Issue(s): Daredevil #54
Cover Date: Jul 69
Title: "Call him... Fear!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
George Klein - Inker

Review/plot:
Last issue was mainly a retelling of Daredevil's origin (there are a lot of such books around this time), but it ended with Daredevil resolving that he would deal with the fact that Starr Saxon knows his secret ID by killing off Matt Murdock. In this issue we learn that Daredevil has found a way to execute that plan: bringing a dummy of Murdock into a plane rigged to explode.

Foggy and Karen are under the impression that the man wearing the Daredevil suit is the second to have done so; the first was Matt's imaginary twin brother "Mike Murdock", who Matt killed off the last time he had a secret identity problem.

So far we don't hear much about Matt's plans for himself now that he's killed off his civilian identity (and we'll learn soon enough that he doesn't really have any "plans", per se). But he does want his cane back. Karen has the cane, which Saxon took from Matt and then left with Karen after he kidnapped her. Karen doesn't want to give up the cane because it's all she has left to remember Matt by, so Matt solves that problem by breaking into the grieving woman's home and stealing it while she's sleeping.

The degree to which one has to psychologically torture one's friends in order to keep your secret identity from them is really high, but remember, it's all for their own protection.

Later, Mr. Fear resurfaces...

...and issues a challenge to Daredevil to fight him by the polar bear exhibit at the zoo.

Daredevil accepts, and, one would think not surprisingly, is affected by Mr. Fear's fear power, causing him to panic and let Fear get away.

We'll learn next issue that this Mr. Fear is actually Starr Saxon.

Cameo by Spider-Man so that he can confirm that he, too, is fooled by the death of Matt Murdock.

Sometimes reading this comic is like watching a train wreck. It's horrible and tragic, but you just can't take your eyes off Matt Murdock as he screws up his life and the lives of those around him further and further.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP place Spider-Man's brief appearance here during Amazing Spider-Man #75 since ASM #74-77 are all loosely part of the same story. I've instead placed it before ASM #74.

References:

• The original Mr. Fear only appeared in Daredevil #6.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

This may be the last thing George Klein worked on before he died.

Seriously, Matt just keeps getting douchier and douchier towards Karen. (It's almost as if he *wants* her to become a heroin addict or something.) You can't just make another cane? Or, if you're that worried about her finding the hidden stud that fires the cable (which she hasn't yet, so is she likely to?), how about you just buy a substitute cane and switch it out?

"Sometimes reading this comic is like watching a train wreck. It's horrible and tragic, but you just can't take your eyes off Matt Murdock as he screws up his life and the lives of those around him further and further."

Later writers will intentionally make this a central character trait of Matt, but (like Hank Pym) it's kind of fantastic that it's all there in the Silver Age. What other hero faked the death of 2 different secret identities within his first 60 issues?

For much of the 90's & 2000s, Murdock's life is a mess & he makes terrible decisions. The fact that here he doesn't even consider the ramifications of faking Matt Murdock's death really works as foreshadowing for his later instability.