Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Daredevil Epic Collection Vol. 1 The Man Without Fear by Stan Lee Essential Daredevil: The Man Without Fear Volume 1. Part 1 I really love these Marvel Essentials volumes. Granted they are in black and white, and the cover bindings often seem to separate but the tales and art are still engaging as historical records of one of the most exciting times in comics; the dawn of the Marvel Age. With the first volume of The Essential Daredevil we get a collection of issues 1 thru 25 of Daredevil: The Man Without Fear Volume 1. These early and formative tales of ol’ hornhead were written, for the most part, by Stan the Man himself and it is easy to see why, after one reads these tales, we refer to Stan as The Man so often. The tales collected in this volume are not quite as sophisticated to modern readers as Frank Miller’s run or even Brubaker’s current run, but if put in their historical context they are incredibly ground breaking. Several of the villains introduced, or in the case of Electro, borrowed from other hero’s rogue galleries, border on the silly if not inane. In issue 5 we get “The Mysterious Masked Matador,” yes true believers he is what his name implies, a funny hat, stocking and slipper wearing, cape waving bull fighter! In issue 8 we get Stiltman, that’s right, a guy with hydraulic stilts, that don’t appear to have knee joints so one wonders just how does he walk over the Brooklyn Bridge as shown in a panel on page 13 of the collected issue he appears in. Although these villains seem enormously silly, and in many ways they are, the tales of their tangles with Daredevil are not quite as silly as their monikers or appearances. During the Stiltman episode we get some interesting insight into some of Daredevil’s nifty gadgets. For example we get a pretty sophisticated breakdown of his billy club with its built in microphone, batteries, tape recorder, cable springs, etc. (page 5). We also get the revelations that his “devil horns” are really antennae for radio reception. Whether or not these toys stayed part of D.D.’s collection over the years, they were pretty cool for their time. We also get a pretty harsh ending to Stiltman that foreshadowed the tone the book would later take over the years especially with the theme of seeming death and resurrection. (Okay, maybe Stiltman doesn’t die per se, but shrinking into nothing is a pretty close analogy!). With the Matador episode we get a Daredevil who is defeated by this silly looking villain in perhaps the least silliest of ways, by taking away D.D.’s only super power, his senses. We also get that classic Stan Lee realism of character when we see Matt Murdock agonizing over his defeat and willing admission that he wants to defeat the Matador, “not merely for my pride…but to show the world justice is mightier than crime.” It is the “not merely for my pride…” admission that helps make Matt seem so human to us, and the readers of the day. While he is a hero, he is also a man with varying emotions such as pride and anger. Again, this humanism is common place nowadays in comics, but for its time, Stan Lee was breaking new and interesting ground in comics storytelling. Matt also, keeping in character as a lawyer, sneaks into the library at night to research his foe in the library’s archives. In our times he most likely would have hopped on the internet but alas we would have to wait several decades for the chance to see Matt log onto Westlaw. During the course of his research Matt stumbles upon The Matador’s weakness, his pride. Matt ends up using The Matador’s pride against him by publicly declaring that The Matador and D.D. are the same person, thusly “daring to seal my (The Matador’s) glory??” Underlying this whole tale filled with silly costumed bad guys and heroes (D.D. was still in his mostly yellow tights at this point) we get a battle, not just between hero and villain, but between the blinding power of pride and its consequences. Daredevil, when he first takes on The Matador and is defeated he feels the sting of defeat and a blow to his pride. He then humbles himself, makes a fool of himself as Murdock, and uses The Matador’s pride against him to defeat him by calling him out. We end up with a rather sophisticated tale about pride, excessive pride’s danger, and the need to set aside your own pride in the pursuit of the greater good and justice. Stan Lee gives us a very human and easy to relate to character along with an insightful cautionary tale with his storytelling. It was this kind of “gritty realism” in the portrayal of heroes and villains as men and women with commonplace virtues and vices that would set the stage for the Daredevil tales to come in the following decades. Another aspect of this realism would prove to be the love triangle that exists between Karen, Foggy and Matt. This triangle would take many twists and turns in the first 25 issues alone, including Foggy’s hinting to Karen that he might actually be Daredevil to win her affections. At one point Matt vows to always go it alone and “accept my lonely fate” since “After all can Daredevil offer a girl the type of life all brides dream of? No…” Oh Matt, if you only stuck to your vow… 1998 NEWS. DAREDEVIL; NEW YORK UNDERGROUND A novel based upon the Marvel Comics character, written for Keith DeCandido at Byron Preiss via Berkeley books. Release date is set as June 1999. This is going to be a lot of fun; as straight a crime novel as I can manage, full of drugs, torture and sick movies. only with Daredevil in [it]. My notion of what the comic should be like, I guess. March 1998. February 1998. Marvel, Event Co-Founders Strike A Deal The formal announcement has finally been made. The formation of a strategic packaging alliance between Marvel and Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, co-founders of Event Comics. Marvel has entered into an exclusive publishing agreement that has Quesada and Palmiotti producing four Marvel titles: Daredevil, Black Panther, Inhumans and The Punisher. Marvel will market and distribute the titles produced under this agreement. Based in Marvel's New York headquarters, Quesada and Palmiotti will reports to Bob Harras, Editor in Chief, Marvel Comic Group. With writer and director Kevin Smith already set to write the first six issues of Daredevil, Quesada and Palmiotti plan to assemble and lead an all-star team in the new genesis of story arcs for the four Marvel titles. "Jimmy and I are incredibly excited about the opportunity Marvel has given us," Quesada said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take a set of characters and give them a fresh and unique spin without changing the formula that Stan Lee gave the world. We will take that formula of super heroes with human frailties and bring it into the new millenium." Palmiotti added, "It is a thrill for us to put our own spin on the books we grew up with. I think of this move as a natural step for us. This will be a blast for everyone and we promise it will be obvious in the books." The re-invigorated titles are scheduled to hit comic book shelves near the end of summer '98. Daredevil Live Action Flick on Hold by Rob Allstetter The Daredevil live-action movie has been put into turnaround. The film is no longer at 20th Century Fox, and rights have reverted back to Marvel Entertainment. J.M. DeMatteis said he was days away from working on the Daredevil screenplay when the movie was put into turnaround. "Right now I believe that there are other studios very interested in the project, but my understanding is that it's being held up until Marvel's current financial mess is sorted out," DeMatteis. "That said, I have no idea if anyone currently involved with the project will be around when it's resurrected. I hope so.but, Hollywood being Hollywood, I certainly won't count on it." DeMatteis was approached the by the film's attached director, Carlo Carlei, to write the screenplay after earlier versions were written by Carlei and producer Chris Columbus. "Despite the fact that I was brought in to rewrite, the two earlier scripts I read and built from, one by Chris and a rewrite by Carlo, were extremely good," DeMatteis said. "They weren't completely there yet.but they were very impressive pieces of work. And they really pointed the way for me. "As it stands the story begins with the origin and involves (quite logically, I'm happy to say) DD, Elektra, Bullseye, and the Kingpin. And all the characters are there for a reason." DeMatteis had some interesting casting ideas. "Nicolas Cage would make a great DD, I think. Forget Superman, Nick -- this is where you belong!" DeMatteis said. "And if we could just resurrect Orson Welles -- at, say, age 50 -- and shave his head.you'd have one helluva Kingpin." DeMatteis continues to work on another script, an original called Straight on Till Morning, for Columbus' 1492 Pictures. It's a modern-day Rip VanWinkle story.