Comics Over Time

By Duane Eckholm and Dan NewlandArts Leisure History Visual Arts Animation & Manga

Comics Over Time episodes

July 03, 2024Murdock and Marvel: 1982
Episode 20 - Murdock and Marvel: 1982
Have you noticed that every year for about a decade we have been recounting the impending death of the comic industry, with sales seemly slipping another 10% and publishers falling to the wayside? I am happy to say that at least for Marvel this is the year that things started to turn around. Its 1982, and the Direct Market is showing its power as Marvel and others pile onboard the comic shop train.
The Year in Comics
Notable and Newsworthy
Industry Trends
Passings
Eagle Awards
Dan's Favorite
The Year in Marvel
Events & Happenings
New Titles
New Characters
Series Ending
Who's in the Bullpen
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Paul Smith
Dan's Favorite
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil #178-189, Power Man and Iron First #77, Defenders #103-106, Marvel Graphic Novel #1, Fantastic Four #242, Contest of Champions #1-3, Dazzler #21, Marvel Team-up #123, Incredible Hulk #277-278
Writing credits: Frank Miller (178-189), Roger McKenzie (183)
Pencilers: Frank Miller (178-184), Klaus Jansen (181,185-189)
The year begins with Kingpin trying to and successfully recruiting Elektra and Matt Murdock looking into Mayoral Candidate Randolph Cherryh as an intern has come forward with evidence he’s working for Wilson Fisk. Meanwhile, Nelson and Murdock have a new office in a New York high rise.
Elektra then “encourages” Daredevil and Ben Urich to drop the Cherryh/Fisk story he’s about to run for the Daily Bugle. The latter getting a Sai in the chest.
Despite this, Urich and Murdock realize Vanessa Fisk may still be alive and are able to find/rescue her from the King of the Sewers. Daredevil then hands her over to Fisk. In exchange, Cherryh (who was just elected Mayor of New York) is forced to resign his new post. Kingpin orders Elektra to kill Murdock’s partner, Foggy Nelson, as payback.
In a BIG double Issue narrated by Bullseye, we see the villain escape prison, learn Matt Murdock’s secret, attack and kill Elektra before battling and losing to Daredevil which puts him in the hospital. This is our feature story this week.
Murdock has trouble dealing with Elektra’s death and starts acting out at work and as our horned hero. At one point he accuses Kingpin of hiding her.
A young girl on drugs takes a dive out of her school window and dies, and her brother, DD and the Punisher are all trying to track down the dealer responsible; Matt proposes to Heather. Daredevil and the Punisher get into a fight over how to bring the dealer to justice.
The cover blurb "No More Mr. Nice Guy" is a reference to the 1972 Alice Cooper song of the same name.
This is a reworking of a story that was pulled because of code concerns
Next Foggy begins to investigate why Heather's company is making bombs and this causes him to run up against both Eric Slaughter and the Kingpin; Daredevil ends up caught in an explosion that messes up his radar sense.
That doesn’t stop Murdock from gather evidence to take down Glenn Industries even as his other sense go haywire. Meanwhile He’s also pressuring Heather to accept the proposal.
As Daredevil's hyper senses continue to get worse and he seeks out Stick for help; In a fight with the Hand, the Black Widow is poisoned. The ninja villain Kirigi is reanimated, and his body is made whole from his previous decapitation by Elektra. (Kah Ear Ah Gee)
Black Widow is dying of poison she got in a fight with the Hand and is desperately trying to find DD to help; Matt is recovering his hyper senses in an isolation chamber under the watchful eye of Stick and his ninja.
The year ends with The Black Widow dying to the poison but then resurrected by Stone (Stick’s right hand man); Daredevil and company have a free-for-all with the Hand, in which Stick gives his life to save Matt; Widow and Foggy break up Heather and Matt using handwritten notes; Stone tells Daredevil that the Hand is planning on resurrecting Elektra like they did Kirigi.
Daredevil sales went up from 130,000 copies an issue in 1981 to 180,000 in 1982.
New Powers, Toys or Places
New Supporting Characters
New Villains
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #181 from April 1982 “Last Hand”
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
The Takeaway
Early Returns on Direct Market prove promising
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
------------------
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.
The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.
Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.
My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.
BOOKLIST
The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!
Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.
Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.
Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.
Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.
1 hr 38 min
June 26, 2024Murdock and Marvel: 1981
Episode 19 - Murdock and Marvel: 1981
Welcome, my friends, to the dawning of a new Golden Age for Marvel Comics! Researching this episode was also a trip down memory lane for for Dan, because this was the summer when he first pulled a comic book off the spinner rack. Let's take a look back at the wonder that was 1981 in comics!
Announcement:
This Week in Marvel Unlimited – Hiatus while we rethink the format. Siena has tired of current Marvel comics offerings...
The Year in Comics
Notable and Newsworthy
Industry Trends
Eagle Awards or lack thereof
Passings
Wally Wood
https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/the-life-and-legend-of-wallace-wood-volume-1
https://www.amazon.com/Wallys-World-Brilliant-Tragic-Worlds/dp/188759180X
Fredric Wertham
https://www.amazon.com/Seal-Approval-History-Studies-Popular/dp/087805975X
The Year in Marvel
Events & Happenings
New Titles
New Characters
Series Ending
Who's in the Bullpen
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Ann Nocenti
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil #168-177, Defenders #91, Amazing Spider-Man #218-219, Marvel Team-Up #107, Marvel Two-in-One #78, Marvel Team-Up Annual #4, Rom #23 and Moon Knight #13
Writing credits: Frank Miller (168-177)
Pencilers: Frank Miller (168-177)
Inks: Klaus Janson (168-1977)
The year begins with a bang as we are introduced to a previous love interest of Murdock’s, Elektra Natchois. This fantastic story is this week’s spotlight.
Next Daredevil saves Bullseye who has a brain tumor and needs surgery.
After that, We meet Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin. Who is negotiating giving up information on his former colleagues as an East Coast crime boss to the US government. His wife, Vanessa, goes to New York to hire Nelson and Murdock but is captured by the mob. She ultimately “dies” during a botched exchange that nearly kills Fisk. Angry, Kingpin reasserts control of the East Coast mob scene and hires a now healthy Bullseye as an assassin. Daredevil comes calling and takes Bullseye down but leaves the Kingpin in power to rebuild his organization.
It’s during the previous story arch that - on the cover of issue 171, June 1981 – the cover notes Daredevil is back to a monthly title.
Next, A lady killer is roaming the streets, and he looks exactly like Melvin Potter. Daredevil tracks down the man responsible for crippling Becky and clears the Gladiator. Important background information is given this issue on Rebecca Blake. She had been assaulted years ago by Michael Reese and lost the use of her legs. She had not reported the assault, but does so this issue at the urging of Matt Murdock.
Kingpin secretly hires the Hand to take out Matt Murdock, but Elektra and Gladiator get in the way; When the Hand blows up his law office at the storefront, Daredevil loses his radar sense.
Daredevil is without his radar sense and teamed-up with Elektra against the Hand and their master assassin, Kirigi. While Matt is off fighting ninja, Foggy is defending the Gladiator in court.
Daredevil and Elektra hunt down Matt's old teacher Stick to try to get Murdock’s radar sense back; meanwhile Turk steals the Mauler uniform to try and take down Daredevil. Elektra has a final confrontation with Kirigi. (Kear-ah-gee)
The year ends with Stick successfully helping Murdock get his radar sense back through training and some very vivid dreams. We learn Wilson Fisk is trying to put a figurehead in his control in the mayor’s office but is exposed by Ben Urich at the Daily Bugle. This angers Fisk who appears planning some sort of action – that may involve Elektra, whom he wants to find.
New Powers, Toys or Places
New Supporting Characters
New Villains
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #168 from January 1981 “Elektra”
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
The Takeaway
Women have been a big part of comics – in the stories and making them – for a LONG time now.
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
------------------
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.
The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.
Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.
My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.
BOOKLIST
The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!
Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.
Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.
Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.
Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.
1 hr 51 min
June 19, 2024Murdock and Marvel: 1980
Episode 18 - Murdock and Marvel: 1980
It’s a rough time for America and for comics in general, but big things are happening at Marvel this year, and it’s a great time to be a Daredevil fan. Let’s talk a bit about the start of a new decade, and a new era for this podcast’s featured hero – welcome to 1980!
Announcement:
Duane screwed up... That's why the podcast was late last week. Sorry.
The Year in Comics
Notable and Newsworthy
Industry Trends
Eagle Awards
The Year in Marvel
Events & Happenings
New Titles
New Characters
Series Ending
Who's in the Bullpen
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Louise Simonson
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil 162-167, Avengers #191, Marvel Treasury Edition #25, Captain America #250, Defenders #88-90 and Marvel Two-in-One #69
Writing: Michael Fleisher (162), Roger McKenzie (163-4), McKenzie/Miller (165-6), David Michelinie (167)
Art: Steve Ditko (162), Frank Miller (163-7)
After absorbing a large amount of radiation while stopping a malfunctioning reactor, Daredevil passes out and comes to with amnesia. Mr. Hyle, a boxing promoter, tries to recruit him to be a prizefighter – but when he refuses to fight - Hyle shoots his trainer causing Daredevil to regain his memories and he quickly defeats Hyle, his henchmen and a pet leopard.
Next, Daredevil confronts the Hulk as he wreaks havoc in NYC. Daredevil convinces him to turn back in Bruce Banner. Banner agrees to leave the city, but in trying to do so the Hulk comes out again. Daredevil confronts again only to be badly beaten and collapses. Rather than killing Daredevil, a confused Hulk leaps out of the city. Daredevil lays motionless as our story ends.
While in the hospital recovering from the Hulk attack, we finally get a payoff in the Ben Urich investigation into Murdock/Daredevil. Urich questions Daredevil and he admits the two are the same person. We get another recap of his origin story. After recounting his story, Matt tells Ben that if he publishes his story, he can no longer be Daredevil. After some reflection, Ben burns his papers keeping Murdock’s secret intact.
Heather finds out that her company is doing business with Doc Ock, and Daredevil (alone) comes to her rescue when she is captured. The Widow realizes her relationship with Matt is through and leaves New York. This is our spotlight story for the week.
Foggy’s wedding day with Debbie Harris finally arrives, but the Gladiator holds a group of kids (and their teacher/chaperone) hostage. Foggy “loses” the wedding ring giving Murdock an excuse to take down the Gladiator and return during the ceremony. Turns out the ring was in Foggy’s pocket the whole time.
Issue 166 featured a new cover logo said to be designed by Miller. Slanted “Daredevil” with it getting smaller to larger. And just below it “The Man without Fear!”
In Defenders, Matt Murdock acts as Kyle Richmond’s (aka Nighthawk) Lawyer and ends up fighting Fem-Force and is captured before being broken out by Nighthawk. The two then help the Hulk fight Fem-Forces along with Hellcat and Valkyrie – who are being mind-controlled by Mandrill. They free the defenders but Mandrill escapes.
The year ends with a new villain, the Mauler who is going after Edwin Cord – who’s trying to recruit Murdock for a lawyer job at his company Cordco Incorporated. We learn Mauler is Aaron Soames, a 30+ year employee of Cord’s who was recently denied his pension due to a clerical error (he never existed). Mauler gets a bit of revenge by destroying Cord’s driver’s license and credit cards before being shot and killed by Cord’s security team. Because of his security clearance and the mauler suit being government property, Cord can’t be brought to justice beyond getting knocked out by Daredevil.
New Powers, Toys or Places
New Supporting Characters
New Villains
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #165 July 1980 “Arms of the Octopus”
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
The Takeaway
Marvel is in an interesting place and an appreciation of Jim Shooter
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
------------------
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.
The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.
Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.
My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.
BOOKLIST
The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!
Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.
Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.
Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.
Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.
1 hr 37 min
June 14, 2024Murdock and Marvel: 1979
Episode 17 - Murdock and Marvel: 1979
This week the industry tries to pick itself back up after the disastrous DC implosion, the Direct Market starts to take on its modern look, and sales and hope are dwindling with retailers, publishers and creators. Its time to see if the 70s go out with a whimper or a bang (hint: it’s a whimper). Lets look at 1979.
The Year in Comics
Notable and Newsworthy
Industry Trends
Eagle Awards
The Year in Marvel
The year of licensed I.P.s
Events & Happenings
New Titles
New Characters
Series Ending
Who's in the Bullpen
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Steven Grant
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil #156-161, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #26-28, Captain America #234-236, and Avengers #190
Writing credits: Roger McKenzie (156-161) Mary Jo Duffy (157)
Pencilers: Gene Colan (156-157), Frank Miller (158-161)
The year begins with Daredevil at Avengers mansion picking a fight with Beast, Hercules, Captain America and threatening Black Widow. After again issuing the warning to Widow, Daredevil collapses and is rushed to the hospital – where we learn he’s gone into a coma.
During his hospital stay we see a dream sequence where Daredevil fights himself (which explains the cover of the issue (Daredevil fighting Daredevil) and Death-Stalker tries to make a move to kill him once and for all. He’s first delayed by the Avengers and then confronted by an awakened Daredevil himself before escaping.
Next we see the Ani-Men trash the Legal Storefront and hurt Foggy as Heather Glenn, Becky Blake look on and Black Widow tries to create a diversion so Murdock can become Daredevil. Ultimately Murdock is kidnapped by the Unholy Three. Though Widow is able to take down Bird-Man as they make their escape.
This leads to a final confrontation with the Death-Stalker in a cemetery – next to a grave site with Matt Murdock’s name on it. Death-Stalker kills Ape-Man and Cat-Man rather than giving them their reward for bringing him Murdock. We also learn that the Death-Stalker was once another villain Daredevil took on – The Exterminator (whom he fought way back in issue 40). Daredevil and Death-Stalker fight but the fight ends when Death-Stalker re-materializes while passing through a tombstone. This is our spotlight this week.
The year ends on a three-book story arc involving Eric Slaughter who is hired by a mysterious Mr Poindexter to capture and/or kill Daredevil for half a million dollars. This leads to Daredevil fighting them at a pier at midnight and when they are unsuccessful in taking him down, we learn that Poindexter aka Bullseye has kidnapped Black Widow as a way to get to Daredevil.
Meanwhile we see Ben Urich looking into Daredevil and Matt Murdock at Fogwell’s Gym (and it seems like he’s made the connection).
Back in the action, Daredevil goes to confront Bullseye and Slaughter at Coney Island. Bullseye stages a death of Black Widow on a roller coaster but Daredevil “sees” right through it. The scene shifts to the arcade where a final battle takes place between Daredevil, a freed Black Widow and Bullseye, Slaughter and his men.
Bullseye briefly gets the upper hand before Daredevil is able to knock him to the ground. Bullseye tells Slaughter and his men to attack, but they refuse saying they respect Daredevil and don’t believe he’ll honor their contract – which allows Daredevil and Widow to tie him up and take him to the authorities.
New Powers, Toys or Places
New Supporting Characters
New Villains
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #158 from May 1979 “A Grave Mistake!”
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
The Takeaway
ROM and the Toys of 1979
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
------------------
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.
The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.
Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.
My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.
BOOKLIST
The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!
Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.
Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.
Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.
Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.
1 hr 39 min
June 05, 2024Murdock and Marvel: 1978
Episode 16 - Murdock and Marvel: 1978
This week Marvel starts to steady the ship, even as the Distinguished Competition is kneecapped by their corporate overlords. Prices go up! Prices go down! Great new companies sprout up! Established companies die! And as usual there are predictions about the impending death of comics. Welcome to 1978, everyone.
Preshow
Listener Mail from Zach
Duane at Fan Fusion (https://www.phoenixfanfusion.com/)
The Year in Comics
Notable and Newsworthy
Dr. Strange TV Movie: https://archive.org/details/dr.-strange-1978-movie
Industry Trends
Eagle Awards
The Year in Marvel
Chaos continues and a big name leaves...again.
Events & Happenings
New Titles
New Characters
Series Ending
Who's in the Bullpen
Marvel Comics in the 1970s by Eliot Borenstein (https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501769368/marvel-comics-in-the-1970s/)
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Frank Miller
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil #150-155, Marvel Two-In-One #37-39, Human Fly #9, Thor #271, Marvel Team-Up #73 and Fantastic Four Annual #13
Writing credits: Jim Shooter (150), Roger McKenzie/Shooter/Kane (151), McKenzie (152-155)
Pencilers: Carmine Infantino (150, 152), Gil Kane (151), Gene Colan (153-154), Frank Robbins (155)
The year begins with Daredevil looking for Killgrave. Meanwhile, another of New York’s elite that was manipulated by Killgrave hires the Paladin to hunt down Killgrave as well. Eventually Daredevil and Paladin meet, briefly fight and part ways.
After a bad dream, Murdock decides to come clean to Heather Glenn about his Daredevil secret and tell her that Maxwell Glenn is innocent and he’s working to find the person responsible. While waiting for Heather to come home, he answers her phone and learns Maxwell Glenn has committed suicide in prison. When she arrives, he still comes clean and Heather blames Daredevil/Matt for everything including Maxwell Glenn’s death. She then disappears.
In the Marvel Two-In-One, Matt Murdock is called on to represent Ben Grimm as he’s trial for causing too much damage in New York but leads to Daredevil briefly working for the Mad Thinker whom is out to get Grimm. However, with the Help of Vision and Yellowjacket, they are able to take down the villain.
Knowing he can’t fix his relationship with Heather, Daredevil orchestrates an intervention/meet-up between Debbie Harris and Foggy Nelson in Central Park – which leads to them deciding they are going to get married again. While in Central Park, Daredevil has another run-in with the Paladin.
Next Daredevil is lured into a trap with Heather Glenn as the bait by Mister Hyde and Cobra. After a lengthy battle that includes the Billy Club being destroyed (again) and Hyde and Daredevil falling from the 12th floor of Glenn’s apartment complex, Daredevil is captured.
That leads to an epic final show-down in which Daredevil must take on the Jester, Gladiator, Hyde, Cobra (and briefly Paladin) who are under the influence of Killgrave. This will be our spotlight story for the week.
The year ends with Daredevil experiencing mysterious headaches which is causing him trouble with his radar sense. We also learn Death-Stalker is working on a plan to get Daredevil.
At the Storefront, Murdock interviews and hires a new assistant. During the walk to dinner, Murdock learns Black Widow is in town with the Avengers so he bails on Becky Blake and Foggy. As Daredevil, he invades Avengers mansion taking down Beast and Captain America and calls out Black Widow saying “She’ll pay dearly”
New Powers, Toys or Places
New Supporting Characters
New Villains
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #154 September 1978 "Arena"
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
The Takeaway
The Strange Case of Jack Kirby
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
------------------
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.
The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.
Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.
My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.
BOOKLIST
The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!
Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.
Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.
Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.
Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.
1 hr 38 min
May 24, 2024MARVEL UNLIMITED: New Comics for May 19-25
Marvel Unlimited for May 19-25
Dan and Siena return after a month away, and immediately dig into a number of new first issues, including the constantly rebooting Scarlet Witch, a new Spider-Punk mini-series, and Ultimate X-Men.
QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE WEEK
https://www.marvel.com/comics/calendar/
20 total new comics
5 are Infinity Comics
15 are regular monthly issues
There are 4 1st issues
JUMPING ON POINTS
Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver #1
Spider-Punk: Arms Race #1
Ultimate X-Men #1
Night Thrasher #1
BINGEABLE
Nothing ending this week
PICK OF THE WEEK
Siena - Ultimate X-Men
Dan - Vengeance of the Moon Knight
PANEL OF THE WEEK
Siena: Spider-Punk - Any of the big full-page spreads
Dan: Thunderbolts p. 14 with giant Winter Soldier vs. American Flag Godzilla
WHAT’S NEXT
See you next week for another look at what’s new in the world of Marvel Unlimited!
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram or Bluesky as @comicsovertime.
Make sure to subscribe now in order to get our weekly look at what is new on the Marvel Unlimited App. You can find us anywhere fine podcasts are available, including iTunes, Google, Amazon, Spotify and our hosting platform Podbean!
------------------
Our Website: https://comicsovertime.podbean.com/
Music: “Superhero Intro” by ArctSound
29 min
May 15, 2024Murdock and Marvel: 1977
Episode 15 - Murdock and Marvel: 1977
Its 1977, and this week we see the dawn of a number of very influential independent titles, and Marvel and DC continue to try to bash each other into the ground. Comics are gaining in popularity on TV, with THREE superhero shows now on the small screen, and Marvel catches a tiger by the tail as it agrees to do a comic book adaptation of a movie that is about to change everything for geek culture in America.
Preshow
Murdock & Marvel on a break for Duane’s move.
Next Show should be June 5th.
Marvel Unlimited Show will return in the meantime.
The Year in Comics
Notable and Newsworthy
Industry Trends
Eagle Awards
The Year in Marvel
Overall it was a rough year, as delays and problems are rampant. This is evidenced by our own Daredevil, who only managed to get out 9 issues this year, after a decade of monthly releases.
New Titles
Series Ending
New Characters
Who's in the Bullpen
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Mike Zeck
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil #141-149, Iron Fist #11, Marvel Team-Up #56, Avengers #159 and Marvel Comics Super Special #1
Marv Wolfman starts the year as writer, but Jim Shooter takes over with issue 144.
Bob Brown also starts the year as artist but like Wolfman, would leave after issue 143 with 30 artist credits in the series. Later in 1977, Brown would lose his battle with Leukemia. Artist credits from 144-149 include Lee Elias, George Tuska, Gil Kane and Klaus Jansen.
The year starts with Daredevil taking down Maxwell Glenn’s assistant Stone after he takes a shot at Foggy Nelson. If that wasn’t enough, Bulleye is back in town, captures Daredevil with the cunning use of a paper airplane (“In my hands anything is a deadly weapon”) and ties him to a giant crossbow arrow and fires him towards New Jersey. Though Daredevil is able to escape the death trap with the help of Nova.
Next Daredevil must take on Cobra and Hyde who are again working together and trying to steal a new serum recipe from a couple who have a rooftop jungle (and a pet lion) in the middle of the city.
The Owl breaks Man-Bull out of prison and asks him to be his bodyguard and kidnap a doctor who can help him regain the use of his legs. Once captured the doctor gives the Owl an exoskeleton which allows him to walk and fly. But it also has (unknown to the Owl) a flaw that Daredevil is able to exploit to defeat the villain.
Next, we see Bullseye again set his sights on Daredevil. This time challenging him to a duel at a TV Studio while broadcasting it. With Daredevil’s radar sense on the fritz due to a golf ball, Daredevil takes a beating (and being shot) Daredevil is finally able to take down Bullseye in the Studio’s wrestling ring. When pressed who hired him, Bullseye says the name “Glenn”.
Daredevil goes to confront Maxwell Glenn and he confesses to several crimes (including kidnapping Deborah Harris, Foggy’s Fiancée) without much resistance. We learn that Killgrave was pulling the strings and after Harris is rescued, Maxwell Glenn is arrested. Daredevil realizes something is up and upon returning to Glenn’s office he finds a secret door leading to Killgrave and a group of entranced business leaders. Killgrave escapes while Daredevil has to fight through the group.
On the search for Killgrave and a way to clear Maxwell Glenn’s name, Daredevil runs into Death-Stalker instead. Death-Stalker creates a new Smasher in an attempt to take down his foe. The two have fight on a rooftop and then a final battle in an alley where Daredevil causes Smasher to drop a garbage bin on himself.
As the year ends, Heather Glenn decides to leave Matt Murdock because he wasn’t there for her during the whole ordeal with her father. And Debbie Harris will not see or talk to Foggy as she’s still in shock from her kidnapping.
As a preview at the end of issue 149, we see the message: Next: Daredevil’s Landmark 150th issue, introducing the power of Paladin and possibly the most shattering shock ending ever!
New Powers, Toys or Places
New Supporting Characters
New Villains
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #146 June 1977 “Duel!”
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
The Takeaway
Marvel is in a lot of trouble
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
------------------
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.
The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.
Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.
My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.
BOOKLIST
The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!
Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.
Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.
Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.
Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.
1 hr 38 min
May 08, 2024Murdock and Marvel: 1976
Episode 14 - Murdock and Marvel: 1976
Another year of Marvel and DC vying for minds and coins of comic book readers which is consolidating the industry despite some up and coming indie publishers. To that end, Marvel is now publishing over a 3rd of all comics in the U.S. But is it sustainable and at what cost? This week we'll look at all that, the return of Jack Kirby to Marvel and Daredevil's adventure with Uri Gellar in this week's spotlight.
Preshow
Marvel Unlimited Show on a short break
The Year in Comics
The Big Stories
Industry Trends
1976 Top 10 comics
The Year in Marvel
Marvel puts out over 1/3 of all comics published in America in 1976.
New Titles (and lots of reprints)
Series Ending
New Characters
Big Moments
Who's in the Bullpen
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Bob Layton
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil #129-140, Ghost Rider #20, Daredevil Annual #4
Marv Wolfman is the writer for most of the appearances in the Daredevil series. Bob Brown (art) and Klaus Janson (ink) start off the year on art. Jim Mooney is on inks when Klaus Janson isn’t (133-139). Bill Mantlo wrote issue 140. John Buscema (136-137), John Byrne (138), George Tuska (Annual #4) and Sal Buscema (139-140) get art credits the latter half of the year.
1976 starts with an angry Man-Bull wreaking havoc after losing his court case (despite Matt Murdock representing him) and attempting to steal a heavy statue for the Matador before Daredevil can intervene.
Matt opens his storefront legal clinic, Foggy loses his reelection campaign for D.A. to Blake Tower and Daredevil stops a human sacrifice in Central Park.
Next Daredevil must deal with a new hero with impeccable aim in Bullseye, out in public and then under the big top of a circus.
Daredevil and Uri Geller take down Mind-Wave during his attack on Wall Street. This will be the Spotlight story for this week.
The Chameleon looking to make a quick buck becoming other people and ends up taking on Daredevil and Torpedo – whom Daredevil still doesn’t trust/believe. We also learn that Deborah Harris is missing but Foggy isn’t telling anyone.
When been tested for several issue that the Jester is working on a plan to get Daredevil and now we find out what it is – Framing Daredevil for Murder of 3 NYPD. Daredevil tries to clear his name but the fake TV reports tell people to kill all super heroes and he almost gets hung. A final confrontation happens in Jesters deadly murder maze that ends up being more deadly for the Jester than Daredevil.
Another kidnapping… This time Karen Page. Daredevil works with Johnny Blaze (aka Ghost Rider) to save Page from a new Death’s Head who turns out to be another old villain Death Stalker (who is seeking Paxton Page’s (Karen’s Dad) formulas to free himself). Ghost Rider burns him up with his hellfire. During the whole ordeal, Matt realizes he just wants to be friends with Karen and that he does love Heather.
In Daredevil Annual #4, Daredevil and Black Panther try to stop a blackmail scheme while Namor wants the new technology to harness the ocean’s tides as power stopped. We get a new villain in Mind-Master, but his attempt to kill them both with mental energy shorts out his own mind in the process, reverting him back to normal.
Next, Daredevil tries to find the junkie wife of a mad bomber who is devastating the city as well as a runaway boy with hemophilia.
The year ends with Daredevil taking on Gladiator and Beetle at Grand Central Station after they escape from prison and hijack a train heading to New York. Daredevil saves some innocent bystanders. Gladiator seriously wounds Daredevil's back, but also wounds his partner the Beetle in his rage which takes him out of the action and allows DD to finish off the remaining foe
New Powers, Toys or Places
New Supporting Characters
New Villains
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #133 May 1976 " Mind-Wave and His Fearsome Think Tank"
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
The Takeaway
Falling apart from the inside
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
------------------
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.
The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.
Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.
My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.
BOOKLIST
The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!
Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.
Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.
Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.
Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.
1 hr 33 min
May 01, 2024Murdock and Marvel: 1975
Episode 13 - Murdock and Marvel: 1975
It's 1975. Things are improving a bit in the world but in comics the race continues to fill up newsstands. With that, we start seeing more company causalities if you weren't D.C. or Marvel. We have 2 comic gods duking it out in the rookie of the year and in the spotlight this week, we see Daredevil take on... A comic book character!?!?!
Preshow
Recap of Dan and Sienna's C2E2 and their panel
The Year in Comics
The Big Stories
Industry Trends
1975 Top 10 comics
The Year in Marvel
Average of about 40 comics per month published, for a total of 474. Most were in the Marvel Universe. Tons of new titles, and also tons of cancellations. They were trying for new markets and new readers.
New Titles (and lots of reprints)
Series Ending
New Characters
Big Moments
Who's in the Bullpen
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: John Byrne
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil #117-128, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #8, Giant-Size Defenders #3, Thor #233, Defenders #24-25
A number of writers worked on Daredevil this year: Starting with Chris Claremont and Steve Gerber in 117, Gerry Conway in 118, Tony Isabella in 119-122, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman in 124. Marv Wolfman finished the year as writer.
William Robert (Bob) Brown provides art for most of those and is joined by Klaus Jansen starting with issue #124
The year starts with the Owl trying to steal Daredevils mind but he agrees to release him if Black Widow kidnaps someone – who turns out to be Shanna the She-Devil. The two women work together to trick the Owl and save Daredevil.
Daredevil lost his billy club at the end of last year, but it returns thanks to Ivan Petrovich. Though Black Widow returns to San Francisco.
Next Daredevil takes on the Circus of Crime and saves New York City from being hypnotized and lose all their money. Though one member – Blackwing gets away.
Daredevil then sees Pop Fenton, his dad’s old trainer, and attempts to save him and his former boxer – now priest – Father Gawaine from Juan Aponte who’s been working with a doctor who’s recreated Iron Man villain the Crusher strength formula. After the battle, he dies in Pop Fenton’s arms.
New Years arrives and Black Widow comes to visit and they attend a New Year’s Eve party thrown by Foggy Nelson – though Widow isn’t happy about it. Though it was for the best because agents of Hydra attack being led by El Jaguar. We learn they are after Foggy because SHIELD is intending to have him join their advisory committee. Eventually Foggy is captured by Hydra when Foggy gives himself up to save Black Widow from the Dreadnought.
Black Widow and Daredevil scour the city looking for Foggy and end up fighting El Jaguar and Blackwing who turns out to be the son of Supreme Hydra – Silvermane – as Fury’s forces head into a trap. They are able to avoid the trap with Life Model Decoys.
In a final battle with Hydra, the Black Widow destroys the Dreadnought by shooting it in its only weak spot. Daredevil then goes up against Jackhammer and easily defeats him. El Jaguar is knocked out by Dum Dum Dugan, and Man-Killer is incapacitated when Ivan places a jamming device on her exoskeleton. With their plan failing, Blackwing and Silvermane make a hurried escape and the remaining Hydra agents are captured.
Next Daredevil takes on Copperhead – a real life recreation of a 1930s comic book. This two book arc is this week’s spotlight.
A new Torpedo show up looking to complete an important mission but when he’s killed during a battle with Daredevil, former pro quarterback Brock Jones takes the costume and wants to complete the mission. Those two then fight as Jones attempts to explain the mission. In the process they destroy the home of an innocent family. When the mother yells at them for the destruction, they stop fighting and leave.
As the year ends, Murdock says he’s done being Daredevil but it doesn’t last long as he’s needed to take on Death-Starker who’s stealing artifacts from museums in an attempt to build a powerful weapon. In their final battle, Death-Stalker ends up disappearing while standing on a platform near a mysterious Sky-Walker.
New Powers, Toys or Places
New Supporting Characters
New Villains
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #124 Aug 1975 "In the Coils of the Copperhead!" and Daredevil #125 Sep 1975 “Vengeance Is the Copperhead!”
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
The Takeaway
Inmates running the asylum
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
------------------
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.
The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.
Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.
My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.
BOOKLIST
The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!
Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.
Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.
Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.
Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.
1 hr 41 min
April 24, 2024Murdock and Marvel: 1974
Episode 12 - Murdock and Marvel: 1974
Well, here we are in 1974, when Richard Nixon leaves the White House in shame in real life even as he is shown to be leading a secret criminal organization in the Marvel universe. The economy is a mess, crime is up, and comics are affected in all sorts of ways.
Preshow
Reminder about Dan and Sienna's C2E2 Panel
Saturday, April 27th from 10:30am – 11:30am. Room S405-B
The Year in Comics
The Big Stories
Shazam Winners (final year)
Comic Fan Art Awards (formerly Goethe Awards)
The Year in Marvel
Marvel published 86 different titles in 1974, including 9 new quarterly “Giant-Size” books, resulting in anywhere from 31 to 50 different Marvel titles hitting the stands each month.
New Titles (and lots of reprints)
Series Ending
New Characters
Big Moments
Who's in the Bullpen
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: George Perez
The Year in Daredevil
Appearances: Daredevil #107-116, Man-Thing #1, Marvel Two-in-One #3, Marvel Team-Up #25
Steve Gerber (writer) and William Robert (Bob) Brown (art) were the main creative pair for most of the year. Sal Buscema on art in Marvel 2-in-1. Gene Colan returned to go art on #112 and #116.
Captain Marvel comes to the aid of Daredevil and Black Widow in their attempt to take down Kerwin Broderick and his Terrex. But it is Moon Dragon amplifying Angar’s powers that trap the Terrex in a black void where it is killed along with Broderick.
During all this we learn that Captain O’Hara’s brother has died in Africa
Next Daredevil takes on the Beetle while Moon Dragon hangs out at the Daredevil/Black Widow Mansion. Daredevil then heads back to New York after hearing about an assassination attempt on Foggy Nelson. We also learn Foggy has a sister named Candice.
We learn the Beetle was hired by the Black Spectre criminal organization who are looking to overthrow the US government and attempt to forcefully recruit Daredevil and Black Widow to their cause.
In the 2-in-1, Daredevil and Thing board the Black Spectre Zeppelin in an attempt to confront their leader, but it doesn’t go well and they have to flee. Daredevil is finally able to unmask the Black Spectre leader and it’s an apish mutant known as the Mandrill. Shanna and Daredevil are captured by another hired villain, Silver Samurai, and brought back to the Zepplin where they find Black Widow has also been kidnapped and is being mind controlled.
The final showdown with Mandrill and Black Spectre comes in Washington D.C. at the White House after Daredevil is able to snap Black Widow from her mind control. Black Widow and Shanna are able to defeat Nekra when she’s distracted by the explosion and Daredevil defeats Mandrill on the white house roof after he falls – but no body of the mutant is found.
Next Matt Murdock/Daredevil go to Florida in search of Gladiator and Candice Nelson – whom he kidnapped. The trail takes him to the Everglades where he finds Candice but also Death Stalker – whom hired Gladiator to get the project notes. Death Stalker captures Daredevil but the Man-Thing intervenes which ultimately saves Daredevil from the Gladiator.
Death Stalker heads to New York and tries to lure Murdock/Daredevil into a trap with the help of Foggy Nelson, but it doesn’t go as planned and Death Stalker escapes. Foggy and Matt hide Candice at Matt’s hotel. A final confrontation takes place in a chemical plant with Daredevil using his Billy Club to know Death Stalker into a vat of acid (along with the project notes).
The year ends with Daredevil returning to San Francisco to help Black Widow and her financial woes, but the pair are attacked and defeated by the Owl. He loads the unconscious heroes on his chopper so he can deal with them as he sees fit.
New Powers, Toys or Places
New Supporting Characters
New Villains
This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #112 August 1974 “Death of a Nation?”
Recap
Why We Picked This Story
The Takeaway
Crediting Creators in the collaborative and evolving world of corporate comics
https://www.newsfromme.com/2024/04/08/claws-for-debate-part-1/
Questions or comments
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.
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THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES
Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.
The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.
Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.
Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.
The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.
Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.
My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.
BOOKLIST
The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!
Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.
Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.
Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.
Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.
Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.
1 hr 37 min

About Comics Over Time

From the publisher's feed

Each week Dan, Duane and Siena bring you a look at comics new and old! Since 2021 we have been discussing comics, TV and film. For 2024 Duane and Dan are focusing on Marvel history that centers on Daredevil, and Siena and Dan are keeping up with current happenings in the Marvel Comics Universe. Our previous seasons are also available here: Phases of the Moon Knight covered the Moon Knight character in comics and TV, and our MCU Review saw us comparing the Phase 1 thru Phase 4 Marvel Cinematic Universe films with the comics that inspired them.

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