Trash Mutant Back Issues: "Daredevil" #1-2 (1964)

- by Ninja Ross, 28 June 2012

I’ve been pretty interested/obsessed with Daredevil lately. I’ve been re-reading the Bendis and Maleev run, followed by the Brubaker run and now "Daredevil" is one of the only comics on my monthly list. So, it was only a a matter of time before I started reading the original Daredevil.

Ok, I have very little experience with the silver age of comics. I’ve read a bit of original Fantastic Four and Spider-Man but that’s about it. So… a lot of this was new to me. Let’s start with issue #1, written by Stan "The Man" Lee and Bill "Bill Everett" Everett.

The issue starts with a fight and then leads into a flashback to Matt’s fun-filled past! Stan Lee’s thing for redheads is not limited to gender, it seems, since the narrator is very interested in the way Matt Murdock’s supple young muscles work. The origin story is one we’re all familiar with, even if the homoerotica parts aren’t spoken about too often. Daredevil is blinded by toxic waste, manages to avoid the usual illnesses that come with that and his other senses are enhanced to super human levels.

Matt saves the blind man, thanks to his supple muscles, but loses his own sight in a tragic twist! (Click for full-on Epic Origin Size)

Before that, however, his father, Battlin’ Jack Murdock, pushed Matt into studying to be “a doctor or a lawyer” and wont let him play with the other little snots, mentally scarring him from an early age. Probably. The accident hits, he’s blinded and then he works out! With strong, supple muscles! Stan Lee just can’t stop himself from telling us how much he works out. Seriosuly, this reads like it’s going to break out into 50 Shades of Grey!*

In the next panel Matt lands on his head, resulting in another few weeks in the hospital.

Matt goes to college, meets Foggy Nelson (his future law firm partner) and blah blah. During this time, Jack Murdock is winning fights all over the place, not knowing that they’re all setups to help the old man become a hero of the boxing community. When he’s told to take a fall, however, he’s not too happy.

At college, Matt receives an invite to watch his dad fight (not sure what joy a blind man gets out of going to a boxing match, though). With Matt at the ring side, Battlin’ Jack feels invincible and he refuses to take the dive, despite knowing what will happen if he doesn't.

No entertaining caption here. Death from crack is serious business.

And, well, the Fixer kills Jack and Matt’s not pleased. So, as he and Foggy open “Nelson and Murdock,” he begins looking for the fixer using the name ''Daredevil'' and wearing an awful outfit. And don’t tell me the outfit is awful because he’s blind. He says he can sense the colours so there’s no excuse for it. And that  brings us up to speed, as far as the  origin goes. Now for some fighting! Pow!  Zap! Bang! Wait, wrong one…

Matt's innovative use of the trash can to catch up with the fiend, coupled with his awful outfit, causes the Fixer to die from a heart attack.

There’s nothing real special about the rest of the issue. A lot of mention about how blind Murdock is, a bit of worry on Foggy’s part and a lot of lust from Karen Page. He catches the fixer and that wraps up issue one.

*   *   *

Issue two (by Stan Lee and Joe Orlando) is where the fun begins! By fun, I obviously mean stupidity. Because, apparently, people in the 1960s were stupid. Stupid.

Could that connection be their supple muscles? Those steel buttocks?? Is... is it getting hot in here?

Daredevil kicks some ass at a chop shop, which (for some reason) is run by Electro. Electro is out so, as far as Daredevil is concerned, the place is run by a bunch of… guys! Fighting happens! And then there’s a truck! Yes, a deadly truck heads towards are daring hero - Jesus, that way of talking is contagious... When he realises there’s not enough room, Matt decides that his only chance is to crash the front window of the truck.
I’m only joking. He creates a slingshot using an engine and a band, firing the engine at the driver. Yeah, Matt knows what he’s doing.

Just stretching a tire like that is actually pretty badass.

But that’s not as stupid as what’s happening at the law office! The Thing turns up and, apparently, he refuses to wait for anyone! So, he opens the door by smashing it in two. But don’t worry; The Thing is a freaking wood mechanic! He picks up the two pieces and… squeezes the two ends together until they weld, leaving the door looking good as new. Because screw you science, the ever loving blue-eyed Thing is a wood mechanic!

Name: Ben Grimm. Team: Fantastic Four. Powers: super strength, rock-like skin, instant welding.

But he’s not there to show off his skills, oh no! He wants someone to check the building out and make sure everything  on the new  lease is right.  So, Matt  Murdock, BLIND  lawyer, is the perfect  man for the  job. The perfect man to check that the building is in good shape. The perfect man to make sure there’s no mould in the corners, no dodgy wiring. There perfect man to- ah, you get the idea. He’s blind.

Meanwhile, nearby! Electro saw Daredevil use his engine slingshot on a truck and decided chop shops are so last season. However, stealing science secrets from the Fantastic Four is all the rage! Maybe he’s looking into a new career path, welding wood.

So, Electro powers down Reed Richard’s security systems with his electricity and gets comfortable, just in time for Murdock to show up. To inspect the building. Because he’s the perfect man for that.

Bah! F**k cars!

So he turns up, sensing trouble and changes in to his (God-awful) costume! But Electro knows what’s what! So he powers up and sends some nasty SHOCKING stuff his way! But  Matt  isn’t dumb!  He  knows that  when he’s  fighting  electricity  he needs  to throw  his cane at it!  Ok, I make it sound like he’s dumb, but  he threw his cane at the  source of  the electricity  in the room because his cane is a  non-conductor. But he still threw a stick at electricity.

Master of Electricity launchinng the Man Without Fear into space = A fitting end.

While trying to throw one of The Thing’s super heavy dumb-bells, he’s knocked uncoscious, leaving Electro to make the mistake of every super villain: He didn’t kill him right away. No, Electro decides to create a death more fitting! He puts him in a rocket and blasts him into space!

But you can’t mess up Daredevil’s day with SPACE! No, sir! He uses his expert senses to free himself before using his super hearing to work the right levers and reverse the course!

Not as impossible as it seems, folks! Actually very possible, given this particular context!

He  lands...  and  takes  a  horse...  back  to  the  Baxter Building... I  need  to check  something. No, no... He really does ride a horse to the Baxter building.

He shoots engines out of tire slingshots and pilots space rockets. Of course this is easy, True Believer!

But stuff goes down! He changes into his civilian clothes and ignores Karen Page as she calls his name. Our hero doesn’t have time to halt for the beautiful young secretary! He has to chase the fiend known as Electro- Jesus, I keep doing that Stan Lee narration thing.

At this point we no longer have a problem with Matt knowing things like the "whirly-bird's" schedule. He probably smelt it somewhere.

Chasing! Helicopters! Crashing through a sky light, Batman style, to interrupt Electro breaking into a safe! Chasing through New York! The last few pages are packed with action and needless dialogue that seems to run wild in comics from the 1960s but overall, it’s pretty fun. Electro is finally defeated by a curtain and Matt welds Mr Fantastic’s safe so it looks good as new, probably not as good as Ben’s wood welding, obviously.
Heh... Wood welding.

It's curtain call for Electro! ... Look... it's been a long day...

*Trash Mutant does not take any responsibility for the suicide of any brain cells caused by the reading of 50 Shades of Grey.

Tagged: comics, Back Issues.

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