My Famous Firsts: Daredevil issue 87

A recent thread on the highly entertaining “Crivens” blog brought up the issue of what was the first Marvel comic that you purchased. Although I couldn’t be 100% certain on what that comic was (it may have been Sgt. Fury Annual issue 5) the question did make me ponder on the subject of what was the first issue of specific comic book titles that I purchased back in the day. The comic that immediately came to my mind as a “famous first” for me was the above issue of Daredevil (issue 87) which was released in February 1972. I still have a mental picture of seeing this comic neatly stacked along with some other titles in my local newsagents at time, around August that year. I had of course been aware of Daredevil before this day having read his adventures reprinted in various UK Alan Class comics and in the “Mighty World of Marvel” weekly comic where the characters stories appeared from February 1973 (issue 20) when he took over the pages made vacant when Spider-Man graduated to his own weekly title.

This was a great issue to be my first U.S. Daredevil comic. Not only was it the start of a new chapter for Daredevil and the Black Widow who were both relocating to a new city, but the internal art by the legendary Gene Colan was taken to new hights by the addition of Tom Palmers amazing inks (his first inks on Gene’s DD art for several issue). And of course the exciting cover by John Buscema and Frank Giacoia was a bonus.

An interesting storyline in this issue was the fact that not only had Matt and Natasha moved from New York to San Francisco they had also moved in together as a couple without actually being married. From memory this may have been the first time in a comic book that this had happened with two characters, although as noted in the page above Natasha makes it very clear that they will not (for the time being at least) be sharing a room or indeed will not even be living on the same floor of their new house.

In this story titled “From Stage Left, Enter: Electro.” after relocating to San Francisco Daredevil and the Black Widow battle Electro who himself has come to the city to make his name as a super villain on the West coast. Gaining the upper hand in the fight DD battles Electro forcing him to retreat from the fight. At the same time as the battle is in progress a man named Danny French arrives at their new house to ask for Natasha. This causes her some concern when Ivan, their driver/assistant informs her of his visit. The story of Danny French unravels over the next 4 issues where it is revealed that he and Natasha had undertaken a mission to obtain a powerful globe called Project 4.

I wouldn’t pick up another US edition of Daredevil (now titled “Daredevil and the Black Widow” ) until issue 106 around 1974 but I contented myself with reading their adventures in the weekly “Mighty World Of Marvel” comic.