Comics Over Time

Murdock and Marvel: 2006 Part 2

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Episode 71 - Murdock and Marvel: 2006 Part 2

Last week in the takeaway we talked about how 2005 had elements that pointed to a new golden age for comics, and there were elements that pointed to dangerous days ahead.  Well, if 2006 is any indication, Golden Age it is...  

This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 2006.

 

The Year in Daredevil 

Appearances: Daredevil #79-90, Daredevil vs Punisher #6, Daredevil: Father #5, Fantastic Four: The Wedding Special #1, Spider-Man Unlimited #12, Black Widow 2 #4-6, Playmates Toys #1, Spider-Man /Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #4-6, Marvel Zombies #2-3, Pulse #13, Thing #3  X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl #1, I Heart Marvel: Marvel Ai #1, Marvel Team-Up #17 and 20, New Mangaverse #2, Amazing Spider-Man #530 and 534, Thunderbolts #100/105/107, Doc Samson #4, Wolverine #42, Exiles #83, Cable & Deadpool #31, Fantastic Four #539, New Avengers #22 and 24, Marvel Select Flip Magazine #16-17, Civil War #1-6, Civil War: Choosing Sides #1, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #1, Civil War: Frontline #10 

Writing: Brian Michael Bendis (#79-81), Ed Brubaker (#82-90) 

Pencils: Alex Maleev (#79-81), Michael Lark (#82-87 and #89-90), David Aja (#88) 

Inks: Alex Maleev (#79-81), Michael Lark (#82), Stefano Gaudiano (#83-87 and #89-90), David Aja (#88) 

  • The year begins with the final three issues of The Murdock Papers from Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. 
  • In April, We get a new creative team and a new story arch with three parts centered around Matt Murdock in prison.  The first is entitled The Devil in Cell-Block D and in it, Brubaker and Lark do the unthinkable – while visiting Matt in prison, Foggy and their assistant Dakota are assaulted – with Foggy being stabbed while Murdock is unable to help while bring locked up in solitary confinement. The story ends with Matt Murdock frantically screaming, "His heart is still beating," over and over. 
  • As the story continues, we see a funeral for Foggy (which Murdock is able to attend) and we see someone is running around the city in the Daredevil costume on – which does seem to help Murdock’s case for not being our horned hero. In August, we see Fisk and Murdock working together to survive a prison riot and after Murdock escapes from prison with the help of the recently incarcerated Punisher.   
  • In the finale of The Devil in Cell Block D, Murdock hunts down the other Daredevil – who turns out to be Iron Fist – who was trying to help keep Murdock’s secret identity hidden. Matt decides to leave the country for Monaco to find the man responsible for having Foggy killed. But Foggy is alive and well and hiding under the witness protection program. The warden believes Matt was truly a helpless victim of Punishers and goes public with this on TV. 
  • Next we catch up with the recently revealed to be alive Foggy Nelson in a single-issue story called “The Secret Life of Foggy Nelson. In it we see him try to reach out to Ben Urich and others but he is stopped by the FBI who are “protecting” him. 
  • Finally, to finish off the 2006 – which bleeds into 2007 – we travel to Europe (specifically Monaco to start with) for Murdock’s hunt for a lawyer, Alton Lennox, who helped “kill” Foggy Nelson entitled The Devil Takes a Ride. In it, he teams up with a mob bosses daughter who turns out to double cross him. He confronts her (and Tombstone) in Paris and tells her he’s not so easily fooled. Daredevil finally finds out who has been behind everything and it turns out to be the wife of his most hated enemy, Vanessa Fisk. When Murdock confronts her in Zurich, we learn she is dying and he manipulated Murdock to get him to help free Wilson Fisk as her dying wish. Murdock initially refuses, but she knows he’ll eventually agree and sets her plan in motion – killing Leland Drummond, the FBI director going after Murodck.  
  • The Devil takes a Ride concludes with Matt finding out Foggy is still alive and also helping release the Kingpin from prison to honor Vanessa's memory. Though he has the Kingpin agree to have his U.S. Citizenship revoked and that Fisk will have to leave the country. Foggy agrees with Matt's idea to move their law firm to a new location as well as changing their business method of accepting clients from referrals only to avoid drawing attention from DD's enemies. It was also decided that Becky Blake will join their firm as a law partner (Nelson, Blake, and Murdock). Matt also moves him and Milla to a new apartment as well since too many of his enemies already knew the address of his previous apartment. 

    • This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #82 April 2006 “The Devil in Cell-Block D Part One” 

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    Daredevil Rapid Fire Questions

    The Takeaway

    It doesn’t get any better than this.  Comics in 2006 are at the top of their form both in terms of their content and their cultural impact.

    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