Issue(s): Daredevil #141, Daredevil #142, Daredevil #143
Cover Date: Jan-Mar 77
Title: "Target: Death!" / "The concrete jungle!" / ""Hyde and go seek," sayeth the Cobra!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Jim Shooter - Script on #141
Bob Brown & Gil Kane / Bob Brown - Penciler
Jim Mooney / Keith Pollard - Inker

Review/plot:
Daredevil loses a fight to Bullseye...

...but luckily Bullseye is still written as a corny villain and not a complete psychopath, so instead of just killing Daredevil, he launches him to his death in an Adam West style deathtrap.

Interestingly, there is no rematch with Bullseye in this arc - DD just loses and that is that.

This is part of a longer ongoing story about Heather Glenn's father, who is seemingly evil but Heather doesn't believe it. DD also stops an assassin named Stone - allegedly working for Mr. Glenn - from killing Foggy Nelson.

This Stone does not seem to be related to the Chaste clan that DD's mentor Stick comes from.

Of course DD does escape from the deathtrap. He is rescued by Nova, who is just swinging by to advertise his own series, also written by Marv Wolfman (if i had read this when i was a kid, i would have just thought it was cool to see a random appearance by another super-hero, but now i've been trained by the internet to be more cynical about such things. I still secretly think it's cool, though.).

DD winds up in a plot fighting Cobra and Mr. Hyde.

The two villains have an uneasy relationship with each other which i found enjoyable.

Hyde's persona makes the idea that he's constantly agitated with and potentially willing to abandon or attack his partner very believable. It's not just the typical "bad guys can never work together" schtick.

In a weird tangent, DD also finds himself facing a lion owned by an eccentric scientist who has re-created a jungle environment on his rooftop.

In the end, DD handles the lion as well as Cobra and Hyde.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Nova's appearance here is between Nova #5 and #6. Nova mentions the meeting in Nova #9, and issues #6-9 are a continuous arc.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Bill Rotsler" is actually the name of a cartoonist/softcore porn film director/producer who was known to several guys in comics.

Even if it is pre-Miller, it was neat seeing Bullseye win a fight and give a salutation to Daredevil's death like that. Classy.

Interesting note: It's with #142 that the re-powering-up of Mr. Hyde truly begins. Unfortunately, it gets kinda forgotten about in the next issue...

Bob Brown was really underrated.

A couple issues later, there's a letter from Peter Sanderson complaining that Bullseye has traded in his "aura of psychotic menace" from his first appearances for what Sanderson terms "imitation Jester hysterical humor" in these issues. Issue #146 seems like a deliberate response to that complaint in some ways.