Issue(s): Daredevil #119
Cover Date: Mar 75
Title: "They're tearing down Fogwell's Gym!"
Credits:
Tony Isabella - Writer
Bob Brown - Penciler
Don Heck - Inker

Review/plot:
Last issue it was said that Tony Isabella's run was going to start a month late because he was busy re-reading his old Daredevil comics, and this issue he proves it with a lot of references, starting with a nod to all of the things that Daredevil used to keep in his billy club in the early issues.

But to jump back a bit, look how happy Daredevil is! It's because Black Widow says she's coming back to New York.

Of course, not everyone can appreciate it, like the purple suited meester who thinks DD ain't nothin' but a jive cop in long johns.

But getting back to Isabella's review of Daredevil's series, he didn't stop with the earliest issues. He also clearly hit Daredevil #68, because he follows up on that story. Matt Murdock checks in with Pop Fenton, the guy that trained his father as a boxer. And the boxer from that issue, Kid Gawaine, was so inspired by Daredevil that he's become a priest.

But Isabella must have taken a break from Daredevil to take a look at some old Iron Mans, because he ties all this in with a really obscure villain from his series called the Crusher. It seems the body of the original Crusher, who had previously been left stuck at the bottom of the ocean, eventually washed up on shore in the US where a coroner dissected him and discovered the secret of his powers. The coroner is now providing that power to a boxer named Juan Aponte, and Pops and Father Gawaine are concerned.

And it soon turns out that they had good reason to be.

It's implied that some portion of the original Crusher lives on in Juan, so i've listed him as a Character Appearing although that's never actually verified.

Juan eventually regains control of himself when Pops and Father Gawaine are threatened by a falling wall, but he subsequently dies.

Now that we're seeing multiple versions of him, the Crusher reminds me of another Iron Man concept: the Freak. I wonder if the original Crusher, a Cuban scientist, had replicated Tony Stark's Enervator device.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue begins with Daredevil having "just saved the world" in Giant-Size Defenders #3.

References:

• Daredevil saved the world by cheating in a coin flipping contest in Giant-Size Defenders #3.
  
• Candace Nelson helped expose the secrets behind Ted Sallis' experiments in Daredevil #113-115. In this issue she's been summoned to Washington DC to testify to Congress.
  
• It's said to have been a year since Foggy was shot in Daredevil #108.
  
• And four months since Daredevil and the Black Widow fought the Owl in San Francisco and she decided to not go back to New York with him, from Daredevil #116-117.
  
• Pop Fenton and Kid Gawaine previously appeared in Daredevil #68.
  
• Tony Isabella's review of old DDs of course also includes Daredevil #1, especially since Pop Fenton was responsible for training Matt Murdock's father as a boxer.
  
• The original Crusher appeared in Iron Man #6 (and he was in Tales of Suspense #91 before that).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A