My Favorite Single Issues
This is an idea I’ve had for a while and was even a Twitter question on the old podcast. There are some issues of a comic book that stick with you. That do exactly what a comic should do: give you a complete story, beginning, middle and end, in one single issue while staying true to the character/teams/etc. you are reading about.
Most of these I’m going on from memory but I’m also going to do my best to reread these today to see how well they hold up. So, let’s begin with the wild and crazy far flung year of 1996:
Daredevil #360 – Alone against the Absorbing Man
Written by Karl Kesel with art by Cary Nord
What you need to know: as a child, Matt Murdock was stuck in the eyes by a radioactive isotope while trying to save a man crossing the street. This good deed blinded him however, it heightened all of his other senses, allowing him to “see” with a radar sense. Also, under the training of Stick, he became the Man Without Fear! He is also a lawyer, playing on the whole ‘justice is blind’ thing, I’m sure.
Also, this is during the time at Marvel of ‘Heroes Reborn.’ Marvel, and comics in general weren’t doing great in the late 90’s. The days of books selling millions of copies had come and gone and the bubble had burst. Things had gotten so bad, it was around this time that Marvel even filed for bankruptcy! Looking at how successful Marvel is today, this may seem crazy, but this is the topsy-turvy world of comics publishing.
As an attempt at the “let’s throw everything against the wall & see what sticks” method, Marvel had reached out to creators who had left several years earlier to start Image Comics, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The plan was to revamp the Avengers and the Fantastic Four from scratch, effectively removing them from the main Marvel Universe in an event called Heroes Reborn.
This was done by, after a battle with Onslaught, the combination of Professor Xavier and the consciousness of Magneto (no, really), Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Fantastic Four sacrificed themselves to save us all. However, what REALLY happened was they were saved by Franklin Richards, son of Mr. Fantastic & Invisible Woman, who has reality bending powers, who removed them from the Marvel Universe by placing them in a ball he carried around with him.
Don’t worry, everyone got better and back together.
Back to Dardevil. So, while the heavy hitters were off the board, the only folks left protecting New York City, where the bulk of bad things that happened in the Marvel Universe happened, were Black Widow (who blamed herself for the Avengers & FF’s disappearance), Spider-Man (who was Ben Reilly at the time) and Daredevil.
While the big gun heroes were off the board, their baddies were not. So folks like the Absorbing Man, who had fought the likes of the Hulk and Thor to standstills, were still milling about, realizing things would be easy pickings for them.
Now, the Karl Kesel/Cary Nord run on Daredevil had started at the beginning of 1996 and this was the first Daredevil I had ever read. That’s right, as of that point, I had not even read any of the fabled Frank Miller run from the 80’s. It was probably a cross over with Spider-Man around that time that had me give the book a try. It was this issue that made me a Daredevil fan for life.
Now, there are several subplots going on that are great. One with Karen Page working at a NY radio station and another dealing with the reemergence of Foggy Neslon’s birth mother that would be major plot points up to Kevin Smith taking over the book a few years later.
The main crux of things in this issue is Daredevil taking on a foe who can literally turning his body into anything he touches. There is a great part where cops open fire on Crusher Creel (Absorbing Man’s shoot name, bruther) and he turns himself into paper so the bullets pass right through him.
Daredevil knows he outmanned and out muscled. However, throughout the entire battle, Matt has a smile on his face and Kesel conveys that in the dialog and Nord’s art is beautiful in showing how graceful DD is and how imposing Creel is.
Not to spoil an eighteen year old story, but Daredevil wins. He uses his smarts to take down the Absorbing Man. I’m not going to spoil how he does it, but it was the creative use of his powers that I’m a sucker for.
Does This Hold Up? Short answer, yes. As a stand alone story, it does a great job of balancing the super hero stuff and character stuff as Matt has one of the richest secondary casts in all of comics. There is enough teases and reveals for this new status quo sutff. Also, DD’s joking isn’t just a knock of Spider-Man, it feels very much his own. And outside of one Law & Order joke at the end of the issue, nothing is dated and this issue feels like it could have been published today.
How Can I Read This? Unfortunately, this run of Daredevil is sadly uncollected and is not available digitally. I suggest heading to your local comic shop and rummaging around in back issue bins. You can find it online for $2-$3, but I’d recommend the entire run, if you can find it.
