Issue2 “The Evil Menace of Electro” (June, 1964) Released: April 2, 1964 Written by Stan Lee Drawn by Joe Orlando Inked by Vince Colletta Lettered by Sam Rosen Cover drawn by Jack Kirby
In our second episode, our high from the enjoyment of the first issue plummets dramatically as we dissect the myriad reasons why Stan Lee and new artist Joe Orlando would choose to follow-up a successful premiere with an issue that is downright unlikable, idiotic, and terrible. Along the way, we prove that Reed Richards is NOT the smartest man in the universe, we discuss whether stealing a horse makes you a complete asshole, we realize that Kyle cannot tell the difference between a skinny blind man who wears sunglasses and a fat man who isn’t and doesn’t, and we angrily lament how allowing Daredevil to fly a rocket ship is a gross misuse of his powers. Honestly, we’re worried that our listening audience will listen to this and think that we made everything up.
Check behind the cut for our overall grade and see the artwork referenced in the episode!
Our collective grade for this was unanimous. Each of the crew gave it a big fat F, which averaged out to an even bigger and fatter F. This issue is garbage. How ironic that it’s #2!
The villain in this issue is Electro. As much as we like Electro, we think he’s a lousy pick for a hero like Daredevil. Electro’s first appearance was, incidentally, only a few months prior to this appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #9 (February 1964).
Aaron’s love for Fantastic Four has no boundaries whatsoever, so it’s nice to see them in the pages of Daredevil, even if it is only for two throw-away panels. This artwork is the 4th and 5th panels of page 3.Even our excitement for seeing Fantastic Four for even a second, though, doesn’t kill the absolute idiocy of this sequence on the previous page where The Thing magically used powers that he doesn’t have to fuse two halves of a wooden door back together. Page 6, panels 1 through 5. The infamous engine block slingshot. This doesn’t make a lick of sense. Electro overpowers our hero and then stores his unconscious body inside a rocket ship that Reed Richards and company keep in the Baxter Building. Notice that Electro cannot operate the controls because the levers do not recognize Reed Richard’s distinct molecular structure. We mention this because it’s important later.
And by “later”, we mean “the next page”. On page 13, Daredevil regains consciousness to discover that he has been launched into outer space (!!!). On this same page, we learn that not only has Daredevil stolen techniques from Harry Houdini but is perfectly capable of flying a rocket ship back through the Earth’s atmosphere, despite being blind and NOT BEING A MEMBER OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR WITH THE UNIQUE MOLECULAR COMPOSITION OF REED RICHARDS (you know, the really smart guy who hired a blind man to inspect his building?)
Page 14 in its entirety. After crashlanding a rocketship (that we think we’ve established he shouldn’t know to fly), Daredevil makes an attempt to escape the police by stealing a horse. Notice that he strikes a well-place “karate blow” with his cane to slice the harnesses. This is theft, pure and simple. What an asshole!Page 16. This is the full page of art that we reference and attempt to make sense of. Our final image for this week’s entry is the final page (22). It not only includes one final image of our esteemed guest stars, but it includes a handy reference guide for Kyle.
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