Rematch with Stilt-Man

Daredevil #27 (April 1967--writer: Stan Lee. artist: Gene Colan) picks up pretty much where the last issue left off and jumps right into the action, avoiding the pacing issues from which the previous issue suffered.

Daredevil is looking for Stilt-Man, pausing to help Spider Man take out some crooks and asking the Webslinger to also keep an eye out for the villain.

It's pretty obvious that Spider Man is in the story to help boost sales for DD's lower selling book. Spidey was the 14th best-seller for that year. DD was a lower--though still respectable--27th. But it's not unreasonable that the two heroes would occasionally run into each other and I do enjoy Spidey's attitude towards Daredevil. He's annoyed that people might think it takes two of them to subdue common thugs. So his appearance doesn't seem forced or contrived.

In the meantime, The Masked Marauder showing off his cool stuff to Stilt-Man. He has a helicoptor equipped with a force field that disintegrates anything touching it. The Marauder knows Daredevil is connected with Murdock and Nelson, so his plan is to kidnap the lawyers and force them to tell what they know.

The villains raid the law office, gassing Matt, Foggy and Karen unconscious and stuffing them in the force-field protected chopper. Threatened with death, Matt reveals that Daredevil is really his twin brother Mike. His supposed cowardice ticks off Karen, but it does send Stilt-Man off on a false trail.

But when Stilt-Man can't find Mike listed in the phone book, he's stumped on what to do next, eventually deciding to rob a jewelry store in hopes of luring Daredevil into the open. But in the Marvel Universe version of New York City, you really can't predict which hero will show up when you commit a crime. Stilt-Man finds himself fighting Spider-Man.

Gene Colan uses the same technique to choreograph this fight as he used in the Daredevil/Stilt-Man fight from the previous issue, shifting perspective from panel to panel to highlight the bad guy's changing height and the hero's agility.

Matt, in the meantime, has managed to knock the Marauder into the force field's Off Button before allowing himself to "fall" out of the chopper. In what might be the most remarkable achievement in his career, he changes into his Daredevil costume while hanging upside-down by his knees from the helicopter.

His ensuing fight with the Marauder is interesting to contrast with the Spidey/Stilt-Man battle. Where Colan used wide shots and shifting perspectives for the earlier fight, here he uses tight shots to highlight the confined space and lack of room to manuever. It's an excellent example of just how skilled an artist he was. Both fights have their own flavor and are exciting in their own ways.

Marauder had re-activated the force field and, to the suprise of pretty much no one, ends up falling out of the chopper and getting disintegrated by his own device. Stilt-Man, in the meantime, has escaped from Spider-Man, but accidentally electricutes himself unconscious by trying to zap Daredevil while standing in water.

This ending is too abrupt. I imagine Stan Lee recognized that a third issue with Stilt-Man probably wasn't a good idea. He's a fun villain, but needs to be presented in small doses or he'll just get too silly. But the story had reached the end of its page count, so poor Stilty had to come to an ignomious end to wrap things up quickly.

But this abruptness doesn't spoil the entertainment that preceded this. The fight scenes are fun and well-choreographed. And it's always worthwhile to see Stilt-Man as long as he doesn't overstay his welcome.

Next week, we'll visit with Tarzan's son Korak.