Essential Daredevil Vol. 1

Essential Daredevil

by Stan Lee

Collects Daredevil #1-25

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Fiction, Comic Book, Anthologies

544 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 1967

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Daredevil did start sometime and this volume in b/w does contain the first 25 tales about the red suited superhero Daredevil and his alter ego Matt Murdock, partner Foggy and secretary Karen. These tales are far beyond the darker and grittier period Matt Murdock has yet to experience.
These pages are visited by rather more innocent baddies who get easily beaten by the Daredevil and some are seriously ridiculous of nature. A origin story of sorts by Kazar from the pre-historic world in Antarctica and a double with Spiderman are somewhat in odds with the series presented here.
Overall a decent collection from the early days of Daredevil an New York kind of superhero like Spiderman who fights mostly for the little man and leaves the big over the top action for the likes of X-men, fantastic Four and the Avengers.
Good decent fun from the sixties/seventies.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of the first 25 issues of Daredevil, published between 1964 and 1967. I really enjoyed it, even though Daredevil's best days were far, far ahead of him.

With very few exceptions, Stan Lee wrote all of these, and a little of his febrile, alliterative prose goes a long way. Also, the character is not written significantly differently from Spider-Man. In the early days, Daredevil was a wise-cracking smart aleck.

On the other hand, all of the elements that make Daredevil work as a superhero are here -- his blindness, his heightened senses, the Hell's Kitchen setting, his law practice with his best friend Foggy Nelson, and their love triangle with secretary Karen Page. Even his trademark red costume appears early in this collection after he does away with the saucy little yellow and black number he started out with.

Too many of these issues are cookie-cutter Marvel stories from the early days (Daredevil's encounters with Ka-Zar the Savage could have run in any superhero book), but many of them are still great entertainment.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, so I went back to the first Daredevil, for some reason, not really caring about him or knowing anything about him. I guess maybe it was because there's this series coming out, so I thought I would sample from the history. We'll… Daredevil seems to me a kind of Spidey knock-off, and though Lee promises the villains will be SO much more terribler than even Spiderman villains, they all seem the same to me. So, same ol', same ol'.

Well, what is unique about him? He's had that ol' (why am I saying ol' all the time?!) origin accident you need and as a result he goes blind which would make him suck as a superhero, but then he simultaneously gets RADAR that essentially helps him see even more than we can! The thing about superhero comics that's both fun and annoying is that they have to have a superpower and it has to be COOL and unique. Blind, but with radar, well. Okay.

This one has multiple artists and I know, I know, they are working on deadline and it all seems pretty impressive if you think of it that way, but it is nothing like comics can accomplish today and the scripts and dialogue from Lee are silly and terrible, all telling too much and all alliteration and hyperbole. I know, Lee is a god of comics and he really is, he's inventive and just spinning off ideas, bad and good, a mile a minute. But this one takes some work and nose-holding to get through. I may have skimmed through a few of these.

This volume collects the first 25 comics, so you get the all important origin story, wow.. . and I do think it is important to begin at the beginning, but whew. Who else should I read, besides the Brubaker and Miller Daredevil volumes? Is the Waid worth it?

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's getting late, so, I'll just say this: This was a fun compendium of old-school comics; they don't make 'em like this anymore!

[Katee]

The project:
Read all back issues of Daredevil, 1964-2016, including miniseries-es where possible, while simultaneously listening to Billboard's top 100 radio hits (or the nearest equivalent) from the appropriate decade.

The result:
When you read almost fifteen thousand pages' worth of comic book, and listen to scraps of the same music writers and readers might have been listening to as they wrote/read each issue, it's hard not to form a set of theories about late 20th century, early 21st century US sociology and its influence on the entertainment industry. My dad and roommate deserve awards for hearing out every one of mine, no matter how short-sighted, narrow-minded, or dumb they were. I won't outline them here because they're neither interesting nor surprising.

I will, though, talk about something I realized at the end of this project, something I should have expected going into it: character means little, and continuity means even less. You are not getting the ongoing saga of a blind lawyer/vigilante super-sensing hero's quest to bring justice to his little corner of NYC. You're getting Stan Lee's wisecracking man without fear, Frank Miller's ninja-trained Catholic boy, DG Chichester's brooding husk of a vigilante, Mark Waid's self-aware Internet age defender. You get plot developments hastily undone, miniseries contradicting main mag, deaths and resurrections, total breakdowns and impossible, consequenceless rebounds from total breakdowns as new writers came in, incapable of or unwilling to pick up the pieces left by their predecessor. You get, essentially, a battle amongst Marvel creators to define and interpret Daredevil.

This is what happens in almost any series that goes on for a long time. It changes hands. Different writers have different styles and different agendas. It happened with the X-Files and it happened in Daredevil, and, I'm willing to bet, happens in every comic that features a character-centric, rather than power- or plot-centric hero -- which Daredevil certainly does. The comic is very much driven by who Matt Murdock is, why and how he does what he does, and the kinds of people he winds up pissing off. From what I've gleaned while reading the letters pages at the back of many issues, Daredevil has generally enjoyed a higher quality of storytelling and character development than many of Marvel's other comics, and I can buy that; the problem is that, within the confines of labels like "street-level hero", "unwillingly bookish son of a boxer", and "blind lawyer", each writer wants a different Daredevil, or wants to re-create some nostalgic version of an older Daredevil that requires breaking from his most recent incarnation. As a result, the Daredevil you love at any point in time will not indefinitely continue being the Daredevil you love.

Or, if you're like me, the Daredevil you get isn't quite the one you know you'd love, because everyone keeps knocking him further and further down without writing him back up.

I waded through fifteen years of back issues, fifteen years of goofy villains with poorly-implemented powers, of really beautiful prose and pencils, of awful harebrained schemes (helloooo, Mike Murdock!), and then Frank Miller came onto the scene. Before Miller, DD had no explicit mission statement beyond 'get the bad guy, win the defense case' -- nothing really serious had happened to cement his personality. Miller tore DD's life apart and gave him the opportunity to reclaim it, to restructure himself and harden his resolve, and then, Miller left just after DD had vanquished his enemy. All right, I said to myself, now it's time to see Daredevil's true strength. Miller had set us up for a Daredevil with a more complete heart, and I expected this new DD to be more compassionate, more resolved, more ready to enjoy those small aspects of life that had been ripped from him.

Instead, DD moped around and got crushed again. And again. And again. Each time with weaker writing doing the job, with flatter characterization and overall less impact than Miller's. Falls from grace sold well, but each time they occurred, they were moving Daredevil farther and farther away from the emotionally stable figure I really wanted him to be. He never learned from the things that hurt him, even though they did, over and over from the very early '80s until the mid '90s when, for the first time since Nocenti's bizarre run, DD started to smile again. Kesel brought joy back to the character, and Kelly after him. I never thought I'd be so happy to hear a cheesy comic book wisecrack, but there had been so few since everyone caught on to the fact that a tortured hero is a profitable one . . .

Soon after, David Mack the Artist wrote a really, gorgeously beautiful arc about a deaf heroine called Echo, and her own search for purpose via vision quest. Ostensibly, it had next to nothing to do with Daredevil. For me, it had everything to do with Daredevil: it was an introspective, enlightened calm in the middle of a mess of directionlessness. Echo listened without and within, pinpointed the question she was asking herself, answered it, and vanished from comics pretty much forever because a character who is at peace with herself is not an interesting character to write. But her angstless quest for purpose was exactly the kind of thing I'd been craving from Daredevil all along and getting no hint of -- she is the only comic book character I've ever really felt was a hero, not because she could kick ass and protect the weak, but because she saw the darkness in herself and found out how to overcome it. If you subscribe to the idea of a superhero as a role model, then they should be able to fight demons without and within; even though they have to fall (they must fall, it's imperative that they struggle just like we do), they also have to get back up again, stronger than before. They have to teach us how to fight battles we don't know how to fight. There's no reason that really good, powerful emotional battles, ones that our heroes win under their own steam (and with a little help from their friends), should be excluded from the roster.

So of course, DD didn't reach that point for another ten years. Brian Michael Bendis took over with some really smart writing (few things win me over like satisfying, snappy dialogue!) that, I'd say, is what Netflix's Daredevil series' writing most resembles, out of all of the writing styles I've read over the course of this project. Still, though, Daredevil brooded. And brooded further in the absolutely batshit Shadowland arc, which yeah, I skimmed, because it was just so big and gloomy and far, far removed from the Daredevil I wanted to be reading. Then Matt Murdock vanished yet again to go Find Himself -- you'd think after thirty years of searching, he'd have found something by now.

Which brings us to Mark Waid. My savior.
He writes a Matt Murdock with light in his heart again, and the strength to overcome his own demons. This DD has constructive conversations with the people in his life who can see and identify those demons when he, DD, can't. DD gives voice to the thoughts and feelings that have been plaguing his character for decades -- Waid, essentially, cleans up the desolate emotional wasteland-ruins upon wasteland-ruins that a dozen of his predecessors left in their wake. He shows readers what the other side of depression looks like.

The point of all this junk is to say that after almost fifty years, peaks and troughs in writing quality, and weeks of emotional detachment on my end, Daredevil became, for a few years, my hero. And then when Waid left and the 2016 run started, he stopped being my hero. That's what you get when you read comics long-term. If you're lucky, you find a character to really connect to and love, and then you lose them again.
There's a mortality statement in there, probably.
Feed the good dog.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, you can see some of the universals that get pulled on later here, but early Daredevil struggled too much in trying to fit the patterns of all the other popular superheroes of the time. But with his powers they come up with some ridiculous villains for him to fight. And Ka-Zar gets thrown in foolishly. Daredevil works best when he stays street level, but at this time in comics they just didn't feel that would sell, and they may have been right. It didn't especially sell anyways but it kept the book alive.

There's some good art in here from Gene Colan, John Romita Sr (with some obvious Jack Kirby layouts to start with), and Wally Wood.

Stan Lee is not at his best. This is one of his more painful love triangles. I do not dislike Karen Page like I do his version of Jane Foster, but I think I am giving her credit for Daredevil: Yellow, heh. Foggy Nelson though... And what's worse is this book ends with the introduction of Matt Murdock's twin brother... Which is terribly painful.

I really want to try and make it to Frank Miller's run, but it won't be easy. I have little hope for the "Mike" Murdock period, but am hoping that the Black Widow portion can get me through to the Frank Miller era. (Deep breath) Here's hoping.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was younger, I really enjoyed the Daredevil. I collected comics from when I was young and even in when I was an adult.

I borrowed this from a friend at work.

It was interesting to see early Daredevil. However, I have to admit that I could only take it in small doses. I can only handle so much of Stan Lee's writing at a time. :)

Overall, it was fun to take a trip down memory lane and to learn some new things about ol' DD.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daredevil #1 - Stan Lee & Bill Everett are credited with the creation of the Man Without Fear, but with Lee’s track record I’d lean toward giving most of the credit to Everett. In any case, Daredevil is a rather unique concept for a character and his abilities will evolve with some fine tuning over the coming years as much as any early character at Marvel. The core concept is pretty well established right off, but the “radar sense” was not well thought out initially. It’s a shame that Everett only contributed to this issue, it would have been nice to see how the character might have developed had he stayed on the title.

Daredevil #2-4 - Joe Orlando replaces Everett as artist and collaborator with Lee, and we get our first taste of colorful baddies with Electro (fresh from the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #9), the Owl, and the infamous Purple Man. But first off is Electro and a guest appearance by the Fantastic Four in a wild story that stretches credibility as only a comic book adventure can (old DD isn’t off to the great start). The next story delves back into the more real-world threats, like the first issue, with the introduction of a criminal mastermind, the Owl. For quite some time the Owl will be portrayed as Daredevil’s arch-nemesis (it’s still early days, we haven’t gotten to the Jester, Bullseye or Kingpin yet). The last of these first three villains is Killgrave, the Purple Man. This is a character with a really insidious ability, unfortunately his true potential for evil never seems to get fully realized for years and even then not until David Tennant portrays him in the Jessica Jones TV series.

Daredevil #5-8 - Wallace Wood comes aboard as the regular artist, replacing Orlando, and he’s immediately made some streamlined modifications to Daredevil’s costume, creating the more familiar double-D chest insignia. New opponents for these issues begin with The Matador, a colorful looking character, but someone Daredevil should be able to take down with ease. This makes the story feels more than a bit contrived in order for it to play out. This is also the first issue that gives a visual idea how Daredevil’s radar-sense works, it is a crude depiction but it certainly helps establish this unique signature ability. Next up: the Fellowship of Fear (comprising Mister Fear, the Ox & the Eel) provide a team of antagonists. Of these, Mister Fear will become a reoccurring menace for awhile. We’re also starting to see some characterization of Daredevil that is in some ways making our titular character more and more like Spider-Man, as he is spending more and more time on the rooftops. Speaking of Spider-Man, the sptorytellers borrow a villain from that hero’s growing usual suspects and the Eel comes from the pages of Strange Tales, an opponent of the Human Torch, to round off our trio of baddies. For all the potential they ought to have, it’s effectiveness is nullified by having Mister Fear coerce the others into working for him by putting them under the effects of his fear gas. And the juvenile love-triangle shenanigans between Matt, Foggy and Karen is already wearing thin (and we’re only been through 6 issues!). The next issue offers the biggest change to Daredevil’s costume yet. The “hood” to carry his clothes around has already come and gone, we have seen the arrival of the double-D chest insignia, and now the full red suit arrives, but almost as important is the first use of the cable concealed inside his billy club, this enables him to do even more “swinging” action through the city like Spider-Man. Oh, and least we forget, there’s no true villain this time, as Daredevil is merely trying to subdue Namor. Almost laughable actually. Conceptually, this is a fascinating story. But it doesn’t provide a good, strong moral as the narrative unfolds. And I think part of that is because it serves as a kind of introduction to Namor’s upcoming series in Tales to Astonish and is therefore not really a Daredevil story, but actually a Namor story (and as it’s included in Namor, the Sub-Mariner Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Enter the Sub-Mariner I feel extremely justified in saying so). Next up? The Siltman arrives on the scene for the first time. It’s interesting how some super-villains are just plain silly, but the method of operations, their gimmick(s), might make or break them. Stiltman’s introduction leaves a lot to be desired, and it signals that Daredevil would be headed down a route filled with gimmicky opponents that aren’t going to set him aside from any other masked vigilante and direction of the comic isn’t really going to be unique in any substantial way.

Daredevil #9-11 - At this point Daredevil was only coming out every other month, this is not a good sign. Without being about to build up a steady readership, Daredevil was never going to find an audience. In an attempt to ease the work load and get things moving quicker to get the title out every month, Bob Powell is brought in to add his talents to Lee and Wood. This run of issues opens with a long teased plot notion of Matt going to have an operation to fix his blindness. This is compounded with the tiny European country overrun by a tyrannical dictator that Daredevil has to fight in order to liberate the populace. It’s an old tired comic book cliché and it works about as well here as anyway. It would have been better and probably more interesting had it been Latveria and Doctor Doom, particularly with all the robots palace guards and all. Next is a 2-part story that pits Daredevil against a mob-style boss and his costumed hired hands who are attempting to take over the city by rigging an election (pretty much what’s happened in Ohio and exactly how Donny-the-Whining-baby runs his brand of politics). This makes for an interesting story and is probably my favorite so far, also interestingly is that the first half has Wood credited as the writer and the second half has Lee credited. In any case, it seems that things are starting to get better, what with breaking up the Matt-Foggy-Karen love triangle with the introduction of Debbie, and a focus on the characters and pulling away from what new gimmicky villain can be thrown at Daredevil this month. But this was not to be the direction the title would continue in. Nope. There were even more BIG changes coming for ol’ Hornhead.

Daredevil #12-14 - Jack Kirby & John Romita Sr. join Lee on the series, and we get a VERY unusual adventure for Daredevil. This is pure Kirby non-stop action and it re-introduces Ka-Zar, previously seen in X-Men #10, to the Marvel readers; but getting old horn head from the wild streets of NYC to the jungles of the Savage Land in the Antarctic - stretched the incredible talents of Kirby beyond the suspension of disbelief (at least for me). While I enjoyed this tale, it is so contrived and disjointed and … well, unbelievable … that it just doesn’t work for me. Too bad because Kirby and Romita’s art works pretty well together (even if Kirby wasn’t around to help with the 3rd chapter).

Daredevil #15-19 - John Romita Sr. takes over the art chores, Kirby was most likely just far too busy to continue, and we get some real classic Daredevil stories in this batch. First off it’s DD against the Ox, but with some mind-swapping shenanigans, so it’s not simply the same “Ox” as before. Then the Masked Marauder strikes by pitting DD against Spider-Man, a diabolical plan indeed, too bad that our masked crime fighters have already met (see: Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Great Power) and wouldn’t fall for such an absurdly childish plot … of wait … never mind. Still, it’s a fun (if typical) Marvel superhero misunderstanding mash-up. The next pair of issues not only continue the mystery of the Masked Marauder, but they also introduce another classic villain for DD: the Gladiator. These are some classic yarns and Romita is in great form. The only real distraction is that the subplot of the love triangle between Matt, Karen, and Foggy gets replaced (and complicated) with Karen now believing that Foggy is Daredevil. More childish Lee lunacy.

Daredevil #20-21 - Gene Colan comes on to help out an overworked Romita and his take on DD is gorgeous. This 2-part tale is hokey and clichéd, but it’s an enormous ton of fun featuring the return of the arrogant Owl. But the real treat is Colan’s initial issues on the title, he’ll become one of DD’s classic artists and really gives ol’ horn head a distinctive look and feel.

Daredevil #22-25 - These issue are also from the talented Colan & Lee, and the artist really starts showing his talents

[Mathew · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first i didn’t really like books. I would rather watch a movie than read a book but when i read Daredevil, I liked it. It was the first Daredevil issue and later in other issues he changes. I’ve always like comic books but didn’t ready many. This was a very good book for me since i could see visuals and words which didn’t make it so boring. Daredevil met so many other characters in the book like Spiderman, Gladiator, and Owl. Matt is a blind lawyer which makes it harder to be Daredevil. I really enjoyed every issue of Daredevil and started to enjoy graphic novels more. This was a great book to read but it can be very short at sometimes. Some things that i didn’t like about the book was that there wasn’t a big bad guy. There were smaller, other villains that were introduced. This felt old when you see the same guy come after a defeat to go up against Daredevil again. Daredevil seems to always defeat them in one issue then they come back and get defeated again. There is also a shortage of other superheroes that show up. There were only 3 superheroes in the 2 issues. This also comes into play when Spiderman knows something about Daredevil. Overall it was still a good book while recurring of the same villains. The best parts in my opinion is that Daredevil has at least changed in every issue. In the first couple of issues, he realized he can still see but in a different way. Just from the sounds, he can hear who it is and where he/she is at. Next, he started to workout and make equipment so he can be the man without fear. I also like that they included a lot about Daredevil’s identity Mat Murdock. They talked a lot about him, his secretary and his partner. This gave a greater meaning to Daredevil so that we can see his “other side of the story”. Yet again this is a great book for people that don’t like too many words but rather have more pictures. I recommend it to people who wouldn’t really read books. Other graphic novels and comic books are also really good but it depends what you like. This is a great book to me because i always loves superheroes but i almost never read any books.

[Brandon Eickhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read sometimes, I had to read this for English class. I chose to read the book Daredevil written by Paolo Manuel Rivera and illustrated by Marcos Martin. I chose this book because it is action packed and it has Marvel Comics characters in it. I expected the book to be full of action, adventures and exciting to read. The book ended the way I thought it would, Daredevil saved people and cities from danger. I like this book and I would recommend it to other people, especially if they like books with action, adventures, and comics.

[Jim L · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was nice to see dd origin story but this was corny as heck the worst villian has to be the matador he'd fit right in with condiment king and the soap opera love triangle was tiresome particularly because Lee did the same thing with iron man dd states there are 9 million people in new York yet he and Tony both fall for the same girl as their friends its cliche but that's how stan got his start in comics writing romance comics and don't get me started on the ridiculousness of the twin brother excuse Murdoch pulled outta his ass

[Christopher John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the book. I wish it was in color

[Alexis Meuche · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stan Lee’s writing makes me never want to read comics ever again. I do like that Daredevil calls Namor “subby” though so two stars I guess.

[Jeremiah "Charlie" McKinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun kid will love

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite episodes of Spider-man: The Animated Series featured the character Daredevil, a blind New York City Attorney with amazing physical powers through the use of his other senses.

It turns out my local library system had the Essential Daredevil, Vol. 1 containing his first twenty-five issues from the 1960s.

So below are my thoughts:

Origin: Matt Murdoch loses his sight in accident while trying to save a blind man from being hit. Due to radioactive material, he not only develops stronger senses as is typical with blind people but also extremely enhanced senses that also completely compensate for sight giving him a sort of radar vision among other things.

Murdoch's father, a boxer, is murdered for not fixing a fight. But he has urged Matt not to make his living with his fists. Matt honors his father's wishes and graduates from Law School but is unable to focus on his work until his father's brought to justice. He designs the Daredevil costume. He'd been teased by kids in school as a "Daredevil" and adopted that name. He set out to find his father's killer and took care of that in Issue #1. And thus begins a long career of crimefighting.

The Supporting Cast: Foggy Nelson, his law partner and Murdoch are in love with the same girl, their secretary Karen Page. Karen cares more for both Daredevil and Murdoch than Nelson. Foggy is a somewhat insecure and vain character, although he can be heroic in a pinch. In one arch, Spider-man sees Daredevil going into Murdoch and Nelson's office and concludes that Foggy is Daredevil because it couldn't possibly be the blind guy. Foggy than tries to subtly convince Karen he's Daredevil, putting their lives at risk.

Karen tends to be a little irritating. The art of Gene Colan art makes her look more attractive than earlier issues, but she's a little too focused on Matt's blindness. Her ability to make assumptions plus her guilelessness goes a little beyond innocent. She never truly does anything stupid, but she's no Mary Jane Watson.

Plot and Character: The book has been criticized for its B-grade villains and to an extent, it's true. The original Daredevil villains tend to be a little lame with character like the Matador and Stiltman and the Purple Man is a bit weird.

However, the stories are swashbuckling fun. The quality of villains picks up in Issue 6 when he meets the Fellowship of Fear that includes one villain who can fire a ray that induces large amount of fear-a big challenge for the Man Without Fear.

The Masked Marauder may be a bit of a generic character but he does work as a mastermind foil for Daredevil. The Gladiator and Tri-man are great physical challenges and even the Owl improves on his second appearance.

In addition to that, Daredevil meets up with Spider-man, Kazar, and the Submariner in this book. While some may dis Stan Lee's writing, I love it. He gives the stories a conversational air. I found myself chuckling at his notes several times and while most fans seem to hate the introduction of Mike Murdoch (Matt's Alleged twin brother (really Matt himself) meant to cover his secret identity), I thought it was an amusing and fun bit of 60s craziness.

No, you don't have great villains, but the book is pure Silver Age fun.

The character of Matt Murdoch is interesting. He seems to be addicted to adrenaline, which would seem to be his prime motivation for carrying on as Daredevil after his father's murderer was caught. He knows things are traps but boldly walks in wanting to see what will happen. Occasionally, The Man Without Fear acts like the Man Without Sense.

Clearly Matt feels constrained by what people expect of a blind man in terms of being helpless. In Issue 24, he declares that it feels like Matt Murdoch is the mask while Daredevil is the real person. A nice serious character conflict to go with all the fun of these books.

Overall, this is just a wonderful version of the character before Frank Miller had his way with him.

Overall, I give the collection 4 out of 5 stars.

[Edward Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can stomach the first 11 issues, then you'll enjoy this volume. It is worth reading and seeing how Daredevil went from a Spider-Man clone to a character in his own right. I found it all the more enjoyable since most of the obligatory pathos found in the pages come from the other two characters featured in Daredevil - "Foggy" Nelson (Daredevil's partner in his law practice as Matt Murdck) and Karen Paige (the most annoying love interest in the annals of Marvel Comics ever, if you ask me). It is refreshing to see how a superhero ends up having believable motivations (in this case, Daredevil being THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR because he is a natural thrill seeker) without having to be beaten over the head with the explanation of why the superhero does what he does.

As I said above, the first 11 issues were difficult to get through. The dialogue is uneven and often pathetic (even for Stan Lee at this time) and the situations are outrageous (but leaning towards Gay Stage Review outrageous rather than comic book outrageous [I mean the Matador as a villain..??? The Matador...??? Really...???]). If you were like me, you were wondering when Matt Murdock was going to ditch Foggy Nelson as a partner and set his romantic sights on someone less fragile as Karen Paige. The only highlight from this period was when Daredevil's costume changed from being predominantly yellow with black and red to his more familiar "hell-red" costume. Even the issue that features this dramatic change (#7) had a notable and classic scenario...Daredevil goes up against the Sub-Mariner. You would think that Daredevil gets trashed and you would be right. However, the heart in this story redefines Daredevil as much more than a Spider-Man clone at this point and is a welcome diversion from what is otherwise an obvious period where the Marvel Bullpen is frantically trying to get its footing with Daredevil.

I will say that once Daredevil hits his stride in issue #12, things feel the way they should for the character and where the title was going. Things remain kooky (I mean the villain known as the Leap Frog is introduced in issue #25, as well as Matt Murdock posing as his own twin brother) but the definition from this point is more of a kooky you would expect from the House of Ideas at the time. I mark issue #12 as the turning point, as Daredevil takes a brave and unforeseen turn when they team Daredevil with Ka-Zar of the Savage Land (Marvel's answer to Lord Greystoke). This story is the kind of unexpected joy Marvel was able to produce on a regular basis back in the day and it features Daredevil in a more interesting light than when the Marvel Bullpen was obviously searching of a way to make Daredevil more than Spider-Man with radioactively enhanced human senses rather than with radioactive spider powers. All-in-all, the Essential Daredevil volume one delivers in unexpected ways. I recommend it to anyone and everyone who wants a taste of the way Marvel used to be. The frantic innovation and the imagination and the redefining of comic books is very apparent in these pages.

[Michael Allan Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two years' worth of Matt Murdock's adventures as The Man Without Fear are very hit-and-miss: once we get past an excellent introduction / origin (no one writes a first issue quite like Stan Lee), the problems start to stack up: Stan can't seem to define DD's enhanced senses / radar sense and uses them in a series of bizarre and ridiculous ways that test even the most ardent suspension of disbelief. Even more problematic is a lack of any really great, memorable villains: The Owl, Gladiator, and Cobra Commander's weird twin brother, the Masked Marauder, are C-list opponents at best, never really giving DD a run for his money.

Daredevil also seems to be at odds with Marvel's house style of deeply flawed people getting superpowers to become unlikely heroes: Matt has his act squarely together as both a lawyer and vigilante, and the only real pathos comes from the romantic side: Matt can't seem to confess his love for Karen Page, and the only angst from the fact that his best friend Foggy Nelson is also chasing the same skirt.

Despite that, this early era does have its moments: a guest appearance by Spider-Man livens things up, as a villain attempts to engineer a feud between the two heroes by hiring a bunch of thugs to dress as DD and attack Spidey. Peter Parker is clearly Stan's favorite son, as the writing takes a noticeable leap in quality during the segment.

For fans of comic art, there is a murderer's row of talent behind the pencil, starting with Wally Wood and then John Romita and Gene Colan taking turns. I'm not sure if this was the first time Romita got to draw Spider-Man, but it's easy to see why he was picked to replace Steve Ditko later on as the artist on Marvel's then-flagship character. The thing I love about the Essentials series of reprints is that they are black and white, and it lets you really soak in the fine details in the art that poor printing technology obscured in the final color product that hit the stands.

More casual fans will probably be better served starting with a later era of DD, but if you can appreciate some stellar Silver Age sequential art, this volume will serve you well -- just don't expect A-list plots, and be prepared for a fair bit of eye-rolling with Matt's powers.

[Helmut · Rating 2 out of 5]

Undefinierter Superheld, aus dem mal was werden wird!

Nein, das ist nicht der Daredevil, der Herrscher von Hell's Kitchen, der einem mit seinen religiösen und sonstigen Problemen im Gedächtnis blieb. Diese langweilige "noch-ein-Superheld"-Figur ist in diesem Stadium noch völlig undefiniert, uncharakterisiert, sondern einfach ein weiterer Superheld aus der Lee/Kirby-Maschine. Wie bei allen Superhelden dieser Zeit ist sein Hauptproblem, dass eine nahe Bekannte ihn liebt, er sie liebt, und er sich nicht traut, ihr das zu sagen (vgl. Thor, Spider-Man, Iron Man...). Außer seiner Blindheit hat er überhaupt kein Alleinstellungsmerkmal.

Man kann diesen Band eigentlich getrost überspringen und direkt zu Frank Millers Version dieses Charakters gehen (Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller)- hier wird aus einem laschen Mittelmaßsuperheld eines der heißesten Eisen, das Marvel in seinem Programm hat - dort wird der "echte" Daredevil geboren!

[Dan Weiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the beginning, there was no real difference between Spiderman and Daredevil, the both started fairly young and studied real hard in school, Matt studied Law instead of Science. Both apparently have the same wise-cracking sense of humor that makes the reader long for a straightforward Punisher or Wolverine. Where Spidey has his webs, DD has his cane, billy club and assortment of conveniently placed flagpoles and helicopters about the city. Instead of Spider Sense, DD has his hightened senses due to lack of eyesight and that 1960s proliferator of super powers: toxic waste. The first half year of DD is almost unbearable with the amount of cheese and overexplaining of the action. However, Stan Lee pokes fun at his own genre with self-deprecating humor on the part of DD as well as commenting on the riduculous speeches villains give in the 60s. The issues get better after a repetitive start and these types of things are always fun to read for a socio-anthropological perspective

[Holden Attradies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm brushing up on my Daredevil reading before the Netflix show comes out.

This early stuff is... well, you have to be prepared. Skim, don't try and read every word. Go into it knowing it will be terrible and whacky. And only read in small doses. With all of that in mind I was able to really enjoy this volume.

It's interesting how all these seeds for a really serious character have been laid by a writer who is taking NONE of it seriously. It's interesting seeing all these seeds that were planted that went on to be major things in Marvel, but being able to laugh at just how goofy they were at first. And yeah, I'm ashamed but I kind of loved the insane and totally uncalled for adventures with Ka-Zar.

[Colm · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Daredevil's first run by Stan Lee (#1 - #25). It's pretty kitschy with Lee's prose undeniably clunky and heavy-handed. Having every character explain the hows and whys of what they're doing is far from realistic. It reads like Adam West as Batman talks basically. In spite of that, there's some great ideas. Matt Murdock's predilection for playing defence attorney to characters he's gotten arrested as Daredevil is a fun play on his double identity and some key villains make appearances here, like Kilgrave of Jessica Jones fame. Other villains are harder to take seriously (The Matador, The Owl, frickin STILT MAN?!) but overall it's a fun introduction to a cornerstone of Marvel.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's funny how hard it was for early Daredevil stories to find their footing. The character earns its reputation as a Spider-Man knockoff. These stories aren't as strong or timeless as other comic character's beginnings but they're still fun and campy. The whole Mike Murdock concept is as laugh worthy as anything I've read. The fact that Matt would lie to his best friends about having a twin brother who is Daredevil. Silly stuff.

[Robert Spake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd never actually read a Daredevil comic before. Going in I knew that Daredevil's early villains were a subject of ridicule but I think that's a bit unfair. The inclusion of Ka-Zar was a huge plus for me as I'm a big fan of the character. I think it did take longer for Daredevil to have his character fleshed out, but there are still some fun stories.

[Lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some lame villains and very silly plots, but I love Daredevil/Matt Murdock himself (I seem to have a thing for fictional lawyers, for which I blame Charles Dickens entirely). Embarrassing admission: the Foggy/Matt/Karen love triangle is what has kept me reading through these early issues.

[Sesho Maru · Rating 2 out of 5]

Daredevil seems like he was low man on the totem pole in terms of writing and villains in this first volume.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredibly campy dialogue and hokey bad guys, but the plots are still lots of fun and keep you hooked.

[Douglas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up at issue 13

[NereaRR1]

El mejor súperhéroe de todos los tiempos

[Michael Tipping · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool origin stuff - so cheesy tho lol.

[Mark Short · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fun although some of the villains are poor.