Daredevil #1.

Baffling billy clubs! In almost nine years of running this site, I still haven't got round to reviewing issue #1 of Daredevil. Bearing in mind he was one of the few super-heroes I could ever see myself being, due to him not being very impressive, this is a dread oversight.

So, here goes.

The denizens of the criminal underworld are having a nice old card game when a costumed hero with no dress sense appears and demands to see their boss The Fixer.

They don't like the sound of it and have a fight with him, which they lose.

We then get this new hero's backstory. He's Matt Murdock, son of habitually down-the-pan boxer Battling Murdock.

Despite having been blinded by a freak radiation accident, after pushing a blind man out of the way of a lorry, Matt sets out to get revenge on The Fixer after the crook has his father killed in the wake of his greatest victory.

Consequently, Matt's created a costume for himself, adopted the name, "Daredevil," and intends to make good use of the heightened senses the radiation has bestowed upon him.

The flashback over and done with, The Fixer dutifully shows up and his men have another fight with Daredevil, which they also lose.

At this point, The Fixer decides discretion is the better part of cowardice and flees somewhat slowly.

Not one to be deterred by someone fleeing slowly, Daredevil pursues him to a subway station where he proceeds to give him a heart attack before tricking a confession out of his man Slade, for the benefit of a couple of handily placed police officers.

And that's it, the end of Daredevil's first, somewhat low-key, adventure.

But, of course, as he stands in his office and contemplates a job well done, Matt Murdock vows that the world has not seen the last of the man without fear.

Why it's not seen the last of the man without fear, I've no idea. He's got his revenge. Wouldn't this be a good time to retire? Now you can see why I'm not a super-hero. I wouldn't carry on fighting once I'd got my revenge.

The first thing I have to say is this tale looks a lot better than I remember.

That's mostly because the version I grew up on was the one in Son of Origins of Marvel Comics, which looked like it'd been reproduced with a 1970s school photocopier and then attacked by a budgerigar that had just spent three days rolling around in ink. Once free of such reproductive failings, the artwork still doesn't look sensational but it does at least look clearer and cleaner and does have a certain retro style to it.

And that retro style is the main thing that strikes me about the tale. It really doesn't look or read like a Silver Age Marvel comic. It feels much more like a Golden Age DC comic.

Perhaps that shouldn't be such a surprise, as its artist Bill Everett was a Golden Age veteran and Stan Lee always claimed DD's creation was partially inspired by the 1940s character of the same name. It does, however, make the tale an interesting curiosity.

Overall, it's a simple, functional story that does its job of introducing both its hero and his alter-ego, while also introducing us smoothly to Matt's sidekicks Foggy Nelson and Karen Page. It doesn't quite have the verve or eccentricity of some of the other Marvel origins but it does its job without fuss and Daredevil's powers are quite appealing.

Other points I feel I should make:

I do seem to be the only person alive who prefers Daredevil's original costume to his later one.

It does seem a strange lapse that the location The Fixer operates from is called Fogwell's Gym and Matt's best friend and business partner is called Foggy, creating the impression that the two are in some way connected. Possibly, the ever-busy Stan was not putting enough thought into naming things in this tale.

Karen Page seems to be permanently randy. In her every appearance in this issue, she never shuts up about her desire for Matt Murdock. Needless to say, the trademark Stan Lee love triangle is already set up by the end of the tale.

It's a source of endless wonder that the bad guy's a dodgy boxing promoter called The Fixer. I'm no expert on the fight game but how on Earth does a man called The Fixer get a promoter's license? Does his name not constitute a slight warning to the authorities? For that matter, who are the sad muppets who actually decide to bet on his fights?

The internet's always informed me that, due to Bill Everett's various problems, the artwork was added to and amended by pretty much anyone who happened to walk into the Marvel office that week, including Steve Ditko. Perusing the pages, I really can't see any sign of anything that looks like the handiwork of Ditko, although the panel that shows Matt's nose, up-close, as his sense of smell is being explained does look like the work of Wally Wood. Whether it really is the work of Wally Wood, I could not say.

Matt Murdock adopts the name, "Daredevil," as his secret identity because that's what everyone who knew him when he was a kid called him. I'm not sure Matt quite gets the idea of a secret identity. Aren't you supposed to choose a name that everyone doesn't know you by?

Presumably the people who gave The Fixer his license are the same people who license trucks packed with loose barrels of radiation to drive around the centre of New York and don't even bother to check their brakes first.

This week, I have mostly been reading...

As you no doubt know, this blog ploughs through millions of comics every day in order to bring you opinions so powerful they could rock the world. Why, grown men themselves have been known to hide in cupboards to avoid the power of my fulminations.

But the truth is that even I don't always have strong enough feelings about a comic to bother reviewing it in full. Therefore, this is a selection of what I've been looking at lately that I can't bring myself to give a full write-up to.

The Avengers have their second outing and find themselves up against the Space Phantom who, for years, I always got mixed up with the Space Parasite.

Needless to say, in this tale, everyone gets everyone mixed up with the Space Phantom and by the end of it all, the Hulk's quit and the newly formed group are already a man down.

Just to make things worse for our heroes, not only are they a man short but the very next issue, they have to fight both him and the Sub-Mariner.

Bah! Who needs that pesky Hulk anyway? Thanks to the maturity levels that only Namor can supply, the Avengers return to full strength with the return of Captain America.

Batman has  his greatest failure!

Or perhaps he doesn't, as he encounters murder on a film set.

This is actually one of my favourite Batman tales from the era but I don't have anything to say about it that I haven't said about other Batman tales in other posts, therefore I shall not review it but merely express my liking for it.

Captain Marvel goes all cosmic and has his head redrawn by John Romita.

To be honest I've never been totally sure what Cosmic Awareness is but it's all good mythic stuff as Jim Starlin's Cosmic Cube saga rumbles on and we get some back-story for the solar system.

Jim Starlin's long-gone but Mar-Vell's Cosmic Awareness comes in handy as he uses it to beat the Super-Adaptoid and bring Rick Jones permanently back to our world.

Tragically, this means we shall have to endure more of Rick's singing career which mostly seems to consist of him declaring himself not to be John Denver.

I can confirm that I too am not John Denver.

Ka-Zar finds himself in a Savage Land re-enactment of Moby Dick as he helps a vengeance-seeking wally try to kill a giant river monster.

The story's concept might be pretty clichéd but it's beautifully drawn by Alfredo Alcala.

It's the Mighty World of Marvel but it might as well be called Daredevil Annual 1979, as our red clad hero finds himself in two tales.

The first is a very long but uninvolving team-up with the Black Panther. The second is shorter and stronger as the man without fear finds himself on a train, up against the Beetle and the Gladiator.

The most forgettable comics I have ever owned. Part 9: Marvel Two-In-One #37 & #49.

It's a case of, "Steve Does Appropriate," today as the feature the internet can't stop talking about returns with a two-in-one edition of its own.

A couple of years back, I bought a job lot of old comics that contained, amongst other things, a sizable run of Marvel Two-In-Ones. Upon perusing them I was surprised to discover that amongst them were two comics I'd totally forgotten I'd ever owned during childhood.

The first featured the Thing being buzzed in the ear to distraction until he starts breaking things - such as street lamps - and lands up in court. Needless to say, New York's only living lawyer Matt Murdock's soon on hand to no doubt fail in his duties.

The other tale features Dr Strange - and possibly the Thing going on holiday. And this is just how forgettable the comic is; because, even though I re-read this tale just two years ago, I still can't remember what happens in it, making it the only comic I've ever owned whose contents I've managed to forget twice.

As I've said before, given my love for the Thing, and how fondly I remember his series, it really is remarkable the difficulty I have recalling any story he's ever appeared in.

Oh well, I don't care. He's orange, he's made of rocks and he says, "It's Clobberin' Time!" a lot. And, when it comes down to it, that's good enough for me.

Essential Daredevil Volume 2.

Well, this is all a rum do. I bought Essential Daredevil Volume 2 a few years ago - along with Volumes One and Three - and thought it was complete and total rubbish, filled with lame villains, a hopelessly tiny supporting cast -- and Mike Murdock.

But, of late, in the absence of anything better to fill my time with, I've been re-reading it.

This time, I did it differently. Instead of greedily devouring it in one long sitting - as is my habit when it comes to such collections - I decided to read it one story per day.

And what a magical difference it made. Suddenly, instead of a feeble hero fighting lame villains it was...

...well, OK, it still seemed like a feeble hero battling lame villains - but the drama of it all and Stan Lee's sense of fun shone through far more than it had before and I found I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Strangely, when read in bite-sized chunks, the uselessness of the villains becomes oddly charming, the tininess of the supporting cast seems cosy and even Mike Murdock becomes more-or-less bearable.

Of course, what does come across is that Matt Murdock is completely and totally mad. There's no other explanation for why he should adopt the eminently punchable persona of his non-existent identical twin brother Mike - especially when he at one point contemplates marrying Karen Page in that identity! As for his plan to bump Mike off with no regard for how Foggy and Karen might feel about his death...

Highlight of the collection has to be Dr Doom swapping bodies with DD in order to launch a surprise attack on the Fantastic Four.

It's a tale that makes no sense.

For a start, it follows straight on from a story in which the Trapster disguises himself as DD in order to launch a surprise attack on the Fantastic Four. Dr Doom somehow fails to notice he's now blind, DD finds himself in trouble fighting Doc Doom's goons, despite wearing a suit of armour that's weirdly unprotective against their bare fists, and Doom doesn't tell his lackeys his plan, meaning DD can order them around and plunge Latveria into a war that forces his adversary to completely abandon his scheme before he's even managed to reach the Baxter Building. Somehow, you can't help feeling Doom didn't put an awful lot of thought into this plan.

Despite all this, there is something about the sight of our hero alone and up against a villain he's totally outclassed by that means the tale lingers in the mind more than others do.

Another highlight is Daredevil's battle with a bunch of aliens who want to send everyone blind. It's a stupid tale - let's face it, if there's any menace DD shouldn't be fighting it's aliens - but it has a certain charm, and possibly highlights the difference between him and the superficially similar Spider-Man. Whereas Spider-Man fighting aliens seems wrong, for Daredevil it doesn't. Possibly this is because it's such an odd series - even when he's fighting more terrestrial foes - that it can get away with such eccentricities in a way that Spider-Man's strip couldn't.

Probably the weakest story is the character's first King-Size Special, where Lee redoes Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 by having Daredevil's deadliest foes team up against him.

So undeadly are they that Electro has to be drafted in to give them some semblance of menace and, even then, Daredevil manages to beat the lot of them all in one go.

The book is, of course, dominated by Gene Colan's artwork. It could be argued his style wasn't best suited to super-heroes but there's a non-stop dynamism, flow and organised chaos to it that few artists can match.

So, there you have it, proof that comic book tales don't have to knock your socks off to be enjoyable.

And proof that the tales in compendiums are best read as they were originally meant to be read and not as impatience might dictate they be read.

Daredevil's greatest ever foe - Poll Results!

As Noddy Holder once so famously declared, "It's Chri-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-istmas!" - and that's always an exciting time of year.

But it's just got even more exciting, as the results are in from our sensational poll to discover just who is Daredevil's greatest ever enemy.

There was a wide spread of voting but a surprisingly clear winner.

In joint sixth place, with one vote each, we find Mr Fear, Stilt-Man and the Mandrill.

In joint fourth, with two votes each, we find the bovine-tastic duo of Man-Bull and Bullseye.

In joint second, with three votes each, we find the Kingpin and Death-Stalker

But the winner, with a massive six votes, is the Gladiator, a man who, despite being able to give you a close shave any time he wants, won through by much more than a close shave.

So, congratulations to the Gladiator - even though he doesn't really exist and therefore can't read this message to him - and thanks to all who voted, including myself because it's Christmas and I think one should always take the time at Christmas to appreciate one's self.

Merry Christmas to you, the Reader. And here's looking forward to our no doubt equally thrilling gallery of our all-time favourite covers, which is due to be posted in the next couple of days. It's still not too late to nominate one if you haven't done so already.

Who is Daredevil's greatest ever foe?

Steve Does Comics' endless quest to find the greatest super-villain of them all moves on, as its ghastly gaze settles on the man they call Horn Head.

Clearly, when it comes to villains, Daredevil's always had a blatant problem.

He doesn't really have any super-powers.

It's true he has heightened senses but, for the most part they've barely done more than compensate for him being blind. This has often meant the quality of foe he can be pitted against hasn't always been up to that of Marvel's other crime-fighters, and the man without fear's often found himself in two, or even three, part epics trying to overcome foes Spider-Man could defeat in a single panel.

Sometimes this weakness has become an asset. Daredevil #7, where he found himself getting flattened for page after page by the Sub-Mariner, made his physical feebleness into a selling point, demonstrating his never-say-die spirit in the face of hopeless odds. It's easy to be heroic when you're Superman. It's a whole lot more impressive when you're just some bloke.

However, despite all this, Daredevil still managed to acquire a villain's gallery of his own. Among others, the comic gave us the Owl, Stilt-Man, the Jester, Man-Bull and Mr Fear. Later on, the Kingpin was drafted in from The Amazing Spider-Man, and, of course, the strip eventually gave us a Bullseye deadlier than Jim Bowen could ever have envisaged.

Personally I've always had a soft spot for the Gladiator - mostly for the basic nastiness of his weaponry. But ultimately, when it comes to my favourite, I think I have to go for Death-Stalker. This is probably down to my long-standing desire to be the Shadow and run around in a big hat, laughing for no reason.

But of course, what I think doesn't matter. What matters is what you think. So, nominate your favourite Daredevil villain and, as always, in a couple of days' time I'll construct a poll from your nominations.

Then at last the world shall decide just who is Daredevil's greatest ever foe.

Keeping an ear to the ground for the news of the world.

Argh! No! Go away!

As I roam that strange little square behind the Angel Street Argos store, people say to me, "Steve, as your only confidant is a glove puppet called Crikey and you spend all your time going on about ancient comics that no one cares about, does that mean you're completely out of touch with reality?"

And I say, "No. As a matter of fact, thanks to my network of informants and contacts, I'm fully aware of what's going on in the outside world. For instance I know that right now this nation's up in arms about the latest scandal to hit it. A scandal involving a character so obnoxious, so nightmarish you could barely make him up."

But we should never forget there was another man of that name. One also surrounded by a web of lies, obfuscation and deceit, one similarly unlikely to be paying any taxes any time soon.

Go away!

Mike Murdock.

In my opinion, Mike Murdock is the single worst character ever created by Marvel Comics. In the interests of integrity I should point out that the likes of Jubilation Lee aren't included in this thesis, as anything after the Bronze Age barely exists as far as this finger-on-the-modern-pulse blog's concerned.

For anyone not in the know, in the 1960s Stan Lee decided to expand Daredevil's massive supporting cast of two characters by introducing a new one - Mike Murdock. Murdock was a brash, loud-mouthed cretin who made Mary Jane Watson look like a woman in need of  Prozac.

Argh!

He also didn't exist; being as he was, the strip's star Matt Murdock pretending to be his own brother so the other two cast members would think that Mike and not Matt was Daredevil.

For what seemed an eternity, Mike Murdock mugged, boasted and showboated his way through tale after tale until, in a happy twist of fate, he was blown up. Along the way, he even considered marrying Matt's secretary Karen Page - even though he didn't exist. Still, despite his demise, the Mike Murdock nightmares haunt me and Crikey to this very day.

This of course is only my opinion and I am aware that, like glove puppets, other opinions exist. Therefore this blog, determined as ever to unmask the truth, is asking you who you think is the worst character ever to have been created by Marvel Comics.

Daredevil's costume. Poll results.

The votes are all in - and it seems the Daredevil costume the good people of the Internet prefer is...
...
...
...
...his red one.

In a devastating blow to those of us who prefer Matt Murdock in his original yellow and red threads, just one person voted for his original costume (that person was me), while four people voted for his all-red one, and one person voted that he/she doesn't like either of them.

So, well done to Daredevil's more usual attire for its stunning victory, and hearty thanks to everyone who voted.

Captain America vs Daredevil. Poll results.

The results of our latest sensational poll are in and, with a walloping majority of twelve votes to one, Captain America's battered poor old Daredevil when it comes to people's opinion on who'd win a fight between the pair.

Poor old Daredevil; not only the Man Without Fear but also the Man (almost) Without Friends. So, congratulations to Captain America, commiserations  to Daredevil, and thanks to all who voted.

Will the results of our Favourite DD Costume poll be equally as momentous? Only this blog can tell you. And it can only tell you tomorrow. Be there or be L7.

Daredevil. Yellow and black, and red all over.

A costume that demands to leap through paper.

As I've discovered to my own personal cost, it's all well and good having awesome super-powers but it's nothing if you don't have the right costume. Like a fool I thought that having the powers of a terrifying bird meant it'd be a good idea for me to run around town dressed as a giant chicken. "What could be better suited to strike terror into the hearts of criminals, who're a cowardly and superstitious bunch?" I reasoned.

Well, anything but a chicken, it turned out. My super-hero career was over before it had begun.

But there're heroes who got it right. Where would Captain America be without the wings on his head? He'd be in the latest Hollywood blockbuster, as it turns out, but that shouldn't blind us to the fact he knew a good costume when he saw one. The thing is, some heroes, like Cap, get it right straight away and others, like Iron Man, have to tweak things till they get it just-so.

But there's a third category. Heroes who get it right in the first place but then change their minds.

A costume that wouldn't be seen dead leaping
through paper.

All of which brings me to Daredevil. While it's true that most of Marvel's early changes to their heroes' costumes were for the better, I'm going to commit blasphemy by declaring I don't think Daredevil's was one of them. As I've said before, although the first half-decade of Daredevil doesn't really grab me these days, when I was a kid he was one of my favourite do-gooders. First introduced to me in the pages of Mighty World of Marvel #20 by a somewhat mighty Jim Starlin cover, I think the primary reason Daredevil so appealed was his costume. I don't mean the one we're all familiar with. I mean the yellow and red one he wore in his salad days.

It wasn't as slick as the version we're all used to - or as devilish - but it was more interesting, with its two-tone colour scheme and the strange buttons on his boots and gloves. The more familiar version might look more professional but it has no flair, it has no power to surprise. It wasn't just Daredevil who was leaping out of that Jim Starlin cover at you. It was his outfit. It was natural to draw him that way. One look at that first costume told you Daredevil was a showman. He had it written all over him.

So, while the world agrees that Stan Lee and his cohorts got it right in dumping Matt Murdock's original look, I'll sit in my little corner of my bedroom, in my chicken suit, dreaming of what might have been and knowing that, when it comes to Daredevil's costume, I've got it right and all those sensible people in the world have got it wrong.

Unless of course, there are those who agree with me?

Daredevil #43. DD vs Captain America.

If ever there was an obvious hero for Daredevil to fight, it had to be Captain America, mostly because there weren't many Marvel heroes you could see him being able to tackle without getting his teeth smashed in. As Daredevil: The Man Without Teeth! would make a rotten title for a comic, it's just as well that in this issue he comes up against a hero who's similarly unencumbered with super-strength.

But if there's one thing our childhood selves should've learned  it's that Daredevil was versatile. It wasn't only super-heroes he couldn't handle.

He couldn't handle women either.

Like all good Marvel heroes, Matt Murdock didn't have the first clue about how to conduct a relationship, and so Daredevil #43 kicks off with him kicking off about the mess his love life's in. He's leaping around in his gym, giving its equipment a hard time because Karen Page has left him. Bearing in mind how dull she was, some might think this a difficult thing to get upset about but love's a strange beast and, when smashing up his gym doesn't work, he goes out in the hope of smashing up the Jester.

Gene Colan's original, rejected, cover for the issue.

Sandwiched between the emotional drama of the first half of this tale and the physical drama of the second, the mention of the Jester has to be the worst part of this comic. It's like someone's got three balloons, the middle one of which they've suddenly let the air out of. Maybe I'm alone in my hatred of the character but frankly the only thing that could drag the comic down more than the Jester showing up would've been Mike Murdock turning up. Happily, Mike Murdock was "dead" by this point, having been blown to smithereens.

Instead of the Jester, our hero finds a thief who's stolen some radioactive materials. What DD doesn't expect  is that the radiation from the thief's haul affects his super-senses and turns him aggro - and if you're an aggro super-hero, there's nothing better to do than fight another hero.

So he shows up at what I assume to be Madison Square Garden to fight Captain America who's busy beating up members of the public for charity. I'm not sure what charity this was that expected people to get beaten up on its behalf but remind me never to give to it.

After a few pages of action, Daredevil regains his senses and makes like a banana by splitting as Cap's left in the street, none the wiser as to what it was all about. As for the fight itself, you do get the feeling that if it'd gone on for much longer Daredevil would've lost. Let's face it, that was the inevitable fate of Daredevil no matter what hero he met. There really aren't any Marvel heroes -  apart from maybe Ka-Zar - who you could realistically see him beating.

Gene Colan's art's as splendidly untidy, chaotic and energetic as ever and, when it comes to the fight, he repeatedly finds dynamic perspectives and angles with which to convey the action. You do wonder how both men don't end the scrap on a stretcher, such is the apparent force of the blows he has them land on each other, while, in the tale's opening section, Stan Lee merrily ladles on the human drama. The truth is there aren't many Daredevil tales from this era that grab me but I've always had a liking for this one. Ultimately it makes no difference to anything. Nothing's resolved. Nothing's proven. Nothing's answered. But it's sufficiently different from the typical DD yarn of the time to make it stand out.

PS. Don't forget the breathless results of our Captain America vs Daredevil poll are in, fresh from the burning inferno of democracy -- and it's not good news for one of them.

Steve Does Comics' 100th issue special

Hooray, Steve Does Comics celebrates its 100th postiversary.

That's right, despite often lengthy and unexplained absences, I've somehow managed to rack up 100 missives on this blog. And to celebrate - and avoid me having to do any proper writing - I thought I'd look at how some of my favourite heroes marked their 100th issues. I'm only including tales I've actually read, so I'm afraid the likes of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman don't make the list.

Daredevil marks his 100th appearance with a tale I have no memory of whatsoever, although I'm sure I must have read it in the pages of Mighty World of Marvel. Judging by the cover, it seems to follow the Marvel trend of having a load of old foes show up to mark the occasion. Unfortunately, it probably also highlights the fact that most of his foes were a bit on the so-so side.

I said there was a trend with these things. Like Daredevil, Spider-Man fights a whole villains' gallery of his deadliest foes - this time in his dreams. It all climaxes with him getting a mystical message from the late Captain Stacy before waking to find he has six arms. Words can't describe how much I loved the six arms when I was eleven.

This is how to celebrate a 100th issue. Everyone who's ever been an Avenger up to that point - including the Swordsman - goes to war with Olympus. I read this in the pages of Marvel UK's Titans mag. Thanks to the ground-breaking landscape format, the art was shrunk to the size of a postage stamp but Barry Smith's art still shone through.

Just like Spider-Man and Daredevil, the Fantastic Four get to fight a whole bunch of their greatest foes. I think they were the first of Marvel's Silver Age heroes to make a hundred appearances, so they can at least claim to have been the ones who set the trend. Sadly, the foes in question are only robots, and the not-exactly-awesome villains behind it all are the Thinker and Puppet Master who manage to blow themselves up through their own incompetence.

Thor celebrates Journey Into Mystery's big ton by tackling Mr Hyde. Mr Hyde might not be one of Marvel's greatest - or best dressed - villains but, like the Gray Gargoyle and the Cobra, I've always had a soft spot for him. Love the smiley Thor pic in the top left corner box.

One of Marie Severin's best efforts sees the strongest man on land tackle the strongest man in water, as the Hulk and Sub-Mariner square up to each other. Again the Puppet Master's involved, this time looking like Donald Pleasance. I seem to recall the story's set in Miami, which, when I read this story, as a kid, impressed me greatly, even though I'd never heard of Miami.

The very new New X-Men grapple with the original X-Men. Again, it's only a bunch of robots they're up against but, happily, despite the appearance of a bald bloke on the cover, it's not the Puppet Master who's behind it. This was the first issue of the new X-Men I ever had and I didn't have a clue what was going on or who any of these people were. But I knew one thing. It grabbed me. The tale was a roller coaster ride of action, tension and human drama, starting with the scrap between new and old X-Men and ending with a battle to escape a solar flare, and the genesis of the whole Phoenix saga. Could they have crammed more into a comic if they'd tried? 

Of the above tales, I have to say the X-Men, Avengers and Hulk/Subby stories are the ones that stand out most in my memory and, like the visiting judge at a prize marrow contest, I think I have to give first prize to the X-Men which really was a classic in every way imaginable. 

Daredevil #115. The Shadow of the Death-Stalker.

One of the things I loved in the good old days before Marvel and DC got on well enough to do collaborations was when a Marvel hero found himself up against a DC hero. Of course, thanks to that inconvenient thing known as copyright, names had to be changed to cunningly disguise what was going on.

Probably my favourite example was Avengers #70 when our heroes assembled found themselves against the Justice League of America, renamed the Squadron Sinister. And, of course, there was X-Men #107 when, under the pencil of Dave Cockrum, Marvel's mightiest mutants found themselves fighting Cockrum's previous charges the Legion of Super-Heroes in everything but name.

With Daredevil #115, it was the man without fear's turn as he found himself up against the Shadow. Obviously, they didn't call him the Shadow, they called him Death-Stalker but the silly hat, the tendency to vanish into thin air and the love of inappropriate laughter left you in no doubt who he really was.

But it wasn't that simple.

Just as the early Christian Church demonised the gods of rival religions, so Marvel demonised DC comics' heroes and, far from being a determined battler of evil, the Shadow became a bad guy out to sell secret formulae to enemy powers and had a death touch that supposedly slew all it encountered. In fact, in the issues I read, I'm not sure it ever managed to slay anyone. I seem to remember him using it on the Man-Thing, the Gladiator and DD and all lived to fight again. Oh well, what's a villain without a little hyperbole?

The Shadow might know but Daredevil doesn't.

Apart from him being a bad guy, the main thing that separated Death-Stalker from the real Shadow was his love of kinky boots. I'm not totally sure what that was about. Perhaps it was supposed to be some clue that our villain, by day, worked in a sex fetishists' shop, or was in reality a very short man, so that eagle-eyed readers would no doubt benefit from looking out for the arrival of a diminutive supporting character who could later be exposed as the villain himself. Whether this happened or not, I'm not sure. It certainly would have in the days of Stan Lee.

The story is that Foggy Nelson's sister Candace has stumbled on some documents relating to the formula that turned Ted Sallis into the Man-Thing, and now the Death Stalker's stolen them so he can sell them to whatever nation would like to create a race of pollution-breathing monsters. I suspect most nations would like to do that. Needless to say, after a bit of difficulty here and there, our hero finally succeeds in stopping him with the aid of an acid vat. To do this, he requires an incredible amount of luck. DD thinks to himself, "Where would Death-Stalker be?" On fairly flimsy grounds, he decides he might be at a chemical plant. And wouldn't you know it, the first chemical plant our hero comes across, Death-Stalker's there. Sherlock Holmes eat your heart out.

As a kid, I always had a soft spot for Daredevil, possibly because his lack of powerage made him more human and more the sort of hero that theoretically, any of us could be. As an adult, I'm not so bothered.

Reading through his adventures in the first three Essential Daredevil volumes was an oddly empty experience for me compared to the likes of Essential Avengers, Spider-Man and Thor. I found it hard to get into Gene Colan's art, and the human side of Daredevil's life, his trials and tribulations with Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, seemed dull compared to Peter Parker's. However, by the time issue #115 had come along Colan was gone and the strip was being drawn by Bob Brown. There was nothing spectacular about Brown's work but, like Sal Buscema, he was a solid story teller whose people looked like people and I do like the way he portrays Death-Stalker here, as a somewhat melodramatic, pantomime villain, never shirking the chance to adopt an arch pose.

The relationships also seem more interesting. We've had Candace Nelson added to the strip, and the Black Widow and Ivan are still lurking in the background, mostly hanging around on park benches. As a result, I do find this tale more interesting than those earlier ones, an odd example of a strip improving after what, at face value, is its classic era. It's still nothing special compared to Marvel's greatest triumphs but it carries you along painlessly and I'm not sure I have the right to ask more of Matt Murdock than that.