Daredevil Message Board

[Mike Murdock]

Next week, I wanted to do something Black Widow related to build up to the movie, so this is technically a fill-in issue. But it's a Roy Thomas/Gene Colan Gladiator story we haven't done yet so I thought it was a good one to pick.

Daredevil Vol. 1 #63 - The Girl or the Gladiator

[Dimetre]

I don't have much to type about this issue from April 1970. Gene Colan's artwork is excellent, but Roy Thomas' story if full of contrivances.

First, we're asked to believe that the people running the prison wouldn't believe their own eyes. He looks exactly like Melvin Potter, but he claims not to be. It is the Marvel Universe, but still. It turns out he actually was Melvin! Gasp!

Secondly, turning out the lights makes Melvin release his grip on Foggy. I don't know why.

Third, the rotating blades Matt and Foggy brought to the prison were rigged to disintegrate after a few minutes use, so any suspense us readers felt was completely unjustified.

It feels like this Gladiator story was just a placeholder to occupy our time while Karen Page left New York. As annoying as I felt the early period of Matt and Karen's relationship was, the end of this issue is kind of sad. Matt reached out too late. To end on a row of steadily widening panels of a ringing phone is kind of poignant. It even makes frozen-hearted me wistful.

It's prime-era Colan, so it earns a high grade just for that, but the main Gladiator story is silly. I give this a 3.5 out of 5.

[Mike Murdock]

This issue starts with a Roy Thomas hallmark of second person narration. It's an odd choice that you definitely wouldn't see anymore (I think it's most famous in Iron Fist), but it's OK.

This issue also starts with soap opera melodrama as Karen Page quits because Matt loves being DD more than her. Karen says she's leaving, but also says she wants Matt to stop her. It also suggests she fell in love with the idea of helping a blind man (which reinforces the idea that Matt had in his Stan Lee days that she would only like him because she felt sorry for him, which is a bit uncomfortable).
I like that the main plot follows Foggy and Matt going to prison to visit the Gladiator (who still doesn't have a name, weirdly enough). It isn't explicitly a superhero story but is, instead, a story where Matt Murdock gets to be in his civilian identity. It's obviously an excuse to get him to change into his costume, though. It would be nice if it could emphasize that Matt can be Matt without the need for Daredevil. I do think it's interesting that Gladiator raises the idea that he's insane. I wonder if Frank Miller or Roger McKenzie were inspired by this issue. Of course, the reveal here is that he's not crazy, which makes for an awkward continuity moment (I would argue that they were inconsistent on this point throughout and there have been other references to Gladiator being deluded to some degree). The "mental illness" here is amnesia, though, so it's entirely different than what happened later.

The fight is OK. It has some drama to it, but Daredevil quickly gets the upper hand. The main point of it is that it distracts Matt from stopping Karen so she gets on a plane. I don't know if that was the intended end of the character or just to set up more melodrama, but it ends up being the beginning of the end (for now).

It's an OK issue. The soap opera stuff is fairly forced but I found it the more interesting aspect. The fight scene took up about half the issue, but ended up feeling cramped and a bit stilted. Three and a Half Stars.
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Matt Murdock's cooler twin brother

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