Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1964-12-01 00:07:10 |
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Daredevil #5
Issue(s): Daredevil #5
Cover Date: Dec 64
Title: "The mysterious masked Matador!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Wally Wood - Penciler
Wally Wood - Inker
Review/plot:
This is a rare instance of EC and Mad Magazine artist Wally Wood on a Marvel book. He stays until issue #10 and then leaves after a dispute with Stan Lee.
Poor Daredevil, having a character like the Matador in his rogue's gallery, and worse, losing to him. He's literally just a bull fighter. I guess someone decided that the horns on DD's costume made him a good match.
Matador's origin isn't quite that he was bitten by a radioactive bull, but it's close.
I guess he should have been bitten by a radioactive bullfighter anyway. As it stands, this some origin. Taunted at a bullfight, gored by a bull = supervillain!
Matador's big scheme is to rob burglar alarm factories, because think of the irony!
I kind of feel like he's already lost sight of his vow of revenge on all mankind.
Daredevil has big trouble this issue fighting in a crowd because of all the background noise.
I guess something had to happen to make a fight against a scrawny guy with no powers last more than a panel.
Daredevil at this time is a very silly comic.
Quality Rating: D
Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Wally Wood's run begins, first Matador, minor adjustments to Daredevil's costume (still yellow).
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: Marvel Super-Heroes #25
| Previous: Tales of Suspense #61 (Captain America) | Up: Main 1964 / Box 2 / Silver Age | Next: Fantastic Four #33 |
Comments
Cool Wally Wood artwork, though.
The early issues of Daredevil are a good example of Stan Lee without Kirby or Ditko (and possibly even Heck). Lee had many strengths as a writer - but he needed collaborators with more creative impulses to inspire him to greatness.
Interesting that Stan did OK with Colan and Romita, Sr. later on.
I think I posted on one of the Giant Man stories recently that it was the worst book Marvel was putting out at the time. Well I spoke too soon! I worked my way up to this issue on Daredevil so far and it's borderline unreadable. Joe Orlando and now Wally Wood's art does nothing for me. Stan seemed to be going through the paces, too. As Chris said, he worked best with stronger collaborators. Although I would say that's true of 99% of Marvel comic book writers. I'm sure some could point to a few examples to the contrary but, it seems to me, the Marvel Method only works well if the artist is turning in exciting pages and the scripter is then energized to put forth his best work. You can be bursting with ideas but if someone hands you coloring book artwork your enthusiasm is probably going to go out the window pretty quickly.
@Robert - Agree that the early run of Daredevil is pretty awful in general. I was amazed how poor it was when I first picked up a Daredevil "Essentials" volume. I will say however that I do think it has the slight edge over Giant Man, because there's the very occasional good story here. I don't think any of Giant Man & Wasp stories are as good as Daredevil 7 (which I have a lot of love for) with Daredevil fighting a losing battle against Namor, definitely an influence on later things like Daredevil's losing battle against the Hulk in Frank Miller's run. I also think the Ani-Men story in 10 & 11 (which Wally Wood wrote some of) stands out a little. And I have some ironic affection for the Mike Murdock plotline, in a so-bad-it's- good way. But yeah, Daredevil for the most part has an awful set of villains for the first few years, and easily some of the worst/blandest stories Stan was involved in during the 60s.
Personally I love Wally Wood's artwork and he is considered a legend among comics pros. That said the Matador was weak villain in every way.
I'm gonna toss out a wild guess and say that Wood based the Matador's look on Tyrone Power from the early Technicolor epic "Blood and Sand" (1940). It tells about the life and death of a bullfighter (played by Power who, to the younger set out there, was the George Clooney of his day) and the two women he was torn between (Linda Darnell and Rita Hayworth, poor Tyrone!). Still, I'm with the consensus that Matador was epically lame. For more on DD's "mustard and ketchup" early costume, check out DAREDEVIL:YELLOW, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's fine retelling of Ol' Hornhead's early career. Finally, I must say I too dig Wally Wood's art on this as well, too bad he and Stan Lee locked horns, pun intended.
It's actually rather silly to have the audience for a bullfight root for the bull and shun the matador because the man's too cruel to the animal-- bullfighting is literally all about slowly killing the animal in a torturous, abusive way after it's been throughly weakened and put the wringer previously so the man has a fighting chance.
