It's Electro vs. The Acme Company--And One Must Fall!

I became a reader of Amazing Spider-Man well before making my way back through issues of Daredevil, so by that time I'd had plenty of exposure to classic Spidey villains such as the Sandman, Doc Ock, the Kingpin, the Vulture, the Rhino, et al.--and of course the hard case named Max Dillon, a/k/a Electro, who provided the wall-crawler with some of his most hard-fought battles. So just as Daredevil's own title was getting out of the gate in mid-1964, it probably made sense that the first villain ever to be billed as the one who defeated Spider-Man should be the one to provide Daredevil's fledgling title with the bump it needed to gain some momentum with its new readers.

Yet Electro's appearances with this fearless crimefighter didn't quite strike the same spark that they did with the web-slinger, for whatever reason. Perhaps a brief look at a few of those early DD/Electro bouts might shed some light on the matter. And if there's one villain who can shed a good deal of light on a situation:

Not to mention a little high-voltage.

Electro certainly had a good plan for dealing with his foe--launching him into space aboard the Fantastic Four's NASA missile. Yet, incredibly, Daredevil not only makes it back to Earth, but he's also determined to bring Electro in before calling it a night. He's definitely not your typical astronaut.

Surprised to say the least to see Daredevil, Electro (heh) bolts from the Baxter Building but is unable to ditch his horn-headed pursuer in the streets. Their battle finally reaches its conclusion in a movie theater, as DD, pulling victory from near-defeat, rings down the curtain on his shocked opponent.

(I promise I'm done with the puns.)

We next see Electro as part of the Emissaries of Evil, where he joins the Matador, Stilt-Man, the Leap-Frog, and the Gladiator as they all trip over each other trying to nail Daredevil--and fail. Five years later, Electro reappears in San Francisco and is surprised once again to see Daredevil (along with the Black Widow) now operating on the west coast. Electro regards it as an opportunity to take his revenge, as he promised following their first meeting; but it seems Electro has become slightly schizophrenic in the interim. Their meeting is fierce, brief, and more than a little confusing for DD.

Later, allied with Killgrave, Electro meets defeat courtesy of the Widow, who lures him into contact with (I kid you not) a lightning rod made by none other than the Acme Company*, which causes a feedback of his power--while Killgrave fares no better against Daredevil.

And just check out that product placement!

*Jokes about the time-honored fictional Acme Company notwithstanding, they do seem to make and sell just about every item you can think of. A distribution agreement with Amazon would be a match made in heaven.


It's an admittedly pitiful performance thus far from Electro against the Man Without Fear--and even more so against the Black Widow. What happens when you throw Spider-Man into the mix? You get a humorous issue of Marvel Team-Up, where Electro (along with Blizzard) hatches a scheme to extort money from the two biggest newspaper publishers in New York City.

Electro seems more lucid this time around--but the team-up between DD and Spidey is definitely played for laughs, with their villainous playmates as the fall guys. Or, looked at another way, it's only a matter of time before Electro... (the last pun, scout's honor) ... stops the presses.

The pizzazz quotient noticeably... come on, I was never a scout... spikes when Electro faces DD away from his own title and in the company of Spider-Man. Speaking of which, Electro gets a little of his own back in another such pairing, this time in the pages of What If in a story that puts a twist on his first battle with Daredevil--only this time, Spider-Man joins the fray, and is present to hear the startling deduction that Electro has made during the fight.

Daredevil could have done some fast improvising and responded that his mask is equipped with special lenses (which is obvious); instead, he was caught flat-footed, and it goes without saying that Electro doesn't waste time disclosing information that definitely compromises DD's ability to do his job. (If he'd mentioned that they were Acme lenses, Electro would have muttered "Curses!" and that would have been then end of it.)

Check out a contemporary look at Electro's classic first encounter with Daredevil
in Jeph Loeb's 2001 series, Daredevil: Yellow.

NEXT:

Hold the phone. Aren't we forgetting the little matter of just how DD returned from space?