Daredevil Annual 1967

Electro and his Emissaries of Evil by Stan Lee and Gene Colan



One Sentence Overview: Electro gathers together a group of familiar faces in order to take down Daredevil once and for all.

In the same month as Daredevil 32, the first Daredevil annual was published. Something which surprised me straight away is that regular artist, Gene Colan, is the fella behind the pencils in this book too. This seems astonishing to me. There's 39 pages of artwork here, alongside the 20 he's regularly knocking out for the monthly comic. Compared to the workrate and regularly missed deadlines of today's artists, that seems quite remarkable. Okay, it's not quite like for like. It's obvious that, for the most part, there's a lot more detail in today's funny books, but I still feel the need to give Mr Colan his due respect for the effort.

The annual uses the first few pages to give an introduction to Daredevil. This seems to be an understandably deliberate move by the creators to help new readers who've picked up this 'No1' title on the off chance and try to lure them into the monthly ongoing. This also means that there are only perfunctory appearances by Foggy and Karen, though, on the plus side, mercifully Stan has decided not to complicate things by trying to shoehorn 'Mike Murdock' into the plot (though he does get mentioned on the final page). All those new readers spared! Stan and Gene, at several points, reveal that Karen is Matt's true love and linger on the impossibility of this situation for Matt, teasing new readers with the emotional entanglements of the young lawyer's private life.

Speaking personally, of more important note is that, in these opening pages, Matt refers to his home as a 'Brownstone' for the first time. I'd always associated Matt with his home being one of these, though up to now in the monthly, his home has been referred to as an apartment. I was thinking that maybe he was going to upgrade at some point. Nice to know that the building's one and the same all along.

It's clear that Stan and Gene are pulling out all the stops for the annual, presenting five familiar villains making their return to the comic. I get the impression that Stan's trying to follow up the success of his (very good, actually) Spider-man annual with Doc Ock and his Sinister Six. He's even using one of the six, Electro, as the ringleader here.

Daredevil eavesdrops on Electro explaining his plan to the Matador (probably the most underwhelming of the villains, in my opinion - even DD agrees, saying later, "You're at the very top of my list of forgettable people"), telling the toreador that Daredevil will not be able to defeat five opponents if they combine together... Then he completely undermines his notion when, realising that DD is listening in, the two foes attack alone, rather than retreating to elaborate on a flawless masterplan.

"He's got to be mine! I saw him first!" the Matador cries. "I shall toy with him for a few moments, and then...Ole..." Luckily our hero arrives and thwacks the villain good or else we could have had the first uncomfortably homoerotic moment in Daredevil history... Actually, Matt's response is quite witty and fun, giving Electro ('Sparky') a nice dig while he's at it. Later DD mocks the Matador by telling him if he ever goes back to bullfighting, his money's on the bull. Much later, he refers to his cloak as an oversized handkerchief. Stan Lee's dialogue is on fire this issue - most enjoyable.

There's also a nice line later on in this issue commenting on the ubiquity of superheroes in the New York skyline. As Daredevil glides by a skyscraper window, a lowly worker comments, "What with him... and Spider-man... and Thor... and the Human Torch... and all the other costumed cats around here, we'll have to keep the shades down to get any work done in this town!" And this is only the mid 60s. You think you're sky's full at the moment, fella? Wait til the Marvel machine really gets into gear...

After all this, surprisingly Electro has the upper hand. So naturally he'll be happy to finish him off, won't he? Sigh. Supervillain incompetence raises its head once more. Why kill him now, is Sparky's reasoning, when we can dispose of him any time we want. Yes, but now is really, really convenient, Max, why make things so hard for yourself? Well, on the plus side, we'd have lost out on 40+ years of comic books if Electro had taken initiative here, so we really shouldn't complain. Actually, one panel later, we find that Electro hasn't been the man with the power for the hour - Matt's been playing possum, hoping that the guy in green and gold will take him to his hideout.

Always nice to see the Gladiator (whose alias has still yet to be revealed). Despite leaving Daredevil on (fairly) good terms, poor old Melvin can't resist the opportunity to get one back at the man without fear. That's pride, Melvin. Meanwhile Stiltman has been rescued from a watery demise by... Electro. Huh? Wouldn't Electro short-circuit or something fishing the tall man out of the water?

Regretably, at first, Electro hasn't appeared to have learned anything from his encounter with Spider-man as part of the Sinister Six. Instead of attacking Daredevil all at once (and let's face it, as there's strength in numbers, it's an extremely sensible proposition), he sends his men out one at a time. You could forgive a reader for banging his head off a brick wall, couldn't you?

Nevertheless, it still isn't straight forward. In his encounter with Stiltman, the villain has our hero cornered, his blaster ready to blow Matt's head off. But wait, what's that Stilty's saying? "Since it shall be our last meeting... I want to savor it." Groan. He's clearly been hanging out with Electro too long.

However, after Stilty and the Matador try and fail on their own, Electro comes wise and all three along with Leap Frog and the Gladiator are all hanging out at the local power plant, waiting to take their man down. And where's Matt, incidentally? Why, he's taking a nice walk in the park, a good opportunity for Gene to remind us of Matt's visual impairment.

During the battle that ensues, and perhaps to make a differentiation with the famous Spider-man annual, Stan has all his villains (bar Electro, who's huffing because they aren't listening to him) attack Daredevil simultaneously. I do wonder if this was prompted by readers complaining to Stan about all the single attacks the Sinister Six made and this was his chance to make amends. Ah, well, I'll never know.

Whilst I usually enjoy the personal aspects of Matt's life somewhat more than the fights with villains, this is a good read, Stan giving each villain a moment or two with our hero, not just bringing them in to knock them down too quickly. And, as stated before, the dialogue's of a very high standard in this annual.

Billy club update. This issue Matt hides his packed lunch in his billy club. Well, sort of. Instead of stopping for dinner, Matt shows off a container of little nutrient capsules that keep him going. Before you can say "amphetamine", Matt's little capsule fills him up just like the concentrated packs that astronauts take into space.

Back up features. Just when you think you've made it through the annual without gregarious Mike Murdock raising his head, he turns up in an extra feature/story at the back of the book.

Better though are affectionate portraits of dreamy Karen and put upon Foggy.

Best of all, after a brief featurette on the billy club, is a short story featuring, wouldya believe it, Stan Lee and Gene Colan. In many ways, this three page short is the highlight of the comic, very similar in tone to a piece Steve Ditko did for Spider-man once. Here Gene sheds light on the comic book writing process, revealing, in a less than adulatory fashion, Stan's role as a writer. Gene drily notes at one point, "I brought the last ten pages of Daredevil for you to write." Next page, he's telling Stan, "How about you dreaming up the plot just this once?" On the final page, Stan talks about implausibly making a mountain in a storyline into a volcano, perhaps a reference to the nadir of Daredevils to date, the Owl's island being located on the very same. Gene expresses exasperation. "No wonder all the artists are nervous wrecks" (possibly a reference to the aforementioned Ditko short). Frankly, I'm amazed this vignette saw the light of day. Either Stan's very easy going or he saw it as tongue in cheek. Whichever, it's still an intriguing and enlightening three pages. If you ignored the main story and just read this, consider your money well spent.

Cast

Matt Murdock/Daredevil

Foggy Nelson

Karen Page

Electro/Max Dillon

The Gladiator/Melvin Potter

Stilt-Man/Wilbur Day

The Matador

Leap Frog

Rating: 6 out of 10 (for the main story; 9 out of 10 for the Stan Lee/Gene Colan three pager)