Murdock and Marvel: 1991 Part 2

Episode 33 - Murdock and Marvel: 1991 Part 2

It’s the year of Marvel’s greatest success…and quite possibly its greatest failure!  Welcome to 1991, the year that sets the stage for the next evolution of American comics. 

This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1991.

 

The Year in Daredevil 

Appearances: Daredevil #288-299, Daredevil Annual #7, Marvel Comic Presents #69-72, #75, #81 and #91, What if…? 24 and 26, Avengers #332-#333, Excalibur #39, Darkhawk #6, Incredible Hulk: Ground Zero, Very Best of Marvel Comics, Very Best of What If, Amazing Spider-Man: The Wedding graphic novels and Marvel Masterworks 

Writing: Ann Nocenti (288-291) Dan G Chichester (292-299) 

Pencils: Lee Weeks (288, 291-295, 297-299) Kieron Dwyer (289-290), Ron Garney (296) 

Inks: Al Williamson and Weeks (288) Williamson and Fred Fredricks (289), Fredricks (290-292), Williamson (293-299) 

• The year begins with Matt Murdock having dreams of Elektra and Stick and the Kingpin orchestrating a similar ultimatum to throw a boxing match to save Nyla whom he’s kidnapped. Matt refuses to do so, wins the fight and saves Nyla with the help of Ben Urich 
• Meanwhile Bullseye continues to pretend to be Daredevil and ruin his reputation, but is confronted and defeated by Murdock who’s disguised as Bullseye.   
• After taking on Bullet for one last time, Matt Murdock reunites with his friend and law partner Foggy Nelson – who’s been working on getting Murdock’s law license reinstated. 
• As Daredevil and the Punisher deal with Taskmaster and Tombstone causing trouble, we see Kingpin and Typhoid Mary enter a deal with a General Strang, an investor who agrees to fund Fisk’s media enterprises but secretly hopes to infiltrate Fisk’s finances from within. 
• Halfway through the year we see the Hand returns to New York and we learn they were the ones behind setting lose Taskmaster and Tombstone on the city.   
• What follows is a multi-book story arc involving Daredevil attempts to take down the Hand. This includes a cameo by the Ghost Rider and some of Stick’s old students (including Stone) showing up to help Daredevil in the final showdown – which is our spotlight story this week. 
• The year ends with the first 3 of 4 parts to the Last Rites story arc. In it, we see Daredevil causing division between Kingpin and Typhoid before having her committed. Then we see Nick Fury bring Matt Murdock into SHIELD and ask him for help taking down Kingpin and Hydra who’s bankrolling his media enterprise. We then see the chess pieces put in place for a final showdown. The finale of this story is a giant double issue #300 we’ll talk about in 1992. 

New Powers, Toys or Places: None

New Supporting Characters: Maltese (Kingpin’s right-hand man), Danny Ketch aka Ghost Rider, Kathy Malper (US District Attorney looking to take down Kingpin) 

New Villains: Taskmaster (big time Marvel baddie), Tombstone (another Marvel baddie), General Strang (Kingpin’s media investor that turns out to be more than he bargained for – Lieutenant Garotte). Jonin (head of the latest version of the Hand in New York), a new Izanami (large female enforcer of the Hand)

This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #296 September 1991 “Balancing Act” 

Recap

Why We Picked This Story

The Takeaway

Writers matter!

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.