Issue(s): Daredevil #48
Cover Date: Jan 68
Title: "Farewell to Foggy!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
George Klein - Inker

Review/plot:
Things are looking good for Foggy Nelson's chances of being elected District Attorney, and the city's mobsters don't like it. So they hire "the best in the business" to take care of Foggy.

I know we laugh at the Stilt-Man and the mind boggles at Marvel's repeated attempts to sell him as a serious villain, but you have to admit he looks pretty bad-ass on the cover to this issue, so let's give him a chance.

Daredevil overhears the mobsters talking but he's unable to apprehend them all. So he returns to the office of Nelson & Murdock, where, in addition to Foggy and his girlfriend Debbie, there's a surprise waiting for him.

Very romance comic-y, with a much more straightforward layout than we've been seeing from Gene Colan lately. I'd say it was deliberate homage, but this entire issue uses standard panel layouts, as did last issue, so i guess Colan was pulling back after the more experimental Jester issues.

Unfortunately, after this nice reunion, Matt blows it by getting Foggy out of the office (since this is where Stilt-Man is going to attack) in the most ridiculous way possible.

Why couldn't Matt have said, "Foggy, I overheard some mobsters talking about putting out a hit on you. They overlooked me because I was blind. But I think we ought to get out of here for a while."? He could still have snuck back later as Daredevil.

Anyway, after ruining his friendship and his love-life, he sits in the office and waits for Stilt-Man to attack.

Stilt-Man runs off after the police show up, escaping through a perfume store, making it impossible for Daredevil to follow.

So i guess this was a decent showing for Stilt-Man.

Later, Foggy wins the election, but he and Matt are no longer on speaking terms.

This could have been a good one, but that scene with Matt ruining his friendship with Foggy was just done so cheaply that it kind of ruins things, and it sets up more bad melodrama for future issues.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Foggy Nelson becomes District Attorney

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I love this issue. This was Stilt-Man at the height (ha!) of his powers.

Well, it's Wilbur's best showing against DD, I'd agree. But "height of his powers"? I don't know, I like the Stilt-Man of the 1970s, who puts up nice fights against Black Goliath, the Champions, and (incredibly) Thor. It seems that once writers realized the stilts were visually cool, but not enough offensively, they decided to give Stilty extra weapons (the Z-Ray, rocket-pods) and that made him more threatening.

And then the Daredevil writers turn him back into a clown. Sigh.

Stilt-Man's problem is the stilts; take them away and he's a guy in very resilient power armor fighting a dude with a billy club. Most of his Silver Age appearances make it a point to show that Daredevil can't really hurt him in his armor.

Wow, Matt really looks like, well, Conan O'Brien in that sequence. So I guess it's not too far a stretch to suggest that Foggy looks like Andy Richter.

With Foggy's election in issue #48 (1969) and his defeat by Blake Tower in issue # 130 (1976) we possibly have one of the few concrete periods of Marvel Time as the DA's term of office is supposed to be 4 years. It's one of the few things that happens in comics where a significant and definite amount of time had to pass (like enrolling and then graduating college).

Incidentally, who is that shaking Foggy's hand in congratulations? Is that supposed then NY governor Nelson Rockefeller? If so, this likely identifies Foggy as a Republican which would make eventual DA Blake Tower a Democrat. A Republican winning a DA race in New York would have been extremely rare especially outside Staten Island (I'm assuming Foggy is being elected to the DA in Manhattan, not one of the other boroughs). He must have ran a hell of a campaign (probably aided by public anger over the various Marvel supervillains and crimelords of the last several years).