sonotadream

Daredevil (1964) #1-4 - Stan Lee/Bill Everett/Joe Orlando

Daredevil came about due to the success of the other superheroes. Searching for inspiration, Stan Lee reached out to Bill Everett - the creator of Namor - who hashed out some details with Jack Kirby, and Daredevil was born, partially inspired by the experience of Everett's blind daughter.

The first issue covers Daredevil's origin story. It's the same story retold by Frank Miller, but there's some details of note:

• Young Matt randomly finds out he's good at gymnastics one day; it’s all genetics

• After he loses his sight and develops his super-senses, he has no trouble adaptin and never gets overwhelmed by loud noises and such

• He can tell fabric colours apart by touch, very useful when he's putting his costume together

• He turns his cane into a billy club

• Matt and Foggy don't have to worry about getting a job; Foggy’s dad sets them up with their own law firm

• Daredevil first case is finding the men responsible for his father's death. The Fixer suffers an heart attack and he tricks the shooter into confessing in front of the cops

• No Stick, no Elektra, no ninjas

The Fantastic Four show up in issue #2. They need a lawyer to look at their lease before renewing (I guess they don't own the Baxter Building after all?). The Thing takes a photo of Matt to show their security system. That way he can get inside while the FF are in Washington getting medals.

When Matt gets to the Baxter Building, his senses alert him to danger - I guess he also has something akin to the spider-sense. The danger is due to Electro. Daredevil had busted his stolen cars operation, so he decided to take advantage of the FF's absence to rob them. His electrical powers allow him to bypass the security system and to knock out Daredevil. Electro then puts him in the FF's rocket and sends him to outer space.

Still, once he regains consciousness, Matt is able to navigate the rocket back down to Earth and land it safely in Central Park. He returns to the Baxter Building with the aid of a sightseeing helicopter and times it perfectly to land trough the skylight - for a moment, he's like the Mad Thinker; also, New York helicopters must be very punctual.

Electro made his way into Mr. Fantastic's safe, but Daredevil stops him and hands him over to the police before he can get away with Reed’s notes. Matt returns the papers and seals the safe, but the FF return before he can clean anything else - or do the job he was hired to do, for that matter. So, looks like the firm of Nelson and Murdock will not have the Fantastic Four as clients…

Matt's next client, the Owl, is a different beast. A financial genius whose crimes are finally coming to light, he hires a random lawyer from the phone book. He's not worried about his problems with the justice, because he decided to come out as a villain. Besides his intelligence, the Owl has the ability to glide in the air, like his namesake bird - although he got his name due to his appearance.

He hires a couple of goons and decides to find himself a new patsy - his last one was his accountant, who committed suicide after being framed for the Owl's crimes. He settles on blind lawyer Matt Murdock and has him kidnapped. Of course, things go wrong and he ends up capturing Daredevil and Karen Page instead.

Matt gets them free and sends Karen to fetch the police, while he deals with the Owl and utterly fails to conceal his identity. Karen, however, decides that if Daredevil reminds her of Matt, she must be really in love with Matt (see, there’s a love triangle going on: Foggy is into Karen, who’s into Matt, who’s into being Daredevil, until he realizes Karen likes him, but he mustn't do anything about it, because Foggy has dibs; no one is into Daredevil, at least yet).

Next up, the Purple Man. He used to be a spy, but he got dosed with some experimental gas in his last mission and he gained the ability to control other people through pheromones. The control disappears once they're out of the Purple Man’s presence, though.

Also, he’s now purple.

Matt gets involved when Killgrave when he’s arrested for robbing a bank, although all he did was ask the cashier for money, which is not a crime. Still, he walks out of prison and takes Karen with him. He also gets himself an army of body builders and takes over the Hilton Hotel, all the while working on a plan to take over the world.

Daredevil seems to be the only one immune and, in the end, defeats him by covering Killgrave with a plastic tarp, which negates his powers.

So, one thing this series has going for it is the art. Orlando, maybe inspired by Everett, gives it a different feel from the other Silver Age books. On the other hand, it has too much text - it really over-explains what’s going on. Also, the text goes out of its way to give Matt zero downsides to being blind, and that flattens his character.

I’m mostly keeping up with it because I really like Daredevil as a character.