When Daredevil debuted in April 1964, he represented the last of that first great wave of Marvel superheroes that we readers already knew we couldn’t get enough of.
The Fantastic Four had kicked off the parade 29 months before.
At age 9, I immediately liked him — even that yellow costume that everybody else seemed to hate (I love that sunny color). I hoped that Matt Murdock would eventually regain his sight, not realizing how integral his disability was to the drama Stan Lee had in mind.
We’d had blind, or rather quasi-blind, super-heroes before in the Black Bat and Dr. Mid-Nite. And Daredevil’s Golden Age namesake had been mute. But with his other senses heightened, Daredevil’s blindness became central to the storyline. It represented another application of a favorite Lee trick, using an obstacle as an advantage.
The disability shadowed Daredevil’s relationship with Karen Page, bringing a note of tragic stoicism to the feature. It helped preserve the secret of his identity, because no one would believe Matt Murdock could be a superhero. It provided a satisfying underdog counterpoint to contrast with and underline the heroics Daredevil performed.
Daredevil’s blindness-related super powers, carefully thought out, were dramatically more subtle than the more common wall-smashing variety, but particularly effective.
His sensory abilities enabled him to hear distant trouble, overhear secret conversations, dodge and deflect projectiles and punches and, appropriately enough for a moral crusader, detect lies. And they remained a hidden asset, invisible to the public.
Daredevil arrived late in more ways than one. Lee tapped Bill Everett, creator of the Sub-Mariner, to draw the first issue. But Everett got behind on the project, and to fill in Lee had to scramble for a new title.
He called it The Avengers.
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| Collage by Gil R. Palmer |
Paul Zuckerman said: DD has long been one of my favorite Marvel titles, though there was a long period there in the 90s that I took a break from it. Yet, I was incensed that Lee stole the blindness idea from Dr Mid-Nite (not that the good doctor really seemed to miss seeing anything when he had his goggles on). And I hated the Mike Murdoch story line at the time. But, look at the array of artists in the first 100 issues: Everett, Orlando, Wood, Romita (I actually liked his DD work more than his Spidey!); Smith--oh, did I leave someone out? Of course, the mainstay of the book for almost 100 issues--Gene Colan. Colan made DD a true swashbuckler. And later on Infantino, Gil Kane, Miller (when I liked his work). And today there are some fine people working on the book as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd Matt forlornly loved Karen, which was akin to how I spent my time in the 60s...but I couldn't unmask myself dramatically as he did to Karen! (Kudos to Roy Thomas for allowing them to take their relationship to the next level --though Karen was too soon gone. And gone for good. Sigh.
Johnny Williams wrote: Dan Hagen, you've done it again. Another Excellent essay on a subject near and dear to our hearts. I just have two things to say in response.
ReplyDelete1.) I Too loved the yellow costume.
2.) Your last two sentences.... Nuff said! 😊