Avsnitt

  • Episode 44 - Murdock and Marvel: 1997 Part 1

    We’ve got a pretty quiet week in comic terms, partly because everything has gone completely to the dogs, and there is a lot less happening than there was a few years ago. Still, I was surprised to find that 1997 had some pretty great things going on under the surface!

    Preshow

    The Year in Comics

    As harsh as 1996 had been, 1997 was in most senses even worse. Sales continued to plummet, Marvel had to dig out from a messy financial mess, and other publishers felt the pain as well. Once again, as they had before in the 50s and in the 70s, people were asking if this was the end for American comic books.

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Sales & Industry Information

    Eisner Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    It was a rough year to be Marvel. The line continued to shrink, sales plummeted, and fewer and fewer series seemed to last more than a few issues. Plus, both the sticker company and the distribution company had to go.

    TOTAL SERIES: 179TOTAL NEW SERIES: 120 TOTAL ENDING SERIES: 126 THIS YEAR'S EVENT(S):

    Operation: Zero ToleranceUnlimited Access (with DC)Heroes Reborn: The ReturnFlashback

    BEST SELLING COMICS: Uncanny X-Men 345, Heroes Reborn #1

    Events & Happenings

    New Titles (Ongoing and Limited)

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen/Passings

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Leinil Francis Yu

    Dan's Favorite

    Next week: 1997 Part 2 - The year in Daredevil

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

  • Episode 43 - Murdock and Marvel: 1996 Part 2

    Well, here we are, Duane. At the End of Days. I have been promising you that everything was going to explode eventually. And finally we have arrived. Welcome to the fateful year 1996, when Marvel came crashing down.

    This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1996.

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #348-359, Punisher #4, What if…? #83, Marvel versus DC / DC versus Marvel #2-3, Green Goblin #6 and 12, Doom 2099 #40-42, Over the Edge #6 and 10, Wolverine #103-104, New Warriors #73, Spider-Man Unlimited #13, Essential Wolverine #1, Essential X-Men #1, Spider-Man #74, Elektra Megazine #1-2, Essential Spider-Man #1 and Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man, Spider-Man’s Greatest Team-Ups and Elektra Lives Again graphic novels

    Writing: J.M. DeMatteis (348-350), John Rozum (351), Ben Rabb (352), Karl Kesel (353-357), Joe Kelly (358-359)

    Pencils: Cary Nord (348-349, 353-357), Ron Wagner (350), Shawn McManus (351-352), Pasqual Ferry (358), Nord and Larry Hama (359)

    Inks: Bill Reinhold (348, 350), Al Williamson (349), Shawn McManus (351-352), Matt Ryan (353-357, 359), Pasqual Ferry (358)

    The year begins with Matt trying to reconcile his recent identity crisis while Foggy is angry about the secret he’s finally learned. Matt tries visiting with his mother Maggie, but it’s his old Mentor Stick that helps him – though in the process he ends up taking on the Chaste. Foggy and Matt begin practicing law together again. From there, things return to normal (or at least what’s normal for Daredevil or Matt Murdock), He takes out Agent Vice who’s extorting money from other criminals. Daredevil must take on Mastermind who is also Matt Murdock’s client. In June we get a new creative team that was teased at the end of issue 352. Karl Kesel and Cary Nord. We also get a re-imagined Mr. Hyde from John Romita Jr. Hyde seems to be totally unhinged (with an equally terrifying look). Daredevil confronts Hyde in an old Osborn warehouse where a woman has been murdered. Hyde continues to act crazy and is ultimately arrested. During this issue Foggy and Matt (mostly Matt) are asked to partner with hotshot lawyer Rosalind (Razor) Sharpe. Sharpe tells Matt privately that the two are a package deal. She doesn’t just want Foggy. Foggy seemed weirdly eager to join her so Matt accepts. And as a first case under the new partnership, Sharpe was Murdock to represent Mr. Hyde. At first, Murdock doesn’t want to do it, but after meeting with Hyde – Matt doesn’t think he killed the girl. The leads to Daredevil taking on Pyro and looking for clues at the warehouse – with the help of Misty Knight – which leads to a secret tunnel and a group of criminals called the Enforcers and their newest member the Eel – who captures our hero. The story ends when Daredevil escapes and captures the Eel and presents the Eel to the courtroom waiting for the trial of Mr. Hyde to start. The year ends with two standalone stories that have a much different look and feel from the rest of the year. In the first, Daredevil takes on Mysterio who’s working on a super-hero insurance scam. This fun story will be our spotlight story for the week. In the second, we see a night of Daredevil fighting crime while Karen Page talks to people of New York about their thoughts on Daredevil (now that the Fantastic Four and Avengers are gone) during her late-night radio call in show.

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #358 November 1996 “Aftermath”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    Daredevil Rapid Fire Questions

    The Takeaway

    Stick to what you are good at.

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

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  • Episode 42 - Murdock and Marvel: 1996 Part 1

    Well, here we are, Duane. At the End of Days. I have been promising you that everything was going to explode eventually. And finally we have arrived. Welcome to the fateful year 1996, when Marvel came crashing down.

    Preshow

    The Year in Comics

    As usual, there was a lot of great stuff going on in comics this year. There was also a lot of junk, though, and 1996 is the year we start seeing that problem sort itself out.

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Sales & Industry Information

    Passings

    Eisner Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    The year at Marvel started rough and just got worse, with fans, industry insiders and the stock market all seeming to be against them. Layoffs, failed storylines and an end of year bombshell made this a year to forget at Marvel comics.

    TOTAL SERIES: 232TOTAL NEW SERIES: 155 TOTAL ENDING SERIES: 169 THIS YEAR'S EVENT(S):

    Onslaught SagaHeroes Reborn

    BEST SELLING COMICS:

    Events & Happenings

    New Titles (Ongoing and Limited)

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen/Passings

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: David Finch

    Dan's Favorite

    Next week: 1996 Part 2 - The year in Daredevil

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

  • Episode 41 - Murdock and Marvel: 1995 Part 2

    It was a tough year in comics, especially for the big two. Comic shops were having trouble, readers seemed to be moving on to other things, and corporate overlords continued to demand ever higher profits. 1995 was a bit of an…apocalypse.

    This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1995.

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #336-347, Elekrta: Root of Evil #1, Marvel Super-Heroes Megazine #4 and 6, Spider-Man: Power of Terror #2 - #4, Sabertooth Classic #11, Marvel: Portraits #2 - #4, What if…? #73, Ghost Rider #61, X-Universe #1 – #2, Ruins #1, Incredible Hulk #434, Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe #1, Over the Edge #1, and Double Edge: Omega graphic novel

    Writing: Gregory Wright (336-337), Alan Smithee [actually Dan G Chichester] (338-342), Warren Ellis (343), J.M. DeMatteis (344-347)

    Pencils: Tom Grindberg (336-337), Alexander Jubran (339-340), Keith Pollard (341-342), Pollard and Arvell Malcolm Jones (343), Ron Wagner (344-347)

    Inks: Don Hudson (336-337), Andre Parks and Hudson (338), Parks, Hudson Bud LaRosa and Rodney Ramos (339), Parks, Hudson and Marie Severin (340), Art Nichols (341), Tom Palmer (342-343), Bill Reinhold (344-347)

    The year begins with the final 2 chapters of the Fathoms of Humanity story arc that started last year. You’ll recall that story stared with Daredevil following a homeless man into the sewers and coming befriending him and a whole group of people who live there. He battled the King of the Sewers and defeated him again. And we also saw the kingpin attempting to slowly grow his power back. In these final two chapters we learn the homeless man Daredevil followed was once a superhero himself – peacekeeper – in order to help Daredevil and his community against the Sewer King’s attempts to take back control of the community and defeat Daredevil.From there, we get the story of Victor “Kruel” Krueller and the Ghost of a Chance diner in flashbacks to explain why Kruel is going after those near and dear to Daredevil/Matt Murdock (Foogy, Glorianna, DA Malpher, Ben Urich). Seems he double crossed Wilson Fisk and at the diner, Fisk caught him and nearly killed him – then covered it up by drugging those same people to wipe their memory. Now Kruel is bent on revenge and is seeking out the witnesses to help him remember what happened. During the quest for information, Kruel kills Glorianna which causes Fisk and Daredevil to team up to locate and confront Kruel. When they do, Fisk ends up killing Kruel. There’s a side story going on in this story as we see Karen Page trying to get information about some troubling images, she saw on a CD given to her by her former adult movie producers. After a stand-alone book that was part of the Over the Edge event that didn’t really make a lot of sense involving the Punisher. We get the start of the Inferno story arc. In it, we see a second Daredevil in the original red and yellow costume and a bonding around the city and talking with Foggy and Karen (as well as leaving taunting messages with Matt). We also see a villain names Sir who’s attacking and killing women. At one point, the two meet and Sir beats up Daredevil so badly, Sir is able to take his costume. This leads to a very confusing confrontation in which Sir as Daredevil fights the red and yellow daredevil – who happens to be Murdock as an alternate personality. In the end, Batlin as Daredevil defeats Sir as Daredevil and Karen and Foggy come to realize that Batlin is actually Matt Murdock!

    Elektra: Root of Evil

    Daito of the Snakeroot kills himself with the Sakki sword and makes it impure. So the rest of the snakeroot need to kill three specific people to purify the blade again. (not sure how they know who). There’s a brief cameo by Daredevil is issue 1 where he stops Elektra from killing some random mercenaries who are after her. Elektra wants to form her own Ryu (ninja group like the Chaste) and works with Nick Fury to get recruits. We briefly meet Target, Lynch, Impact, Masquerade, Niko and Salvo before most are killed in their very first battle against the snakeroot (like the X-force in Deadpool 2). Via flashbacks, we learn Elektra has an older brother, Orestez who saved Elektra when she was a child and whom killed their mother for seemly cheating on their father. Though Elektra did turn out to be their father’s daughter Other flashbacks show Elektra was a member of the Snakeroot and fell in love with Tekagi – whom she ends up killing at the end of this series with new sais covered in poison before they could kill all 3 purity people.

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #347 December 1995 “Inferno Part 3”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    Daredevil Rapid Fire Questions

    The Takeaway

    Sometimes the crossover is actually cool.

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

  • Episode 39 - Murdock and Marvel: 1994 Part 2

    1994 was a crazy year in the comics world, with both DC and Marvel continuing to crank out new books, even as other companies tried to claw their way into the market. Retailers and fans were nearly helpless as the onslaught of comics overwhelmed them, leading to one of the worst years in the history of modern comics.

    This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1994.

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #324-335, Daredevil Man without Fear #4 and #5, Daredevil Annual #10, Real Heroes #3, What if…? #58 and #64, Marvels #2-4, Marvel Comics Presents #150 - #151, Marvel Tales #285, Spider-Man Unlimited #6, Marvel Super-Heroes Megazine #1- #3, Spider-Man Megazine #1, Spectacular Spider-Man #218 and #219, Guardians of the Galaxy #54, Amazing Spider-Man #396 plus Death of Captain Marvel novel, Punisher Ashcan Edition novel, Marvel Limited: Fantastic Firsts novel and Marvels novel

    Writing: Dan G Chichester (324-327, 329-332), Gregory Wright (328, 333-335)

    Interviews:

    Chichester: https://www.manwithoutfear.com/daredevil-interviews/Chichester

    Wright: https://www.manwithoutfear.com/interviews/ddINTERVIEW.shtml?id=Wright

    Pencils: Scott McDaniel (324-327, 329-332), Sergio Cariello (328), Tom Grindberg (333-335)

    Inks: Hector Collazo and Michael Avon Oeming (324), Hector Collazo (325-327, 329, 331-332), Ariane Lenshoek-Pinharo (328), Collazo and Rich Rankin (330). Ray Kryssing (333) Don Hudson (334-335)

    The year begins with the final 2 installments of the Fall from Grace story arc. In it we see the ACTUAL return of Elektra (in an all white outfit) who fights alongside Matt Murdock to kill the ninjas and the Erynys that has part of her essence inside – which see does and absorbs the essence back into herself. Murdock ends up fighting the Hellspawn and after taking the weird virus to become human, it dies in the final fight with Snakeroot. Murdock uses the body to fake his death and become Jack Batlin. Ben Urich realizes his intern Sara Harrington was the one that hacked his files and shared Murdock’s secret identity (hence Murdock faking his death). Next, we jump right into another multi-book story called Tree of Knowledge. This 6-part story with an extra interlude book (by a different creative team) starts in March with issue 326 and shows Daredevil and Captain America taking on a gang of hackers called System Crash which is being led by Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker of Hydra. Since this is the only full story this year, this will be our spotlight story for the week. The year ends with the first half of another named storyline Fathoms of Humanity that will end in February 1995. Written by Gregory Wright and Penciled by Tom Grindberg while Chichester and McDaniel work on Elektra: Root of Evil (which was promoted extensively at the end of these books). In this story we see Daredevil follow a homeless man into the sewers where a tribe of people are living including their “King” whom Daredevil rescued Wilson Fisk’s wife Vanessa from back in the original Frank Miller days. Daredevil defeats his old foe – which endears him to the rest of the community (and causes the King to seek out an altar to summon some creature to enact revenge). We also see him take on Bushwacker (another old foe with a gun for an arm). During this story we also see Kingpin who’s working out of an abandoned subway car as he slowly starts working towards regaining his power and influence.

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #326 March 1994 “Tree of Knowledge Part 1” through Daredevil #332 September 1994 “Tree of Knowledge Finale”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    Daredevil Rapid Fire Questions

    The Takeaway

    A great year if you can get through the junk

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

  • Episode 40 - Murdock and Marvel: 1995 Part 1

    It was a tough year in comics, especially for the big two. Comic shops were having trouble, readers seemed to be moving on to other things, and corporate overlords continued to demand ever higher profits. 1995 was a bit of an…apocalypse.

    Preshow

    Daredevil Born Again coming March 4, 2025

    The Year in Comics

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Sales & Industry Information

    Eisner Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    It was a crazy year at Marvel, with pressures to increase sales leading to massive cuts and layoffs, even as the company continued to acquire other businesses and expand its plans. Get ready for a bumpy ride.

    TOTAL SERIES: 289TOTAL NEW SERIES: 191 TOTAL ENDING SERIES: 215 THIS YEAR'S EVENT(S):

    Age of ApocalypseThe Crossing

    BEST SELLING COMICS: X-Men, Spider-Man

    Events & Happenings

    New Titles (Ongoing and Limited)

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen/Passings

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Mark Waid

    Dan's Favorite

    Next week: 1995 Part 2 - The year in Daredevil

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

  • Episode 38 - Murdock and Marvel: 1994 Part 1

    1994 was a crazy year in the comics world, with both DC and Marvel continuing to crank out new books, even as other companies tried to claw their way into the market. Retailers and fans were nearly helpless as the onslaught of comics overwhelmed them, leading to one of the worst years in the history of modern comics.

    The Year in Comics

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Sales & Industry Information

    Eisner Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    It was a pretty rough year at Marvel, both creatively and in terms of sales. New corporate sales mandates drove a wedge between the staff, and overproduction meant too many books by less talented creators. Even so, there were some bright spots!

    TOTAL SERIES: 336 TOTAL NEW SERIES: 195 TOTAL ENDING SERIES: 234 THIS YEAR'S EVENT(S):

    Phalanx Covenant (Generation X Debuts)

    BEST SELLING COMICS: Marvels

    Events & Happenings

    New Titles (Ongoing and Limited)

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen/Passings

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Mike Deodato

    Dan's Favorite

    Next week: 1994 Part 2 - The year in Daredevil

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

  • Episode 37 - Murdock and Marvel: 1993 Part 2

    There are arguments to be made that this was the best year in the history of comics. There are also a number of ways in which it may have been the worst. In any case, it was not boring. Welcome to 1993, the year everything that has been building for the last decade or so comes to a head.

    This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1993.

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #312-323, Daredevil Annual #9, Daredevil: Man without Fear #1-5, Fantastic Four #373 and #378, Slapstick #4, What If…? #47, #48 and #55, Ghost Rider #36, Marvel Comics Presents #129 and #136, Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #55, Thor #464, Punisher War Journal #57 and #58, Web of Spider-Man #106, Alpha Flight #127, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #57, Infinity Crusade #1-6, and Marvel Masterworks #25

    Writing: Dan G. Chichester (312-323)

    Pencils: Scott McDaniel (312-315, 317-323), Kevin Kobasic (316)

    Inks: Bud LaRosa (312-317) LaRosa and Greg Adams (318), Hector Collazo and Harry Candelario (319), Michael Avon Oeming (320), Hector Callazo (321), Collazo and Rich Rankin (322-323)

    The year starts with a mysterious fire at a Hell’s Kitchen pizzeria in which a young man “Marky” is killed and his girlfriend Lisa Rizzo needs to be rescued. After, she gets arrested and goes to court as an apparent arsonist – so Matt Murdock volunteers to be her lawyer. With Lisa not talking, Daredevil looks into the various patrons the day of the fire to figure out what really happened. In the end we find out Lisa is pregnant with Marky’s child and the pizza shop owners set fire to their own store to get the insurance money. In Daredevil Annual #9, We get 3 different stories. In devouring madness, we see Daredevil break up a museum robbery. On the clock shows a typical day in the life of our fearless hero and Resurrection shows Calypso resurrect a zombie to fight Daredevil. Next, Daredevil takes on a new incarnation of Mr. Fear… Shock who is Alan Fagan’s (the original Fear) daughter. The story, however, turns a bit weird as Shock enlists Taskmaster, the Wildboys and Stiltman to go after Daredevil – with the ending in issue 318 that’s played off as silly more than anything. The issue itself has a weird “That’s it folks! The last issue of Daredevil Before… Daredevil #319” on the cover. I had no idea what that meant until… Issue 319 starts the final story arch of the year… Fall from Grace. This year we get a prologue and the first 4 chapters of the story (which appears to go through issue 325 – February 1994). We’ll speak in more detail about this story during our spotlight. In Daredevil: Man without Fear we get a thorough retelling of the Daredevil origin story as well as his relationship with Elektra. This 5-book story was written by Frank Miller and penciled by John Romita Jr (Al Williamson on inks). This story goes into far more detail than what we got originally. We also see how Kingpin came into power as well as introduced to a few new characters (Mickey/Lars). Despite knowing the story well, I really enjoyed this series. It looked amazing.

    This Week's Spotlight: #319 August 1993 “Fall From Grace Prologue: Temptation” through Daredevil #323 December 1993 “Fall From Grace Chapter 4: Conflict”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    Daredevil Rapid Fire Questions

    The Takeaway

    Garbage in, Garbage out.

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

  • Episode 36 - Murdock and Marvel: 1993 Part 1

    There are arguments to be made that this was the best year in the history of comics. There are also a number of ways in which it may have been the worst. In any case, it was not boring. Welcome to 1993, the year everything that has been building for the last decade or so comes to a head.

    Announcements

    Show Tweaks

    The Year in Comics

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Sales & Industry Information

    Eisner Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    TOTAL SERIES: 313 TOTAL NEW SERIES: 198 TOTAL ENDING SERIES: 170 THIS YEAR'S EVENT(S):

    Maximum CarnageBloodtiesFatal Attractions

    BEST SELLING COMICS: Uncanny X-Men, Cable, ASM, SM Unlimited, X-Men 2099

    Events & Happenings

    New Titles (Ongoing and Limited)

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Salvador LaRocca

    Dan's Favorite

    Next week: 1993 Part 2 - The year in Daredevil

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

  • Episode 35 - Murdock and Marvel: 1992 Part 2

    Well, here we are. Image starts a new creator-owned era, even as the man who created the superhero sensation dies, along with one of his creators. 1992 was a very big year for changes.

    This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1992.

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #300-311, Daredevil Annual #8, Punisher Annual #5, Web of Spider-Man Annual #8, Infinity War #1-4, Death’s Head 2 #4, Fantastic Four #367-368 and #370, Alpha Flight #111, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #41 and #43, Marvel Comics Presents #113, Spider-Man Special Edition #1, What if…? #44, Daredevil Gangwar and Infinity Gauntlet graphic novels and Marvel Masterworks #21 and #22

    Writing: Dan G Chichester (300-309) , Glenn Herdling (310-311)

    Pencils: Lee Weeks (300), M.C. Wyman (301-303), Ron Garney (304), Scott McDaniel (305-311)

    Inks: Al Williamson (300), Chris Ivy (301-303, 305), Bud LaRosa (304, 306-311),

    The year begins with the huge double issue that concludes the Last Rites storyline that began late in 1991. Daredevil has been enlisted by SHIELD to take down Kingpin and by extension Hydra who is bankrolling his media empire. Last week we saw the pieces get put in place and during our spotlight this week, we’ll see how this terrific story ends. Next, we see Daredevil take on one of his oldest foes, the Owl, in a solid 3-book story arc.Outside of the spotlight book, “34 Hours” from May 1992 is one of the best single-story books in the last few years. In it we see Daredevil saving lives across a 34-hour timeframe. We are then introduced to a new villain, Surgeon General, who’s picking up men in clubs, drugging them and then operating on them to steal body parts for the black market. To set a trap for the Surgeon General, Daredevil sets a trap using Peter Parker as bait. Fortunately for Peter, the trap worked with the help of Parker’s secret identity, Spider-Man. Next, we get another multi-book story arc involving the Nomad and Punisher called Dead Man’s Hand. This 7-part story arc that takes place in Las Vegas shows various crime factions all trying to get a piece of the Kingpin’s empire now that he’s not there to lead it. During this event we also see what has happened to the kingpin. Among the groups fighting for Kingpin’s empire include – The Hand, Yakuza, the Maggia, Hydra, Hammer Industries, Andreas and Andrea Strucker (Known as Fenris?). This story was hard to follow as several parts of the story appear in other books (parts 3&4 were in Nomad & Punisher books) and part 6 was somewhere else but was communicated to the reader. After Vegas, Matt Murdock returns to New York and we finish out the year with a multi-book story arc with Calypso, the Nameless One and a Daredevil doppelganger known as Hellspawn from the Infinity War Crossover. This story centers around a Haitian refugee named Yves Chapoteau who is seeking asylum in the U.S. During the story Calypso performs a voodoo ritual on Daredevil and enslaves him to her. He is able to escape by destroying her magic soul-possessing jars which also free some other zombie refugees who attack her. In an epilogue of this story, we see two people digging up someone's grave.

    New Powers, Toys or Places: Back in Vegas for the Dead Man’s Hand story arc.

    New Supporting Characters: Yves Chapoteau (Haitian refugee who seeks out Matt Murdock for his asylum case)

    New Villains: Surgeon General (woman seducing men and then stealing organs for the black market), Hellspawn (Daredevil doppleganger from Infinity War crossover who’s killed by Calyspo)

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #300 January 1992 “Last Rites Part 4: Long Live the King”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    The Takeaway

    Writers still matter!

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 34 - Murdock and Marvel: 1992 Part 1

    Well, here we are. Image starts a new creator-owned era, even as the man who created the superhero sensation dies, along with one of his creators. 1992 was a very big year for changes.

    The Year in Comics

    Comic books managed to make it into the news and public consciousness in different ways in 1992, as movies, TV shows, new companies and a massive character death kept things interesting!

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Sales & Industry Trends

    Beginnings and Endings

    Memorials

    Eisner Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    1992 is a weird year, in that as it begins nothing seems to have changed from the heady days of 1991. But the Image artists no longer are present as the summer rolls around, and the Marvel Universe itself moves into darker territory. Here begins the anti-hero turn of the 90s, with dark futures and truly irredeemable villains.

    TOTAL SERIES: 246 TOTAL NEW SERIES: 149 TOTAL ENDING SERIES: 129 THIS YEAR'S EVENT(S):

    Operation Galactic Storm (Avengers and Quasar in a Kree/Shiar war)X-Cutioner’s Song (X-Men fight Stryfe) BEST SELLING COMICS: Death of Superman, Spawn and all the Image books

    Events & Happenings

    New Titles (Ongoing and Limited)

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Chris Bachalo

    Dan's Favorite

    Next week: 1992 Part 2 - The year in Daredevil

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 33 - Murdock and Marvel: 1991 Part 2

    It’s the year of Marvel’s greatest success…and quite possibly its greatest failure! Welcome to 1991, the year that sets the stage for the next evolution of American comics.

    This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1991.

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #288-299, Daredevil Annual #7, Marvel Comic Presents #69-72, #75, #81 and #91, What if…? 24 and 26, Avengers #332-#333, Excalibur #39, Darkhawk #6, Incredible Hulk: Ground Zero, Very Best of Marvel Comics, Very Best of What If, Amazing Spider-Man: The Wedding graphic novels and Marvel Masterworks

    Writing: Ann Nocenti (288-291) Dan G Chichester (292-299)

    Pencils: Lee Weeks (288, 291-295, 297-299) Kieron Dwyer (289-290), Ron Garney (296)

    Inks: Al Williamson and Weeks (288) Williamson and Fred Fredricks (289), Fredricks (290-292), Williamson (293-299)

    The year begins with Matt Murdock having dreams of Elektra and Stick and the Kingpin orchestrating a similar ultimatum to throw a boxing match to save Nyla whom he’s kidnapped. Matt refuses to do so, wins the fight and saves Nyla with the help of Ben Urich Meanwhile Bullseye continues to pretend to be Daredevil and ruin his reputation, but is confronted and defeated by Murdock who’s disguised as Bullseye. After taking on Bullet for one last time, Matt Murdock reunites with his friend and law partner Foggy Nelson – who’s been working on getting Murdock’s law license reinstated. As Daredevil and the Punisher deal with Taskmaster and Tombstone causing trouble, we see Kingpin and Typhoid Mary enter a deal with a General Strang, an investor who agrees to fund Fisk’s media enterprises but secretly hopes to infiltrate Fisk’s finances from within. Halfway through the year we see the Hand returns to New York and we learn they were the ones behind setting lose Taskmaster and Tombstone on the city. What follows is a multi-book story arc involving Daredevil attempts to take down the Hand. This includes a cameo by the Ghost Rider and some of Stick’s old students (including Stone) showing up to help Daredevil in the final showdown – which is our spotlight story this week. The year ends with the first 3 of 4 parts to the Last Rites story arc. In it, we see Daredevil causing division between Kingpin and Typhoid before having her committed. Then we see Nick Fury bring Matt Murdock into SHIELD and ask him for help taking down Kingpin and Hydra who’s bankrolling his media enterprise. We then see the chess pieces put in place for a final showdown. The finale of this story is a giant double issue #300 we’ll talk about in 1992.

    New Powers, Toys or Places: None

    New Supporting Characters: Maltese (Kingpin’s right-hand man), Danny Ketch aka Ghost Rider, Kathy Malper (US District Attorney looking to take down Kingpin)

    New Villains: Taskmaster (big time Marvel baddie), Tombstone (another Marvel baddie), General Strang (Kingpin’s media investor that turns out to be more than he bargained for – Lieutenant Garotte). Jonin (head of the latest version of the Hand in New York), a new Izanami (large female enforcer of the Hand)

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #296 September 1991 “Balancing Act”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    The Takeaway

    Writers matter!

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 32 - Murdock and Marvel: 1991 Part 1

    It’s the year of Marvel’s greatest success…and quite possibly its greatest failure! Welcome to 1991, the year that sets the stage for the next evolution of American comics.

    The Year in Comics

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Industry Trends

    Eisner Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    Events & Happenings

    New Titles (Ongoing and Limited)

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Don Slott

    Dan's Favorite

    Due to the time it took to get through this and to fully cover Daredevil, we've split 1991 into 2 podcasts. Next week you'll hear the rest of this episode - which will discuss the year for Daredevil and Dan's takeaway.

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 31 - Murdock and Marvel: 1990 Part 2

    As we start the 90s Marvel and DC are approaching monopoly status on comic store shelves, leaving other publishers to look for success at the margins. But if you are a big fan of the Big 2, 1990 was a good time to be reading comic books!

    This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1990.

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #276-287, Wolverine #21, Captain America #368, 374 - 376, Count Duckula #10, Punisher Magazine #8 and 15-16, What if…? #13, 15, 17, 20, Marvel Comics presents #49 and Daredevil: Marked for Death and Elektra Lives Again graphic novels

    Writing credits: Ann Nocenti (276-287)

    Pencilers: John Romita Jr (276, 278-282), Rick Leonardi (277), Mark Bagley (283), Lee Weeks (284-285, 287), Greg Capullo (286)

    Inks: Al Williamson (276-282, 284-285, 287), Williamson and Tom Morgan (283), Doug Hazlewood (286)

    As the year begins, The Acts of Vengeance event continues with Ultron looking to take Number Nine as a bride and Daredevil must try to save her. Next, we get an out of timeline story involving Daredevil and a psychologist whose star patient is his wife.Back to the current timeline, The Inhumans are set to leave for Pottersville in search of Black Bolts' son and it turms into a road trip for them, Daredevil, Number 9 and Brandy. Meanwhile, Blackheart and Mephisto discuss the finer points of evil and Blackheart is tasked with making Daredevil and the others do evil. In Pottersville, the team finds a boy, Pope, with powers who the town is scared of and wants to kill him. They save the boy, but in the aftermath fall into a crack in the earth caused by an earthquake. We then see Daredevil and his companions experience different versions of Hell before a final showdown with Mephisto in which they are aided by the Silver Surfer. Next, we get a single (what I assume is out of timeline) story in which Captain America and Daredevil are trying to help an inventor whose fantastic invention could change the world. This social issue focused book will be our spotlight story this week. Daredevil finally returns to New York, but his memories are scrambled by the recent trip to Hell. Not knowing who he really is, he assumes the identity of Jack Murdock. Bullseye finds out about the confusion and decides to take advantage of the situation by impersonating the horned hero. The rest of the year we see Matt Murdock meet a homeless woman, Nyla, who takes him in and the two become close. Murdock becomes a boxer, like his father, at Fogwell’s Gym and Bullseye continues stealing from the rich and beating up police to ruin the reputation of the once great hero. Ben Urich returns and seems to realize things don’t add up and goes looking for Matt Murdock. In the final panels of the year, we see Wilson Fisk at a “Jack Murdock” boxing match and he too recognizes his former adversary.

    New Powers, Toys or Places: Still in upstate New York to start the year, we see the team head to Hell/Mephisto’s realm across several books before returning to familiar New York City.

    New Supporting Characters: Daniel and Vivian (psychologist and his wife), Pope (Boy in Pottersville’s with powers that the townsfolk want to kill), Victor Cieszkowska (Inventor disillusioned by the US and their people), Nyla (homeless woman that befriends Matt Murdock while he’s going by Jack Murdock, becomes a love interest)

    New Villains:

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #283 August 1990 “The American Nightmare”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    The Takeaway

    Marvel has won.

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 30 - Murdock and Marvel: 1990 Part 1

    As we start the 90s Marvel and DC are approaching monopoly status on comic store shelves, leaving other publishers to look for success at the margins. But if you are a big fan of the Big 2, 1990 was a good time to be reading comic books!

    The Year in Comics

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Industry Trends

    Eisner Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    Events & Happenings

    New Titles (Ongoing and Limited)

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Tom Brevoort

    Dan's Favorite

    Due to the time it took to get through this and to fully cover Daredevil, we've split 1990 into 2 podcasts. Next week you'll hear the rest of this episode - which will discuss the year for Daredevil and Dan's takeaway.

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 29 - Murdock and Marvel: 1989 Part 2

    This week we finish up the 80s, and see what another round of Batmania can do to and for the comics world.

    This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1989.

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #262- 275, Marvel Tales #222, Marvel Comics Presents #19, Saga of the Sub-Mariner #9, What if…? #1-2, Excalibur #14, Wolverine #17

    Writing credits: Ann Nocenti (262-275) Nocenti & Romita Jr (266 - Plot by Nocenti and Romita Jr., script by Nocenti)

    Pencilers: John Romita Jr (262-263, 265-275), Steve Ditko (264)

    Inks: Al Williamson (262-263, 265-275), Mike Manley and Williamson (264)

    As the year begins, Daredevil is still missing and presumed dead. Though Daredevil is coached (taunted) by to live by his old mentor Stick. Meanwhile NYC is seeing objects come to life and attacking humans (Think Maximum Overdrive) – which seems to be part of the inferno event. Upon going to the hospital, Karen and Mary show up to visit and Karen learns Matt has been cheating on her. After an issue hiatus featuring the Owl and the Bombers because John Romita Jr was getting married and wasn’t available to draw, we see a resolution of sorts with Daredevil taking down a demon onslaught. After spending Christmas in a bar with Mephisto as Daredevil, Matt burns all his belongings and leaves NYC. What followings is a string of stories about Murdock being a loner and helping out as Daredevil when he can. He saves a man from a crashed plane, helps a man get out of an illegal loansharking business, saves a mutant girl from Blob and Pyro. In September we see Daredevil and Spider-Man team up. This will be our spotlight story for the week. Next Daredevil helps Brandy Ash expose her father’s inhumane animal farm – which leads to release of young woman who was being experimented on known as number 9. This led to a multi-book story arch that finished out the year by introduced a new villain, Shotgun, and brought in the inhumans. The year ends with a second December book that was part of the Acts of Vengeance event and shows Doctor Doom reviving Ultron and orders it to destroy Daredevil but it is conflicted by all the previous versions of itself and meeting Number 9.

    New Powers, Toys or Places: half the year takes place outside of New York city, but seemly not outside New York state – in various small towns.

    New Supporting Characters: Amanda (young mutant saved from Freedom Force), Brandy Ash (young ecologist who doesn’t like her father’s farm), Number 9 (young woman experimented on by Skip Ash), inhumans (Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon Petragon, Karnak Mander-Azur)

    New Villains: Mephisto (demon lord who has drinks with Daredevil in a bar as a young woman), Blackheart (Mephisto’s “son”), Freedom Force (Blob, Pyro and Spiral), Skip Ash (terrible human to animals and young women), Shotgun (special forces in the military and member of the CIA called on by Skip Ash)

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #270 September 1989 “Blackheart”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    The Takeaway

    So how is that “comics are dying” idea going a decade later?

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 28 - Murdock and Marvel: 1989 Part 1

    This week we finish up the 80s, and see what another round of Batmania can do to and for the comics world.

    Pre-Show

    Letter from Mo

    The Year in Comics

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Swamp Thing Movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098193/Robert Crumb comic strip with Donald Trump: https://www.openculture.com/2016/06/r-crumb-takes-down-donald-trump-in-a-1989-cartoon.html

    Industry Trends

    Harvey Awards

    Notable Passings

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    Events & Happenings

    New Titles

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Rob Liefeld

    Dan's Favorite

    Due to the time it took to get through this and to fully cover Daredevil, we've split 1989 into 2 podcasts. Next week you'll hear the rest of this episode - which will be entirely on Daredevil.

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 27 - Murdock and Marvel: 1988

    This week we begin to see what happens when two massive Kaiju go to war in a region. Everything else either runs away or is destroyed. Such is the world of comics, circa 1988.

    The Year in Comics

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Industry Trends

    Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    Events & Happenings

    New Series/Limited Titles

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Bryan Hitch

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #250-261, West Coast Avengers #28, Thor #392, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, Marvel Masterworks #5, Punisher War Journal #2 along with the Daredevil/Punisher Child’s Play and Hawkeye graphic novels.

    Writing credits: Ann Nocenti (#250-261)

    Pencilers: John Romita Jr (#250-261)

    Inks: Al Williamson (#250-261)

    The year being with a new artist, John Romita Jr, and the introduction of a new villain (Bullet) who’s been hired by Kelco as we see the continuation of the Tyrone Janson story from late last year. We also meet Bullet’s son, Lance, who is afraid the world will end at any moment. Next Daredevil takes on another new villain in Ammo and the Wild Boys during a blackout caused by the Apocalypse's Horsemen – which is part of the Fall of the Mutants event. Daredevil stops him and he ends up in prison. After being robbed several times, Kingpin hires the robber by offering the dissociative identity disorder alter Typhoid $1 million dollars to make Murdock/Daredevil fall in love with her and then crush him – which she agrees. When then see Matt Murdock meeting the other alter, Mary. What follows is a brilliant story arch that lasts through the end of the year. Murdock does fall in love with Mary and ends up fighting Typhoid several times (but doesn’t realize the connection). Other subplots going on throughout this arch: Tyrone gets his day in court with Kelco Chemicals – whom is represented by Foggy Nelson – and wins thanks to some ghost lawyering by Murdock Karen Page realizes she’s losing Murdock as he’s sneaking around to meet with Mary Typhoid grows concerned that Mary’s love for Matt is allowing her to grow stronger and could eventually take over. Kingpin falls in love with Typhoid and eventually gets jealous of the Murdock/Mary relationship. After ordering Typhoid to take out Murdock/Daredevil, She assembles a team of Bullet, Ammo, the Wild Boys and Bushwacker to soften him up before she finishes the job. This climatic story is our spotlight story for the week. As the year ends, Daredevil is missing and Johnny Storm (aka the Human Torch) has been enlisted to help a desperate Karen find him. Meanwhile Kingpin isn’t exactly happy how Typhoid carried out his order, but sees it as an opportunity to expand in Hell’s Kitchen. Strong year of storytelling and brilliant art throughout the year

    New Powers, Toys or Places

    New Supporting Characters

    New Villains

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #260 November 1988 “Vital Signs”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    The Takeaway

    Is it still an industry if there are only two companies?

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 26 - Murdock and Marvel: 1987

    After the wonders of 1986 the comic industry found itself with a glut of new companies, new titles, and new awards shows. How would it all work out? Lets go back to ’87 and find out…

    PreShow Banter

    A tweet from Forrest about the Watchmen books.

    The Year in Comics

    Notable and Newsworthy

    Industry Trends

    Awards

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Marvel

    Events & Happenings

    New Series/Limited Titles

    New Characters

    Series Ending

    Who's in the Bullpen

    ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Mark Bagley

    Dan's Favorite

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #238-249, Amazing Spider-Man #284 and #286-288, Marvel Saga the Official History #14-16 and #23, Classic X-Men #6, Marvel Fanfare #31, Spectacular Spider-Man #128, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 and Web of Spider-Man #30

    Writing credits: Ann Nocenti (238-245, 247-249), Jim Owsley (246)

    Pencilers: Sal Bucema (238), Louis Williams (239-240, 243-244), Todd McFarland (241), Keith Pollard (242), Chuck Patton (245), Tom Morgan (246), Keith Giffen (247), Rick Loenardi (248-249)

    Inks: Steve Leiaoha (238), Al Williamson and Geof Isherwood (239), Williamson (240, 248-249), Al Milgrom (241), Danny Bulanadi (242) Williamson and Bulandi (243), Tony DeZuniga (244-246), Dan Hunt (247)

    Nerdist top Daredevil comic runs: https://nerdist.com/article/10-greatest-daredevil-comic-book-runs-of-all-time-ranked/ The year begins with the Daredevil befriending a group of kids called the Fatboys – who we’ll see many more times throughout the year – and Daredevil save a girl from Sabretooth We then get a series of stories from Nocenti featuring a new villain – First is Rot-Gut a Jack-the Ripper style villain who doesn’t have powers – just likes to cut up people, Next we had the Trixster who’s causing problems for the city of New York over Christmas, An everyday man accidently kills his boss and becomes the Caviar killer, and finally a drug dealer who uses voodoo to control things that incurs the wrath of a real voodoo creature. We then get likely the best story of the year and it guest stars the Black Panther. This will be our spotlight story for the week. As the year continues, we have more solo book stories that feel similar in scope and impact to the character as the ones before the spotlight book. We do see the return of Black Widow for an issue as the pair take down a deranged super soldier. Karen tries to get Matt back into office work by surprising him with new offices There is a short-lived subplot where Karen Page starts to be frightened by the violence Daredevil dishes out, but she came to see it as fine after an issue or two. The year ends with a two-book story arc involving another new villain, Bushwacker, who has an arm he can convert into a gun that sees the return of Wolverine to aid him in tracking the villain – which leads to a battle between the two over how justice should be handled. In this story we also meet Tyrone Janson – who is blinded by chemicals dumped in the Hudson River.

    New Powers, Toys or Places

    New Supporting Characters

    New Villains

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #245 August 1987 “Burn”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    The Takeaway

    Bills come due.

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.

  • Episode 24 - Murdock and Marvel: 1986 Part 2

    If you are every arguing with friends about what was the best year in the history of comics, you could do worse than arguing for 1986. With a ton of interesting independent books, vibrant small-press publishers popping up everywhere, and four of the most beloved stories in the history of comics, ’86 was definitely a banner year!

    This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1986.

    The Year in Daredevil

    Appearances: Daredevil #226-237, Spectacular Spider-Man #110, Amazing Spider-Man #277, Marvel Age Annual #2, Avengers Annual #15, Marvel Fanfare #27, Elektra: Assassin #1 and 4, Marvel Saga the Official History #13, and Marvel Graphic Novel: Daredevil Love and War

    Writing credits: Frank Miller and Denny O’Neil (226), Frank Miller (227-233), Mark Gruenwald (234), Danny Fingeroth (235), Ann Nocenti (236), “John Harkness” (237)

    Pencilers: David Mazzucchelli (226-233), Steve Ditko (234-235), Barry Windsor-Smith (236), Lois Williams (237)

    Inks: Dennis Janke (226), David Mazzucchelli (227-233), Klaus Jansen (234), Danny Bulanadi (235), Windsor-Smith and Bob Wiacek (236), Al Williamson and Bulandi (237)

    The year begins Frank Miller returning to the title and a story where Daredevil helps Gladiator save Betsy Beatty after confronting him stealing from a museum Next, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli start an iconic run of books that you’ve probably heard of “Born Again” that starts with book 227 and finishes with 233. This incredible will be the spotlight for this week. After Born Again, we get four stand-alone stories by four different writers to finish out the year. The first against a weird “hero” named Mad Cap who spouts nonsense and seemly can’t be killed. Next Daredevil takes on Mr. Hyde yet again. Then Daredevil and the Black Widow team up to track down another deranged member of the Super Soldier Project. Finally, Daredevil takes on the Klaw who’s looking to re-establish himself by taking him down. Issue #237 was initially going to be the start of Steve Engelhart’s run on DD, but he was replaced by Ann Nocenti after writing just one issue, which he had his name taken off of, and the pen name “John Harkness” was credited Daredevil: Love and War GN told the story of how the Kingpin kidnapped a psychiatrist’s wife to coerce him to help his wife, who was not recovering well from her accident and her captivity in the sewers. By the end of the story we find out Vanessa only wants to escape from Fisk, and he sends her away to Europe with the doctor and his wife so she can heal and start a new life. Elektra: Assassin is completely batshit. Fully painted by Bill S., it is wildly experimental and confusing. Elektra and a cyborg who is obsessed with her try to stop a presidential candidate who looks kind of like Dan Quayle from doing the will of “the beast” and causing a nuclear holocaust.

    New Powers, Toys or Places

    New Supporting Characters

    New Villains

    This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #227 February 1986 “Apocalypse” through Daredevil #233 August 1986 “Armageddon”

    Recap

    Why We Picked This Story

    The Takeaway

    It was the Best of Times, but it led to the Worst of Times.

    Questions or comments

    We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

    ------------------

    THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

    Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

    The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

    Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

    Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

    The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

    Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

    My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.

    BOOKLIST

    The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show. Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it!

    Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo. Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon. London: Titan Books, 2020. This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print. It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion. So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing.

    Wells, John. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964. Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015. Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read.

    Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. This is the revised edition.

    Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2022. The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.

    Cowsill, Alan et al. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History. New York: DK Publishing, 2010. Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to.

    Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments. An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.