Issue(s): Daredevil #70
Cover Date: Nov 70
Title: "The Tribune"
Credits:
Gary Friedrich - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Syd Shores - Inker

Review/plot:
Gary Friedrich is back, this time doing the full story (he wrote the script to issue #67). Friedrich takes the opportunity to make a political statement less ripped from the day's headlines than copied via silly putty. Actually, this story is completed next issue, which is by Roy Thomas (and Len Wein), so maybe Thomas was behind the plotting all along in an editorial capacity. In any event, we start out west where Karen Page is hoping to get into a movie with aging actor Buck Ralston, who is a strong advocate of patriotism.

In fact, he's secretly a super-villain called the Tribune, dispensing his own brand of justice to the hippies.

Back east, vice president Spiro Agnew is giving a speech at the New York Hilton hotel, and a bunch of protestors want to talk to him.

At the protest, Daredevil notices a group with a bomb, and tries to stop them, but gets caught in the explosion.

In the aftermath, a protestor gets arrested for the bombing. Daredevil is pretty sure that he's not actually the bomber, but he's too groggy to stand up for him.

Two other kids are also arrested, with seemingly no evidence.

It will turn out that the Tribune is really behind the bombing. In the meantime, Foggy and Matt are forced to prosecute.

In real life, a little after this issue was published, the Hilton hotel in New York really was bombed, causing a bit of a stir in the lettercols. And of course there were other bombings around this time from extreme protestors. But very few of them were really perpetrated by John Wayne in false flag operations. So this story either takes a very biased approach to dealing with a topical issue or it skirts the more difficult subject of radicalism in the face of the unjust war in Vietnam (and the draft), depending on how you look at it. But either way it feels superficial. Of course i'm getting ahead of myself but next issue will play out exactly as you'd expect. It's definitely an interesting window into the time period, though.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: At least three days pass during the course of this issue. Next issue begins "weeks" later.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Daredevil vol. 3