More Daredevil goodness!!!
Issue #36
Daredevil needs to get into the Baxter Building and save Sue Storm, who is still covered in white, sticky...goo. Okay, you're fooling nobody with this shit, Stan Lee! You dirty hornball. For Christ's sake, look at her face!
But the catch is this: The Trapster has triggered a bomb to detonate the second it senses body heat from someone entering the building! The Trapster set up...A TRAP! Of course, Daredevil is too quick on his feet and immediately realizes something is wrong. He finds the hidden bomb and tosses it outside the window, where it lights up the NYC skyline!
Naturally, the rest of the Fantastic Four happened to be standing outside on the ground level and witness the explosion! They better go check it out and see WTF just blew up right outside their precious headquarters. Meanwhile, Daredevil "struggles" to free Sue Storm from her sticky trap. I'll just leave this image right here...
So Daredevil beats up The Trapster in a very forgettable fight scene atop the anti-gravity flyer. The Fantastic Four just sort of stand by...because why not let the least powerful hero present fight the enemy who just tried killing you all and splattered Sue with his white hot liquid fun stuff?
But there's no time to question the FF's bravery or loyalty because we need to cut back to Foggy Nelson who has just been offered the district attorney job RIGHT OUT OF THE BLUE! Karen is so excited by the prospect that she leaps straight into Foggy's arms. Seriously, Stan Lee writes Karen more shallow thin than his villains. People dogging on Deborah Ann Woll for her portrayal of Karen in the Netflix series don't have a clue. She's putting in Meryl Streep work when you factor in the source material she has.
So right when you think the issue is coming to an end...it doesn't! Daredevil engages in a drawn-out fight with The Trapster than ends with our horned hero knocking his foe out cold. But in the process, Daredevil somehow ends up falling onto some train tracks. He hears footsteps approaching, and "looks" up to find NONE OTHER THAN DOCTOR DOOM! OH BOY! We need to wait for next issue to see what's going down.
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Issue #37
So Dr. Doom proceeds to beat the living piss out of Daredevil. I'm not kidding, he holds nothing back. Just a good ole fashioned ass kicking.
Doom takes the now unconscious Daredevil to his vehicle, en route to the embassy. The Latverian embassy, perhaps? We'll have to wait and see! He invokes his unlimited diplomatic immunity in urging the driver to step on it. Which is weird, in a sense, since he was just concerned with getting arrested a few panels earlier. Which is it, Stan? Huh?
So Doom is the royal master absolute of Latveria, and has full immunity within the embassy walls. It's a bit wild when you consider the royal leader of a country lives in another country and terrorizes its population, only to hide out in his embassy. Doom talks a huge game, but he scampers behind diplomatic protection at the first sign of trouble.
Double D makes an "escape" out of a prison trap down...only to find he's a puppet in Doom's game! You see, Doom has created some sort of a contraption that makes Daredevil shrink, and the room spin around, and stuff turns upside down, and...okay, so NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY DAMN SENSE. I don't know. Let's be real here, Stan Lee just goes with whatever he thinks up sometimes and you either roll with it or you don't. The whole concept is to test Daredevil's willpower, to see if he's a suitable candidate to help Doom destroy the Fantastic Four.
The rest of the issue devolves into a Fantastic Four storyline against Doom. Seriously, WTF is up with the Fantastic Four? I'm guessing their comic sales were booming back in the late 60s and Stan was just trying to shoehorn them into everything, because it doesn't mesh with anything that popped up before it. I mean, FUCKING GALACTUS SHOWS UP IN THIS ISSUE. Daredevil doesn't even appear for multiple pages.
In a move that pre-dates Dan Slott's Superior Spider-Man run by decades, Doom has devised a BODY-TRANSFERRAL RAY! And he uses it to swap bodies with Daredevil. Doom is now Daredevil! Daredevil is now Doom! I have a headache!
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Issue #38
Okay, proof of what an idiot Doom is: he swaps bodies with Daredevil, but neglects to tell his guards about it. So Matt Murdock, in the form of Doom, merely calls his minions in to free him from his trap. Doom is a straight moron, no questions.
Doom's own minions try to take him down. Because he's a moron. Also, Daredevil in Doom's body sends a warning to the Fantastic Four that trouble is headed their way!
Doom (in Daredevil's body) shows his minions his royal ring, thus proving that he is their actual boss. He tells them to go take down Daredevil (in Doom's body). Look, this story is dangerously simplistic. We're talking Freaky Friday level of plot. But Stan "The Man" Lee feels a need to enlighten the reader on what's going down, just in case any slowpokes got lost along the way. Thanks, Stan!
Foggy jeopardizes his future D.A. nomination by dating ex-convict Deborah Harris. Because reasons. Go Foggy, I guess. Get it where you can.
Daredevil decides he will convince Doom to swap back to their normal bodies...by calling up Latveria and telling his ministers to declare open war on all their neighboring countries. And it works! Doom is a big game talker, but he doesn't want to risk war against RED CHINA. All bluster, no action. And just like that, the issue ends on a whimper. They swap bodies back, and Daredevil heads towards the FF building. If you want to read the conclusion to that storyline, you gotta buy Fantastic Four #73, since it won't be going down in the Daredevil series. Marvel already rocking those cross-series events way back in the 60s.
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Issue #39
This issue is trash. Daredevil fights the Unholy Three, comprised of Cat Man, Ape Man, and Birdman. Just the worst! No thanks, Stan.
The Exterminator shows up and rocks some sort of Time Displacement Ray, that knocks people temporarily out of our timeline and into another reality? Your guess is as good as mine. I don't think Stan knows what he was getting into with this story line.
Matt and Karen cut a rug. She wants him! Oh, she wants him! But he's blind, damn it. You can't be with a blind dude, or something.
Foggy's new girl gets hit by the Time Displacement Ray and disappears into the abyss of time. Foggy is forever losing. He's pissed! He tells Matt to go fetch his brother "Mike" (AKA Daredevil) to get some sweet, ole fashioned revenge.
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Issue #40
Criminals are always robbing banks in this series. Like they could have the most powerful weapons and tools at their disposal, the kind that would let them conquer an foreign nation. And inevitably, they'll use it to try and rob a bank. And they'll get caught. They always do. This issue finds the Unholy Three using the Time Displacement Ray to rob a bank. Naturally, Daredevil shows up to issue some sweet justice.
But Daredevil gets his with the Time Displacement Ray! Reality and time gets all distorted and he ends up...somewhere? In a series where little makes any logical sense, I'm just going to go with it. Foggy's convict girlfriend is there on the other end, so it's some sort of time purgatory for everyone shot with that damn ray! You gotta be careful with this shit, Stan!
The issue ends with Matt worried he'll be stuck in this time purgatory forever! Will he? Only one way to find out! We'll have to read issue #41! To be continued later...
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Only 118 issues to go until we hit Frank Miller's run! More importantly, only 196 issues to go until we reach the Ann Nocenti run! THE GOAT.
