Featuring: Daredevil
Release: October 1, 1964
Cover: December 1964
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Illustrator: Wallace Wood
20 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Journey Into Mystery #111, Story B | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #63 |
| Daredevil #4 | Daredevil | Daredevil #6 |
The covers have rarely (never?) mentioned the creative team, yet this one is quite proud to have the already legendary Wally Wood on the team. Joe Orlando had done the last 3 issues of Daredevil, but has now left Marvel forever. The narration takes the time to thank the creators that helped start this series: Everett, Orlando, Colletta.
Wally Wood will be on board for 6 issues of Daredevil.
The letterer, presumably Sam Rosen, goes uncredited.
Daredevil gets a new logo. Rather than the boring “D” on his chest, it’s the slightly more interesting “DD”. The first notable change that Wally Wood will bring to the character of Daredevil. Still not the best logo, but one that will basically endure.
The background of Wally Wood
Wally Wood was genuinely a comics legend by that point. For myself, I love old science fiction short tales. I’ve got a great collection of Wood’s 1950s science fiction work for an assortment of publishers. After Ditko’s work, they’re my favorite sci/fi comics of the era.
While I most associate him with science fiction, he worked in all the popular 1950s genres, most notably for EC Comics. Many likely associate him with his satirical work for Mad. He did just a couple stories for Marvel in that decade.
Wood often teamed with Joe Orlando on artwork, the artist on the previous issues of Daredevil who left Marvel in something of a huff.
Let’s take a peek at some classic stories from Wood.
Featured above:
- “I Was Unwanted”, My Confession #8 (Fox, 1949)
- “John Hamilton – Hard Luck Killer!”, Martin Kane Private Eye #2 (Fox, 1950)
- “The Flying Saucers”, Flying Saucers #1 (Avon, 1950)
- “Winged Death on Venus”, Amazing Adventures #1 (Ziff-Davis, 1950)
- “Dark Side of the Moon”, Weird Fantasy #15 (EC, 1950)
- “The Monster God of Rogor”, Captain Science #1 (Youthful, 1950)
- “The Weapon Out of Time”, Strange Worlds #2 (Avon, 1951)
- “The Sinking of the Titanic”, Weird Science #6 (EC, 1951)
- Weird Science #9 (EC, 1951)
- “Terror Ride!”, Tales from the Crypt #21 (EC, 1951)
- “The Two Century Journey!”, Weird Fantasy #11 (EC, 1952)
- “Superduperman!”, Mad #4 (EC, 1953)
- Weird Science-Fantasy #23 (EC, 1954)
- “Under the Waterfront”, Mad #21 (EC, 1955)
- Incredible Science Fiction #33 (EC, 1956)
- “The Executioner!”, Journey Into Mystery #39 (Marvel, 1956)
Outside the world of comics, Wally Wood did many covers and illustrations for the prose digest Galaxy Science Fiction.
Here’s a good short biography of Wood from the Lambiek Comiclopedia.
Perhaps Stan has finally found an artist on par with Ditko and Kirby.
The Matador
The first super-villain Wally Wood will create for Marvel. I’ll start with the good. Great costume design. And I do appreciate the goofy silver age chutzpah behind a villain whose major weapon is a red cape.
But then I have trouble taking the whole thing seriously enough to invest in.
He’s a former bull-fighter turned to crime, and he thinks he can use the same tricks he used against bulls against his victims and any superheroes who come along. The battles with Daredevil only last as long as they do because the Matador is frequently lucky, including that his red cape confuses Daredevil’s radar sense, so the normally nimble Daredevil does come off like a dumb bull.
And now the story
We begin with the Matador taking out an armored truck. They have to swerve to avoid hitting him, and he tosses the cape over the windshield so the driver hits a lamppost. The Matador then brags about how magnificent he is.
We get the most detailed explanation of Daredevil’s radar sense yet, as we learn Daredevil is susceptible to being confused rustling fabric.
One interesting aspect of the story is that the fickle city seems to like a winner. So as the Matador’s crime spree is successful, he becomes a folk hero. Children start playing Matador, people start dressing up as matadors…
Daredevil wants the people to develop a respect for law and order again, so it’s important to him that they see a vigilante in a costume defeat the other guy in a costume. His plan works. Matador suits end up in trash cans.
One the relationship front, Foggy has bought an engagement ring for Karen. Matt loves Karen but can never admit it because he likes pathos too much. Karen seems to prefer Matt to Foggy. Foggy seems oblivious to all of this. The dynamic is pretty similar to Tony/Happy/Pepper in the Iron Man stories.
Wally Wood continues the tradition of depicting Matt with a Daredevil shadow.
Famed bullfighter Manuel Eloganto vanished on April 6, 1964. That can’t be the date. Until Peter and Johnny graduate, it must still be 1963. We will often have to ignore the dates printed on newspapers as “temporal flavoring”.
The issue includes a Daredevil pin-up.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 53/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
I read this story in Daredevil Epic Collection vol. 1: The Man Without Fear. You can also find it in Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil vol. 1. Or on Kindle.
Characters
- Daredevil/Matt Murdock
- Matador/Manuel Eloganto
- Karen Page
- Foggy Nelson
Minor characters:
- Irv (police officer)
Story notes:
- Full title: Daredevil the Man Without Fear Battles “The Mysterious Masked Matador!”
- Foggy has to work late, so Matt agrees to take Karen to costume party.
- Karen goes as Cleopatra; reference to Liz Taylor film. Foggy goes as Marc Antony.
- Matador attempts to rob the safe at the costume party; crowd talks about how tough he is.
- Matador robs burglar alarm factory, bragging about himself as he goes.
- Journal Tribune reports on Matador’s crime.
- Matt almost decides to confess his love for Karen, when Foggy interrupts.
- Foggy has bought an engagement ring for Karen.
- Murdock has press conference to claim Daredevil and Matador are one and same as a trap. His reasoning is slim.
| Previous | #280 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Journey Into Mystery #111, Story B | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #63 |
| Daredevil #4 | Daredevil | Daredevil #6 |
