Mar 29, 2026

Other than that, the rest of this is mediocre at best. The ending last issue with DD's death plunge (Conway's most powerful moment up to now) is rewritten so now Matt's in the Hudson. Shouldn't he be floating? Tom Palmer's left for Neal Adams in the Avengers; Jack Abel's inking looks awful with Colan's artwork (which is odd; I like them together back in the "Gary Michaels" days on IM in Suspense) The BW pinup done by Bill Everett is MUCH better; why couldn't he have drawn, or at least inked, this issue?! For all the menace I got from the Owl last issue, here's he's polished off in three pages. And the mysterious Mister Kline is revealed to be...a robot? Whose "designation" is MK-9? K-Nine?? Well, that explains why this issue has gone to the dogs.

@Locust75: Yes, that's Dick Cavett; it might have been more fun if it were Dick Smothers instead!

@Frantz: I once saw a 40's crime serial where one chapter ended with the hero's motorcycle missing a turn on a mountain road and going over a cliff. The next chapter started with him making the turn. The change between last issues ending and the start here is a very similar cheat!

Suggested listening: "Ten Years Gone" - Led Zeppelin, for the ten years of anticipation wasted on this issue

Mar 29, 2026

This is what I call a "ten year" comic...I read the previous issue when it came out at age 6; ten years or so later I reread it in high school and since by then I knew that DD had survived his demise at the end of that issue, I was curious to see how he managed it, and bought this one as a back issue at my local comic shop (the Third Planet in Houston). Turns out...it wasn't worth the wait.

There's a letter from Jim Vicko the sums up the recent issues as "an abysmal drag". Going back to my comment for DD 41 that after killing off Mike Murdock, this series would be a dull slog for the next 40 issues. Admittedly there were some gems along the way, DD 47, the Black Panther issues, DD 62, but for the most part it's just limped along without direction or inspiration. IM has been the same way since Goodwin left and (as @johnchr says) here they planned to merge to the two titles together if they had stayed with the 25-cent double length format. But they didn't - next month it will be back to 20-page stories (at 20 cents now) so to inject some life into Daredevil, they introduce the Black Widow.

The BW's series in Amazing Adventures had just been canceled - this issue came out when her next story in AA 9 would have - and she brings some baggage from that series - the silly "Widow's curse" and the "eyes front" moment (pg8p3). Both of these need to be dropped. If the "two men" (pg6p2) are the Astrologer and the Watchlord - don't waste a tear over either of them. Her appearance here seems like just a crossover; no mention is made of her teaming up with DD permanently yet; but Karen's dialog seems intended to shuffle her out of the book so that Natasha can move in.

Jan 13, 2026

I'll agree with everyone here that this is much improved over last issue, but the art wasn't as inspired. Widow makes this book better, for sure.

Jun 5, 2025

- Another man: Why do they do the agent falling in love with the burgeoning star trope? Hate it. On the other hand, can Karen please fall in love with Phil so we see less of her?

- Like the art representing DD's radar sense.

- Karen sure got over DD fast.

- Android culprit: Mister Kline is a robot. How original... not.

-pg 15: Oh, Black Widow sure clocked Owl. If she's going to be a mainstay of this book, it might actually get good

The art was good. I enjoyed the last couple of pages where the owl is dealt a mighty blow. As others have mentioned, the story wasn't the best, and there were major inconsistencies between this issue and the last. That said, this was a much easier read as Conway didn't do his excessive narration. For that:

3 Stars

May 12, 2025

Well, this didn't make me want to give up reading comics forever, so that's a marked improvement over last issue.

Feb 11, 2025

"The screech of a piercing wail!"

Sep 18, 2023

Black Widow rescues Daredevil and they team up to take down The Owl. Mr. Kline moves more robotically than expected. Conway wrote the last few Black Widow stories and claims it was his idea to more her here when her series was cancelled. It's a good move. First off, I want to see more of her. Secondly, hopefully it means the end of the Matt/Karen stuff - they need to either get together or move on, because this is so painful. This wasn't a perfect start - her complaining that he didn't thank her for saving him, even though she was hiding when he came to; the silly curse stuff - but I'm hopeful that it points the way to something better. Three stars.

DD and IM were the only Marvel superhero comics not to get expanded stories in November 1971, as both were padded with reprints to fill the expanded page count. In the bullpen pages this month, it was announced that they would be combined into one book - I guess they were among Marvel's worst-selling series and it wasn't believed either could support the higher price on their own. Since Marvel backed off continuing with the expanded issues, it never happened, although IM did go bimonthly for awhile.

Mr. Kline being a robot raises a bunch of questions I'm not convinced will be answered. I assume we will learn who he's working for, but why he hired The Owl who he a) thought would fail; b) was annoyed at for failing - I'm guessing we'll never learn that. And what about the two guys who looked like robots but kept calling each other father and son in SM #42 that were looking for Kline? Why do they want to find him? Do they know he's a robot? Will we find out? Will I still care if we do?

Apr 26, 2023

I'm pretty sure Nat kicked more a** in one issue here than she did in her entire run as a solo act

Apr 16, 2023

Yeah, the changes made between issues made me cringed. It reminded me the 80's cop series where changes like these were done after the ads cut (as we did not have the ads cut in Fra.ce, it was really showing!). Also bad script for Tasha complaining DD gets off without saying thank you when she us actually hiding from him. It would have made more sense she was hiding for some reason (even the bad BW curse would have been OK).

Nov 25, 2022

Actually, the scene with Foggy was well done. The sad look on his face when he realises Daredevil left without even a thank you, I get the feeling stuff like this will add up to him working with Mr Kline voluntarily.

Also, the mysterious Master referred to this robot as "MK-9". Mr Kline 9 maybe? And maybe the one in Iron Man is a different number?

Nov 25, 2022

I enjoyed the scene of Widow saving Matt, and the shots from Matt's perspective. I really can't think of anything else I liked though.

Everyone is saying that Black Widow improved the story, and I'll agree it's good to see her, but she doesn't even really do anything here. She saves Matt, then hides around a corner from him and wonders why he goes off on his own. Other than a little fighting, that's about all we see of her. I'm keen to see more Natasha in this series, but this wasn't a great start.

I'm also really annoyed by all the changes from last issue. An obvious one is the helicopter now crashing into a river rather than exploding on the ground. We also see Mr Kline's hands and part of his face last issue and he's definitely not a robot. And he says explicitly that Owl disobeying is actually part of the plan then complains at the end of this issue that the plan failed because Owl disobeyed.

Plus more Karen and Matt thinking they can't be together for no reason, and this was not fun. It barely gets a 2/5

May 29, 2022

Things are moving up, Black Widow is one of the best women in the 616 at this point. 2 guys died, one sacrificed himself the other was a bad guy who had poor situational awareness. I think you can get over those 2. Espescially since you should be a trained assassin.

Jan 5, 2022

Guess DD has a spare billy club laying after all…kept in Foggy’s office, no less (page 16, panel 1). Wait. No. Must have been wishful thinking (page 16, panel 4).

Sep 22, 2021

The writing was better than last issue, but the art looks so much worse. And Mr Kline is an android? I’m not sure I like where this is headed. And it had so much promise, too. Sounds like Kline and his boss have Foggy set up to be the next governor of New York. The addition of Black Widow is welcome. Hopefully she’ll get Karen out of Matt’s brain.

Aug 23, 2020

Conway doesn't know how to write women, but enh, I'll take some ongoing drama.

Jul 29, 2020

It was trying to be better but I still rolled my eyes a few times throughout. It also felt like an issue I won’t remember because these events seem to happen so much they all start blending together

Feb 29, 2020

What I found interesting about the Gerry Conway's writing in this story is that he twice begged the reader to not judge... each time it was when a female character made a questionable decision (first Karen And then BW)... it seems like he was asking us to not judge his own writing, maybe he knew it was bad. I was so looking forward to the Widow's addition to this title... I thought it would improve... but this story was disappointing at best. 2 stars.

Aug 18, 2019

Really tricky comic. The art isn't as good as it sometimes is, but really quite good. The story is heart wrenching - and excellent. The dialogue and narration are just SO clunky that it gets in the way and makes a pretty good story feel too juvenile.

May 30, 2019

Better, but still not great.

I groaned aloud when the very first page has a semi conscious, drowning Matt have thought bubble saying 'karen...' and I just knew we were about to get yet another interminable inner monologue about what a terrible lover he is.

Luckily, it didn't go on as long as I thought it would, and the Widow (YAY) saved him, before immediately prattling on about her 'curse' (BOO), so again, one step forward...

And the unmitigated gall of one Conway character telling another Conway character 'you sound a bit pretentious'...! Has the man no self awareness at all!??

Dec 7, 2017

On page 15, my comic doesn't show Owl's face when Black Widow kicks him. It looks like her feet are shining.

That is a nice pin-up of Widow at the end there.

There wasn't much of a story here. It added a few complications to the previous storyline, but that is all.

I love the Widow.