Book Review: Essential Daredevil Volume 5

Essential Daredevil, Vol. 5 by Steve Gerber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Daredevil Issues 102-125 along with Marvel Two in One #3 which comes between Daredevil #109 and #110.

The majority of this book is written by Steve Gerber (#103-115 plus Marvel Two in One #3) with Tony Isabella putting in a solid run (#117-#123)and is rapped up by Marv Wolfman (#124 and #125), with fill in issued by Chris Claremont (#102 and #117) and Gerry Conway (#116). The art chores go mostly to Bob Brown, but Gene Colan and some other artists contribute.

Claremont's issue is worth commenting on because it leads off and its weird mainly because it has Stiltman dreaming of world domination. Stiltman? There are many Marvel villains who have that dream. Stiltman isn't one of them.

Then the Gerber run resumes and Daredevil gets really good. While Daredevil still does pander to the audience with random philosophical meandering while fighting crime, the character is much better done than during than the run by Conway. We get a guest appearance by Spider-man by #103 and then Kraven the Hunter is brought to San Francisco in Issue #104-105 which leads into meeting Moon Dragon and a battle with the villain who has been behind every attack on Daredevil and Black Windows since their arrival in San Francisco and Daredevil has to save the world with the help of Captain Marvel. Then he faces a deadly criminal who is able to control all women through mind control in the Mandrill and teams up with Shaina the She-devil. Then Daredevil gets into a battle with Deathstalker in a cross-over with man-thing. All these plots are fantastic comic book fun. Issues 116 and 117 feature an okay story with Daredevil battling Owl Man again with the villain more dangerous than ever.

After Conway writes Issues 118, an okay story with the Circus of Crime, Tony Isabella takes over in Issue #119 and the book becomes more fun than it's been since Stan Lee was writing it. He begins with a visit to Battlin' Jack Murdoch's old gym, and then to a fantastic four part story where Foggy Nelson i invited to become part of SHIELD's governing board and is kidnapped by Hydra. Isabella adds in two text stories that detail the history of Hydra.

After that all-too brief run, Marv Wolfman takes over with a story about a vigilante imitating a pulp hero.

Overall, these are mostly solid fun. The Black Widow and Daredevil relationship works a lot better under Gerber and Isabella with her also generally being a more rounded character who is pretty dangerous in her own right and really contributes to the partnership. The title changed from Daredevil and Black Widow back to Daredevil in Issue #108, but she didn't disappear from the book until Issue #124. Even there, Gerber deserves points for adding reasons for tension in the relationship, particularly Natasha Romanoff's tendency to brutalize suspects and her lack of compunction about killing. Though by the time Issue #124 rolls around the only reason given for the end is her fear of being in Daredevil's shadow, which makes her seem so insecure and concerned about self-image and position that she can't be a gracious partner.

Overall, the book works and is probably the most enjoyable volume since the second essential collection.



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