Essential Daredevil, Vol. 3 by Roy Thomas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This third volume of Daredevil reprints sees ol' Hornhead on a variety of adventures with the last issue of the Stan Lee run, the Roy Thomas' run as writer and then the Gerry Conway run, with issues 49-74 and Iron Man 35 and 36. With the exception of a few issues where he was on vacation, Gene Colan pencils each of the stories, and that's practically worth three stars itself.

Thomas really had a great handle for the character. His writing style made Daredevil a clever crime fighter. He never quite solved the problem that vexed Daredevil in terms of the B-grade villains, but the way Thomas wrote Daredevil, I didn't care. Daredevil was a great character who didn't great villains to play off of. The plots were fun. First, there was Daredevil deciding to kill off the character Matt Murdock only to resurrect and reveal his identity to Karen Page which turns out to be a mistake. Murdock's overall cognitive dissonance is lessened as he becomes special assistant to District Attorney Foggy Nelson.

Karen wants him to quit being Daredevil but just as he's about to retire, he's drawn into a war with Crime Wave much to Karen's chagrin. She leaves New York and Murdoch's unable to help him thanks to a duel with the Gladiator that's brought about through the ineptitude and cluelessness of Foggy Nelson. Then Murdoch follows her to the West Coast.

The Karen Page story line really is one of the negatives of the Roy Thomas run. Maybe, it was her bad early impression, or the fact that she's just so obviously not the right woman for Matt/Daredevil, but the storyline is painful as Matt/DD continues pining for this relationship that was never meant to be.

Even out of the bad of the Thomas run came some good. Some of the West Coast stories were pretty good including a good old fashioned film lot murder mystery.

Story quality dropped a bit in Issue #70 as Gary Friedrich writes a ham-fisted political tale about an evil rightwing actor becoming the Tribune, a character who takes over a courtroom and dispenses summary judgment based on his views. Then Gerry Conway took over in Issue and as it was 1971 headed for the Bronze age, we increased angst with Matt Murdoch smashing a mirror because it's not something a blind person should own (although it probably just came with the apartment.) Conway's highlight was a three part cross-over with Iron Man, a creepy gang called the Zodiac, and some mystical aliens.

Overall, Conway didn't seem to have much of a grasp on Daredevil or good storytelling. The last issue in the book has a great premise as New Yorker's are struck blind and Daredevil is immune as he's all ready blind. The end result is rushed, and as you'd expect in a Daredevil story, there's not even a servicable villain in the story.

Bottom line: Great book for Stan Lee's swan song as writer of Daredevil and Roy Thomas' solid run, but Conway and guest writers are a bit of an Achilles heal.



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