Issue(s): Daredevil #90, Daredevil #91
Cover Date: Aug-Sep 72
Title: "The sinister secret of Project Four!" / "Fear is the key!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker

Review/plot:
This issue, we finally learn the Black Widow's secret regarding Danny French and Project Four. Natash and Danny were part of an espionage attempt that went bad, stealing a powerful energy globe object from a group called Project Four.

The problem is that the Widow thought Danny was using knockout grenades, but they turned out to be poison gas grenades, and all of the scientists at the project were killed.

French still has the globe, but it turns out that he doesn't really know how to use it and he's just a small time thug.

This is said to have been the Widow's first mission, "...before almost everything. Before I first fought Iron man, before I met Clint Barton and all the Avengers...".

Danny and Natasha were pursued by "Red Chinese" during their mission, and Danny was said to have been a "revolutionary" but it's not really clear if Danny was working for the Soviets as the Widow would have been at the time, or why Danny has simply kept the globe.

The Widow is now concerned that French is either going to reveal the Widow's involvement in the Project Four project, or use the power of the orb to kill Daredevil and then blackmail her into being with him.

But we don't actually deal with Danny French in this issue. The bad guy is the new Mr. Fear.

His name is Larry Cranston, a former law school companion of Matt's, and he's now a partner at a law firm that is trying to recruit Murdock. Jason Sloan, the other partner, generally has not been good to Cranston. There's some deliberate misdirection; we're led to believe that Sloan is actually the bad guy. But Cranston has hated Murdock since law school.

There's a whole lot of angst going on in these comics, too.

Frankly, with the whole Project Four red herring and the multiple Mr. Fears, this plot is typical Conway, convoluted and confusing with no real satisfying resolutions. Colan's artwork is nice, though.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Larry Cranston as Mr. Fear

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The original Mr. Fear, Zoltan Drago, died behind the scenes by Starr Saxon circa Daredevil #54.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Daredevil #100 (vol. 2)

The Comics Code forced a change to one of the covers, probably because Mr. Fear appeared to be strangling Daredevil on one of them.