Daredevil 28

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour's Planet by Stan Lee and Gene Colan

One Sentence Overview: Matt goes to speak at Carter College about the legal ramifications of alien invasion, whilst a college professor encounters an alien on the snow covered lawn

Karen's feeling bummed about Matt at the beginning of this issue. Whilst she looks forlornly out of the window of Nelson & Murdock, annoying Mike Murdock sits cross legged on her desk behind, juggling. Mike tells Karen that Matt's away giving a lecture at some university so he won't be around. I'm kind of hoping that Stan has a big bus waiting for Mike for him to step out in front of... No, wait. He's Matt, right? Sheesh. I'm like Foggy and Karen now, getting confused about who Matt is and isn't. Karen, meanwhile, remains transfixed by the hippest character in comics, so much so that on page two she leans hard on what looks like a very precariously balanced drawer in a filing cabinet. Careful now! Health & safety at work, Karen.

Inexplicably, Foggy (or Chubbins as Mike calls him) is dating Karen. He's pulling out the uber romantic stops, taking her for a ride on a horse and carriage. But the poor guy can't win - Karen still can't stop going on about Mike and Matt. Here, Karen even wonders out loud if Matt can be... But no, he can't be Daredevi. He's blind after all, she figures. But she's getting awfully suspicious. That reminds me. Matt was going to reveal all to Karen a few issues back. Guess that's on the back burner now that nutty Mike's on the scene. Daredevil, eavesdropping, jumps onboard the cab, acting like Mike to try to fool all and sundry, but Karen, in a gorgeous panel drawn by Gene Colan, looks unconvinced, confused now about what's being going on all along. Some nice story-telling early on this issue.

Which is just as well as things are about to get waaay corny. Matt, a lawyer remember, has been invited to give a lecture at Carter College. What on exactly? The fine art of defense lawyer? Who to go to for a good claim? What to do when you find out your building manager is a big bad guy? No. Flying saucers. That's right. Flying saucers. So there's a new interest we didn't know Matt had. To be fair, Matt's not the only speaker and he's dealing with the legal ramifications of aliens landing on our planet and their rights. Matt tells his keen audience (partially made up of female students who swooned when they caught sight of him in the university grounds) that they must not discriminate on the basis of race, creed or colour (hurrah!) but then adds what planet they're from too. Interesting summation of human rights, there, Matt. But since when were human rights extended to the alien population? The Skrulls should get his number, due to the disgraceful lack of cultural and religious respect shown to them by humans in their recent attempts to migrate.

The topic of flying saucers is particularly big news at Carter because a professor named Brewster has claimed to have seen one. As the story progresses, Brewster bumps into an alien who tells him the human race is doomed. Which isn't very nice. Daredevil later goes after them and whilst they're green, let's give credit to Colan, he's given them a very distinctive look. They're quite lizard-y in a way, with scales and claws but have very peculiar lower jaws and a half halo around the forehead. Their space craft is somewhat less original - basically your common and garden flying saucer. I must confess to be less than thrilled about Daredevil, who's all about getting down and dirty with lowlifes, fighting weird looking earth destroying bug eyed monsters and being abducted into space.

The aliens are all about plundering earth's resources - they actually aren't interested in conquering our backward, puny little planet. However, they do like plucky Matt. They offer Daredevil a deal. Come with us and we'll restore your eyesight. Will Matt be tempted? Is he heck. A couple of snowballs later ( no, seriously, Matt ties things up by throwing a few snowballs) and the aliens are thwarted.

There's a very peculiar panel near the end of this issue. The aliens have set their sight stealing ray off across the earth and Colan draws a mixture of different people from different cultures suffering sudden blindness. This isn't particularly odd in itself. It's the letterer who distinguishes himself here - writing odd types of script for each character. Hence the Russian has an oppressed Soviet style lettering, complaining about capitalists (though hilariously spells capitalists with a 'k'), an Indian on an elephant fears that Muhammad has abandoned him and so on. We don't say a lot about letterers but Dick Ayers is the guy responsible here. It's quite strange.

And a great final panel. Foggy and Karen have been racing to reach Matt. Once there, Foggy starts blah- blahing but is anyone listening. No. Instead Karen and Matt hug, both intensely relieved. "I might as well talk to the wall," Foggy huffs.

Despite a very unpromising storyline, this is a surprisingly fun read.

Cast

Matt Murdock/Daredevil

Foggy Nelson

Karen Page

Professor Tom Brewster

Rating: 6 out of 10

Daredevil 27

Mike Murdock Must Die by Stan Lee and Gene Colan

One sentence overview: The Masked Marauder and Stilt-Man team up to kidnap the Murdock & Nelson trio in an attempt to elicit a confession from one of them as to Daredevil's secret identity.

Hi, folks. Back after a busy couple of weeks finishing off some essays.

Peculiar cover but nice to see Foggy and Karen in the corner, adding some comic relief. Well, kind of. If your expectations aren't too high.

Spider-man's back this issue. Does this mean we'll be able to finally unravel the whole letter fiasco accusing Matt of being DD? Alas, not this issue. Worst luck. Interesting that things are rather frosty between the two heroes at this stage, considering they become very close later. But for now it's like two alpha males circling each other, concerned that the other's trampling all over their turf.

The Masked Marauder is very keen at feeling superior to an underling and here he's replaced the Gladiator with Stilt-Man, who he condescends brilliantly right from the off. Well, I suppose there's no point treating your partner well if you're going to double cross them like Gladdy previously was. But, come on, Farnum, all this antagonism! It ain't good for the soul.

Matt and the gang all end up tied up in the Marauder's helicopter. This means that Matt has to think of a really contrived way of (1) getting the ropes tying him up shot off (and luckily Farnum's got a gun) and (2) jumping out of the helicopter so that he can change into Daredevil. Naturally, through a nicely judged headbutt and some heightened senses action, Matt achieves the former quite easily:

(and let's face it, that was the hard part) and then, to Karen's horror, 'falls' out of the helicopter to effect his costume change. Phew. It's hard work.

Later Matt uses his ability to detect pulse rate to work out that it's Farnum he's up against. This is pretty peculiar. I would have thought that only if you had a consistently peculiar heartbeat would Matt ever be able to detect you. Perhaps a more credible solution would have been a distinctive smell, link the hair tonic constantly used by the bad guys early on in Daredevil's run. Perhaps Farnum could have had a case of halitosis that even the mask couldn't contain. Or even better - intense body odour.

For at least the third time in Daredevil's run, a villain's comeuppance is handed to him by falling from a great height, when, oops, Farnum backs out of the helicopter.

At least we're pretty much guaranteed that Stilt-Man can't go that way, huh? Stilt-Man instead is thwarted by a water logged gun that short circuits on hm. Not sure if this is the end of Farnum, though. We've had a lot of build up about his character, as if he's being set up as DD's nemesis. And when does dead ever mean dead in comics, huh?

Colan's artwork is becoming more idiosyncratic. Sometimes it works really well - there are some nice dramatic shots, including some nice skrinking Stilt-Man. Elsewhere, he draws some really strange, plastic looking policemen.

I guess firing out 20 odd pages a month meant that the quality of these great artists sometimes dipped.

A pretty average issue, all in all. It's very fast pace and the end of the Masked Marauder is worth tuning in for but I didn't feel the characters moved forward much in this story.

Cast

Matt Murdock/Daredevil

Foggy Nelson

Karen Page

Spider-man

The Masked Marauder/Frank Farnum

Stilt-Man/Wilbur Day

Rating: 4 out of 10

Daredevil 26

Stilt-Man Strikes Again by Stan Lee and Gene Colan

One Sentence Overview: Mike Murdock's court appearance at the trial of the Leap Frog is cut short when the Stilt Man appears outside...

Matt Murdock must be a whizz when it comes to all things legal. He's been awol in Europe recently and this issue opens up with him talking an afternoon off to go swinging around the city as Daredevil. He's feeling guilty though and realises that he has to get back to the office - all those law cases won't fight themselves after all, will they? So what does he do when the moment he gets into the office? Why, changes into zany twin Mike Murdock.

As Mike, Matt's repressed Catholic side is suddenly consumed by a frankly pretty irritating hip extrovert. There's probably some profound psychological text book about this kind of thing. In all my Daredevil readings, I have to say that the guise of Mike feels pretty out of character from what Matt is usually like and, whilst his appearances are fun in an odd kind of way, it's also very disconcerting. And besides, it makes Foggy and Karen appear very, very stupid.

Speaking of Foggy, in a nice follow up from the previous issue, Matt's partner is defending the Leap Frog in court. It's good to see the good guys being shown to defend someone we know as a bad guy - I mean, that's quite realistic and normally doesn't happen in comics back in the sixties. In court though, Matt, as Mike, can't help being both rude to the others in the courtroom and obnoxiously on top of the case in the way that the non-charismatic Foggy isn't. Strangely there's a moment here that's very much prescient of OJ Simpson's first trial, where the Leap Frog (and even in the court case we aren't treated to his real name) tries on the spring enhanced boots. Unlike OJ, the boots actually fit and, D'OH!, he starts to spring out of the courtroom. Or rather through a window where he forgets he's three stories up. D'OH again!

Then we're reminded of the whole reason why 'Mike' has been dredged up from Matt's fevered imagination. Matt's trying to convince his colleagues that Mike, not Matt, is Daredevil, as alleged by Spider-man two issues ago. I'm still waiting to see if there's any follow up to this letter, whether it's a fake or not - perhaps another guest appearance by the webcrawler to help boost sales? By the end of the issue, Karen and Foggy are convinced Mike Murdock is Daredevil and are happy to take vicarious enjoyment of the secret they think they enjoy.

The cover promises us the unmasking of the Masked Marauder, at long last. In addition there's the sudden appearance (for the second time) of Matt and Foggy's building manager, Mr Farnum, early on in this issue. As a reader you're asking why the attention on this character and then you think "Oh..." The signposting becomes a little intense when Farnum suddenly complains to Foggy about the low lives and criminals that he's defending. Oh, the irony!

To be fair to Stan Lee, he admits in a footnote that he realises that readers probably won't be surprised as Farnum is the only real suspect they've introduced in the comic to date. As I mentioned previously, I wonder if Stan's intention here was to create a nemesis for Daredevil in the Masked Marauder in the same way that the Green Goblin was for Spider-man but unfortunately Farnum, whilst clearly a brilliant technician, just doesn't have the same edge as the industrialist Norman Osborne and it's not really surprising that he hasn't become a great villain in the Marvel Pantheon.

The end of this issue is good, though. Daredevil calls over to Farnum and calls him by name. Suddenly Farnum is aware that he must know Daredevil personally. A nice little human slip up by the man without fear, yielding anticipation for what might be to come.

Phew - all this going on and not yet a mention of the main baddy the Stilt-Man, who turns up at the courthouse with the intention of 'springing' (geddit?) the Leap Frog. Oddly the Leap Frog is aware that on the Stilty's last appearance he seemed to disintegrate into nothing (issue 8) yet when Daredevil comes across him, he says blandly, "So, you've returned at last!" as if Matt had expected Wilbur Day, the scientist who had invented the Stilt-Man suit, to suddenly reappear from his atomic state. Very peculiar. Lucky for us Stan explains that Wilbur has existed in 'timeless limbo' until the effects of his condensor wore off. Afterwards, Day notes that he is "none the worse for my harrowing experience". Hmmm. Now there's a sentence which sends a chill...

Wow - a lot going on this issue and, while Mike's beginning to test my patience, the Masked Marauder storyline is begining to take an intriguing turn.

Cast

Matt Murdock/Daredevil

Foggy Nelson

Karen Page

The Masked Marauder/Frank Farnum

Stilt-Man/Wilbur Day

Leap Frog

Rating: 5 out of 10

Essay Stress!

FYI

I'm at college at the moment and have a bunch of essays to do before Christmas. This might mean that I'll be a bit slow getting new reviews up over the next few weeks but I'll try my best. Want to get beyond issue 30 at least before the 25th!

Cheers.

Daredevil 25

Enter The Leap Frog by Stan Lee and Gene Colan

One sentence overview: Whilst new villain the Leap Frog terrorises New York, Matt gets himself out of a tight spot by pretending he has a twin brother, Mike.

Well, I gotta say. There are underwhelming villains and then there are villains whose first glance of them is in a suit with a handkerchief around the bottom half of their face and with coil springs on the soles of their shoes. Yes, folks, meet the Leap Frog, possibly brought into duty because Slightly Bored Man was unavailable. Okay, I'm being a little unkind. But, hey, as with the Owl's mechanical bird a few issues back, Stan, obviously embarrassed, has Matt on page two asking "How corny can you get?"

And yet... Gene Colan produces a stunning picture at the bottom of page two, where the Leap Frog's shadow falls across an airport strip in very dramatic fashion, which works really well, considering the mediocrity of the villainy on display. In the corner of the frame, a cop notes, "I could nail him from here... but he probably hasn't done anything serious enough for gunplay!" which is somewhat relieving constraint from the boys in blue. Having said that, I'm not sure he would be so reticient in an airport security scenario today.

There's a bit of an editorial error back at Nelson and Murdock. Last issue, Karen opened a letter from Spider-man stating that Matt Murdock was Daredevil (that reliable ol' spidey sense, huh?). This issue she remarks that she shouldn't have opened it as it was a personal letter for Matt. Now there's a problem here. If the letter has been written in aramaic script, then surely Matt would ask Karen to read it to him anyway (so as not to give away his identity). Alternatively, if the letter is in braille, well, is our favourite legal secretary more talented than we've given credit in the past? Of course, that would also mean that Spidey's a dab hand in braille too. Nope, bit of a faux pas there, I would suggest.

Matt turns up and has to think of an excuse quickly about why he hasn't been around the last few days. Of course, he isn't going to tell Foggy and Karen the truth - that he's been in Europe - because that would tie him in too easily with the man without fear. So instead he comes up with a lame excuse about having a few days by the sea. He states that he was 'tired' after all the excitement at Madison Square Garden a few issues back. This is of course the sixties. Today he would be complaining about post traumatic stress disorder and suing the city for grievances.

Unfortunately for Matt, his colleagues don't believe him. Which, actually, I'm pretty pleased about. Too often secondary characters blindly assent to everything the hero of the book throws out at them. Here, Stan's obviously intent to show both Foggy and Karen (who of course up to now has been a simpering mess much of the time) as intelligent human beings, equals with Matt. Instead they prod him for a response to Spidey's claims about him being Daredevil. So what's Matt's response? Sigh. An even cornier story. Cornier than a field full of corn in the land of corn.

Matt babbles out that he has a twin brother, Mike. Foggy is unimpressed. He's never mentioned him before in all the time they two spent rooming together in college. He demands a meeting. Of course, Mike turns up later and, what a shock, he's nothing like responsible Matt . Mike wears horrible yellow shirts and green shades (hmmm, wonder why he's wearing shades indoors?) and calls Foggy 'pudgy' and Karen 'baby'. If Matt was early era Beatles with the tight suits and haircuts, Mike's the later era with the wonky clothes and penchant for free loving. Even Foggy's moved to describe him as a 'hip hyena'. Of course, there's no sign of Matt whilst Mike's around - but Karen and Foggy are too wowed by the twin's appearance to notice.

So what's the Leap Frog up to whilst Matt is thoroughly embarrassing himself? Well, not content to be dressed as a normal man with springs on his shoes, he develops a frog costume that is not dislike the one previously worn by Frog Man (surprise, surprise) in the Organiser storyline. It's truly hideous, particularly the way Colan draws it. I can imagine he had fun designing it, though you do fear for the villain's sanity. He's going to be sectioned running around the streets dressed like that.

Matt and Froggy have a couple of battles this issue. Nice piece of dialogue from Matt during the second encounter. "Nothing beats a solid punch in the kisser," he tells the man in green. "It's as American as mom's apple pie!" I'm not American but I'm not sure I'd be flattered by such a comparison.Peculiarly, this is another issue where the villain of the piece has no alias. We've already seen this with the Gladiator and, more deliberately, with the Masked Marauder, who appears to be being set up for a big reveal further down the line.

Billy Club watch: This issue Matt anthropomorphises his club. "I've got fresh batteries in her," he announces rather queasily. The batteries, in question, can make the club form a hook, which helps release his cable so that Matt can drag things. I think later this idea is merely replaced by the two ends of his billy club being the same length and that automatically hooks itself when he throws it. This notion here makes the billy club perhaps overly elaborate, though since he's had a tape recorder and massive sheet in there in previous issues, perhaps it's not so big a deal.

Despite this being one of the most contrived issues yet, against the odds it's not too bad as it's consistently entertaining (if not a little baffling).

Cast

Matt Murdock/Daredevil/Mike Murdock

Foggy Nelson

Karen Page

The Leap Frog

Rating: 5 out of 10

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

Daredevil 23

DD Goes Wild by Stan Lee and Gene Colan

One Sentence Overview: Daredevil is transported from Madison Square Garden to the Masked Marauder's lair where he battles with the three hoods that comprise the Tri-Man, unaware that the Marauder is scheming against his erstwhile partner, the Gladiator.

The threats issued against Foggy and Karen at the end of the last issue are very quickly dismissed, cited by the Masked Marauder merely as a ruse in which to attract DD's attention so that he can levitate him into his plexi-glass prisons back at his base. It strikes me that the Levitation Ray that the Marauder uses is very similar to the teleportation device used in Star Trek. Now, I'm not sure exactly when the original series of Star Trek first came out but it must have been very close - with one perhaps influencing the other. Though I'm not going to commit as to who had an influence on whom.

Anyway, good old Daredevil with his heightened senses is quickly able to work out how to break out of the plexi-glass. As if mere glass could hold him, huh? More big fighting then ensues. This is all much of a muchness, truth be told - maybe it's my age but I can't get very excited about issues that are just all about 'Daredevil meets bad guys, Daredevil fights bad guys, Daredevil beats bad guys. The End'. One of the other problems for me at the moment is that now that Gene Colan is on art duties, he uses much larger panels than Romita - typically four to a page, similar in many ways to current comic stylings. These are very dramatic for fight scenes but also mean that each issue flies by, a little too quickly and slightly unsatisfactorily to my mind at least. As I mentioned before, I do wonder if, at this stage, Stan Lee was a little over-worked and was peeling out story after story for his many titles in such quick fashion that there was little time for nuance in his storytelling.

There are however entertaining moments. Daredevil's banter with the IQ depleted 'rassler', the Mangler, is quite amusing. Another splash page where DD sees off the Brain is very nicely done. Best of all, though, is a great picture of Daredevil swinging the Gladiator like a weather vane.

It's hilarious. Then the second half of this issue considerably lifts the first and presents a good denouement and new dilemma for Matt.

This is mainly due to a brilliant bit of scene changing about half way through the issue. The Masked Marauder contacts the Maggia, who have been on hand since last issue, and levitates both Daredevil and the Gladiator into their hands. The Gladiator is pretty upset about this - he's been hoodwinked by his partner, but the Marauder is remorseless, reminding Melvin that he never intended to be his equal. But here's the good part. The Maggia are hanging out near where a European movie has just finished shooting a 'biblical epic'. So where, naturally do DD and the Gladiator end up? A Roman amphitheatre! Now that's a nice touch, Mr Lee.

It's not just Matt and Melvin (incidentally, that's a bit of a spoiler as the Gladiator's alias has yet to be revealed - I can't wait for that issue!) hanging out at the abandoned set - there are some big cats too. (The fact that the film company's animal handlers have obviously forgotten to take the lions back home might get them in trouble with animal right campaigners.) Phew, though, they're in a cage. Oh, no! Gladiator! What are you doing with the spinning discs on your wrist? Oops, there goes the cage bars...

This actually leads to quite a nice ending to the story, the Gladiator ending up with the Maggia, for the time being, the Marauder's ties with the gangsters severed, whilst Daredevil has ended up, in costume, stuck in the middle of Europe.

Gene Colan's artwork is beginning to come much more distinctive of his own style, rather than trying to mimic Romita's. Particularly they way he draws expressions and uses shadow is very much his own and there's a panel with Karen and Foggy in this issue that really stands out, in my mind, as classic Colan.

Speaking of Karen, she's beginning to suspect that Matt may be the man without fear. Well, considering you delivered him to the stadium in his costume, Karen, you know that's not a bad clue...

Cast
Matt Murdock/Daredevil
Foggy Nelson
Karen Page

Melvin Potter/The Gladiator
The Masked Marauder
The Brain
The Dancer
The Mangler

Rating: 5 out of 10