Issue(s): Daredevil #152, Daredevil #153, Daredevil #154
Cover Date: May-Sep 78
Title: "Prisoner!" / "Betrayal" / "Arena!"
Credits:
Roger McKenzie - Writer
Carmine Infantino / Gene Colan - Penciler
Klaus Janson / Tony DeZuniga / Stephen Leialoha - Inker

Review/plot:
Daredevil kidnaps Debbie Harris and badgers her until she agrees to see Foggy again.

Not exactly super-heroic!

Then he gets into another fight with Paladin, who beats him rather soundly.

After dragging his beaten body home, he gets a call from Heather saying she needs help. At Heather's apartment, however, he instead finds Cobra and Mr. Hyde.

Already abused by the Paladin, he is defeated by these powerful super-villains.

Cobra, usually upstaged by Hyde, makes an especially good showing during this fight.

They bring him back to Rykers, where it turns out they are working for the Purple Man, who has taken over Rykers and possessed Cobra and Hyde along with the Jester and the Gladiator.

Amazingly, or maybe because the villains have trouble working together, especially while mind controlled, Daredevil manages to hold his own until Paladin arrives.

The pair manage to beat all the bad guys (Hyde isn't getting fair treatment here; he's Thor class, for gawds sake!), and the Purple Man apparently dies when he falls off a light house perch and into the sea. Heather, a prisoner of the Purple Man, seems to reconcile with Matt and lets him take her home.

Meanwhile, Death-Stalker hangs around in the background, killing the scientists who work for him.

Issue #153 is written from the perspective of Ben Urich, whose disheveled look is well defined in his first appearance by Gene Colan. It's a nice change of perspective, but not all that unique, so it's interesting that he became a recurring character.

Gene Colan returns to Daredevil with issue #153 for a small run before Frank Miller takes over with issue #158. Colan's art was always good, but for a while in the early-mid 70s his style sort of became the norm and his style got diluted by his imitators. At this point, however, the imitators have moved on and Colan is still doing his thing, and it's a nice contrast.

McKenzie's story is pretty good; a little more character driven but still fairly standard Daredevil stuff. He must really like his Paladin character because he has him totally outclass Daredevil, which is kind of odd. At one point he has Paladin wonder how DD made it to Rykers before him, since DD is "only a superhero" (see the scan above), which i thought was kind of a weird comment. At best it's a heavy handed way of making sure readers know Paladin is "not a superhero!" even though he dresses in a brightly colored costume and fights bad guys.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 7 - first Ben Urich (by publishing date)

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Heather stopped working at the Nelson & Murdock storefront in Daredevi #148. Death-Stalker was last seen there as well.
  
• Daredevil rescued Debbie from a kidnapper in Daredevil #147 and she's been a recluse ever since.
  
• Trying to figure out how to get out of the fact that he revealed his identity to Heather, Daredevil thinks "Mike, where are you now when i need [you]?", in a reference to the bizarre Mike Murdock plot that started in Daredevil #25.
  
• Cobra and Hyde were supposed to be locked up at Ryker's Island, but there haven't been any reported breakouts at Rykers since the Man-Bull in Daredevil #144.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Much for me, i Do not think Mister Hyde, Cobra and Jester were mind-controlled but instead they have been pushed by their ally Purple Man to do the awful attack on Daredevil. Through Purple Man is a true sadist, he later pushed them in mind-control later ( then I'm sure Cobra, Mister Hyde and Jester could resist ) steal the provides and threatens Daredevil and hostages to kill them.

On other part, Death-Stalker befriend with Purple Man unless Daredevil beat them, and Death-Stalker urges Gladiator to threaten Daredevil. That's awesome but soemtimes meaningless and obvious.

Not longer mind-controller but forced by the diabolical Purple Man, criminal mastermind and corrupted spy, the villains could struck Daredevil. However, he falls under Purple Man's thrall and his terror. He managed to save his skin from Purple Man and his lackeys and bolst him before he can use a weapon against him or a victim and a device he STOLE ! Argh, nefarious !!!!

DAREDEVIL/CAPTAIN AMERICA: DEAD ON ARRIVAL fits right in after this issue. In this story, we finally see what the Death-Stalker was building with all those parts he stole, a plot point left off during the original storyline. We also find out what happened to his gloves after his death. Since the Death-Stalker is my favorite DD villain, I was so pleased to get this. Good story, nice artwork from Italian creators. In addition, Sterling gets further reason to hate Murdock.

On a related note, I think the new Death-Stalker from VILLAINS FOR HIRE could be Sterling's daughter, but unfortunately we haven't seen her since. :(

Only from Death-Stalker's POV though (as a time traveller).

Yep. Since he was dead long before this book came out, time travel was the only way to write a new story with him (other than a flashback story).

Hey, it's comic books, they can bring him back to life if they want. :)