Issue 11 “A Time To Unmask” (December, 1965) Released: October 5, 1965 Written by Stan Lee Drawn by Bob Powell Inked by Wally Wood Lettered by Sam Rosen Cover drawn by Wally Wood
Issue 10 was written by Wally Wood. Issue 11, the second installment of a two-part story, is written by Stan Lee. The difference between these two writers couldn’t be more evident. Stan Lee takes the gleeful fun out of Wally Wood’s original story and adds in a few dollops of ability shenanigans, trading places tomfoolery, and cringe-worthy love triangle nonsense.
Wait.
Did we say “cringe-worthy”?
We meant “infuriating.”
To prove our position, the crew here at “The Devil’s Archive” does something it has never done before and reads the final two pages to you. We didn’t see any other way to make our audience appreciate just how god awful this issue turns out to be. Join us for Rodney’s acting debut!
Finally, check behind the cut for our individual grades for this issue and take some time to view the artwork and images that we discuss in the episode!
Once again, Rodney is the outlier here. He gives this issue a D+. Kyle and Aaron are head-to-head, both giving this outing a C-. All three are in agreement, though, that this issue is a step backwards from issue 10. Their overall grade: C-.
Remember last episode when we discussed how Wally Wood left a clue as to the identity of The Organizer within the panels of the comic? Remember how they made such a big deal out of how this was a mystery that you, as a reader could solve? Well, as it turns out, the clue was this signet ring shown prominently on The Organizer’s finger in the final panel of page 9. Astute readers were, apparently, supposed to notice that Abner Jonas wears the same ring. It’s a bit of silly trickery because you don’t actually see Jonas wearing the ring in the first issue– only The Organizer– and this panel above is the only really good look at the ring on Jonas’ finger. On page 5, Matt Murdock uses his radar sense to see through a wall and see that a stranger is ransacking the office of Nelson & Murdock. We’re calling “bullshit” on this misuse of Daredevil’s ability. This is even bigger bullshit than expecting people to notice a ring that is never depicted and connect it to a character that never wears it. On the next page, though, Matt– rather hilariously– trips into the door, making enough noise to scare the ransacker away. On a “bullshit” scale, this falls somewhere between the two previously mentioned steps. Matt Murdock, even if blind, is not a clumsy person. If he were, Karen and Foggy would never let him out of their sight. At one point in this issue, Daredevil steals Frog-Man’s costume so that he can infiltrate The Organization. This, in and of itself, is not a bad idea, but Stan ruins it by also dressing Frog-Man up in Daredevil’s costume and then having Daredevil (dressed as Frog-Man, natch) take Frog-Man (dressed as Daredevil) to jail. Why does Matt bother with this last bit? And how the hell does he think he’s going to get his costume back?Rodney calls “bullshit” on this sequence. Dressed as Frog-Man, Daredevil comments that if he “goes limp” at exactly the right second, he can plummet from a great height without hurting himself. We don’t think this would work, and we here at “The Devil’s Archive” are assuming no liability if one of our listeners decides that they would like to prove us wrong. In the end, it’s Foggy that saves the day! While Daredevil fights the Ani-Men, Foggy tackles Abner Jonas and then sits on him to put him to the ground until Daredevil can arrive to haul him off to jail.
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