Issue(s): Daredevil #30, Daredevil #31, Daredevil #32
Cover Date: Jun-Sep 67
Title: "...If there should be a thunder god!" / "Blind man's bluff!" / "...To fight the impossible fight!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
John Tartaglione - Inker

Review/plot:
Matt Murdock is bored with his job, so upon hearing of a new super-powered menace, he convinces Foggy to spend their lunchbreak researching the criminals for Matt's "brother". Even beyond the thrill Matt must get tricking his co-workers into thinking that he has an identical twin brother, Matt is exhibiting troubling signs: the fact that his interest in these bad guys is more out of boredom than a devotion to justice ("I just wanna take off and fight 'em!") and the sort of megalomaniac impatience he exhibits regarding Foggy ("I could read it twice as fast by merely running my fingers over the page -- but why spoil Foggy's big moment?"). I'd love to believe that Stan Lee was intentionally setting up a scenario where Murdock's deception is putting him over the edge, but i think these are really just meant as expository asides for new readers. It's kind of amazing that some of Stan's best character work was really unintentional fodder for later writers (i'm thinking of the earlier Henry Pym stories as well).

The villains in question are the dysfunctional duo Cobra and Mr. Hyde and this is an interesting turning point for these guys. So far they have been Thor villains. But with this arc they become equally associated with Daredevil.

Of course in order to get co-rights to these villains, Daredevil has to get permission from Thor. And the process for doing that is as mad as everything else going on in this series. And by that i mean "Daredevil in a Thor costume".

Now, Daredevil is wearing his own costume underneath that Thor costume. Even the face mask, if i understand things correctly. And under that, he's wearing "Mike Murdock's" glasses.

So this is Matt Murdock pretending to be Mike Murdock as Daredevil pretending to be Thor.

And that's not even getting into the accuracy of the costume. At the time i'm writing this, we had the big Avengers movie this past summer, and then at Halloween time it was possible to buy Thor's costume. The movie version of his costume, of course. And while they were probably some of the highest quality Marvel costumes to ever be produced, i don't think anyone would have been fooled into thinking it was the real (movie) Thor. When i was a kid, a super-hero costume meant a plastic smock with the character's face on it coupled with a plastic half-mask secured by a rubber band. I can't imagine being able to walk into a costume store in 1967 and buying a costume so accurate that someone would mistake me for the real thing. I'm willing to be wrong; maybe 1967 was the golden age of super-hero costumes, right down to expressive face masks that you could wear over your sunglasses.

Anyway, the real Thor catches wind of this nonsense and shows up to put a stop to it. Note Thor telling Daredevil that his words "have the tinge of madness!".

Then they work out an arrangement whereby Thor gets to fight Cobra and Hyde Monday through Wednesday and Daredevil on Thursdays and weekends (On Fridays, Hyde has his league of extraordinary bowling).

Luckily, Cobra and Hyde have been eavesdropping on the negotiations, so as soon as Thor flies off, we can get right to the action.

The truth is, it was pretty irresponsible for Thor to let Daredevil handle these two. Cobra is maybe just barely still in Daredevil's league, although i'd argue with his deadly poisons he's pretty much at the outer limit of what DD can handle. Mr. Hyde, however, is a top tier threat, or should be. Unfortunately, most likely due to the association with Daredevil, Hyde's power levels will fluctuate over the years and are eventually explained as variations in his transformative potion's strength.

All of the above is just from issue #30 and it ends as insanely as it begins. Instead of just tearing him to pieces, Mr. Hyde hits Daredevil with a chemical that would rob him of his eyesight. Aha!, you say. We've seen that trick before, and since Daredevil's already blind he'll shrug that off and take advantage of his opponents' surprise to win the fight. Nope. Instead, the chemical shuts down his radar sense. That's totally not fair, dude.

The set-up may be contrived but the premise is actually interesting. While Daredevil is theoretically a blind super-hero, in practice he can see just fine, so it's nice to have an issue where he really truly is blind.

Since Daredevil is blind, "Mike" Murdock has to admit to Foggy and Karen that he is now blind too. I don't know if that is a point for or against Foggy and Karen buying in to the Mike Murdock lie.

Karen is too upset to really give it much thought, though, because she just had her hair restyled to show Mike and now *sob* he can't see it.

Meanwhile, during all these shenanigans, Cobra and Hyde are raking in the dough, moving from caper to successful caper. Thor must be kicking himself for agreeing to let DD handle this.

At one point we have Daredevil making a fool of himself on a high wire, nearly falling to his death, in an attempt to convince Cobra and Hyde that he does still have his sight.

I still say that Cobra and Hyde wouldn't run from Daredevil no matter how good his eyesight was, but as i said i'm willing to give a little leeway here.

The issue ends rather menacingly with Cobra silently taking the place of Foggy, who was walking the helpless Daredevil home.

By the way, there are two times in this story where Cobra and Hyde have Daredevil helpless but instead of killing him Hyde comes up with some dumb scheme, over Cobra's protests.

That stuff always kinda makes you feel cheated.

Instead Daredevil gets to bide his time and take advantage of the fact that Hyde turns on Cobra at a moment's notice...

...and Daredevil eventually is able to get his hands on the antidote to Hyde's chemical and fight Cobra and Hyde in the dark. Even in the dark, Mr. Hyde is a badass...

...and Daredevil survives by tricking Cobra.

Cobra is captured but Hyde gets away.

I'm a fan of Cobra and Hyde so i probably liked these issues more than they deserved. The scenes with Daredevil handling really being blind were interesting as well.

Hyde's original appearances were a bit inconsistent visually, but Gene Colan goes way off model and gives him a real monkey face.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Daredevil vs. Cobra & Hyde

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places Thor's appearance here right before Thor annual #2. Which explains why Thor is so willing to let DD fight his bad guys; he wants to get to the Asgardian tournament and party with the Warriors Three (there's really no context dictating placement).

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Matt doesn't learn from his mistakes- he disguises himself as the Kingpin(!) in Amazing Spider-Man 287 and gets into a fight with Spider-Man.

So which detail in the Thor costume was incorrect?

It's just that Daredevil is holding Thor's hammer in the wrong hand. Which was kind of a let-down after i spent a minute analyzing all the buttons and other details...

The first professional Thor costume(among other heroes)(and discounting accurate fan-produced costumes) seems to have been created in November 1969 for some Marvel-approved public events in Los Angeles on 12/6-7/69; specifically a Toys For Tots Rally in Pan-Pacific Auditorium and the Santa Claus Lane Parade. Costumes for Thor, Spider-Man, Captain America, and Dr. Doom were made(CA's was actually one from the 1944 movie serial that was updated to 1969 standards), but Dr. Doom's wasn't actually used. Actors in the costumes were seen on the local "Baby Daphne" kiddie TV show to promote the event. Doom's outfit was eventually seen in a photo fumetti strip in Marvelmania starting with the first issue in 4/70.

interesting to learn that daredevil is left-handed. i doubt anyone after paid attention to that little factiod.

Hyde's plan not to kill Daredevil right away is worth it just to see Hyde driving the other two around.

Costume shops with amazingly accurate super-hero costumes were uncannily common in Marvel-NYC of the mid-60s. The Gladiator was originally a clerk in such a shop (Daredevil #18 1966), where he supplied Foggy with a reasonably convincing Daredevil costume. Spider-Man got a passable copy of his own ornate supersuit, complete with all its intricate web embroidery, from a costume store during the Green Goblin/Crime-Master crossover of Amazing Spider-Man #26-27 1965. As a kid I wanted to visit NYC just so's I could get me some.(:

I like this duo as DD villains but I agree that DD dressed as Thor was absurd. The bit where he was really blind was good along with the showdown in the darkened lighthouse.

The Marvel version of Mr. Hyde has always been the utility infielder of villains in that he never belonged to just one hero's rogue's gallery. After all, he started with Thor, then clashed with Daredevil, Captain America, Spider-Man, the Avengers (infamously with the Masters of Evil where he tortured Jarvis), the Hulk, and most recently with the Phil Coulson-led team from SHIELD, including daughter dearest Quake. What's neat about the SHIELD issue is Calvin Zabo is drawn to look like Kyle MacLachlan, who played Cal/Hyde in season 2 of "Agents of SHIELD".

"Can you spot the one little detail in Matt's disguise that is incorrect?"

I don't know if this is Stan having a wonderful sense of twisted humor or a really twisted and off base perception of reality.

While I consider myself a Gene Colan fan, I must admit I'm not keen on his Mr. Hyde. Between the aforementioned simian features and the swept back widow's peak hair, it's like a cross between Eddie Munster and Bela Lugosi in the early-40's low-budget thriller "The Ape Man".

Both Daredevil and Thor are predominantly right-handed, but both can wield their weapons well with either hand, and often do so.

Thor can be seen holding and swinging his hammer left-handedly as early as the cover and splash page of Journey Into Mystery #85, drawn by Kirby. (3rd Thor appearance)