Featured Reviews
Daredevil #5:
"The Man Without Fear Battles The Mysterious Masked Matador"; 20 pages
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Wallace Wood, Illustrator
A plague of robberies hit the city committed by The Masked Matador, who takes pride in robbing his victims using nothing but a cape. When he humiliates Daredevil at a costume ball, Matt must find a way to outwit him before the public begins to treat the egotistical thief as a hero.
Even though this may not seem like much of an issue--the story is kind of ordinary and the villain, quite frankly, is so silly he doesn't show up again until the 70's--it's actually incredibly important. It's the first issue in a short run drawn by Wally Wood, the legendary EC artist. Wood is one of those tragic figures in comics history, who never quite overcome his own flaws to create the work he was capable of. Apparently, several Marvel personages, including Stan Lee and Roy Thomas, tried to give Wood a helping hand to no avail, and it's obvious from Lee's glowing passage welcoming Wood to the team that he's happy to have him on board. Wood will stay long enough to create DD's classic all-red costume before disappearing once more into a miasma of booze and pornographic comics.
The story is a simple 'introduce the weird menace, have two fight scenes and chase' one. That being said, there are a number of cool touches Stan brings to the table, beginning with the way he, either intentional or non, set up The Matador as a sort of dark mirror for the DD--just like Matt, our villain is someone who was frustrated by the strictures of his life and broke out of them by creating an alternate identity. And since The Matador's motivations are as much about being famous and praised as it is about getting revenge, he starts reveling in the way the public hero-worships his daring--making him even more like Matt! Lee also manages to use this unusual motivation to spur on the conflict between the two--Matt wants to definitively defeat The Matador not out of lost pride but to prevent the hero-worship from getting out of hand. It's these different angles that Lee comes up with for Daredevil's villains, first with Killgrave and now with The Matador that gives Daredevil's earliest stories distinct from the other Marvel series.
Lee spends a lot of time here developing the sub-plot involving the love triangle between Matt, Foggy and Karen, this time revolving around Foggy's intention to propose. And to Lee's credit, he starts actually moving this subplot along--Matt actually realizes he needs to tell Karen he loves her, like now or it'll be too late. Granted, this forward momentum gets quashed rather quickly--it wouldn't be a Marvel comic if the romantic leads didn't spend forever fretting about what to tell each other--but it's a start.
But as interesting as the story is, the true star of this story is Wally Wood. As good as Bill Everett and Joe Orlando are, Wood shows why he is considered a legend of the form. Deceptively simple at times, Wood's art has a fluidity and dynamism that can't be beat--the way DD twists and turns in space as he makes his way around the city is truly awesome. And Wood draws the absolutely best looking Karen to date--seeing her dressed as Cleopatra for a costume party, you understand why these two men are fighting over her. Hell, I even like the very subtle changes Wood made to the outfit--he eliminates the 'v' neck in favor of a more standard sleeveless t, he creates the interlocked 'D's that is the Daredevil logo we all know and love, and turns in the double lashings to secure the billyclub for a single one. These changes not only make drawing DD easier, but allow him to seem even more graceful. Of course, Wood streamlines the outfit even more two issues hence, but for now these changes work--and hey, that stupid hood is gone.
This is a decent story made even more worthwhile. It's kind of sad that Wood's tenure on the series lasts such a short time....but we should enjoy it while it lasts.