Daredevil Omnibus, Vol. 1

Daredevil Omnibus

by Stan Lee (Text), Wallace Wood (Text), John Romita Jr. (Illustrator)

Born to a past-his-prime prizefighter, Matt Murdock's luck always ran a step behind his good intentions. When a daring act to save a man's life blinds young Murdock, he finds that the same accident has enhanced his remaining senses to superhuman levels! He becomes Daredevil, a gritty hero born from murder, but tempered with the desire to protect the downtrodden. In this oversized Omnibus collection featuring every classic story and original letters page, writer Stan Lee and artists Bill Everett, Joe Orlando, Wallace Wood, John Romita Sr. and Gene Colan lay the foundation for Marvel's Man Without Fear! Including the first appearances of core characters Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, and classic villains the Owl, the Purple Man, Stilt-Man, Gladiator and more! Collecting DAREDEVIL (1964) #1-41 and ANNUAL #1, FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #73 and material from NOT BRAND ECHH #4. All Ages

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Comics Manga, Adventure, Science Fiction, Crime

1088 pages, Hardcover

First published April 9, 1968

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

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to invest in Daredevil. I saw the Netflix show after some prompting from my (lovingly) Marvel-obsessed wife and it won me over. Filled with non-characteristic Marvel dark, gritty violence, a bunch of angst and Catholic guilt, and against-the-man lawyering, how could one not dig it? So, I had to start at the beginning.

Unlike the show, the Silver Age Daredevil is cheesy, over-the-top, and hits you over the head with a gadget-filled billy-club of goofiness.

And I loved it.

Stan Lee and crew create a good-time Daredevil battling a mix of mafioso types and full on absurd villains. I’m not sure what I liked more, the trash-talking Daredevil whose thought-bubbles explained how he could manage every obstacle while blind or the “Let’s Level with Daredevil” responses to reader fan (and hate) mail. Smilin’ Stan takes it all in stride and the responses are hilarious and show how and why Daredevil evolves over the years.

It was only Volume 1 and gets the reader to 1968. I am now moving on to Frank Miller’s Daredevil which served as inspiration for the Netflix show. It’s dark and gritty and brutal which I would normally like in a comic. But, honestly, after 900+ pages of 60’s saccharine silliness, I think I now prefer a good “ka-pow” to a knife in the eye.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never read a Daredevil comic before picking this omnibus up and this is still the only Daredevil I’ve currently ever read. I genuinely had so much fun reading these beginning issues to Daredevil. I really went into these expecting them to be some tough reads given the era they came from, but honestly, I don’t know if I could’ve enjoyed this any more than I did. These issues have such a charm with Stan’s lengthy writing and the various artists for these issues. I love the characters, the story, the villains, the relationships, the wild shenanigans, the cameos, and everything. There were legitimately issues that took me 45 minutes to read and I honestly enjoyed every panel of them. Really excited to continue reading some Daredevil!

[OmniBen · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 3.25/5
I think this book can best be summed up as a constant struggle between wholesomeness and cheese. One which, unfortunately this books frequently loses, often coming out smelling cheesier than a Frenchman's armpit. This is the first silver age story I'd read, and whilst I found much enjoyment at times in its quaintness. It's identity very much rooted in a time long before I was born. Whilst its hard to feel nostalgia for something you weren't even for (not even close). I could still very much appreciate the far simpler time in which this was created, and get on board with many of its themes and ideas. It was in fact, the story around the superhero antics which had me most captivated, which is of no great surprise to me, given superheroes continually punching each other holds very little sway in my books. Whereas interesting plot lines, engaging characters and realistic or well crafted dialogue is my M.O. That said, far too often these stories resorted to half the issue (or more) being Daredevil punching bad guys that look like your average loser found himself an ill fitting pair of pyjamas and a mask from the clearance rack at a novelty shop, and then somehow decided they were gonna horn in on a life of crime. One of the bad gyus was a guy with a paste gun! Seriously. Basically just your average joe with a hot glue gun. Daredevils villains back in the day were the same as an ADHD child set loose in an arts and crafts store. Compelling? No! Captivating? No really. And then the dialogue during the fight scenes. Sharp and insightful narration or a few barbed quips... yes please. Reciting War and Peace to each other during a scuffle, no thanks. In the final few issues, I got jack of it and stopped reading them entirely. I really wasn't a big fan of the continuous fourth wall breaking with the author speaking directly to the reader either. And the continuous pandering to the reader, apologising and telling them that Daredevil would be punching someone again soon if they had the temerity to do a few pages of 'boring' set up. Could kids in the 60's not go five minutes without punching somebody? I thought that decade was all about peace and love? Obviously I was wrong.
Now, to balance this out we got the nice will they, won't they Matt Murdoch and Karen Page story. Yeah, it was contrived and hooky as hell at times too, although I liked it. Come to think of it, if Daredevil never punched anyone, and this was just a slice of life about Matt Murdoch and Karen Page, I would have liked it more. Go figure. I had been really looking forward to this being over, given how wordy it was and how much of a chore it was to push through at times, though when it was all over, I must admit to being just a little bit curious as to what happened next...
All in all, if you dig the silver age, this will be right up your alley. If you need something a little modern, then there are plenty of other great Daredevil runs to keep you occupied. Good, but not great. 3.25/5


OmniBen.

[Downward · Rating 3 out of 5]

for all of the potential that exists from the jump conceptually speaking, stan lee's writing limits the first 42 issues of daredevil to a low rent spider-man morph. he has the same personality while DD that Parker has as spider-man, but his personal life's pathos exists in a multiyear wash cycle, repeating the same "if only I weren't blind I'd ask Karen to marry me"/"if only matt weren't blind, I believe we could be together." -- it's worth it in some ways to flesh out marvel's new york and to build the world beyond just spider-man and the FF, but it's not individually different enough because it's trapped in Lee's voice. it builds, of course, and my faith is in better things to come.

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daredevil Omnibus #1 is the first of a series of compilations in which Marvel Comics collected the first issues about the superhero character Daredevil as written by Stan Lee and drawn by various artists. These issues included: Daredevil (1964) #1 - 41, Annual (1967) #1, Fantastic Four (1961) #73, and material from Not Brand Echh (1967) #4. The amazing artists that drew those issues were Bill Everett, Joe Orlando, Wallace Wood, John Romita, Jack Kirby, and Gene Colan, pretty much comic royalty.

Matt Murdock is a blind attorney born to a boxer. His father accepted money to throw a fight but changed his mind about what he had been paid to do. He was killed for his alteration of perspective. In the meantime, Matt lost his eyesight due to trying to save someone from a runaway vehicle and getting hit with a radioactive canister. In losing his sight, he gained other abilities. Even so, Murdock has Olympic level athletic ability.

In the first 40 issues, Matt develops a small circle of friends limited to Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, his best friend from college and law partner, and Karen Page, their secretary and potential girlfriend. Various villains became rivals, like The Owl, Electro, The Matador, The Purple Man, Mr. Fear, Stilt Man, The Plunderer, Ox, and the Masked Marauder to name a few. He even teams up with other heroes, like Kazar, Namor the Submariner, Spider-man, Thor, and even the Fantastic Four.

Loved the story. Loved the originality of a blind superhero. Loved the obvious joy by which Stan Lee tells the stories. Awesome.

[Gary Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Born Under Punches

This massive tome boasts a whopping 41 Daredevil issues, the first Annual, and a crossover issue of Fantastic Four. It's a ton of reading, with some of it good, some even great, and a lot pretty awful.

The title started strong with the Bill Everett-illustrated origin story, followed by a trifecta of tales by DC Comics icon Joe Orlando (2-4, including the introduction of the Purple Man), capstoned by seven stunning issues by Wally Wood. These opening eleven issues are collected in the eminently affordable and couch-conducive-sized MIGHTY MARVEL MASTERWORKS: DAREDEVIL VOL. 1 - WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS. I pull that volume down often to revisit these classic early yarns, all of which are above average and enjoyable. If the book were canceled after #11, Daredevil would be a fondly remembered and admired run.

But it soldiered on with John Romita drawing 12-19. They are impressive to look at, less so to actually read. The three-issue Ka-Zar and Plunderer story was an implausible and protracted slog. The Ox slugfest was as lame as the plot of plucking just one of the three-man Enforcers to carry the issue. But perhaps the Ox was cast to evoke and prepare the way for Spider-Man's featured role, teaming up with Daredevil for a two-issue melee with the Masked Marauder. That was a mountaintop experience with a great story and art. I've long enjoyed this pair of issues, which decades ago I had reprinted in a tattered copy of Daredevil Annual #3. This story also proved Romita was ready and able to succeed Steve Ditko as penciller on Amazing Spiderman.

Speaking of Ditko... Sturdy Steve drew the very first Spidey-Daredevil team-up in Spiderman #16, back when Daredevil still sported his yellow togs. Together they ran rings around the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime. For reasons unknown, that classic issue is MIA from this collection.

Gene Colan came aboard the book with #20 and dropped anchor, drawing virtually every issue through 100, and quite a few afterwards; in fact, Colan illustrated the handful of issues that butt up against #158, where Frank Miller assumed the reins (talk about passing the mantle!). Colan's art was a seismic shift from Romita, Wood, et al. The bright colors and clean lines were gone and in their place were film-inspired angles, noirish backgrounds, and often rubbery figures. He did draw beautiful, stylish women, and Karen never looked so alluring.

Colan's art, unsettling as it sometimes was, transcends the substandard stories. I suspect Daredevil was the literal red-headed stepchild on Stan Lee's scripting docket, the book no love was ever lavished upon. The Owl story in 20-21 was just awful and resolved so stupidly I was banging my head against the table! I really hated it. After that debacle, this book sat untouched for months.

Time heals all wounds and at some point I hefted the book again with high hopes but found to my dismay every story through the 20s and into the 30s was dismal, dreadful dreck. Here are the overused B-list villains Masked Marauder and Gladiator and their ridiculous Tri-Man android, then back to England for a forgettable romp and another Ka-Zar appearance. And then the Leap Frog? Okay, chalk that one up to Silver-Age goofy fun. But that's not who makes issue #25 stand out...

Meet Mike Murdock! Matt invents a wild n' crazy twin brother and plays the role against type. Wow, what a wacky subplot, but I admit I enjoyed Mike's appearances and so apparently did Karen. Stan wrote himself into a corner with this one, however, and his abrupt bailout from it in #41 was disappointingly anticlimactic. Reading the letters pages, Mike was a polarizing figure in early fandom. Me, I liked his hip patter and plaid jackets, but knew it was an unsustainable ruse. When Matt had to rig up a telephone answering machine recording to fool Karen into believing he was at home as Matt but in the office as Mike the seams on this subplot were starting to split.

The nadir of the Mike Murdock saga, which spanned #25-41 (complete in this omnibus!), has got to be Matt disguised as Mike disguised as Daredevil disguised as Thor! Not a dream, not a hoax, not an imaginary tale! It really happened in Daredevil #30. That was another just plain dumb story made even dumber by the bumbling criminal duo Cobra and Hyde. Daredevil loses his radar sense in this one and tries to buffalo the baddies into believing he can see... by walking a high wire between buildings! Worse, that ordeal is stretched out over five pages! But it reads quickly as Colan drew big open panels, and only three or four to a page on average. And like Kirby, Colan snuck into every issue a wholly unnecessary full-page splash or two.

Annual #1 is a 39-page epic pitting Daredevil against Electro and his Emissaries of Evil: Gladiator, Stilt-Man, Leap Frog, and--a blast from the past--Matador! It's really a poor man's retread of Amazing Spiderman Annual #1 featuring the Sinister Six, but lacking all the drama, humor, and creativity. This was a phoned-in slugfest.

Lee and Colan crank out more sausage such as the two-issue battle with the Beetle, yet another B-lister lifted from Spidey's rogues' gallery. Just as hopes were dimming the book suddenly brightens with #35's appearance of the Trapster fka Paste-Pot Pete. I was caught flat footed, expecting yet another by-the-numbers beatdown of a second-tier villain, but I was delightfully surprised. This two-parter rose above the dreary mediocrity of previous issues, due in part to the Invisible Girl being drawn into the plot, tricked by the Trapster disguised as Daredevil (disguises are a recurring theme in this book!). The Trapster, you see, only used Daredevil as a pawn in his planned attack on the Fantastic Four. Colan's Trapster-as-Daredevil looked really creepy-faced, and of course he removed the opaque eyelets. It was admirable attention to detail. Colan also drew the sexiest Invisible Girl of the era, looking even more fetching in her short-lived mini-skirted uniform with the black trim.

Okay, it was not very believable but it was nonetheless very cool for this brawl to barely finish when there's Dr. Doom strolling through the subway tunnels of New York! Daredevil and the reader have nary a moment to catch their breaths before the action is again underway in earnest. Yeah, Daredevil is punching above his weight with Dr. Doom, but then he didn't pick this fight. Once again, Daredevil is a pawn in Doom's plot to infiltrate the Fantastic Four. The body-switcheroo gimmick has been used before, but this was unique in it allowed Daredevil in Doom's body to really see again, and for an unsettled Doom to wonder why he senses more than sees his surroundings. Daredevil's defeat of Doom was also very imaginative and was accomplished without a fist being thrown.

The lingering effects of the Doom story (i.e., is it Daredevil or is it Memorex?) led into a crossover with the Fantastic Four that was really just an excuse for a "Giant Guest Star Bonanza" as the cover blurb blared. Thor, Spidey and Daredevil get into one of those misunderstanding knockabouts with the FF. It's fun, frothy, and light but not especially essential to Daredevil's continuity (unlike Spiderman #16, left a'mouldering on the cutting room floor! Grrr!).

The omnibus closes with an imaginative three-parter heavy on sci-fi and soap opera. Three of the four Wally Wood-created Ani-Men are flunkies to a new generic villain, the Eliminator. He wants to test a time-displacement weapon, an inventive plot but secondary to the simmering subplots of Foggy and Deborah Harris' burgeoning romance coupled with Matt finally getting serious with Karen now that Foggy's affections lie elsewhere. The plots merge when Deborah is targeted in a nightclub and does the time warp seven years before Rocky Horror! The scenes where Deborah and Daredevil are "unstuck in time," to steal Vonnegut's apt phrasing, made me wonder how Ditko would have visualized it. Colan's a realistic artist, to his credit, but it sure left these time-tunnel pages looking lackluster.

Lo, there shall be an ending! This was a big book corralling four years' worth of comics in 1000-plus pages. It took me almost two years to press through it. It was an easy book to put down; my benign neglect made easier after reading yet another in a series of terrible two-parters. I already bought the Epic Collections of the following issues and harbor hopes the title will improve once Stan hands over the writing chores to young and eager up n' comers like Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Steve Gerber.

The only essential issues are 1-11 and 16-17. Colan's art is an acquired taste, and fans will appreciate just how much is on oversized display here. Sadly, Stan's scripts did not serve well the art, and I think as a result Colan's motivation waned and a malaise settled over the book. So many stories look rushed and just churned out to meet the deadline. But we can take heart knowing much better and much brighter days are ahead for this title...!

[Peyton F · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75/5

Something fun about beginning the story of a comic character with their very first issue is thinking about that sliding scale the universe has for time, and also thinking about how, reading the first 3 and a half years of this character, you’re transported to a time where this was it; where there wasn’t any other traits beyond snarky in the suit, simple out of costume, and there wasn’t a religious angle or anything. Thinking that, months before that yellow suit, we’d see him wearing a black one in the mini origin retelling by Miller.

“Watchmen” hadn’t made its way into the hands of readers and onto newsstands. There wasn’t such a thing as “The Dark Knight Returns” or “Serious House on a Serious Earth.” If you asked a marvel fan in the 60s who Daredevil was, they’d say he’s a blind guy that dresses up in devil horns, cracks jokes, and comes to blows with pirates, faces Spider-Man’s Electro, and also has found himself caught in the most absurd lie ever, roleplaying as a twin brother to his crush and longtime law partner.

You jump a few decades, and Murdock is the guy that’s constantly grappling with his religion and his calling as a hero. He fights with ninjas, and at every turn, he loses something or someone special to him. Starting a read through here is such an odd time, because (except for Mark Waid’s run on the character) DD is not known for being silly.

I had read hella DD, and also watched the shows and movies. Over the past several months, I’ve collected the 18 omnibuses that are out for the character, and I had frequently talked about doing the undertaking of starting at issue 1 of his original series, and chart the evolution of the character. Some parts are missing, of course — his armored 90s series isn’t collected, nor is the second volume of Nocenti’s run. Daredevil also needs a volume 4 and 5 to further bridge the gap to Frank Miller’s run, but volume 3, as I’ve heard, kind of shows the dire straights the character gets into at that point.

There were many, many times, reader, where I almost stopped reading this.

I think it’s because of my background, maybe? I was born in 2002, my favorite writers are Mark Waid, Scott Snyder, Gail Simone, Jonathan Hickman and Deniz Camp. I know Stan Lee’s way of handling Marvel due to reading several books on the subject (specifically Marvel Comics: The Untold Story), but I never really felt a call to read his work. Lee considers Daredevil to be one of his favorite characters, and this is mean to say, but had it not been for Gene Colan’s art after Everett and Romita, I would’ve stopped reading the book, because I did not understand why Lee felt this connection to the character.

The sort of combination of the Archie-esque romance antics and the silly nature of the action, the frequent use of recapping DD’s powers every issue (because these were written with the idea that it was someone’s first comic), it made for a very, very frustrating time. You are not supposed to read this book like I did. They (Redditors) say jump to Frank Miller and read all of the stuff up to Zdarsky to get who Matt Murdock really is, and then go back to these to see how it was originally displayed. And you know what?

I kind of grew to like it. Thanks to Gene Colan’s very cinematic art (some of it better than some modern artists), it was okay to deal with the same repetitive stuff and similar gags, because seeing Daredevil do his stuff and kick ass is just so fun. But man — that writing is just not really strong. I didn’t care for Matt or Foggy and — worst of all — Karen, who’s sole personality is being in love with Foggy or Matt (or Mike, who is also Matt) at any given moment. What they’ve done with Karen in the Daredevil Show is really great, and I find it wild that the character lasted so long in comics, because she really had nothing (however, by issue 41, she kind of starts to develop further thoughts and ideas, which is nice).

Something that I liked, too, were the prefaces taken from the Marvel Masterworks for DD, written by Colan or Lee. Thinking about how Daredevil has changed, Lee writes for the third volume, “Of course, nothing is ever exactly the way you wish it would be. I know that things happen and lives change, in fiction as well as real life. But I must admit I secretly wish that we had kept to the old formula for DD's stories. Mostly, I wish Karen Page was still around, in love with Matt Murdock and never suspecting that he's really Daredevil. I wish we could still be complicating things with the twin brother angle that blew so many readers away. I wish the stories could still have the fun, the innocence, the flavor that they did way back then. But hey, I still miss my old electric typewriter and twelve-cylinder Packard convertible, so I guess that shows you where I'm comin' from!” And reading that, I had to take pause. This was an older generation of the Bullpen’s baby, and since the 80s, writers have been addicted to making Matt Murdock miserable, because that’s what sells books. But the whole point initially was just to play with the idea of a blind man saving lives. Lee basically says that the innocence of the character has been corrupted, and it kind of painted the remaining issues of this book to me in a new, thematic light. Because, with the power of hindsight, you can’t help but feel the heart of the writers and artists impacting this character in their own ways. It’s wild to think that at one point, Murdock was going to England and spending time with the Tarzan pastiche of Ka-Zar, and fifty years later irl (maybe just a few years in lore), he’d fight a serial killer that uses his victim’s blood as paint.

Damn.


It’s like that feeling where you lay in bed and remember some stupid thing you did 10 years ago, but you realize you were younger, and innocent, and you’ve learned from it. But you also realize that you can never go back to being that same person. This review has got me kind of messed up, now.

[Greg L Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike some of the other early Marvel Heroes, it took Daredevil quite a while to find its footing. This volume collects all the early stories --- and you can marvel (pun intuited) how the character truly came to life under the stylistic storytelling of artist Gene Colan.

That said, Daredevil #7 by Wallace (Woody) Wood, featuring a battle against the Sub-Mariner remains one of the single best comics of its era. (Wood also introduced the modern red and black costume in the same issue.)

[Andrei · Rating 4 out of 5]

My third Silver Age Vol. 1 Omnibus that I've read, and I enjoyed it much more than I would've thought. In fact, this outranks FF and sits at #2 behind Spidey so far. The first issue which also doubles as the origin story is excellent, it's a very grounded & realistic with great art by Bill Everett. For the first ~10 issues or so, it's quite clear that Stan is still trying to figure out the character and where to go with him, as a range of new and existing villains are introduced against Daredevil, with varying degrees of success and a lot of 60s silliness. The Joe Orlando period is probably my least favourite in terms of art, but has a great (and possibly underappreciated) issue with Purple Man. The Wally Wood period has great art, introduces the red costume we all know but also a very gimmicky billy club (which later gets scrapped). The John Romita period also has great art, but also a bunch of team-ups/fights with characters such as Ka-zar or Spider-Man, as well as some good villains like the Masked Marauder and Gladiator. The Gene Colan era is visually excellent and mixes some familiar foes (the Owl, Masked Marauder, Stilt Man), more guest star team-ups (Ka-Zar, Spider-Man, Thor, the FF), some craziness (the entire Mike Murdock twin saga) and even an early attempt at a crossover involving Doctor Doom and the FF. There are lot of cool extras, including plenty of original uncoloured art, unused covers, sketches and others.

What I liked: The art throughout this book is amazing, but Gene Colan truly stands out - seeing his pencils on large 2-4 panel pages is a joy. The love triangle between Matt, Karen Page and Foggy - corny as hell, but still fun to read. Issue #4 (Purple Man), issue #7 (Namor tries to do win sovereignty of Earth through court, and also fights Daredevil), issues 16-19 (versus the Masked Marauder and Gladiator), issues 30-32 (Mr Hyde & Cobra) and the Doctor Doom stuff (#37-38 plus FF #73).

What I didn't like: This version of Daredevil is way to quippy for my taste, no wonder he sometimes loses his breath if he's constantly yapping and cracking jokes while fighting. DD's radar sense is a bit too ridiculous sometimes (he flies a rocket back to Earth, flies a mechanical owl from an unknown island back to Long Island, flies a jet plane from a European country he doesn't know to England). Some of the villains are... not great (The Matador, the discount-Doctor Doom whose name I don't remember - was the doctor who was supposed to cure Matt's blindness but was also a medieval dictator of sorts, the Leap-frog, the guy with the paste gun).

[R. C. Ripley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The humble and convoluted beginning of the man without fear. From multiple retcons, to never ending shuffling of artist, to inconsistencies in our main hero himself. Reading the golden age of Daredevil is like witnessing comic history in such a short span of time that it feels absurd and surreal at the same time. Regardless, at the tail-end of the omnibus we finally see the hero we all know today in his own skin - but it would take a bit more time, and multiple talents before we got the devil of Hell's Kitchen.

[TheMadReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cheesy and goofy however, according to the letters at the end of the issues… people enjoyed it during the times when this was being released. I noticed myself powering through most of these, very little substance.

The silver age isn’t my cup of tea but I do appreciate the simpler times when comics was your one true source of entertainment. Much needed for any DD collector.

[Nate Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starts of slow, but gets good fast