Issue(s): Daredevil #87
Cover Date: May 72
Title: "From stage left, enter: Electro!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker

Review/plot:
Matt Murdock is a fast mover, ok? Last issue he was going to marry Karen Page, and now he's moved across the country with the Black Widow and is moving into a house with her.

The watchful, disapproving Ivan watches over everything they do, however, so they're forced to take separate rooms.

It's a strange new city, full of a new supporting cast including police lieutenant Paul Carson and police chief Robert "Ironguts" O'Hara, who doesn't think much of superheroes...

...and Danny French, a weirdo friend of the Black Widow's.

But luckily Electro is in town to make Daredevil feel at home.

At least, i think it's Electro.

I guess his original mask is too outrageous for the rest of the country, but this version is not an improvement.

This issue does help with my little pet theory that outside of New York City, super-villains typically have free reign. Electro is in town for "rest" and "to get away from the creep Spider-Man" and he says "Frisco has yet to be educated in matters of super-villainy".

Daredevil theorizes that Electro is "schizo" because he's alternating between villain high-speak ("perverse Baroque english") and street slang, but i think that's actually just peer pressure. Electro has hung around Doc Ock and knows what he's supposed to sound like but he doesn't quite have the knack for it.

Electro manages to escape (soaring away on a bolt of lightning!)...

...and meanwhile the Widow is rattled by the arrival of Danny French.

An editor response in the lettercol wonders why no one ever writes in to ask anything about Ivan, and then says that they're going to tell us all about him next issue anyway:

And come on, folks - hasn't anyone got the slightest interest in just who this fella Ivan is? So far, our slang-tossing Russian has been around for almost two years, and no one has ever questioned his relationship with the mysterious Madame Natasha! (And in case you haven't guessed, all of that's just a lead-in to our next mind-boggling issue! Oh, sometimes we're so devious we surprise even ourselves!)

It's weird how Ivan, textbook third wheel (or fifth+ wheel when he "joins" the Champions) managed to hang around so long as a character when the 1970s Marvel audience apparently had about as much interest in him as i do.

The past two issues of Daredevil have been relatively focused for Gerry Conway, but that's about to change with the introduction of Danny French and the dire Project Four plotline.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Daredevil moves to San Francisco

Chronological Placement Considerations: Pushed back a bit in publication time to get Daredevil #88 prior to Hulk #151-153.

References:

• Daredevil met the Black Widow thanks to the inexplicable machinations of Mr. Kline in Daredevil #81. The Kline plot wrapped up in Daredevil #84.
  
• Daredevil and Electro first met in Daredevil #2.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A