Issue(s): Daredevil #6
Cover Date: Feb 65
Title: "Trapped by... the Fellowship of Fear!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Wally Wood - Penciler
Wally Wood - Inker

Review/plot: Mr. Fear recruits the Ox and the Eel to perform an elaborate robbery that involves pretending to be filming a holiday movie. I'm pretty sure the best crime plots in the world don't involve filming yourself performing a crime, but whatever. Daredevil foils the attempt so of course Mr. Fear feels the need to eliminate Daredevil before he can continue his crime spree.

In his civilian identity ("Zoltan Drago", of course. Any relation to Blackie Drago, the second man to wear the Vulture costume?), Mr. Fear owns a super-people wax museum but is upset that no one comes to visit.

He tried to bring his wax people to life, but instead wound up creating his fear gas.

Mr. Fear keeps the Ox and the Eel under his control using his fear pellets, something that he has no problem explaining to them over and over again. The Ox and the Eel don't really seem to have a problem with it, however, as long as they are comfortable with his schemes.

Daredevil hunts them down and defeats them, but Foggy blunders in and gets hurt in the process.

At this point Foggy is thin and confident, but in love with Karen. She knows it too, but is pining for Matt. Matt thinks his blindness prevents him from being able to date Karen. This love triangle will basically destroy all three of them, with Foggy turning fat and depressed, Karen becoming a junkie porn star, and Matt becoming an obsessed psychopath.

But these are happier times, and Foggy gets out of the hospital and they all return to their day jobs at the firm.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - first Mr. Fear

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• A footnote says that the Ox was last seen in Amazing Spider-Man #14, but as mikrolik notes in the comments, the Ox actually appeared after that in Amazing Spider-Man #19.
  
• The Eel wonders if Mr. Fear was sent by the Human Torch (obsess much?), and we are referred to Strange Tales #117, which i can confirm didn't involve the Torch sending super-villains after the Eel.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Super-Heroes #26

How does Zoltan Drago even know who Rama-Tut is? No way that he could.

We've seen in the Fantastic Four (issue #10, for example) that the FF's exploits are actually published by an in-universe version of Marvel Comics. So maybe that's how Drago heard about Rama-Tut.

between this and his appearance in ASM #14, i think what Ox really wants is an acting career.

Wally Wood's model sheets for Daredevil were published in FOOM#13.

Your analysis of the love triangle is both hilarious and apt.

One thing I found very surprising as I bought certain back issues of DD is how unlikeable Matt Murdock becomes. He's made some real terrible decisions over the years and has treated his love interests very badly.

Given how Stan was writing basically the same dialogue with minor changes in three books (I can't love Jean/Pepper/Karen because I have optic blasts/have a heart condition/am blind), if he ever wrote the wrong thing. Maybe have Scott think about Karen or Tony complain about being blind.

Actually, the Ox last appeared in ASM 19, not 14.

The footnote does say he was last seen in #14, but you're right and i've updated the Reference. Thanks mikrolik. Hey, maybe that's the first hint that the Ox had a twin brother.

Oh yeah, I meant the comic made that mistake, not you.

The best thing about this issue is Mr. Fear's plan to lure in Daredevil... by exhibiting a wax figure of Daredevil. Fear just takes it for granted that Daredevil will think a wax figure of himself is so super-cool that he'll rush to go look at it.

Strangely, the Eel doesn't seem to have his electrical gimmick in this comic. He's just a guy in...well, lubricated spandex. Who apparently hangs around in sewers. Whatever floats your boat, Leo.

Drago should have been brought back and used his museum for a House of Wax type plot.

It's never made clear how Daredevil knows exactly which wax figure is of him. Usually he gets an expository thought balloon for that kind of thing. How exactly could his radar sense help him know the difference?

I'm a sucker for Stan's 1960s villain teams and wish The Fellowship of Fear would have been a recurring menace for DD, especially with a rotating membership of low-end dweebs from the Human Torch's and Ant-Man's solo series. It would've been fun to see characters like the Rabble Rouser and the Acrobat as members.