Issue(s): Daredevil #25
Cover Date: Feb 67
Title: "Enter: the Leap-Frog!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Frank Giacoia - Inker

Review/plot:
Really: poor Daredevil. He has the worst rogue's gallery one could invent. The Owl. Mr. Fear. The Gladiator. Stilt-Man. And, the crown jewel... Leap-Frog.

In addition to the debut of this super-villain of super-villains, this issue begins one of the most bizarre sub-plots in Marvel history. Murdock returns from his trip from Europe with a really lame excuse about where he's been but he's surprised to learn that Karen and Foggy aren't buying it (he knows it's a bad excuse but he still expects them to believe it. Shows what he thinks of them). While Karen would 'love' to believe Matt's story, the letter from Spider-Man telling Matt that he knows his secret identity pretty much puts an end to the charade. Or so you would think...

Matt comes up with the truly insane idea that he has a twin brother named Mike Murdock, and it's Mike who is Daredevil. Foggy calls bullshit and demands to meet Mike, so Matt invents a new personality and shows up in a ridiculous checkered suit, acting like an idiot.

I can't believe that Foggy and Karen actually fall for this, so they must be thinking that Matt is in need of some serious psychological help.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Leap-Frog, first "Mike Murdock"

Chronological Placement Considerations: Daredevil returns from Europe this issue.

References:

• The Daredevil secret identity madness began when Matt dressed up like Daredevil and had Karen drive him to fight the Tri-Android 'in case the real Daredevil didn't show up' in Daredevil #22.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Adventure #4

And with this story, Daredevil crosses over into the incontestably silly. "Mike Murdock" cast such a shadow over this book that its low-tier status never went away until Frank Miller was in full swing. Stan's time on this book gets a bit better near the end, but not by much.

I don't think Mr. Fear is that bad of a villain. Honestly, you should have listed the Matador instead.

Wait a minute: ridiculous glasses; plaid jacket...Matt Murdock isn't trying to be a hipster with Mike Murdock, he's just jealous of Scott Summers' old blind-man wardrobe!

Honestly, the Owl, Mr. Fear, Gladiator, and even Stilt-Man can be compelling characters and actual threats if they are written competently.

Leap-Frog... probably not so much...

Although the Fabulous Frog-Man is fun!

Even Leapfrog could become a respectable character under the hand of a good writer. Perhaps not a serious menace, but someone who is not a joke. Rather than just being someone who jumps, play on the fact that he is a "frogman" and make him someone who uses the water as well. Give him a scuba suit under that costume so that he can fight people underwater, or at least use it to approach his targets and escape. It'd be useful for crime in New York City. He wouldn't need to be a fully trained navy seal, but even a little bit of expertise and he'd be tough. He couldn't go up against true amphibious characters like Namor, but for someone not use to it - he'd be more slippery and dangerous.

And I agree that Mr Fear could be a very good villain.

I agree with the utter fail of the Mike Murdock storyline. Just terrible. For all of Kirby's and Ditko's faults at writing without Lee, the dreck Stan put out without them indicates who were the real idea men of the House of Ideas.

Any character can be compelling and interesting in the right hands, even a joke. The fact that Leapfrog lead to Frog-Man proves that someone at least saw something to use him for, even if it more or less is to admit that its such a silly concept that at least its worth having around for a few laughs.

And yeah, to me Mike Murdoch is so bad it's just hilarious. Not good, just the whole idea that Matt would stoop to this sort of thing just to protect his "secret identity" when others in the hero community were at least figuring it out. At least from the panels during this whole period, I can just laugh at how ridiculous it is, especially in the whole period where, as said, other heroes were dropping it or, in the case of Thor, admitting there was no real secret identity in the first place.

When Mike Murdock got a reference in the Netflix series I flipped out.

He WHAT?

Don't worry it's a totally harmless nod.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not really a DD fan and I'm not watching the show, so that's not a "WHAT?" of doom, gloom, and despair; it's a "WHAT?" of complete and utter surprise, since I thought Mike Murdock was one of those things everyone had simply decided to ignore and not even give comical references to.

Leap Frog and Mike Murdock created in one issue. Was Stan suffering from burnout?

Never mind the checkered jacket, I want "Mike" to explain the string tie and the canary-feathered fedora.

Really has to be the most insulting subplot/"secret ID" ever. Like Karen and Foggy couldn't notice that Matt and "Mike" were never together? That Matt had no pictures of him and his "twin brother"? That he and Matt had been college roommates/law partners for the better part of a decade (at least) and Matt had never even mentioned having sibling, much less a twin?

Of course, Foggy never mentioned Candice (his sister) to Matt, but still. Complete idiocy.

I'm sorry I refuse to believe that Stan ever wrote dreck. Some series were better than others but I defy you to show me anyone else in comics history who wrote 10 plus successful comic series at one time. Is the leapfrog a lame character? Sure. Could he be written better? Yes. As far as Mike Murdock, I find that plot no sillier than Happy Hogan wearing Iron Man's armor or Cap telling the world his secret ID and then faking his death, leaving a Steve Rogers mask behind.

@Dan Spector: in a later issue, Matt records himself on the phone and later calls himself as Mike. (or was it the other way around? this was way too complicated to properly remember) Anyway, he basically manages to have a conversation with himself, in front of Karen and Foggy, who seem to really believe the two of them are real by hearing them interact. So I guess they're just spectacularly stupid. I still like the silliness of this subplot, though.

You left out the Matador. Purple Man and Death- Stalker were the top of the line as far as DD's old rogue's gallery. It's a shame the writers felt the need to dig so much into Spider Man's foes for Daredevil opponents, although it certainly worked out well with the Kingpin.