Essential Daredevil, Vol. 4

Essential Daredevil

by Gerry Conway, Gary Friedrich, Steve Gerber

Who else but Marvel would set up a robot from the future to play matchmaker for a femme fatale and the Man Without Fear? Mister Kline's android-laden efforts steer Daredevil and the Black Widow together for a trial whose tribulations could mean the end of the fabled Nelson and Murdock partnership!

Collects: Daredevil #75-101 and Avengers #111

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Marvel

600 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 1973

About the author

Gerard Francis Conway (Gerard F. Conway) is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics' vigilante the Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man. At DC Comics, he is known for co-creating the superhero Firestorm and others, and for writing the Justice League of America for eight years. Conway wrote the first major, modern-day intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the early 1970s and DD gets freaky under the guidance of Gerry Conway and Gene Colan (for the most part). Partway through, DD gets a partner in the form of the lovely Natasha Romanoff and the name of the book changes to 'Daredevil and the Black Widow'.

Please be aware that my rating for this book is undoubtedly bolstered up by a large dose of nostalgia. 3 stars would probably be a less biased rating.

[Adam Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Man Without Fear's four black and white reprint volume covers Issues 76-101 with Avengers #111 thrown in for good measure leading us through 1970s Daredevil. The book has many positive points and some negatives.

Positives:
--The book features the end of what feels like an eternal break up session between Matt Murdoch and Karen Page. The mismatched couple finally break up for good (for now) in Daredevil Issue #85 when realizing the obvious: Karen can't give Matt what he needs (a woman who can stand beside him while he fights as Daredevil.) and Matt can't give Karen what she needs (a stable relationship with someone who won't get herself killed.) The two finally realize this after Matt takes a beating as Daredevil. Finally.

--The new relationship with Black Widow: As a concept, the new relationship with Black Widow was great. Unlike with Karen, Matt would have someone who had danger in her blood: a true fellow traveler. This was a great concept. The execution wasn't so great (see negatives) but the idea was fun and a major of upgrade on the depress-o-rama that was Page-Murdock.

--The Move to San Francisco: Readers who complain about the move to San Francisco taking away Daredevil's Hell's Kitchen's roots are using an anachronism. At this point, he had no Hell's Kitchen roots. The book prior to the move was focused on fighting villains over Manhattan. This was a good early moved that recognized that there was more to America than New York City and that there would be heroes in other places. The Silver Age New York City was just overrun with superheroes. While it didn't last, I thought it was a solid idea.

---Gene Colan's artwork: The man drew Daredevil in an amazing way. Each page was a wonder to behold. Sadly, this is the last book of Colan's main run on the title, although he did pencil sporadically throughout the '70s.

---Villain Relaunch: I have some problems with Conway, but I have to admit that I like how he tweaked a lot of Daredevil's silver age villains included the Purple Man, Killgrave (Purple Man), and a new Dr. Fear. Also I liked some of the new villains such as Man-Bull, a nice Rhino-type villain and Dark Messiah.

---Avengers team up. A beleaguered Avengers team invites Daredevil and Black Widow to join them in a battle against Magneto. Daredevil rarely faces that type of heavy hitter, so it's nice to include this. Also Hawkeye appeared and refused to fight Magneto due to his issues with the Avengers despite the face of mankind riding on it. i'm only up to Avengers #24 in the Essentials but it's good to know he hasn't changed much.

Now on to the negatives:

---Inability to manage the Daredevil-Black Widow relationship. As I stated, this wasn't as bad as Karen Page, but what would we be? The problem is that Conway started adding tension right from the beginning of the relationship with us getting no time to develop actual caring about it. Black Widow constantly asserting herself as an, "I am Woman" feminist. Daredevil helps the act, but at times being condescending to her and making decisions for her, something he never did for Karen Page. Matt Murdoch in his relations with Black Widow was a type of feminist punching bag for clueless men. On top of this, Black Widow is completely inconsiderate of Matt and denigrates their relationship, never mind that Matt moved cross country and into an apartment in Widow's house to pursue the relationship. (Though I will give kudos to Marvel having some morals.) To be fair, Steve Gerber did improve things a tad by givin g

---Political pandering: Stan Lee probably holds similar political beliefs to Conway and other authors but his method of dealing with politics was different. He showed empathy with youth but also challenged them in ways to following since as simple human principles like not judging by appearance and even offered them Iron Man, a weapons manufacturer as hero. Conway on the other hand totally panders to politics. The gender stuff is the biggest thing with one person referring to Black Widow as the Gloria Steinhem of the superhero set. At the same time, in a thought bubble, Daredevil though he could have had kids with Karen Page, but no more than one or two as not to offend our ecological friends? Um, really? The problem with pandering is that much of it is done to people who don't exist as a group anymore, meaning it ages the book badly.

---Purple prose: Conway over-narrated a lot of the early stories, though he did seem to get it mostly under control after San Francisco.

---Lackluster Issue 100. You expect issue 100 to be big, to have some monumental memorable double length story. Instead Daredevil #100 had the Man Without Fear being interviewed by rolling stones, having flashbacks, and starting a new story arch. To be fair, the comic was transitioning to Steve Gerber, but it was lousy time on the part of Marvel.

Overall, it was a decent but not spectacular read from an author who really was hit or miss. The art plus a few positive elements make it a worthy read.

[Brett Marcus Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long ago when I got really into the Marvel Knights Daredevil stuff, I had read online about how before Frank Miller took over, the comic was pretty bad, a second rate Spider-Man at best, and reading this confirmed that for me. Gene Colan's art is great, there is an emphasis on the physical strain that Daredevil goes through as a hero without super strength like his peers, but the villains are all bad (some of them are Spidey villains moonlighting!), the much hated move to San Francisco happens here and does nothing for the character, and Black Widow is written in a terribly sexist manner, constantly pining for a man.

The issue where Hawkeye shows up specifically to fight DD over her is hilarious, though.

[Derek Moreland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Woof. I love Gerry Conway's Spider-man, but his DD is... man, it's a whole lot of nothing. Which is strange, because you can tell he's trying to bring something new to the book - a new city, a new cast, a new love interest who can coincidentally keep up with the hero's heroics. But it never congeals into anything under Conway's pen.

The last two issues show a lot of promise, with Angar the Screamer as the villain, of all people. But those are Steve Gerber's issues, and I'll admit, I am 100% in the tank for Gerber's Marvel work. I'm excited to see where this goes...but it was a real drudge to get there.

[Big Hoss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once Gerry Conway and Gene Colan get going, it gets really good. Black Widow and DD team up and move to San Francisco, it's totally different but I love Gene Colans art, even when the writer changes he stays on until issue #100. then Steve Gerber shows up and his plots are always really weird, but still weave well with what Gerry laid down.

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daredevil moves to San Francisco, and teams up with the Black Widow.

The early Daredevil stories could be pretty bad but, this is a decent collection.

[Jason Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was tempting to give this book a 2 or even 1 star, because the good part is like 5 issues at the end, and little else good before that.

What was bad?

-The use of internal monologues is ridculous. It's thought bubbles from Matt/Daredevil like "Sure, Matt. Fighting's just what the doctor ordered. It prevents you from realizing that your real illness is love for a woman named Karen." And this is over many pages over like every issue. It's redundant, stupid, and doesn't even motivate big plot twists or tension amongst the characters.

-The villains/fighting. In this day of sophisticated comics, it shouldn't matter, but if most of your stories involve fights, then it should. And Gerry Conway seemed trapped in the conventions of Daredevil's powers. In essence, he's acrobatic and he has a billy club that can work as a grappling hook. That's it. And the villains' impressiveness dips to this level in EVERY ISSUE. Case in point: There's a man named Bull who gets transformed into a Man-Bull mutant Bull, and this is in 4 ISSUES+ (counting multi-issue arcs). He's impressively big, but somehow can be beaten with a one-two punch-kick every time. Daredevil gets in punching contests, but they have to be weak enough for him to be able to win with well-trained but human strength. You can see the ending coming, or rather, the use of suspense to challenge or mislead expectations is nil.

-Lack of dramatic pathos. This is what makes Marvel better than DC. At least in the 60s/70s. And its underutilized here. Daredevil has two love interested, the actress Karen Page and the superheroine the Black Widow. But instead of exploring their relationship, Karen whines about how she loves Daredevil despite having dumped him, and Widow makes comments about such things about how Daredevil talks to her like a sexist possession. Interesting mechanics, but DD's life is unchanged COMPLETELY. He goes after baddies, works as a lawyer, and while we get broody dialogue once an issue, no sexual drama at all! No hint of consummation, break-up or other serious emotions.

-The NY-SF transition. From a cultural standpoint, to this day, moving from New York City (especially Hell's Kitchen) to San Francisco would be a big deal. But the effects are limited. Some alternative building designs in the background, but it's still a baddy each ish, he's a respected hero, bland in both. Giving him a SF police chief who hates superheroes seems to add to the dialogue clutter more than actually get in DD's way at all.

The Art/WHAT WAS BORDERLINE OK IN THIS BOOK- About 2/3 of the issues in this book are drawn by Gene Colan. Maybe in color (this is BW reprints), he would look good, but I don't enjoy the overly shadowy figures and the vague lines for EVERYTHING. But then the workman like Sam Kweskin and the AMAZING Rich Buckler drew at the end (all of two combined issues), decent ending that came too late.

THE BEST PART/REDEEMING PART!!!

Steve Gerber, one of my favorite comic writers ever ("Howard The Duck", "Man-Thing") wrote the last 4 or so issues in the book, and they're actually halfway decent. He did what he does best, write a story about a mentally damaged person who is in turn given superpowers (it's a very strange skillset for a writer), and it actually had intrigue and tension. Did I mention 4 ISSUES RIGHT AT THE END??

Honestly, I can only recommend this book to a person who is patient and really wants to know what Daredevil was doing as a secondary hero in the Marvel Universe in the 1970s.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know whose work really interfered with my enjoyment of chronologically reading Daredevil? Writer Gerry Conway, who wrote the title during the early '70s.

I was glad when he finally stopped writing the series, but his replacement, Steve Gerber, was just as bad for all the same reasons. Here's a sample, from issue #100:

Low over San Francisco Bay swoops a sleek Avenger's Quinjet--its lone passenger--the sightless adventurer called Daredevil!

His hypersensitive fingertips read the dials and meters his eyes cannot see. And he knows that he is ... home?

No--not home. Just ... back ... alone, learning in that windswept cockpit the meaning of soulpain.

Comics fans could argue for days about whether today's comic book writing is better or worse than in the past, but one thing is indisputable--today's comic book writers have mostly eschewed description boxes like the ones quoted above, relying on dialogue and images to tell their stories.

For my money, this is a good thing, since description boxes were always where comic book writers did their worst work (see above). Conway and Gerber both come off as frustrated novelists, penning the worst kind of sophomoric drivel.

Gene Colan is one of my favorite comics artists, and these issues of Daredevil all look good, but the stories and characterizations are the pits. Also, this is the period during which Matt Murdock/Daredevil relocated to San Francisco, destroying one of the big things that always worked about the Daredevil series -- its gritty Hell's Kitchen setting.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's kind of amazing to watch the characters in Marvel grow from a bunch of cookie-cutter bigot assholes in the 60s to more socially responsible adults in the 70s. It's curious to see the order that these changes occur in, too. Late 60s, Marvel starts taking an active approach to combating racism by introducing a handful of black characters, a couple heroes but mostly background characters who interact with the white heroes as though their skin didn't matter. This situation gradually improves. However, though there've always been female heroes, they're always treated as helpless and need to be saved more often than do any saving. I was really getting tired of the chauvinism and misogyny in Daredevil, which was pretty thick, when suddenly the Black Widow randomly made a huge jump out of damsel-in-distress mode into ass-kicking, dangerous chick who can hold her own against any man. It was refreshing. I've always been a fan of strong female protagonists. Now, it seems that much of the dialog has to do with Matt Murdock's acceptance of this role reversal, where she's frequently saving his life. His fragile male ego can't handle it. This is kind of uncomfortable, but it's part of the growing process and it makes it interesting.

[Alfredo Chizzoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questa raccolta copre le pubblicazioni delle fine anni '70, l'ultimo fascicolo della serie originale è il n.101.

Quasi tutti gli albi sono interessanti e rispecchiano bene lo spirito dei tempi (provate a confrontarli con le prime due raccolte e vedrete che differenza).

In generale una piacevole lettura per chi ama le avventure del cornetto, tra l'altro qui compare finalmente la Vedova Nera e Karen Page fa un passo indietro, allentando un po' i toni da commedia sentimentale.

Assolutamente consigliato agli appassionati, unica nota negativa la carta utilizzata, troppo sottile e non di ottima qualità.

[Steven Heywood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly readable collection from the days when Marvel's writers filled comic books with more soliloquy than superheroics. Also typical of the time are the overblown plots that build up into fizzling squibs full of non-sequiturs. If you can let those glide by the stories are okay.

Some very nice Gene Colan artwork.

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Created in 1964 by Stan Lee and Bill Everett, Daredevil is Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer. He was struck in the face with radioactive material as a teen while shoving a blind man out of danger, which both blinded Matthew and gave him extraordinary senses. When his father “Battlin’ Jack” Murdock was murdered for refusing to throw a boxing match, Matt donned a bizarre devil-themed costume to avenge him. He then continued to use the Daredevil identity to fight crime and help people.

This volume contains Daredevil #75-101, plus an important issue of the Avengers, #111. Gerry Conway wrote most of these issues with Gene Colan on pencils. (As usual, Colan’s work looks great in black and white.)

We open with Matt having mostly broken up with his long-time romantic interest, Karen Page, who is pursuing an acting career. They’re both having second thoughts, so it’s several issues before they move on and Daredevil can devote his full attention to Natasha Romanova, the Black Widow (who got to share the cover title for a while.)

#75 seems to be a filler issue, with Matt and his law partner and best friend Foggy Nelson visiting South America. Daredevil battles a revolutionary calling himself “El Condor” after a local hero. It’s an interesting story because it’s clear that El Condor’s identity was supposed to be a last-page reveal (always wears a mask, the one person who sees his face reacts with shock, and there’s a character who the story logic says it had to be) but El Condor simply dies (crushed by a statue of the original!) and then Matt leaves the country without El Condor’s true identity even being mentioned.

Then begins a long sequence with the mysterious “Mr. Kline” acting against Daredevil and Matt Murdock in various ways. First he sponsors a mad scientist’s experiments that wind up turning a man named William “Bull” Taurus into the Man-Bull. A nice touch in this story is that Bull has his own mini-gang and a character named “Freakface” explains why he’s personally loyal to Bull. At the same time, Kline begins to blackmail Foggy, who at this point is New York City’s district attorney.

Then Kline frees the Owl from prison and provides the gliding financier advanced technology to attack Daredevil. At the same time, he manipulates the Black Widow into meeting Daredevil as part of a long-term backup plan. As well, the reader learns that “Mr. Kline” is not as we might have thought one of Daredevil’s old enemies, but an android (MK-9) controlled by an even more mysterious master which codenames it “Assassin.”

Kline’s next maneuver is sending out the Scorpion, who acts somewhat out of character (actually an android), and is apparently killed by the Black Widow. The Assassin then has Foggy insist on prosecuting Natasha for murder (her background as a Communist spy prejudices people against her.) The trial is rigged further by Mr. Hyde (another android) murdering the coroner and replacing him with a duplicate.

The trial ends when all the evidence is destroyed by an explosion, but Black Widow is still under suspicion. She heads to Switzerland, where the Assassin springs the backup plan of having her convince Matt Murdock to undergo an operation to restore his eyesight.

The secret boss is finally revealed to be…no one we could have reasonably guessed. Baal, a computer from the far future, is trying to avert a disaster in the past that Daredevil (and Iron Man of all people) will eventually cause. Trying to kill him has failed, though they have managed to prevent Foggy Nelson from eventually becoming the president of the United States. But restoring Matt’s eyesight will also eliminate Daredevil.

The plan doesn’t work because too obvious, and a deus ex machina prevents Baal from reverting to the “kill Daredevil” idea.

After a couple of transitional issues which resolve the Karen Page subplot, Matt Murdock moves to San Francisco with Black Widow and her chauffeur Ivan, taking a set of rooms in her house there. At this point in time, the Comics Code prevented unmarried characters from sleeping together.

The local police are less than enthused about their new vigilantes, especially Commissioner “Ironguts” O’Hara. It takes him a long time to warm up to the colored longjohns set, even though they’re a big help against powered criminals like Electro and the Purple Man. (The latter has a flashback sequence to explain how he escaped from jail–which is missing a crucial panel.)

Another lengthy plotline involves Project Four, the very first case Natasha ever worked on as a spy, and the return of her first partner, Danny French. Danny is ethically bankrupt (he’s now a private detective introduced working both sides of a blackmail case) but winds up having some redeeming qualities. A new Mister Fear also shows up, but is a red herring.

Gerry Conway wraps up his run with the return of the Man-Bull, and Steve Gerber takes up the writing chores as of issue #97. He introduces another mysterious mastermind who is empowering seemingly random people for unknown purposes, starting with Mordecai Jones, the Dark Messiah.

This plotline is interrupted by a guest appearance of Hawkeye, Black Widow’s former love interest, who wants to see if he can rekindle the relationship. No, but it does lead into an Avengers crossover. They need DD and BW’s help against Magneto, who has managed to mind control the X-Men and most of the Avengers, and is trying to seize the United States’ nuclear arsenal. (This includes a really skeevy scene of Magneto compelling the Scarlet Witch to dance for his pleasure, which would get even skeevier in hindsight once she was retconned into being his daughter.)

Daredevil turns down an Avengers membership (at this point his supersenses are not sufficiently tuned to allow him to work in a large team) but Natasha accepts. He thinks that means she’s leaving him.

Issue #100 has Daredevil being interviewed by Rolling Stone and recapping his origin for the readers, in between bouts of mass hallucination. The latter turns out to be the work of Angar the Screamer, an aging hippie being controlled by the mysterious mastermind previously mentioned. Black Widow returns (she plans to commute to Avengers meetings) and they manage to drive Angar off…for now.

The good: Gene Colan art, some nifty villain appearances, Black Widow getting to be competent most of the time, random civilians getting the gumption to fight back against criminals on their own.

Less good: Matt Murdock’s internal monologues tend to the verbose at best, Daredevil too often feeling he needs to protect Black Widow from danger even though she’s repeatedly shown her competence, gratuitous scenes of Natasha dressing/undressing/showering in a way we don’t see Matt doing, Marvel’s writers just not “getting” the counterculture or feminism despite theoretically catering to them, and the Marvel soap opera formula meaning that Matt can never just be happy for an entire freaking issue without finding something to angst about, often completely unnecessarily.

That said, this is a decent run on the title (though nowhere near the quality of Frank Miller’s first run) and worth checking out at the library.