Spider-man/Daredevil: Rivalry!

[badficwriter]

Not part of the original S_D 1.0 Spider-man/Daredevil series, I wanted to insert bits and pieces I hadn't included the first time. Turns out there was a lot more than I thought. (Lotsa scans below cut)


This is the sort of repetitive characterization that drives some fans batty. Spider-man should trust Daredevil by now, etc. However, they continued to have Spider-man with major hostility issues--that quickly became jealousy. All part of that subtext tension.

Sometimes the references and cameos were pointless. Spiderfan conjectures that the appearances were just to sell some Daredevil comics. But they did serve to tie together the shared Marvel universe.

Amazing Spider-man 43 (also known as 'Peter and MJ's First Date' issue)





One of these days, Peter's gonna have a talk with Matt about his love of defending Peter's villains. Doctor Octopus actually credits Matt, "an understanding lawyer", with his first release.

Apparently, Spider-man thought over their previous encounter and uncharacteristically, came to the right idea! The blind guy had to be Daredevil! Uncharacteristically, again, he writes a letter to Mr. Murdock telling him he found him out.

Basically, it was all an excuse for Stan Lee to add another twist to the soap opera that was early Daredevil.

Daredevil 24, vol 1. The Gene Colan art period!



Daredevil 25, vol 1.



Matt distracts and obfuscates the issue by inventing a twin brother with Matt's middle name--Mike! Then proceeds to pretend to be his own twin brother who is secretly Daredevil.

For some reason, neither brings the letter up next time they see each other, in Daredevil 27.





For someone who acted very put upon, Peter behaved later as if he'd done Daredevil a magnanimous favor.

Amazing Spider-man 48 volume 1.



Here is Spiderfan.org's review.

Fantastic Four 73, volume 1. Jack Kirby draws!

Dr. Doom had taken over DD's body just previously, so now the FF are fighting DD because they think he's Doom. Interestingly, the goofy plot of Dr. Doom taking over people's bodies was rehashed in the recent Spider-man and the Fantastic Four mini. Similar solution, too.



(Insert your non-con Human Torch/Daredevil/Spider-man fanfic HERE.)

Daredevil 54. Matt has killed off his twin, having grown tired of the charade, and now, to lure out a villain who knows his true identity, has killed himself off.





This period might be said to culminate in this issue, Daredevil 77. (5 pages from 20 page story.) Gerry Conway has taken over writing duty.



Karen Page has taken off to fulfill her dreams of becoming a movie star. After getting a date to try and get over her, Matt has been stood up.

CUE THE SOULCRUSHING ANGST







Some mystic doohickey has summoned Namor to it. It seems to be making heroes fight-happy. Note that Peter had to ditch Mary Jane to join the fight. What a loser. Didn't even get ditched by his make-up date!





The mystic doohickey is unearthed by the fight, and a strange woman whisks a hypnotized Namor away! She allows Spider-man to come along, while Daredevil seems to lose his memory of what just happened. No followup here, but the blurb said it continued in the Submariner's title.


Part 1 posted previously.

Suggested tags: char: daredevil/matt murdock, char: foggy nelson, char: spider-man/peter parker, publisher: marvel, creator: stan lee, title: daredevil, title: amazing spider-man, title: fantastic four, char: human torch/johnny storm, char: sub-mariner/namor mckenzie, creator: john romita, sr, creator: gene colan, creator: frank giacoia, creator: joe sinnott, creator: jack kirby, creator: gerry conway

Comments

[psychopathicus_rex]

Man, do I wish Daredevil had kept the relatively lighthearted nature we see here. With him, it's been nothing but angst angst angst for decades - he could use a good friendly squabble with Spidey every now and then.

[badficwriter]

Well, this was before Frank Miller, when DD was considered just a swashbuckling, more respectable Spider-man.

DD/Spidey teamup fans have been feeling deprived for a while, yeah. :(

[psychopathicus_rex]

Of all the characters he ever worked on, I'd say Miller affected Daredevil the most. One could argue that Batman might also be a good candidate for that position, but Batman already WAS a dark character, albeit irregularly at that point - he brought that out, but he didn't create it. DD's dark, gritty quality, on the other hand, was more or less invented whole-cloth by Miller, and that's how the character's been ever since. There's virtually nothing left of his old self, with all the crazy supervillains like the Owl and the Man-Bull and characters like that - it's been nothing but the story of Matt's messed-up life and his battle against Bullseye and the Kingpin and ninjas aplenty on the mean streets of the city ever since Miller got his paws on him. For all intents and purposes, Daredevil is STILL being written by Miller, even though it's been decades since this was actually the case - everyone post-Miller has written a Millerized DD. It's almost surreal reading some of the earlier stuff, because you're so used to the Miller version of things - you look at old-style DD and you go 'who's he?'