Hey, this is different! Daredevil! Would that it were truly the end of The Masked Marauder. We know better, though, having dealt with “Big M” quite awhile ago in TAC. This issue of DD is brought to us by Stan Lee & the great Gene Colan, with inking by the ubiquitous Frank Giacoia. This should be weird, as it takes place during one of DD’s weirder subplots. Stan will maybe catch us up as we go. Let’s see. We open on Daredevil searching for the absurd Stilt-Man, who has escaped from a fight they had last issue. But it’s only page 2 before a certain red & blue guest star shows up.
“We totally got this,” says dudes who totally don’t got this. No matter what superhero’s book you’re reading [goons is the same meme, if you can get one]
Smooth comeback, DD. We leave that awkward argument to go see The Masked Marauder, hanging out with the aforementioned Stilt-Man. MM apparently saved Stilt-Man from DD last issue, and is trying to talk him into a team-up by showing him his new helicopter, which has a force field around it which can… I guess disintegrate anything? Stilty is impressed, and decides to show off how he can extend his dumb stilt legs really fast.
Ok, so, Mike Murdock. To throw people off his secret identity, Matt Murdock made up a twin brother who doesn’t exist named Mike, and told everyone he’s Daredevil. Hijinks ensued. It’s a very wacky plot twist. So, naturally, whenever DD’s been up to something, people want to ask Matt about his brother. At any rate, Stilt-Man tosses gas into the office, and ironically, because of his heightened senses, Matt thinks he’ll be the first to be overcome. I’m not… sure about that… but he’s down, and Stilt-Man piles the whole gang into Masked Marauder’s helicopter. Stilt-Man left a note for DD in the office, so they’re just gonna fly around and wait for him to show up. This plan… is not working…
Har har. Karen is horrified by Matt selling out his imaginary brother as MM lowers the copter so Stilt-Man can get out and do his thing, hitting the ground to go look for Mike Murdock. He can’t find him, obviously, but he does find someone…
Yeah, man, that wasn’t just a quick cameo, Spidey’s in this issue for real.
It’s interesting to contrast Colan’s approach to action vs. Romita’s or Ditko’s. Colan is a much looser artist, and things like that multi-fist to show movement are not gonna happen over in ASM. Very cool. Back in the helicopter, Masked Marauder decides to kill his captives. And then things get weird, as a whole bunch of lucky coincidences happen in short order. Matt is betting on MM deciding to toss him out of the copter, which he decides to do, and then Matt fights back to make it look good, hoping to make MM bump into the controls for his force field and deactivate it. Which he does. He bets MM will then fire his gun, and… he does, allowing Matt to put his hands up and get the ropes holding him shot off. Then he falls out of the copter, ditches his regular clothes, and swings back up and in the other side as DD. That’s… impossible. Look at this:
Crazy. Shout out to Karen, though, not going down without a fight. DD says he lowered Matt to a nearby rooftop with his cable, and now it’s a brawl between him and MM in the cramped helicopter. During the action, Matt suddenly realizes who The Masked Marauder is based on his heartbeat, but right about then, MM is knocked into the controls to the copter, turning off the autopilot and sending it spinning out of control. The Maraurder keeps trying to kill everyone even as the copter is falling to their collective death, so DD whips his mask off, revealing him to be… Frank Farnum, the landlord who owns the building Nelson & Murdock is in. No, really. Really! Steve Ditko was so against Green Goblin turning out to be Harry’s dad, thinking it was too much of a coincidence, that it was the last straw and he quite Marvel over it. Imagine if he saw this, his brain woulda shut down. At any rate…
Gas really is Spider-Man’s most successful enemy. Just, like, the concept of gas. So many people have gotten over on him with gas. Don’t worry about Stilt-Man, though…
That was easy! And improbable! Not the best showing for our man, but then, it’s not his book. Masked Marauder was introduced in Daredevil 16 & 17, which also happened to guest star Spidey, so it’s only fitting that Spider-Man’s here for his “honest to gosh end.” If I ever come across those issues, we’ll be seeing them here. As for his death here, when he resurfaced, he would say that the force field was actually a teleporter. Of course! He was eventually killed by The Punisher, along with a whole bunch of Z-listers, at the wake of Stilt-Man. Unless I get ahold of DD 16 & 17, we shall not see him again.
This issue features a letter from Tom Orzechowski, who would grow up to be a renowned comic book letterer, doing most of Chris Claremont’s X-Men, designing the logo for Wolverine and helping launch Spawn, among other jobs. Always fun to see a famous name in the letters. Come back next time for a return to our regularly scheduled Amazings.