Interview With A Daredevil

Marvel 100th Anniversary Issues

FEATURING:

Daredevil #100

Thanks to its promising cover by Rich Buckler, there was every reason to believe that the 100th issue of Daredevil published in mid-1973 (that is, his first 100th issue--there would be another in 2007) would be just as much of a landmark issue as those of other titles reaching that point.  Yet you may come away from its story feeling that you haven't experienced anything that really marked the occasion, or that Marvel even gave that aspect of it much thought beyond acknowledging it. Its main segment--Daredevil giving an interview to Rolling Stone Editor Jann Wenner, where he reflects on his beginnings and why he wants to lead the life he does--is presented in the context of the city's population being subjected to a mental onslaught which leaves them debilitated for minutes afterward before the memory of the experience fades. It's an attack which includes both DD and Wenner, during which Daredevil hallucinates that all of his old foes are rushing toward him--an all-too-brief scene which fulfills the cover's symbolic representation of the story's content, but little more.

For those readers who aren't quite up on Daredevil's origin, writer Steve Gerber and artist Gene Colan present a bare-bones retelling of the pertinent scenes as DD sifts through them during his interview--before DD turns his energy to pinning down the cause of the mental attacks. The one responsible for the chaos, Angar the Screamer, would show up on the issue's last page, with DD's interview mostly forgotten by this point (at least it feels that way)--nor is there even a reckoning between Angar and DD, since this 100th issue ends on a "to be continued" note.

As to how and why Daredevil is the subject of a RS interview in the first place, Gerber gets him there by having him foil a group of robbers who have stolen files from the RS building, with Wenner coaxing DD back into the building and springing the interview idea on him--quite a pretense for a segue from robbery to interview, since it's difficult to imagine what armed thugs would want with any documents from the Rolling Stone offices. (Was the mag's subscription price that exorbitant?) DD notes how it simply doesn't make sense--but once he's in Wenner's office, neither man feels like pursuing it further, an absurd lack of interest on both their parts given that each has a vested interest in putting the culprit(s) behind bars.

So much for that pesky robbery. The thugs could return with more men and guns to retrieve those files--yet neither of these two give the matter a second thought.

The interview touches on certain points in Daredevil's life, but not many; the flashbacks provided mostly deal with the basics of his origin--as well as "Mike Murdock," a character which probably no reader wants to revisit. Even Wenner admits that there's not much story material here, an observation that can't help but feel applicable to this very issue as a whole.

It's here that DD hears alarming sounds from outside before experiencing another hallucinatory waking nightmare, with Wenner pulled into his illusion and seeing what DD perceives. On that note, we know that DD shouldn't be seeing anything, since illusions carry no heartbeats or other distinctive indications that his radar sense can translate; but Gerber's narrative makes due with "Daredevil's super senses survey a checkered, convoluted landscape that can only be... his soul." Fair enough, since a mental attack could presumably have him seeing anything or anyone from his memories. But once the experience has run its course, Daredevil uses it as a way to more clearly define himself for Wenner--as well as for readers of his 100th issue who were expecting more of an affirmation of his career going forward.

From here, DD turns his attention to the ongoing crisis in the city, as Angar makes his debut. As for this "epoch-making 100th issue," as its cover boldly proclaims, to be honest I found DD's 1967 annual a more memorable read, and a more fun experience--one that probably would have perked up this interview for Mr. Wenner.

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Jann Wenner, 1973

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz