Daredevil #158
- Date: May 1979
- Publisher: Marvel Comics Group
- Cover Price: 40¢
- 2012 Price Range: $9 - $145
- Stats: 17 color pages plus ads and Bullpen Bulletins
- Writer: Roger McKenzie
- Artists: Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, Joe Rosen, George Roussos
- Notable Notes: 1st Frank Miller Daredevil art, also the origin (and death) of Deathstalker!
Lanky Frank is a Big Deal!
The first page of this issue literally introduces us to "Lanky Frank Miller." It is obvious that Marvel thinks this upstart artist is something special, because he is mentioned again in the Bullpen Bulletins. According to Wikipedia Miller had drawn a couple issues of Spider-man, and asked to work on Daredevil because he saw a way "to do crime comics with a superhero in them." Yeah, looks like things worked out pretty well for Lanky Franky and his crime comics!
Synopsis:
"A Grave Mistake!" This issue starts in the middle of Matt Murdock being kidnapped! Apparently in last issue the Unholy Three go to the office of Nelson & Murdock, punch out foggy and make to abscond with Matt. However, one of the four women in the office is none other than Black Widow, and she tries desperately to save Matt. While she does take out Birdman the other two villains get away with our favorite blind lawyer. After traipsing across rooftops, they finally take Matt to the cemetery where he is delivered to Deathstalker. In classic comic book fashion Deathstalker tells Matt about how Daredevil long ago banished The Exterminator (Deathstalker's previous alter ego) to a displaced time-line, where he has struggled to rebuild himself and is now ready to take on DD once again! Matt obliges and the two tangle in the graveyard. Things look grim for our red-garbed hero until Deathstalker's time-phasing capability works to Daredevil's advantage and the villain is stopped "stone cold!"
My 2 Cents:
- Really, I got this issue for Frank Miller's art. So how did it hold up? Quite well, actually... the art was fantastic! Millers pencils really were good, and the way he depicts action scenes across one long panel was quite cool. I was way more pleased than I thought I would be - and that is always a good thing!
- The story too was pretty fun! Obviously this issue comes in the middle of a longer arc spread across a few different Marvel titles, but it was still fun to read about the Unholy Three as well as Deathstalker.
- I have always loved Miller's later work on Daredevil (around #227 or so), but this is his first early DD work I've read. Now I'm going to have to pull out some of my other DD issues featuring Miller and give them a go!
- If you enjoy Daredevil then be sure to check out my other reviews of Daredevil comics.
How I Rate This Issue:
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(This is a revised version of a post which was originally published on comic-prospector.com on Dec 31st, 2012.)
