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 questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

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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.