Issue(s): Daredevil #110, Daredevil #111
Cover Date: Jun-Jul 74
Title: "Birthright!" / "Sword of the Samurai!"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Writer
Gene Colan / Bob Brown - Penciler
Frank Chiaramonte / Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
The Thing drops off Daredevil from their adventure in Marvel Two-In-One #3.

Daredevil then gets into a fight with one of the Black Spectre's goons. This time he's able to capture and de-mask her, confirming his previous suspicion that they are actually women.

He then confronts the Black Spectre, who turns out to be the Mandrill.

The Mandrill beats up Daredevil and then escapes. The Black Widow is still under the Mandrill's control and working for Nekra.

Origins of Mandrill and Nekra: Mandrill's white father and Nekra's black mother were both exposed to the same experimental radiation. Mandrill was born looking "black" to his white parents (if you're uncomfortable about a baby that looks like a monkey being mistaken for "black", so am i), and Nekra's vampiric complexion made her look white to her black parents. Both were ostracized from their friends and by coincidence both met years later in the desert.

Daredevil "sees" the Mandrill's face with his radar sense.

It's really too much. Why even make him blind? It's meaningless. Although to be fair, earlier in this same issue a big deal is made over the fact that DD couldn't "see" the Spectre agent's face tattoos. So the limit of his senses is somewhere between the Mandrill's face and his henchwoman's tattoos.

Issue #111 introduces another henchman of the Mandrill's. It's the first appearance of the Silver Samurai. Although if you're already familiar with any of the Samurai's later appearances and weren't aware that this was supposed to be the same guy, you'd probably never realize it.

In addition to the completely different look, there's the fact that he is working for the Mandrill, which seems unlikely for the honor-bound character we know. He's also very easily cowed by Nekra.

But he does say that the Samurai's father owes the Mandrill a debt.

The Samurai and Nekra manage to capture Shanna. Mandrill is particularly interested in her because she's the one woman that resists his mind-controlling pheromones.

Despite the fact that this issue is continued directly in issue #112, the Silver Samurai disappears from the story next issue. It's said in a later lettercol that it's because the series was facing deadline issues and so while Bob Brown was drawing issue #111, Gene Colan was drawing #112, and Colan wasn't aware of the Samurai being part of the plot.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - first Silver Samurai. Origin of Nekra and Mandrill.

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue takes place directly after Marvel Two-In-One #3. This story continues directly in Daredevil #112; i've just got it in a separate entry for technical reasons.

References:

• Daredevil and the Thing infiltrated the Black Spectre's flying headquarters in Marvel Two-In-One #3 but got defeated.
  
• Shanna met Nekra in Shanna the She-Devil #5. It's said that after that issue ended, Patrick McShane was killed by Nekra, who then escaped.
  
• She met Mandrill in Shanna the She-Devil #4.
  
• Shanna was side-tracked by an adventure in Ka-Zar #1-2 before continuing the hunt for the Mandrill.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Ralph Macchio has a letter here.

Claremont mentioned the Samurai's debt to Mandrill in MTU#57, but he never explained it either.

@Mark: So can we guess what the cirucmstances of Silver Samurai's debt might have been?

Shingen Harada/Yashida cut deals with other crime bosses to rise to power in the Japanese underworld. Maybe Mandrill and Black Spectre helped. But given Mandrill's powers, maybe Harada specifically needed Mandrill's help with a woman: Silver Samurai's mother? Lady Lotus? Or maybe, building on the Daredevil connection, a young Elektra hired by a rival crimelord to whack Shingen? Lots of possibilities. (Or: Lord Dark Wind and Yuriko Oyamada vs. Shingen and Mandrill? Mandrill mind controls Yuriko into stealing adamantium secrets for Shingen from her father?)

Samurai's being cowed by Nekra there is similar to some of his interactions with Viper much later. So it's not necessarily out of character.

Ralph Macchio has letters in both issues.

Fnord, this is an example of why your site is so valuable. Reading in MU that Silver Samurai debuted in Daredevil, you'd be thinking "Whaaaa?" When people make first appearances in places far outside where they will be come to be known for (another example - doesn't Sabretooth first appear in Iron Fist?), it's good to finally see the issue and get some context.

fnord12, for your list of "missed opportunities to dignify heroines", there's Shanna that fails to link "jail metal bar misteriously sliced" and a guy that cut walls with his katana, who she fought the night before. And her uncle who declares "A detective you'll never be, red".

Mandrill wasn't actually born resembling a monkey; he just had black skin with large tufts of hair. He didn't start to resemble an ape until early adolescence.

Daredevil's seemingly limitless radar sense can be explained in a panel in #106 where, after restoring his blindness, Moondragon says she made his previous radar sense "sharper".

It may not be necessarily a mistake that the Silver Samurai doesn't appear in #112. When we last see him in #111, he's been knocked out by Daredevil at the top of the Empire State Building, and Mandrill leaves for D.C. without picking him up. Since Mandrill had informed the Samurai that his debt was paid up, he very likely just took off from there.

This issue suggests that 10 year old Nekra only saved Mandrill because her powers made her but later on in Defenders, his powers fail to affect Dian because of her young age (Dian's around 12).