Daredevil 165 (July 1980)

Daredevil versus Dr. Octopus should be entertaining, right? McKenzie and (now co-plotter) Miller fail to make it entertaining.

The big problem, besides McKenzie’s now routinely silly dialogue and narration, is the Black Widow. She’s in Matt’s apartment, helping him do investigative work, but she’s not important to the issue whatsoever. She’s around to be jealous and to run off when he hurts her feelings.

McKenzie’s incapable of writing these troubled romance scenes. At best, they’re awkward. At worst, they’re laughable.

As for Doc Ock and Daredevil? It feels like Spidey and Doc Ock. Daredevil’s banter immediately drifts into Parker territory and McKenzie fixates on Spider-Man in Otto’s thought balloons. The issue’s another great cover without any story inside it.

Miller’s pencils also make a change this issue. With the exception of action scenes, everything is more static. He doesn’t have the compositional sense to make that approach worthwhile.

Daredevil 164 (May 1980)

I have two big problems with this issue. First, Ben Urich–as a character–was never going to out Matt as Daredevil. Wait, three problems. Okay, continuing. Urich was never going to out Matt, so why use him instead of another reporter who might actually do it.

Second problem, why do another Daredevil origin? Sure, Miller and Janson draw a great comic and even make the yellow costume look good, but it’s kind of pointless. The retelling gives no new information.

The third problem, which is related to the second, is all the “devil” stuff. Apparently the Marvel Universe is a place where people are afraid of devils a lot because everyone calls Daredevil one. Because of the horns? It’s just stupid. Along with Matt’s childhood nickname being Daredevil because he ran away from fights.

The utterly fantastic art makes up for a lot of McKeznie’s stupid script details though.

CREDITS

Expose; writer, Roger McKenzie; penciller, Frank Miller; inker, Klaus Janson; colorist, Glynis Wein; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Denny O’Neil; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Daredevil 163 (March 1980)

The cover, with Daredevil looking at an out-of-frame Hulk, is probably the best thing about this comic. Bruce Banner’s in New York and Matt’s the only one who can help him. Sadly, there’s no help for the creative team. Between McKenzie’s lame script, which gives the Hulk origin in expository thought balloons at least twice, and the tepid art, this issue’s a drag.

Miller’s got Joe Rubinstein assisting Janson on the inks, but one can’t blame the inkers here. Miller doesn’t know how to draw the Hulk. The body and musculature is all off. Worse is the city. After all his careful New York art, Miller turns in a generic cityscape for the big fight with Daredevil.

The best thing in the issue is Banner hulking out in the subway, but only because of the potential. McKenzie and company fail to realize it.

The issue is depressingly lame.

Daredevil 162 (January 1980)

This issue, from Michael Fleisher and Steve Dikto, is definitely a strange one. It feels like a Batman comic, but a fifties Batman comic. After saving the city from a radiation leak (fifties atomic scare), Matt loses his memory and lives through, basically, what his dad lived through with the crooked fight promoters.

Even the end feels like a Batman comic.

Dikto’s art feels half like Steve Ditko from Marvel’s Silver Age and half like someone doing an imitation. To works out in Ditko’s favor though and the art’s relatively charming.

Fleisher does such a good job with the comic’s mood, one can overlook the huge plot holes–like where does Matt Murdock sleep when he doesn’t know his identity. Or how does he know he’s wearing a costume under his clothes and not long underwear? And does his costume get dirty?

Still, it works, mostly because of Fleisher’s sincerity.

Daredevil 161 (November 1979)

McKenzie opens the issue writing a black guy like Stepin Fetchit. I guess Marvel didn’t worry about appealing to black readers.

The art from Miller and Janson make up for a lot of McKenzie’s bad writing. There’s some great action stuff at Coney Island, which all looks amazing. One double page spread in particular is wonderful.

The finale, though, disappoints. There’s a lot of Black Widow and McKenzie writes her poorly. Maybe if he didn’t entirely rely on her thought balloons it would be better.

He also writes Bullseye bad, which closes the issue off on a bad footing. Miller and Janson’s final fight scene is okay, but the setting’s boring and Bullseye’s whining is so dumb, it doesn’t matter if the art’s good.

McKenzie avoids giving Daredevil any significant time. Almost everything is from someone else’s perspective, like McKenzie lacks confidence… except when writing the issue’s rather lame dialogue.

Daredevil 160 (September 1979)

I think I’m unappreciative of a narrative cuteness from McKenzie. The issue opens “Epilogue” and closes with “Prologue.” I think McKenzie means it to be “prologue” to the next issue while the opening is “epilogue” to the previous issue.

If the above is right, it’s dumb. If it’s wrong and no one caught the mixup, it’s worse. I can’t decide between the two. I mean, McKenzie forgets Matt Murdock’s blind here for a bit.

Miller and Janson still turn in strong art, but there’s nothing spectacular about it. McKenzie has a lot going on in the issue–Bullseye and Black Widow, Matt and friends, Daredevil at the Daily Bugle, then the big finish. Plus Daredevil discovering Bullseye has kidnapped Black Widow.

All of the scenes are perfunctory, especially when Matt and his girlfriend break up. The flashback to Bullseye’s last few days might be the best written stuff. McKeznie’s boring.

Daredevil 159 (July 1979)

It’s a good thing Miller and Janson’s art is so strong, because there’s not much else to recommend this issue. Their New York rooftops are just fantastic.

Anyway, McKenzie shows an inclination to decompression here. A mystery bad guy hires an assassin to take out Daredevil. There’s some lead-up to the big fight with the assassin’s henchmen threatening Matt and Foggy, but most of the issue is just the fight.

While Daredevil’s outnumbered and even ends up in the water during the fight, there’s no contest. There’s no real struggle for him and it’s boring. The art’s good throughout the fight, which keeps it engaging, but the entire issue’s just a setup for the next issue’s guest villain.

There’s a disconnect between the art and writing. Miller and Janson create something special, while McKenzie’s just filling narration boxes. A fine example of the Marvel writing style at its worst.

Daredevil 158 (May 1979)

Frank Miller’s first issue of Daredevil–he’s the new penciller–gets off to a rocky start. Roger McKenzie follows Black Widow through the Unholy Three kidnapping Matt. It’s a lot of Natasha whining about her place in the world, how she’s a curse on everything around her. She’s very annoying. And Miller and inker Klaus Janson draw her funny on the first page.

But once McKenzie’s following Matt through his kidnapping, the issue gets good. The revelation of the bad guy–the Death-Stalker (who’s really ugly, which is entirely for the reader’s benefit, not Matt’s) and the resolution are excellent.

Miller does a great job with fight scene; lots and lots of movement. But the most impressive work he does is at the end. Matt’s back at the office and they’re all cleaning up. The art’s just glorious in that scene.

It’s a good comic, something I wasn’t expecting.

Daredevil 6 (January 2012)

I really like this issue, but seriously… is Waid going to soft relaunch the title every arc?

Once again, he changes the entire Daredevil landscape, adding Daredevil being hunted by all the Marvel Universe terrorist organizations to the already full plate. It’s like he’s shifting A plots to B plots and vice versa; he hasn’t given Daredevil a chance to breath and get comfortable. Who knows… it might be a good approach to make a modern mainstream comic accessible from issue to issue.

Waid also solves his big Daredevil problem here. This issue is all Daredevil (well, okay, Matt’s in his suit for the epilogue) and Waid handles it. The fight scene with Bruiser is fantastic, though the character’s motivation and, especially, his costume are weak.

Oh, and the cliffhanger resolution from last issue is pat.

But it’s an excellent issue, even with my complaining. Probably the best so far.

Daredevil 5 (December 2011)

Oh, come now, Mr. Waid… you don’t really think a reader is going to believe Daredevil drowns and dies at the end of this issue, do you?

The end of the issue–the only problematic part of an otherwise charming outing–feels more than a little rushed. It’s like Waid needed to get his superhero fight scene in and he fell back on expository dialogue to get it done.

There’s some great Martin artwork of Daredevil on the yacht and the yacht incident and it makes the scene passable. But it’s a heavy drop from the rest of the issue, where Waid not only has his supervillain machinations, surprises from Foggy and actual lawyerly stuff from Matt.

The issue’s full enough, especially for a modern mainstream book, it doesn’t actually need the titular character to appear in costume.

Still, the ending’s just weak, not bad. The issue’s still quite strong.