Creators:
Writer- Wally Wood- 10
Writer- Stan Lee- 11
Artist- Wally Wood 10, inks 11
Artist- Bobby Powell 11
Letters- Bob Powell 10
Letters- Sammy Rosen- 11
Appearances:
Daredevil- Matt Murdock
Foggy Nelson
Karen Page
The Organizer
Deborah Harris
The Ani-Men
*Catman
*Monk Kiefer
*Frog Le Blanc
*Henry Hawk
Recap: Issues 10 and 11 represent the first time in Daredevil that a single storyline runs through two issues seamlessly. In the issues, Foggy Nelson is running for district attorney after being nominated by the Reform Party. At the same time, crimes are happening all over town. These crimes are being handled by the Ani-Men and directed by a man known as the Organizer. Essentially, the Organizer is trying to use the crime spree to manipulate the public into supporting his party. Things don’t go easy for Daredevil as the Organizer tricks him into opening a safe which makes Daredevil become a wanted man. Of course, Daredevil is smart he eventually uncovers that the Reform Party is using Foggy, thanks to Deborah Harris, and he discovers who the Organizer is. Matt convinces Foggy to go along with his plan to show him that he is being used. In Foggy’s mind, he is going to prove Matt wrong. They lay a trap, and it’s sprung-they tell the three candidates that they have evidence of who the Organizer is and it’s in their safe. After a break in to retrieve the evidence, Foggy now knows. Matt then tricks the Organizer as he dresses up on the Frog Man’s costume, with the help of Harris, and catches him to end the storyline.
Thoughts: Couple thoughts regarding Wally Wood. First, his art is soo good. The action scenes are wonderful. It’s a shame that the writers used so many thought and dialog bubbles to describe the action. The action speaks for itself here. Second thought- Wood does an excellent job as a writer. In fact, I believe that Wood is the first to really set the tone for Daredevil using the idea of organized crime abusing the system as a legitimate power. We hadn’t really seen that since issue #1 with the Fixer, on a slightly smaller scale. In my mind, Wood was truly THEE early guy on Daredevil. He understood the proper tone for Daredevil, and he helped provide the visual language that is still used 50+ years later.
Another interesting thing about these issues has nothing to do with the story, it’s Stan’s commentary. On issue 10, Stan writes of Wally, “You may like it or not, but it’s going to be different.” Almost absolving himself if folks did not like the direction. Then in issue 11, Stan says, as if 10 was a flop, ” It’s up to Sly ol’ Stan to put all the pieces together and make it come out ok in the end. Can he do it? See for yourself.” This could be innocent fun, or an attempt to show that Stan is the savior of the book. I have a feeling that these issues were great because of Wally Wood!
Poor Foggy. Just when things are seemingly going well for him, the rug gets pulled out from under him. He truly thought he was going to be the next Attorney General, but instead, he was used. He then feels bad because they can’t afford rent because they have no clients and can’t make rent- if he hadn’t been campaigning, they would be fine. At this point, Matt decides it’s a good time to leave and travel.
The comment is made again in this issue that Matt can see more clearly than the rest. They continue to tease the secret identity.
Finally, the Organizer is called the Kingpin of crime. This is the first time that is used, but it clearly didn’t stick.
