Issue(s): Marvel Fanfare #27 (Daredevil story only)
Cover Date: Jul 86
Title: "Cars"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Tony Salmons - Penciler
Tony Salmons - Inker
Rosemary McCormick-Lowy - Assistant Editor
Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
This issue's Editori-Al comic has Milgrom mock-defying Jim Shooter, who says that "when we run unusual, experimental art jobs in Fanfare, we should alert the readers to it! Tell 'em what we're attempting -- what new ground we're trying to break." But Milgrom says that "such an assertion might sound too pendantic, too erudite... too dull."

The art in the main story here is by Tony Salmons, and while it's a little stylized...

...it's not really something that requires an opening disclaimer. His later Dakota North work, for example, will be more experimental. The art here is relatively straightforward.

The story, by Bill Mantlo, has Foggy taking maybe a bit of advantage of Matt Murdock by convincing Matt to let him buy a company car that he really wants to use to take his wife on vacation. Matt is of course blind, and both lawyers live in the city and don't really need a car. Mantlo makes a point of showing how traffic congestion in the city plays havoc with Daredevil's senses.

But Matt happily agrees to let Foggy buy the car.

The car is then stolen and damaged while Daredevil recovers it. The firm gets their money back thanks to insurance, but Matt decides to buy Foggy and Debbie plane tickets to avoid going through it all again.

Just a harmless cute little story. It's actually kind of nice to see a more lighthearted Daredevil story.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Foggy Nelson has his ill-advised mustache. A plot point of this issue is that he is about to go on a vacation with his wife Debbie (who appears on page 10 of this story, with Foggy's arm around her).

The MCP places this between Daredevil #218-219 but by that point Foggy and Debbie were separated with Debbie having filed for divorce. You could argue that they were trying to patch things up, but, since the story is otherwise context free, it's simpler to place this before the Micah Synn storyline puts a wedge in Foggy and Debbie's relationship. I've placed this circa Daredevil #203 (which works pretty well; in DD #202 Foggy just had the Nelson & Murdock door sign repainted to make his own name bigger, and here he's buying a car on the company account). The story itself takes place over the course of a week, per a "later that week" narration panel. The Spider-Man back-up story that was also included in this issue has to take place after Normie Osborn is born, so i've split that into a separate entry.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Just a harmless cute little story. It's actually kind of nice to see a more lighthearted Daredevil story."

I started reading Daredevil with issue 226, and this issue was published at the tale end of Miller/Mazzucchelli's run; needless to say, it was complely different than any DD story I'd read to this point.