Back in July, we took a look at Daredevil #105, in which a plotline involving a series of mysteriously-empowered new supervillains — one that had meandered through the generally street-level-set series for the past nine issues — suddenly took an unexpected turn for the cosmic, as our Man Without Fear found himself involved with Moondragon — a woman who, though Earth-born, presently called Saturn’s moon of Titan her home. In other words, DD had somehow managed to wander into the outskirts of the “Thanos War” saga being chronicled by artist-writer Jim Starlin over in the pages of Captain Marvel.
The events of that issue led to the dual revelations that Moondragon had been bamboozled into believing that not only Daredevil and his partner the Black Widow, but just about the whole city of San Francisco, had fallen under the thrall of the mad Titan Thanos — and that the man who’d accomplished this unlikely feat was none other than the man who was DD’s boss in his day job: Kerwin J. Broderick, senior partner in the law firm of Broderick, Sloan, and Murdock. As the issue drew to a close, Broderick fired a raygun at Moondragon, seriously wounding her, while elsewhere, a big green monster called Terrex burst upwards through the ground of Broderick’s estate.
Writer Steve Gerber picked up the story a month later in Daredevil #106, assisted by penciller Don Heck and inker Sal Trapani. Behind a cover by Rich Buckler and John Romita, “Life Be Not Proud!” opens with a stunned Daredevil holding the limp body of an apparently dying Moondragon, while Kerwin Broderick gloats over not only the rise of Terrex, but also the havoc currently being wreaked upon San Francisco by the villains earlier engineered for him by Moondragon — havoc that begins with a force-field projected over the entire city by Mordecai, the Dark Messiah…
The Dark Messiah — as well as his unseen handler, now revealed to be Kerwin J. Broderick — had first turned up in a two-part story in Daredevil #97-98. Those issues, which were scripted by Gerber over plots by outgoing writer Gerry Conway, also introduced a mystery in the form of an attack on a university research center by a group of uniformed youths (see right; art by Gene Colan and Ernie Chan); this mystery was clearly implied to be connected to the Dark Messiah, who attempted to break the youths out of jail after Daredevil and the police captured them. Later issues (all written solely by Gerber) had compounded the connected mysteries — first, by having a similar uniformed group 
attempt to steal files from the offices of Rolling Stone magazine (see left; art by Colan and John Tartaglione); then, by having Ramrod, another new villain controlled by the same shadowy master as the Dark Messiah, make another grab for the same files, now being guarded by DD himself. Meanwhile, in his civilian identity of attorney 
Matt Murdock, our hero had taken on the first group of young suspects (the ones from the research center attack) as clients. Told by them that they had no memory of their criminal actions, Matt became convinced they were innocent (see right; art by Heck and Trapani)… and so he was shocked when Broderick, using their firm’s other partner, Jason Sloan, as his proxy, insisted that he plead the young men guilty.
The revelation that Broderick is the very mystery man who’s been pulling the strings of the Dark Messiah and Ramrod, as well as a third villain named Angar the Screamer, ties everything together at last. Surely we’re now about to learn the specifics of his criminal schemes: why he ordered the violent attack on the research center, why he’s used brainwashed teenagers in uniforms to do some (though not all) of his dirty work, what was in those Rolling Stone files… all that stuff. Aren’t we?
Then again… maybe we’re not.
Believe it or don’t, the five panels above contain all the answers we’re ever going to get regarding what Kevin J. Broderick has been up to since DD #98. Having inherited the original mysteries from Gerry Conway, and then having compounded them before figuring out what they were all about in the first place, Steve Gerber seems to have run out of time and/or space to come up with an adequate explanation for the whole business, and so chooses here to sweep the still-unanswered questions under the rug, hoping the reader won’t notice. (And if I’m to be honest, back in 1973 my sixteen-year-old self, who was following multiple continued stories across an assortment of comics titles, probably didn’t.) It’s a real disappointment coming from Gerber, who, while by his own admission the kind of author who regularly wrote by the seat of his pants, generally tended to stick the landing successfully, even in these early years of his career — or, at least, did so more reliably than his fellow habitual pantser Gerry Conway (cough, “Mister Kline”, cough).
Still, half a century later, there’s not much we can do about the matter, other than to suck it up and try to enjoy the rest of the story as best we can. So, hey, let’s go with that.
Of course, Gerber’s not making it any easier for us to move on by now asking us to believe that the highly intelligent Moondragon, having arrived on Earth with extremely advanced information-gathering technology, would select for her single trusted ally against the evil forces of Thanos not the Fantastic Four, nor the Avengers, but, rather, an elderly San Francisco lawyer. Notwithstanding Broderick’s allegedly “sterling reputation”, that’s just silly.
The Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, is already on the scene, as are officers of the SF police, having been called there earlier to deal with Kraven the Hunter (whom we’re told has escaped in the chaos occasioned by Terrex’s arrival). But there seems to be little they can do against the big green monster, whose powers include being able to drain away life-force, as well as to amplify it — as he proves, first by prematurely aging a policeman to death, then by killing all vegetation in his path as he departs the Broderick property, on his way towards the center of the city.
Meanwhile, back in Moondragon’s undersea lair…
Daredevil gently picks Moondragon up, and then carries her in the direction she guides him, while musing to himself, “There’s something about her that fascinates me.” Uh oh. Finally they arrive at the “regenesis” lab, where just a cursory pass over the equipment with his radar sense quickly convinces Matt that he’s way out of his league…
Did Moondragon make the red lenses in DD’s cowl disappear at the same time she restored his sight? Well, it’s either that, or Don Heck has simply taken some artistic license. It’s not a big deal either way, in my opinion.
DD assures the Widow he’ll explain things on the way downtown, but they’ve got to hurry to get there before Terrex. So they and Moondragon hop into Lt. Paul Carson’s squad car, and off they go.
Meanwhile, Terrex’s slow but steady progress is about to be intercepted by the third and last of the supervillains created by Moondragon for Kerwin J. Broderick…
Elsewhere, DD and the Widow have arrived downtown to find the Dark Messiah and Ramrod waiting for them. As the duo charge into battle, Natasha takes a moment to wonder just what the “relationship” is between Matt and “Baldy!” “You know,” Matt responds, “you almost sound jealous.”
DD’s momentary shock at Mordecai’s “weird appearance” is only the first of the problems he finds himself running into due to the exchange of his radar sense for his eyesight; he’s also less quick at anticipating his enemy’s movements, and his depth perception is off.
Other than the Jim Starlin-derived Titan material, Daredevil’s temporary recovery of his vision is probably the most memorable thing about this storyline, half a century on — so it seems unfortunate, as well as a little odd, that Gerber threw away the idea after only a handful of pages. Surely this premise was good for at least a couple of issues’ worth of drama? If nothing else, it was more interesting than DD’s out-of-nowhere mooning over Moondragon.
“Be here –?” Why, yes, I think we will. In fact, we already are…
Daredevil #107 marks the arrival of Bob Brown as the series’ new regular artist; outside of a few interruptions, his run would continue through issue #143 (Mar., 1977). Back in September, 1973, his first outing, inked by Sal Buscema, seemed a definite step up in visual appeal from the last several issues drawn by Don Heck, at least for your humble blogger.*
Not heeding Moondragon’s warning, Daredevil leaps to attack Terrex — and has his legs paralyzed (albeit only temporarily) for his trouble. As “MD” reminds everyone, the big green meanie “wields total power over anything that lives! He can strengthen it — or cripple it — renew it — or destroy it!”
Our heroes make a strategic retreat back to the offices of Police Commissioner O’Hara; by the time they arrive, DD’s legs are working again, and so he’s on his feet when this unexpected word comes in…
This is of course the “new” Captain Marvel — first seen in the most recent issue of his own title (#29) — as evidenced by his freshly blonde hair, twinkly flight trail, and disdain for violence. That latter bit notwithstanding, he trades licks with Ramrod for another few panels before trying another gambit…
“Relax“? Did Rick Jones and Mar-Vell not get the “San Francisco has one hour to live!” memo? I guess maybe that’s possible, since they’ve just flown in from out of town. But the tonal shift from earlier scenes is pretty jarring.
A couple of brief continuity notes here: “R.T.”‘s citation of Marvel Team-Up #15-16 is off by one digit (and issue); the Kree Captain shared cover billing with Spider-Man in #16, and then also guest-starred with Spidey and Mister Fantastic in #17. And while this story definitely follows Captain Marvel #29, later stories would make it pretty clear that it must follow issue #30 of that title as well… though we should probably cut Marvel some slack for not referencing a comic that wouldn’t actually be published until the following month.
Anyway, moving on… Before Rick can even take another lick of his ice cream cone, the sound of chopper blades announces the arrival of Daredevil and company. But rather than immediately hop into a nearby alley and slam together his Nega-bands to summon Marv-Ell, Rich decides he’ll “let D.D. snoop a bit” first. Hmm, I guess that kid really is serious about enjoying his downtime. In any event, it provides an opportunity for a scene change, thereby allowing us to check in with Angar the Screamer,,, who, I’m relieved to say, has finally noticed the deceased status of his passenger, the unfortunate Janis, since we last saw him in #106…
Elsewhere, Rick has evidently decided he’s let Daredevil and his friends waste enough time poking through the rubble of the ruined print shop; so, a surreptitious slapping of the ol’ Nega-bands, and… Ta-Dah!
Yeah, that’s a fairly unimpressive drawing of Thanos in the next-to-last panel above, but let’s cut Brown and Buscema a break; it’s not like the guy was a well-established “A”-list villain at this point, right?
As a reminder, Jason Sloan is the third partner in the law firm of Broderick, Sloan, and Murdock; having very recently learned that he has for years been carrying water for a literal (as of close to an hour ago) monster, he’s having a bit of trouble coping with the news…
Heh, heh. Funny one, Marv. (No, not really, but I was raised to be polite.) And yes, who’d have expected this issue’s Starlin-Milgrom cover would prove so accurate?
Gerber takes a big swing for the capital-C cosmic, here — hey, all the cool kids were doing it in 1973, y’know? — and if it doesn’t come off as well as contemporaneous efforts by Jim Starlin, Steve Englehart, and Frank Brunner (or, for that matter, Gerber himself, in next month’s Man-Thing #1), it’s at least interesting.
So ends Daredevil’s Big Cosmic Adventure Also Featuring Black Widow — if not one of the Man Without Fear’s finest hours, then at least one of the most unusual.
While Moondragon wouldn’t be going away immediately, the next issue would nevertheless feature a return to the more grounded sort of superheroic fare fans expected from Daredevil, along with a downgrading of the Black Widow’s co-starring role (via her excision from the title logo), a visit to DD’s previous base of New York City that prefigured a permanent move back home not long thereafter, and an appearance from good ol’ Foggy Nelson (though, as you can tell from the John Romita cover shown at right, Matt’s former law partner had seen better days). Gerber would also move quickly to use Daredevil as a vehicle for wrapping up a plotline left orphaned by the cancellation of another series he’d been writing, Shanna the She-Devil. Would Shanna‘s jungle adventure tropes mix better with DD’s urban crimefighting milieu than had Captain Marvel‘s science fiction? That’s a question we’ll have to leave unanswered for now, possibly to be taken up in a later post. (Or not. We’ll see.)
*For the record, the issue’s startling, but accurate-to-the-interiors cover (where’s DD’s costume?!) was provided by none other than Captain Marvel‘s own Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom (with touch-ups to the Black Widow done by John Romita, per the Grand Comics Database).
I missed DD 106 but got 107 and, yeah, it was weird as all get out, but I still enjoyed it, likely because it was so weird in the increasingly expected Gerber manner. Among the oddities, Broderick’s wanting to be “King of San Francisco” — not the world, the United States or even California, but just the city by the bay, to where I’d be moving with my family a little over a year later, in October 1974. Re-reading that panel about how Broderick manipulated the politicians in San Francisco, and also triggered by today’s news of the death of Senator Diane Feinstein, brought to mind the murders of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk, as well as the city’s connection with Jim Jones and his insanity and the mass suicide murders in Jonestown. Of course, those tragedies were still in the future of just a few years when this mag was new. Having Terrex lose his mind upon smashing a large imaginary egg was rather trippy, a term I’m fairly sure my 11 year old self was not yet aware of in 1973. Heck, I hadn’t even heard the song “I Am the Walrus” and the refrain “I am the eggman, goo goo ga joob” yet! Also at the time I was not yet familiar with Janis Joplin, who rose to fame a few years earlier as part of the San Francisco scene. I wonder if Angar’s done-turned-to-dust girlfriend was named after the more famous Janis, who had also bitten the dust and been cremated just about three years earlier.
On re-reading this yarn, it occurs to me that Moondragon’s behavior thus far, up to Broderick shooting her, was, um, not too bright. Matter of fact, incredibly naive and down-right stupid. And having Matt on the verge of falling in love with her, and her with him, just seemed extraordinarily silly to me. Maybe that was part of Gerber’s means to throw a monkey-wrench into the romance and partnership of DD & Natasha, as more clearly evidenced by the removal of “and the Black Widow” from the cover title with the next issue. Not to mention Matt leaving the Golden Gate city to return to the Big Apple. Back to Moonie, I don’t recall in any of the stories I read featuring her up to the early ’80s showing her in a healthy relationship with anyone, but then that was par for the course for many Marvel characters (not to mention myself and quite a lot of other people I know, alas!).
All in all, a fascinating if not particularly great epic and rather out of the ordinary for a Daredevil yarn. And coming up next, a more down-to-earth but nearly equally bizarre epic.
More fun following along with your half-century gone-by comicbook memories, Alan!
In Gerber’s *Howard the Duck* comic strip, there was a character who wanted to be the Sultan of Cleveland.
Maybe small is beautiful was Gerber’s credo, or he wanted to refute Raymond Chandler’s claim in “The Simple Art of Murder” essay that in the real world “gangsters can rule nations and almost rule cities.”
The Un-Life business reminded me of J.M. DeMatteis’s *Doctor Fate, * where a smile may not have been your umbrella but was certainly very important.
Daredevil has always been one of my favorite Marvel heroes, but I didn’t buy this one, I’m assuming because DD was coming off a run of issues with art by Don Heck and I just refused to pay money for artwork I disliked so much. I don’t know if Brown’s work here is really that much better or if he just benefits by comparison, but the issue is very much improved because of it.
I can understand Moondragon’s “I’m not from around here” naivete, but I agree that it’s weird she went to Broderick for help and not The Avengers or somebody. It’s also weird that she stayed with him for as long as she did because, at least in these two issues, he certainly wasn’t trying to keep his villainy a secret.
I deeply resent Gerber’s sidelining Natasha in favor of Moondragon in these issues. I was not a MD fan and much preferred Natasha, who I’ve always believed was Matt’s best romantic partner next to Elektra. I agree with you that Matt’s regaining his sight should have been a much bigger deal, but Gerber chooses to throw it out there and then take it back without even giving Matt and Natasha a moment to look longingly into one another’s eyes. SIGH.
I probably appreciated the “hippy-dippiness” of Angar more in 73 than I do now. I also think exposing Terrax/Broderick to the hand-waving power of “unlife” was a wasted and meaningless piece of “deus ex machina” posturing. I don’t really like the cosmic in my street level superheroes and hopefully, next issue’s trip to NYC will get Matt’s feet back on the ground where they belong. Thanks, Alan.
It is neither unusual or unethical to “plead out” a client who asserts his innopcence.
Generally, a plea bargain has been made and the plea is to a lesser offense, a felony is reduced to a misdemenor or a misdemenor to a violation. So, what Broadrick and Sloan are doing might be in the clients’ best interest. Instead of a felony Armed Robery Conviction you plead them to Violation of Disturbing the Peace, based on no priors and (in the Marvel Universe) Mind Control as non-culpable deminished capacity,
Relatedly, Moonfragon seeking out Broadrick makes mo sense. Broadrick appears to be an honest and successful lawyer. He does not appear to be a powerful, determined and unscrupulus lawyer (like the late Roy Cohn). Moondragon doing to the Marvel Universe equivilant of Roy Cohn, I could see, but not some “White Knight? type, without connections in the Superhero Community,
Possibly, Broadrick’s Partnership with Murdock might be a reason, but that partnership itself is unlikely.
Murdoch’s practice is analogous to a real-life lawyer like Ed Hayes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Hayes_(lawyer)). Hayes is a highly regarded criminal lawyer who also has an extensive practice in intellectual property (representing writers and artists in negotiating contracts or in Estate work). Murdock has a lot of criminal law clients and is highly regarded, like Hayes. Murdock is also the Fantastic Four’s outside counsel and like Hayes has a niche business with specialized clients. None of that business would be prtable out of New York State (or even NYC). Why pay Murdock what he is worth, if his book of business can’t follow him? It isn’t like a former judge or politicians who would have name recognition as an “Of Counsel” of some kind.
As for Moondragon and DD, I always thought it was pheremons, too which DD might be vulnerable.
With the Client’s consent to the plea, of course.
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Thanks for the legal detail. I’d come to assume Matt’s diverse portfolio was the equivalent of Don Blake being Great Surgeon/Family Doctor — not something you’d see in the real world.
It makes a bit more sense than Blake, if you consider practicing lawyers (like Ed Hayes) in the real world who have what seems like very broad parctices that might not be.
Hayes started out as a criminal lawyer, an ADA in the Bronx. He was the basis for the Defense Lawyer from the Bronx in Tom Wolfe;s The Bonfire of the Vanities, That gave him the contacts to start representing artists and writers in contract negotiations and estate work (famously, Andy Warhol’s).
Put another way, Health Lawyers, the people Blake and Strange would spend a lot of time consulting with, don’t just know about Stark, FCA, AKS, HIPAA and state equivilants, they would need to know a lot about Labor law, Enviromental Law, OSHA and other related matters.
The thing that is interesting is that Murdock is NOT a AmLaw500/Big Law guy, The thing about his joining a large law firm in CA was the element that didn’t make sense.
Thanks Alan. Another interesting time trip. I must admit that I also did not remember the unexplained aspects of Broderick’s schemes probably for the same reasons you mention. I guess there were just too many loose ends for Gerber to keep track of. A few interesting additional historical notes that I recall. DD 107 in its letter page announced that it was going bimonthly (the third Marvel series to go bimonthly in 2 months…first there was Sub-Mariner, then Iron Man, and now DD). The changes shown on the cover of DD 108..the removal of Black Widow from the logo, an old DD enemy, the return to NY and the return of Foggy Nelson were all apparently attempts to bring DD back to earlier days. However in retrospect I am not sure how much of a street level story DD 108-112 really was since it wound up having a fairly strange and somewhat science fiction edge itself. Not sure if you will be discussing this. The other strange aspect is that DD’ s bimonthly status at this time only lasted until DD 109. Not clear what happened or if you have any information on this but it’s hard to believe that DD suddenly started selling better so quickly. Iron Man would stay bimonthly for a year and a half and Sub-Mariner would be cancelled in less than a year. Regarding the DD/BW relationship, Gerry Conway in interviews mentioned how much he liked the idea which may have been originally his idea. However in interviews Gerber admitted that he never liked the idea of DD and BW together (which is possibly why he threw in DD’s attraction to MD). Over the next year it appears that Gerber was working towards a full split between DD and BW but that did not happen until after Gerber left (in DD 124). Looking back on DD 107, it appears the story and art holds up fairly well (although not perfect) but not sure about the previously discussed DD 105, and I agree that Moon Dragon comes off as naive or foolish for the way she believed Broderick. It may also be that Gerber was still new and finding his way, and we would see some much stronger stories from him over the next few years, especially in 1974 and 1975, but certainly not discounting later years as well.
brucesfl, I don’t have any specific information about Daredevil in this period, but apparently decisions at Marvel about changes in pub frequency could be reversed pretty quickly, if new sales reports came in showing a sharp uptick in sales from one issue to another, even if that happened several months previously. Case in point would be Conan the Barbarian in 1971-72; Roy Thomas has written that such was the reasoning for knocking that book back up to monthly status after just two issues (#14-15) as a bi-monthly.
All of those books had Gerry Conway and “Mr. Kline” in common . . . .
These issues are included in the Avengers vs Thanos trade collection.
This was messy, but I wouldn’t put it near the Mr. Kline level. Kline reached such levels of self-contradiction that complete incoherence was the result; this never got that bad.
It would have helped if they revealed Broderick had been recruited by Thanos specifically to thwart Moondragon, giving him the power to elude Moondragon’s telepathy somehow and thereby trick her into serving the Mad Titan’s interests. (The non-powered Broderick’s ability to deceive an enormously powerful telepath was the dumbest thing about the whole storyline, in my opinion.)
The way things proceeded afterward, Moondragon should have also left with Mar-Vell at the end (check out the opening page of Captain Marvel #31)—another minor continuity gaffe.
As Thanos had several human thralls, having Broderick simply be one of them, promised his own pocket kingdom in S.F. for his services, would have made the most sense. I vaguely recall that Moonie gave DD a quick trip to NYC at the beginning of issue 108, after Matt received news of Foggy having been shot and hospitalized. I think DD 108 came out about a month prior to CM 31, so presumably Moonie arrived not too, long after C.M. got back to NYC so they could get together to go to Avengers Mansion. But, yes, aside from forcing Matt to get a plane ticket to NYC, having Moondragon and Captain Marvel make the trip from SF directly to Avengers Mansion would have made the most sense. And somewhere along the way, Capt. M. had to help Spidey against the Basilisk, but was that before or after going to SF to help DD, MD & BW against Terrex?
Definitely before, as noted by Rick Jones within DD #107: https://50yearoldcomics.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/dd107-relax.jpg
Yes, DD hitched a ride to NYC from Moonie on her space ship in #108, but he could have just as easily caught a plane. With the Thanos threat, it made perfect sense for Moon to go with Marv and meet up with the Avengers, making the transition to Cap #31 fairly seamless.
MTU was definitely prior, not only in continuity terms via Rick and Marv’s conversation, but it was also published prior, iirc. In fact, by my memory, I think the comics participating in this Thanos storyline were published in fairly tight chronological order. Quite an accomplishment considering the chaotic atmosphere at Marvel at the time.
Particularly with several different writers and artists involved!
“It would have helped if they revealed Broderick had been recruited by Thanos specifically to thwart Moondragon, giving him the power to elude Moondragon’s telepathy somehow and thereby trick her into serving the Mad Titan’s interests.”
When I read this, the first thing I thought of was Darkseid hiring Intergang. I guess considering the similarities between Darkseid and Thanos, this would be cosnistent.
I got the sense that this and Damon Dran were an attempt on Conway’s part to replicate the Wood/Lee Fixer/Unholy 3 Story from esrly Daredevil or the Lee/Ditko Geen Goblin/Crime Master stories from about 8 years before. (Or even the Hulk/Secret Empire/Boomarang story.) I always got a sense Conway looked at what was about to hit the Marvel Reprint books .
Conway had a lot of potential (which he later realized) but at this point was still figuring out subplots. . . .
Unfortunatelly, It was not Gerber’s original idea and he (unusually, for him) got lost while running with it.
Angar the Screamer and Ramrod, are still good bad guys for “street level” superheroes. Ramrod, especially, would make a good ‘punch clock bad guy, who hires on as muscle but there are things he won’t do.
Sorry, “Organizer” not “Fixer.”
Moondragon is most memorable for me in her association with the Avengers in 1975-76, where she accused Thor of slumming in working with “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” I hope you’ll look at that in a few years, Alan!
There’s a good chance I will, A.S. — though I hope you’ll forgive me if I hesitate to commit myself this early! 😉
You’re forgiven completely, because I know whatever you choose to write about I shall find completely intriguing and worthwhile.
Daredevil also briefly got his sight back courtesy of the Beyonder. The woman in his life then was Glorianna O’Breen.
Ah, those aliens or those alien proteges! What can’t they do?
Apparently not everything, for the Silver Surfer only allowed her to “see energy signatures” when they were together…
Does turning the Dark Messiah human again make sense in the context of this plotline because I don’t recall Moondragon ever having power like that again.
I vaguely remember seeing these issues on the stands but when I fiipped through them they didn’t make much sense. This review clarifies things.
I think this can be choked up to what Casually Comics and TV Tropes call “early installment weirdness.”
This is like Moon Dragon’s 5th appearence; they were trying to figure out what she could do . . . .