
Creators
Writer: Stan Lee
Art: Wally Wood
Letters: Sam Rosen
Appearances
Daredevil – Matt Murdock
Foggy Nelson
Karen Page
Stiltman- Wilbur Day- First appearance in this issue
Recap: This issue is pretty straitforward. Wilbur Day is suing his employer, Mr. Klaxton, for stealing his hydraulic designs and inventions. Matt is caught in the middle and must figure out what is what. This is a classic bait and switch. Klaxton is actually the one who created it, while Day stole it. Using the hydraulics, Day becomes Stiltman to commit crimes. During most of the issue, Daredevil is helpless against Stiltman. In the end, Daredevil beats Day/Stiltman by using another of Klaxton’s inventions, a shrinking ray gun. He uses the ray to shrink Stiltman to nothing.
Thoughts: This issue not only introduces Stiltman, but also a number of conventions that will continue throughout the rest of the Daredevil series. To start, the corner box on the cover has the concentric circles that show Daredevil using his radar sense. The circles appear again throughout this issue. Wood also uses this technique to show the reader what Daredevil is “picking up” with his senses. Wood was a genius, creating some of the DD language that we know today. Additionally, he also added more gadgets to the cane. This time the cane produced a shotgun mic that protruded when needed.
The love triangle gets a little messy. Foggy walks in on a moment between Karen and Matt. Foggy gets frustrated with Matt and it strains their relationship. Karen is also frustrated with Matt because he won’t get eye surgery. She has no idea why, (the reader does) and she calls Matt a coward. To this point, there is no story line running through the issues except for the relationship issues with the three.
Next up: Surgery?