wants it that way and Matt obliges. DD thinks that he has to be very careful, as Death-Stalker exists a second out of the timestream -- he's blurry in his movements to DD's radar sense. But suddenly the Stalker's heartbeat becomes more audible. DD thinks that -of course!- Death-Stalker must materialize on this time plane in order to use his death grip. DD takes that window of opportunity and strikes! The two men engage, with Daredevil always staying away from those white gloves. But as DD drives the Death-Stalker back toward a large monument, D-S blinks out -- jumping back into limbo. As Daredevil tries to get a bead on his adversary, Death-Stalker re-emerges above Daredevil. DD is barely able to roll to the side and away from the grip of death. The two continue to tussle until Matt becomes aware of a street lamp overhead. Rifling his billy club into the heart of the globe, he plunges the cemetery into darkness. But seriously -- I wasn't buying this. They're in the heart of the city! Even if they were away from any sort of "downtown" area, the neighborhood wouldn't be a black-out. But not to hear Death-Stalker complain... "What sort of game is this, Daredevil? I cannot see you in the darkness!" Boo hoo, dude. Come and get your whuppin'. The combat continues, with DD having the obvious advantage. Finally, Death-Stalker lurches toward a monument of an angel, thinking it's Daredevil. As he stretches out his white gloves for the coup de grace, Daredevil uses his club to strike down hard, smashing the Death-Stalker's hands -- and with them, the tech that allowed him to kill by touch. Now blind with fury, Death-Stalker lunged at DD, but with his concentration gone did not realize that he had partially phased through a headstone. Unable to control his anger, he solidified -- half in and half out of the monument. End of battle.

 

Doug: Back at the storefront offices of Nelson and Murdock, Matt's quite moody. He's exhausted from his ordeal with the Death-Stalker. Foggy's been bandaged up. Becky tells him that there's been no word from Natasha since she left to look for him. As everyone gets ready to leave, Matt says he is going to stay behind to get some work done. As he broods in his office, he hears a noise and voices Natasha's name. But it was Becky, who apparently has a secret thing for him. To be continued.

Doug: Frank Miller's pencils were quite a departure from the work of Gene Colan, who had most recently been back on the book (issues #s 153-157). I had enjoyed Bob Brown's much earlier run on the title, and found Miller's "look" to be similar to Brown's. But whereas Brown's figures could at times seem stiff, there was none of that in Miller's pencils. His figures seemed to burst with the frenetic energy that Colan imbued them with, but in a more realistic style that evoked acrobats, or dancers in a ballet. There was drama in his pencils. And Klaus Janson's inks remained steady, as he'd been on the book for several issues prior to Miller's arrival. But I'd submit that Janson's inks over Miller's pencils changed the tone of the book from how I had perceived it over my previous years as a regular reader. So while Miller would not write the Daredevil feature for several more issues, his (and Janson's) presence was nonetheless a watershed moment on the book -- and for Marvel. And help us all -- it was great. I only wish it had not continued down a path that has brought us to where we are today in comics, where ninjas and bloody violence permeate our comics and the anti-hero takes center stage more often than the noble helper. Give me the way-back machine...