Comics Over Time

Murdock and Marvel: 2002 Part 2

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Episode 63 - Murdock and Marvel: 2002 Part 2

The world was a dangerous and frightening place, and America was trying to come to terms with how to move forward, both internally and on the world stage.  And comics showed a lot of that anxiety.  But even so, 2002 was a big year for all involved in the comics world, as sales of actual honest to goodness comic books actually rose 10% this year to 230 Million dollars, the first time that the industry had seen that occur since 1993, when comic sales had peaked at around 850 Million.  And even as traffic in stores was increasing, Hollywood was starting to understand how to make comic properties work on the screen, both small and large.   

This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 2002.

 

The Year in Daredevil 

Appearances:  Daredevil #27-38, Daredevil: Yellow #6, Paradise X: Heralds #1-2, Elektra #6, Giant Size Mini-Marvels: Starring Spidey #1, Marvel Knight: Millennial Visions #1, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #39 and 41, Essential Marvel Team-Up #1, Paradise X #0-5, Marvel Knight #2-6, Marvel Knights Double Shot #1 and 4, Amazing Spider-Man #2, Ultimate Spider-Man Special #1, Order #5-6, Spider-Man/Daredevil #1, Marville #2 along with Marvel Masterworks: The Submariner #1 and Daredevil: Yellow, Fantastic First, Life and Death of Captain Marvel graphic novels 

Writing: Brian Michael Bendis (#27-38)  

Pencils: Alex Maleev (#27-37), Manuel Gutierrez (#38) 

Inks: Alex Maleev (#27-37), Manuel Gutierrez (#38) 

  • The year for Matt Murdock and Daredevil begins with a 6-part story called Underboss that began in December 2001. In that story we see a bombing attempt on Matt Murdock’s life just outside of the courthouse and we see Sammy Silke and several of the Kingpin’s other bosses repeatedly stab the kingpin leave him dying on the floor. 
  • So, who put a hit out on Matt Murdock and who is this Sammy Silke who rallied Kingpin’s underlings against him? We start to get answers about this over the next 5 books through flashbacks while the story continues forward. Silke is the son of a crime boss in Chicago who needed to get out of town. He came to New York and went to work for the Kingpin – but when the Kingpin wouldn’t let him put a hit on Matt Murdock – He caught wind of Murdock’s seemly open secret within the Kingpin network and set in motion a plan to take out Murdock and Kingpin with the help of Kingpin’s son – Richard. 
  • Vanessa Fisk finds out her husband has been stabbed and in critical condition (and not killed as reports claim). She goes to New York and despite objections from his doctor, wants Kingpin taken to the airport and flown out of the country. She also orders those that betrayed Kingpin to be killed -including her son Richard whom she visits and kills herself.  
  • Underboss ends with Silke, fearing for his life, turning himself into the FBI and asking for protection. When the FBI refuse, he tells them Murdock’s secret identity.   
  • From there, things start to really go crazy for Matt Murdock. An FBI agent, needing some cash, sells Murdock’s secret to the Daily Globe (the Bugle’s rival paper) and it’s ran as a front-page story and a media circus descents on Murdock’s brownstone.  
  • Ben Urich and Peter Parker tell J. Jonah Jameson the DD secret identity story is a hoax but both refuse to tell him who DD really is; Foggy tries to get Matt to give up his life as DD. Seeing the story, Mr. Hyde shows up and starts destroying Murdock’s house before Daredevil and Spider-Man can intervene. 
  • After some time away, Matt Murdock holds a press conference denying he’s Daredevil. We’ll jump into more detail about that during this week’s spotlight. 
  • After a rooftop chat with Elektra at the urging of Black Widow, it looks like things will be settle with the Daily Globe after Daredevil visits the FBI agent who gave up his secret, but then the Globe owner Rosenthal nixes the deal because Murdock was being so smug about the agreement. 
  • The year ends with part 1 of the next named storyline, The Trail of the Century, which we’ll talk about in 2003. 

    • This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil volume 2 #36 October 2002 “One Hundred Percent Untrue”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    Daredevil Rapid Fire Questions

    The Takeaway

    Big Box Office does not necessarily translate to big bucks at the comic shop.

    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. 

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History 

    DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_English-language_comics 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marvel_Comics_superhero_debuts 

    https://comicbookreadingorders.com/marvel/event-timeline/ 

    https://www.comic-con.org/awards/eisner-awards/past-recipients/past-recipients-1990s/ 

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    Comics Over TimeBy Duane Eckholm and Dan Newland