Daredevil #3, Aug. 1964

Daredevil #3, Aug. 1964

Written with raw realism by: Stan Lee
Illustrated with daring drama by: Joe Orlando
Inked with actual artistry by: Vince Colletta
Lettered with perfect precision by: S. Rosen

You know what I really admire about even the really lame comic book villains like the Owl? They’re all really damn committed to their theme. The Black Knight inexplicably made a lance and flying horse his main weapons, the Human Top spins around on his head, even though there seems to be no reason to, and the Owl not only lives in a house that looks like an owl, but he sits in an owl-shaped throne, has an owl for a pet, and occasionally perches on branches. If you know anybody who’s really intensely interested in a single look or animal or character from mythology, I’d say there’s a pretty good chance they’re a supervillain.

There’s a new old villain in town, the Owl, who’s been a big shot corporate guy for a long time, using that as a cover for his illicit activities. He finally gets caught out when his accountant, whom he had framed for his own dirty deeds, ends up committing suicide (I don’t know how that works, but apparently it does), and he decides to become a full-blown supervillain. He hires a couple thugs and has a cape that lets him fly, then just hangs out in his big owl house doing… bad guy stuff, I guess.

His plan is to get a lawyer to be his public face, and completely at random he chooses Matt Murdock. Blind guys must be easy to push around, right? Unfortunately, this particular blind lawyer is also Daredevil, and Daredevil’s in the business of fighting off small-time villains like the Owl. By the end of the adventure, the Owl is lost at sea (DD’s super senses don’t work so well underwater) and Matt’s secretary, Karen Page, gets some suspicions that Murdock is actually Daredevil, since the hero apparently knew her name and also has the same voice as her boss. Good one, blindy.

Nowadays we know Daredevil for the dark tone of the comics, but back in the 60’s, he was just another guy like the rest of them, which is why I was surprised when they all but showed a guy killing himself. I mean, generally nobody dies at all in these comics, unless they’re faceless Nazis or something like that, and even then they don’t linger on the death or specifically show it. I’m sure they’d like to, but the Comics Code didn’t let them do any gore or death or anything like that, and though I don’t know the exact rules they had (I think it was more like an MPAA thing where it’s just a group of dudes who decide on a case-by-case basis), there’s gotta be something about suicide in there. It was done really well here, though, and was pretty important to the story (even if I’m still unsure how the accountant dying made proof against Owl come into the light).