Daredevil 24

The Mystery of the Midnight Stalker by Stan Lee and Gene Colan

One sentence overview: Daredevil flies into England where he discovers that Ka-Zar is being accused of being the 'Midnight Stalker' and so he visits Castle Plunder to find out the truth...

Oh, no! Daredevil's stuck in Europe. How will he get out of this mess? Why, fly a plane, of course, silly. As if doubting that his readers would believe such a thing, Stan Lee adds a little note at the bottom of the page where Matt hits the skies to explain how he uses his radar senses to fly the bird. No need, Stan. We still remember Daredevil piloting a spaceship in issue two, after all. A plane's a walk in the park after that, huh? Unfortunately, the plane only has enough fuel to take him to England, which enables the Daredevil readership to reacquaint themselves with Lord Kevin Plunder, aka Ka-Zar.

Just as well, too. Poor old Ka-Zar is being accused of being a braggard. A braggard, I tell you! Or the Midnight Stalker, as you may have guessed from the title of this story. Ka-Zar is a key suspect as there have been bare footprints left, accompanied by those of a tiger (or a Zabu), as the scenes of the Stalker's crimes.

Anyway, cor blimey, guvnor, all this being in England allows Stan Lee to play around with the English phraseology once more. Lord Mayor Honeywell has surrounded Plunder Castle, in which Ka-Zar is hiding. (Incidentally, since when has a Lord Mayor had the powers to command an army to surround a castle? Who knows, maybe that was common practice in London in the 60s but the title is more a decorative one than anything else.) Honeywell bellows into a megaphone, "We've jolly well surrounded your castle!" That's simply spiffing, thinks Ka-Zar, would you like some tea and cake? No, of course, he doesn't think that. Meanwhile one of Honeywell's men is a true cockney, putting H in front of his vowels: "Hi'd like a look at that Ka-Zar bloke, Hi would," he says. Luv a duck, Stan, enough with the stereotypes already!

Still it's a good job these English are so polite. Ka-Zar hasn't anyone hostage but the army merely surround the Castle and demand he come out instead of storming the place and arresting him. It's just not cricket, old boy, not to come out, you could imagine Honeywell thinking. There's no Kevin without Parnival though and it's gratifying to see the Plunderer turn up later on in this issue, albeit still in his ridiculous costume. The Plunderer, rather too quickly in my mind, reveals he has been setting up Ka-Zar, Daredevil simply remarking that it would be easy for anyone to fake footprints. The plot, this issue, is really a little too pedestrian. Is Stan already running out of ideas for his sightless lawyer?

Alas, only one panel for Foggy and Karen this issue. Though it's the last one and what a cliffhanger! Karen has received a letter from Spider-man (what return address did he use, I wonder?) telling her that Matt Murdock is Daredevil. Maybe I spoke too soon, Stan. Things could be looking up for the next issue.

Cast

Matt Murdock/Daredevil

Foggy Nelson

Karen Page

Ka-Zar

Captain Parnival Plunder

Lord Mayor Honeywell

Rating: 2 out of 10