Featuring: Daredevil
Release: June 2, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Script: Masterful Stan Lee
Art: Magnificent Johnny Romita
Inks: Melodramatic Frank Giacoia
Lettering: Melancholy Sam Rosen
20 pages
| Previous | #548 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Thor #136, Story B | Reading order | Sgt. Fury Annual 2 |
| Daredevil #18 | Daredevil | Daredevil #20 |
“You’ve got to confess that it was a hoax!”
“But then I’ll never have a chance with Karen!”
Hello. Happy new year. Welcome to this blog. We will be reading along with Daredevil #19, the 548th comic in the story that is the Marvel Universe, by our reckoning.
We’ve had a busy few months and found some complications in the Marvel Universe, which unfortunately delayed this latest entry. I thank the readers for their patience.
Without further ado, let’s try to recall that Foggy has recently been pretending he was Daredevil in order to impress Karen. The ruse led to Foggy finding himself in a Daredevil costume, battling a new super-villain called the Gladiator. This all began when Spider-Man mistook Foggy for Daredevil while searching for the Masked Marauder. The Masked Marauder remains at large.
Foggy does not seem to have learned a lesson from last issue’s shenanigans.
Gladiator is off to jail. But he is rescued by the Masked Marauder.
Gladiator isn’t the type to work for someone else, so they need to have a villain fight until they agree the Masked Marauder is in charge. Though we’ll see it’s not quite settled. Later, they’ll settle for being equal partners.
Did Daredevil break Foggy’s window? I guess Foggy had it coming.
Foggy opens the door for some goons because he thinks they are reporters. While I don’t wish death on Foggy for being stupid, at some point natural selection may just take its course.
Fortunately Daredevil is on hand, smashing the already smashed window? Smashing a different window of Foggy’s?
Foggy does help a bit.
Foggy expects the landlord to take care of the windows and the mess. He has a much more generous landlord than I’ve ever had, if so.
Karen is surprisingly cool with how stupid Foggy has been, endangering himself and all of them. She even gives him a kiss on the cheek. This makes Matt jealous until he hears Karen say he’s wonderful.
Astute readers may be noticing we’d long ago read the Namor story from Tales to Astonish #80, but still haven’t read the Hulk story, even though that came out in March. Nor have we read any Hulk/Namor stories since then.
Very astute readers may notice my original reading order called for us to be catching up with Hulk and Namor right now with the May comics, but that I changed up the order and am reading through some June comics instead.
Part of the reason for the delay since I made the last Thor post was that the continuity related to the Secret Empire, Them, and AIM overwhelmed me somewhat. That combined with a recent move across an ocean. I think I’ve gotten it all sorted. I had thought Daredevil would be one of the titles not caught up in the wave of stories about secret evil organizations, but I was wrong. Because Foggy defended the Rhino, and Peter Parker bought a new cycle, and Thor attended an Avengers meeting… I realized I did need to get this Daredevil issue out of the way first.
The plan now is to read some sufficiently standalone June/July comics, then read ahead a bit in Thor until we reach a point we are happy to have him chilling on Earth. And then we’ll dive in headfirst to the saga of the Secret Empire in an attempt to make sense out of it. (Spoiler: we won’t make any sense out of it.)
Besides, we all need closure on this Masked Marauder/Gladiator stuff sooner than later.
For the moment, let’s see what else is going on in the world of comics in June 1966, and then we’ll head back in time to D-Day with the next post.
Marvel has been reprinting older comics in Fantasy Masterpieces and Marvel Tales. This month adds another book, Marvel Super-Heroes, a one-off king-sized special, reprinting three old tales, featuring the Avengers, Daredevil, and Sub-Mariner, respectively.
Here’s a sampling of the Brand Echh publishers from the month.
- Archie Giant Series Magazine #140, Archie
- D-Day #4, Charlton
- Timmy the Timid Ghost #45, Charlton
- Action Comics #340, DC
- Adventures of Bob Hope #100, DC
- Falling in Love #85, DC
- Flash #163, DC
- Werewolf #1, Dell
- Dennis the Menace Giant #42, Fawcett
- Honey West #1, Gold Key
- Little Dot’s Uncles and Aunts #18, Harvey
- Spyman #1, Harvey
- Popeye #81, King Features
- Captain Marvel Presents the Terrible Five #1, MF Enterprises
- Dynamo #1, Tower
- Eerie #5, Warren
The lawless Dot is up to her usual vandalism. Lots of publishers mashing up the superhero/spy genres. Parasite is a notable new Superman villain. That’s a pretty famous Flash cover. Dynamo is a spin-off from Wally Wood’s THUNDER Agents.
The version of Captain Marvel above is famous mostly for his name. A short-lived character, after Fawcett stopped publishing the more famous Captain Marvel due to a lawsuit from DC and lost the trademark. Marvel has taken note of the comic, and will decide soon that it wants the name for itself.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 53/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Daredevil Epic Collection vol. 1: The Man Without Fear.
Characters:
- Matt Murdock/Daredevil
- Foggy Nelson/not Daredevil
- Gladiator
- Masked Marauder
- Karen Page
- Big Joe
Story notes:
- Foggy still pretending to be Daredevil to impress Karen.
- On the way to protect Foggy, DD stops to save a worker after the scaffolding broke.
- Daily Bugle headline reveals Foggy is Daredevil.
- Masked Marauder’s goons disguised as press greet Gladiator with cameras that shoot gas to break him out of police custody.
- Battle for dominance between two villains; Masked Marauder wins at first with his Opti-blast.
- Sensitive touch and hearing make lock picking easy for Daredevil; he looks for clues at costume shop where Foggy bought the costume.
- Goons picked from elite of the underworld to form Empire of Crime.
- Top of Marauder’s mask made of strongest cushioned steel.
- Big Joe a particularly tough hood.
- Goon reports to Marauder and Gladiator that Nelson is not Daredevil.
| Previous | #548 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Thor #136, Story B | Reading order | Sgt. Fury Annual 2 |
| Daredevil #18 | Daredevil | Daredevil #20 |
