Daredevil 501 “The Devil’s Hand” Publisher: Marvel Published: Oct. 2009 Writer: Andy Diggle Art: Roberto De La Torre Colors: Matt Hollingsworth Letters: Joe Caramagna Cover: Esad Ribic
Synopsis
A guilt-wracked Daredevil takes control of the Hand, even while sacrificing his sensei Master Izo to do so.
What’s going on here?
Daredevil 501 marks a new beginning of sorts for the book, with the new creative team of Diggle and De La Torre taking over after a long run by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark. At this point, Matt Murdock has descended even further (or further than usual) into obsessive introspection and despair, and takes the radical step of assuming control of the Hand, a band of ninjas, to protect Hell’s Kitchen from his enemies.
What I liked
It’s a little hard to make too many judgments in the first issue for a new creative team. They are obviously leaning hard into many of Daredevil’s established elements, but having Matt take over the Hand is at least new twist. De La Torre’s art is stunning — reminiscent of Alex Maleev’s work on DD but with more dynamism.
What I didn’t like
Frank Miller’s Daredevil run of the late 1970s and early 80s casts such a long shadow that for decades, DD writers and artists seemed unable to escape it. Diggle and De La Torre are no exception, and have have plundered the Miller toybox for all his plot devices. Ninjas? Check. Crusty old sensei? Check. Matt on the verge of a breakdown? Check. Catholic guilt? Check. Foggy, Becky, Kingpin and Turk? Check check, check and check. It’s like they’re playing Daredevil bingo and got the winning card.
Again, it’s the first issue of their run—and one I barely remember—so maybe I’m being hard but it feels awfully derivative of lots of other Daredevil runs. He’s such a great character and it’s unfortunate that so many creators seem trapped in the same story lines.
Fantastic Four 73 “The Flames of Battle…” Published: Jan. 1968 Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Script: Lee Pencils: Kirby Inks: Joe Sinnott Letters: Artie Simek Cover: Kirby and Sinnott
Note: Apologies for missing last week. A family event intervened. I try to write these posts every weekend but unfortunately it’s not always possible.
Synopsis
Fantastic Four 73 follows not another FF issue but Daredevil 38, the first time the FF readers have needed to read another Marvel comic to keep track of an FF story.
Daredevil 38 is the third issue of a convoluted arc that starts with Daredevil fighting the Trapster, who subdues the Invisible Girl and plants a bomb in the Baxter Building. Daredevil rescues the Sue and disposes of the bomb, then battles the Trapster. After taking a beating, Daredevil is dazed in the New York subway, where he is confronted by Dr. Doom.
Doom captures Daredevil and eventually switches bodies with him, part of a plot to defeat the FF. Daredevil, in the body of Doom, uses a radio to warn the Fantastic Four of the switch, then orders Latveria to attack its neighboring countries. Doom quickly switches the bodies back to avoid a war, but uses a voice modulator to impersonate Daredevil and convince the FF that he is still in Daredevil’s body.
Daredevil 38, Stan Lee/Gene Colan/Frank Giacoia
Fantastic Four 73, then, begins with the FF preparing to fight Daredevil, who they think still contains the consciousness of Doom. Daredevil tries to convince them he’s really himself, but the FF won’t hear it. After tangling with the Human Torch, Spider-Man arrives and realizes Daredevil will need reinforcements to take on the FF. He recruits Thor, who is dazed from a battle with Wrecker, and eventually the three heroes battle the FF, with Daredevil taking on Reed, Spidey fighting Johnny (for about the 100th time) and Thor battling the Thing (possibly for the first time).
The fight finally ends when Sue intervenes, saying that she saw Doom in Latveria on the 6 pm news. Reed apologies and Daredevil says it’s no big deal.
What’s going on here?
This is a peculiar issue. No only does is it require readers to have read a few issues of Daredevil prior, but the plot is incredibly flimsy and contrived. Spider-Man and Thor are shoehorned into the comic with the weakest possible explanations—literally they were just passing by—and then serve no real purpose except to provide sparring partners for the FF. Usually in a superhero team-up situation, after they fight and they realize it was all a big misunderstanding, they join forces to go after the bad guy. Not here: Once Sue let’s them know it was a mistake, they all go their separate ways. Of course it’s fun to see the Thing battle Thor, or Reed fight Daredevil, but it would be a lot more satisfying if it was in a more coherent story.
Making it even more frustrating is that the Daredevil stories leading up to it are much more fun and interesting. Yes, the switching bodies is a bizarre plot device, but Lee explores how Daredevil would react to having sight again, and Doom’s confusion over Daredevil’s radar sense. We also get an explanation of how Doom—who, last time we saw him, had stolen the power of the Silver Surfer—survived running into Galactus’s barrier (Galactus, sensing it was not the Surfer, gently transported Doom to Latveria). And Gene Colan knocks it out of the park with his art.
Oops
Fantastic Four 73 also has a surprising number of errors and goofs. One obvious one: In one panel, Jack draws Daredevil’s mask so you can see his eyes, then changes back to his eye-covers (or whatever you want to call them) for the rest of the comic.
Here, it seems like Stan is writing around Jack’s art to explain how Daredevil could stun Ben with a kick. Stan’s explanation: Reed used a “nerve blast ray” on Ben.
And perhaps most perplexing is how Thor is dealt with. His appearance apparently come between panels in Thor 150 (although there is no mention of it in the Thor comic), where he has apparently lost his powers. After he is recruited by Spider-Man, he can’t fly, and has to hitch a ride on Spidey’s webs. This is just weird:
Then as he battles Ben, this happens:
No further explanation is provided, until the last page, when Ben say Thor hold him he had to fight the Wrecker. But we have no idea of what happened in the above sequence. Maybe a subsequent story has addressed it, but I’m not aware of it.
Weird science
Along with the aforementioned “nerve blast ray,” there is also a “demolo-gun.” (And this isn’t the first time Reed has left extremely dangerous, and easily engaged, weapons lying around his lab).
It must be Israel Day
Spider-Man references Moshe Dayan, Israel’s minister of defense during 1967’s Six-Day War.
Fantastic Four 40 “The Battle of the Baxter Building” Published: April 1965 Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Script: Lee Pencils: Kirby: Inks: Vince Colletta Letters: Artie Simek Cover: Kirby and Frank Giacoia
Synopsis
Fantastic Four 40 picks up where FF 39 left off, more or less, in one of the few multi-issue adventures so far. While Mr. Fantastic and Daredevil split up at the end of FF 39, now they’re working together again to battle Dr. Doom, who has taken control of the Baxter Building and is using Reed’s devices against the (literally) powerless team. While Daredevil acts as a distraction, Reed joins Johnny and Sue in evading the defenses in the Baxter Building lobby. They are eventually joined by Ben, in human, form and as Daredevil fights Doom, the team works their way up to the top of the building.
There Reed uses the power stimulator the team last used in fighting the Skulls, in FF 37, to re-power the team, including a reluctant Ben. One again the Thing, Ben then battles Doom single handedly, eventually tearing apart his armor. Before he can hurt or kill Doom, the rest of the team intervenes, and Doom slinks off in defeat. But as the rest of the team rejoices, a bitter Ben quits the team.
What’s going on here?
Another issue that’s pretty much wall-to-wall action, save for about three panels of character development at the end. There’s another (rare) guest appearance from Daredevil, but he fades into the background in the second half of the book. The Thing is really the star of this issue, and his battle with Doom takes up more than five pages. It’s another early version of a Thing-Doesn’t-Quit sequence, which becomes a defining part of Ben’s character. We saw a bit of it in FF 17, when Ben, in human form, penetrated Doom’s aircraft, and then in FF 25-26, when he fights the Hulk.
In this issue, Stan and Jack set up Ben’s story arc when Reed subjects him to the power stimulator, without giving him a choice in the matter.
His transformation is suitably dramatic, and Jack devotes a half splash to his return as the Thing:
In the battle, we get some never-say-die from Ben:
Then, after he defeats Doom, he realizes what he has sacrificed and quits the team in disgust.
Deus Ex Machina
After all the angst last issue about the FF losing their powers, and Reed’s feverish attempts to reconstruct their power through artificial means, the are restored surprisingly easily. So easily, in fact, that Ben and Daredevil have the same questions we do.
Reed’s explanation falls a bit flat, too. If the stimulator was all they needed to regain their powers, why didn’t Reed just make a new one instead of building a Thing robot and a flaming flying suit for Johnny?
The sexist sixties
Sue is ready for her fainting couch again.
It’s (not) Clobbering Time!
Further evidence that his signature line really hasn’t been baked into Ben’s character yet. If ever there was a place to say it, it’s here:
Who’s the new guy?
Vince Colletta takes over the inking in this issue. Colletta is both of one comic’s most prolific inkers and most controversial, particularly for his sometimes slap-dash handling of Kirby’s work. It’s explained in great detail here. It’s hard to see a big drop off here from Franck Giacoia’s inks in the last issue, but we’re still just killing time before we get to Joe Sinnott.
Thicc Reed
Reed is noticeably buff in this issue. It’s not a particularly new development—Jack has been drawing him as a typically muscular super-hero for some time now—but it’s a pretty big departure from his tweedy, professorial look from the early issues.
Holy Billy Club, Daredevil!
Daredevil’s billy club has more gadgets and gizmos that Silver Age Batman’s utility belt. In just this issue, it turns into a gun and a “telescoping flexi-shield.”
Twanggg!
What could be more classically Daredevil than DD bouncing off of a flagpole?
Weird science
Reed invented … a drone.
Dig that Kirby Krackle
There is some great art in this issue, starting with the splash page (and check out Stan’s modest blurbing):
There are also some great fight scenes. Here’s DD vs. DD:
Fantastic Four 39 “A Blind Man Shall Lead Them” Published: March 1965 Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Script: Lee Pencils: Kirby Inks: Frank Giacoia (credited as Frank Ray) Letters: Art Simek Cover: Kirby and Chic Stone
Synopsis
Fantastic Four 39 picks up where FF 38 leaves of, after the detonation of the Frightful Four’s Q-Bomb leaves the FF floating unconscious on a raft and with the Thing reverted to human form. FF 39 opens with the team being rescued by a US Navy submarine, and realizing they have all lost their powers.
Back at the Baxter Building in New York, Reed builds devices to mimic the team’s lost powers, reasoning that the team will be vulnerable to its enemies if they were thought powerless. Meanwhile, in Latveria, a hypnotist causes Dr. Doom to remember being tricked by Mr. Fantastic into thinking he defeated the FF (as show in FF Annual 2). Doom vows revenge and flies to New York.
In New York, blind attorney Matt Murdock meets the FF at a warehouse where they are rehearsing their new devices. As Reed explains he wants Murdock to ensure the FF’s affairs are in order if something happens to them, the warehouse is attacked. Murdock quickly changes in his Daredevil costume and helps the FF evade the attacks from Doom, who has seized control of the Baxter Building and is using the FF’s devices against them. The FF scatters and Daredevil draws Doom’s fire on the streets of New York. The issue ends with another cliffhanger as the powerless FF plans their assault on the Baxter Building.
What’s going on here?
There’s a lot going on in FF 39, although not necessarily what you might expect. While readers of last issue’s cliff-hanger ending might have reasonably anticipated a showdown with the Frightful Four, those villains aren’t even mentioned. Instead, we’re off on a new adventure with Doom. The FF’s powerlessness is the big event in this issue, and it’s framed as a major disaster for the team, even for Ben who might otherwise be pretty happy not to be the Thing again. It sends Reed into a inventing frenzy, and gives Jack an opportunity to whip up some fun devices.
While the FF’s need for these mechanical powers is short lived (I assume!) Reed’s artificial, extendable arms reappear in FF 185, when he again has lost his powers.
FF 185, from 1977 (written by Len Wein, art by George Perez and Joe Sinnott)
The Thing robot doesn’t reappear, but it’s a precursor of a Thing exo-skeleton worn by Ben and others on numerous occasions.
At various points, all the members of the FF have lost their powers, although the only other time I am aware of them all being powerless was in a 1982 What If? by John Byrne, which imagines the team as a Challengers of the Unknown-type team of adventurers.
About that cover
If the cover of FF 39 looks familiar, it’s because it’s been frequently homaged (or swiped, depending on how charitable you’re feeling). Here’s a handful of homages just with Doom (including one from Kirby himself):
And while it’s not a cover, this double-page splash from Byrne in FF 236 is a literal interpretation of the cover metaphor, since the FF in this issue has been reduced to tiny size.
Get me my lawyer
Daredevil makes a rare guest appearance in the FF. Unlike Spider-Man, who is in dozens of issues and eventually becomes a team member, DD shows up only sporadically. This appearance slots between Daredevil issues 6 and 7 and was doubtless an opportunity for Stan to goose DD’s sales. This is technically their second meeting, after Matt Murdock was hired at their lawyer in Daredevil 2.
Daredevil 2, 1964 (Lee/Orlando/Coletta)
Who’s the new guy?
FF features inks by Frank Giacoia, a longtime comic artist with credits that date from 1942 to 1987. He was a regular inker on Daredevil and later on Spider-Man but inked the FF only a few other times after this issue. Here he is credited as Frank Ray, which FF fans might recall is very similar to Frankie Raye, the name of the Human Torch’s girlfriend in the 1980s before she became Nova and a herald of Galactus. Is there a connection? Knowing John Byrne’s obsession with these early issues of the FF, I would bet on it.
Krazy Kredits
Reed Richards is a Jerk!
Reed doesn’t care about your feelings.
Dig that Kirby Krackle
FF 39 features another photo collage, although I’m not sure this one is as successful as the previous, cosmic ones.
This is a great image of the FF after losing their powers. The body language says everything.
Another cool panel.
And Doom with Reed’s gizmos in the Baxter Building:
Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more 