Issue(s): Daredevil #85
Cover Date: Mar 72
Title: "Night flight!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Syd Shores - Inker

Review/plot:
On their way home from Europe, the Black Widow, Daredevil, and Ivan find themselves on a flight that the Gladiator intends to hijack.

It's really wacky to me seeing the 1st class passenger lounge on a 747. I've never seen one in real life so i first assumed Colan was smoking crack until i remembered seeing something similar in a movie (Midnight Run!) and then did a little Googling to confirm it was a real thing. Look at this! This is on a plane!

Anyway, it's a decent fight issue in an environment that isn't exactly best suited to Daredevil's fighting style (although that isn't really played up as much as you'd expect). There's a fun/goofy ending with the Gladiator in the cockpit thinking that he's got Daredevil tied up and DD tricks the Gladiator into sending out his goons one by one.

The really sputter-inducing part of this story is that when Daredevil and the Black Widow are tied up, one of the passengers helps untie DD but DD says not to untie the Widow. I am outraged!

Matt thinks to himself that the reason he's doing that is to get on Ivan's good side, since Ivan is also apparently disapproving of the Black Widow getting into fights.

This lady was an international super-spy! She's fought with the Avengers! She had her own series!

At least Daredevil didn't untie Ivan.

In subplots, Foggy is still upset about whatever Mr. Kline was blackmailing him for, and Karen is still torn between Matt and her boyfriend Phil.

At the end of this issue, while the plane is about to crash, Daredevil thinks to himself that "the face I keep seeing" is Karen's, not Natasha's.

Mark Gruenwald sends in a letter where he expresses absolute glee ("I couldn't contain myself. I finished the story, and fell back on my pillow, comic-book over heart") over the Daredevil/Black Widow partnership.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Daredevil and the Black Widow are flying home from their adventure in Europe last issue; they shouldn't appear elsewhere in between.

References:

• The Gladiator says that he's only fought Daredevil "once or twice" which threw me for a loop until i realized everyone is playing along with the idea that there was once an original Daredevil named Mike Murdock but he died. The only actual footnote is for Daredevil #63.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

one of my favourite DD covers where it looks like when DD is fighting the gladiator, that he accidentally takes out an innocent passenger.

Link to the cover: http://www.comics.org/issue/24947/cover/4/

Inside the issue, the stewardesses aren't quite as elfin, and the nice man in the business suit that, per Kveto, Daredevil seems to be accidentally kicking is actually one of the "unfriendly trio" seen in one of the scans above.

This was one of my first ever Marvel comics, along with FF #114, both given to me by a friend in elementary school. I read this over and over and enjoyed it for years. Not thrilled with Colan's shadowy art, but he did make the Widow look sexy in some panels. I also remember knowing that Gil Kane did the cover, with his offbeat fighting angles a sure giveaway. He also made DD's head look funny on the cover, the horns resembled cat-like ears.

Oh and I never thought that was a passndger DD takes out, but rather a flunky, both of those guys in the suits.

Funny but it looked to me like DD was protecting two passengers by pushing them out of the path of Gladiator's slashing wrist saw blades.