Issue(s): Daredevil #148, Daredevil #149
Cover Date: Sep-Nov 77
Title: "Manhunt!" / "Catspaw!"
Credits:
Jim Shooter - Writer
Gil Kane - Co-plot on #148
Gil Kane / Carmine Infantino - Penciler
Klaus Janson - Inker

Review/plot:
With these issues, Daredevil is back to a bi-monthly schedule.

Daredevil is beating himself over letting the Purple Man get away, and he's doing a bad job explaining to Foggy that the Purple Man was responsible for what Heather Glenn's father did...

...and also to Heather that he is indeed working on helping her father.

He has more words with Foggy later on.

He doesn't find the Purple Man in these issues, but thanks to a tip from informant "Nose" Norton...

...he does run into the Death-Stalker.

And he foils whatever the Death-Stalker was up to.

The Death-Stalker tells Daredevil that Daredevil "made me what I am" in their first encounter.

Death-Stalker opts to teleport away rather than fight.

DD doesn't comment on the fact that this doesn't jibe with the first time he met the Death-Stalker. This is setting-up for the reveal that the Death-Stalker is really the Exterminator from Daredevil #39-41.

While on his quest for the Death-Stalker, Daredevil also roughs up a "Joisey Joe".

The MCP tags him as "Josiey Jones" who appears in two additional issues. Surely "Joisey" is the correct spelling; not sure if the later stories really change his name to Jones (or is he Joe Jones?).

In the next issue, the Death-Stalker sends a new Smasher after Daredevil.

The Smasher is really strong...

...but Daredevil leaves the first fight telling the Smasher to reconsider who he is working for, since the Death-Stalker has a habit of killing his henchmen.

In the rematch fight, Daredevil makes use of pressure points to defeat the Smasher, and then kind of callously tells a cop that it doesn't really matter if he's locked up or not because the Death-Stalker is going to kill him either way.

Some nice inking from Klaus Janson in these issues.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Nose Norton

Chronological Placement Considerations: These stories aren't a direct continuation, but Heather leaves a goodbye note for Matt at the end of #148 and Matt gets it with enough time to catch Heather before she leaves in #149, which Heather wasn't expecting, so i'm assuming very little time passes between issues.

References:

• Daredevil fought a previous Smasher created by Death-Stalker in Daredevil #138, but then he was killed (by Death-Stalker) in Ghost Rider #20.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I think Joisey Joe later gets killed in the first Punisher miniseries.

Can Daredevil can press charges without giving the police his real name?

I much prefer Janson's inking of the 70s to his later work.

Too bad Joisey Joe couldn't fight like "Jersey Joe" Walcott.