Daredevil #3

DAREDEVIL #3 (1964)
by Stan Lee & Joe Orlando

Before Frank Miller basically re-invented the character in the 80s, Daredevil had a serious, SERIOUS problem with his villains… most of them sucked! The very early Daredevil stories are by far the worst offenders: we’ll have a look at most of them.
Since it’s fairly obvious early Daredevil owes A LOT to Spider-Man, it’s interesting to compare their very early villains.
In Daredevil #1 there is no supervillain: it’s his origin story. The parallel to Spider-Man is to Amazing Fantasy #15 where there were also no supervillains.
In Daredevil #2 he fights… Electro. So there’s already a problem there, since his FIRST villain is recycled from another hero’s rogues gallery. For contrast, Spider-Man’s first supervillain is the Chameleon.
Now we are at Daredevil #3 and his second supervillain is the Owl… and Spider-Man’s second supervillain was the Vulture. Seeing a pattern here?

I see that the Owl is a proud member of the Unable To Sit Down Like A Normal Person Club.

Joe Orlando’s work on Daredevil is often overlooked for a number of reasons… mostly that these stories are often pretty bad. But he definitely brings a lot of atmosphere to the artwork!

It’s not ALL bad, though. Considering the sheer insanity that’s about to follow, the Owl begins with a surprisingly realistic scene!

The modern re-coloring of the story is more gruesome than the original, which didn’t show any blood.

While the story is going for some realism… more than the typical superhero story anyway… it’s very weird to see the insistence of NOT using a civilian name for the villain.
I get why the public still uses his mob name, but the police too? Really?

And then the Owl decides to pick a lawyer AT RANDOM. That’s right, one of Daredevil’s worst enemies picked him at random!

Daredevil returns to the office just in time for his super-hearing to pick up the news that his partner, the usually pudgy Foggy Nelson, doesn’t want to have the Owl as a client.
That has to be the skinniest Foggy has ever been, isn’t it? He’s completely unrecognizable.

It’s a staple of Daredevil stories that he’s a far better lawyer than Foggy, but still, typically Foggy is shown to be a good lawyer and more importantly more money-savvy than his partner.
But he was about to turn down a potential important case for basically no reason.

I’ve always liked the fact that Daredevil tends to DEFEND supervillains in court rather than accusing them! It’s a rather unique trait.
Also: I don’t care if his suit is “wrinkle-proof”, unless it’s made of Unstable Molecules™ there’s no way it survives THIS:

As his lawyer, Matt Murdock gets the Owl out of jail provided he reports back the following morning.
And apparently the Owl has such a presence that he almost overwhelms Daredevil’s senses!
It’s very interesting to note that the Owl is basically introduced with the role that will eventually be taken over by the Kingpin, because while this reaction seems overblown from the Owl I would totally buy it if this was Kingpin.

Aaaaand of course the Owl was lying. The weird thing is Daredevil KNEW he was lying, because thanks to his super-hearing he’s basically a walking lying detector, but he let it slide for basically no reason.

I guess Daredevil knew that rolling his clothes into a bouncing ball was ridiculous, but would THIS work without making people think Matt Murdock is a hunchback?
Then again it works for Captain America’s shield, so what do I know.

Everyone has made fun of the fact that Daredevil’s first costume sucks because he’s blind, so I’m not going there. But how about the idea that he can do THIS with his clothes!?

Yeah, I’m not really buying you can do this by yourself, Daredevil. Tracking the Owl by his scent, sure, but personally jumping through every bridge? Get outta here!
This kind of stuff works with Spider-Man because of his strength and agility… but aside from super-senses and a grappling hook, Daredevil is basically a normal dude!

So… remember when the story began with realistic blackmail and suicide?
Now, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is when the story goes BONKERS… starting from the Owl’s headquarters.

That’s just the beginning, because then the Owl tests his two main henchmen.
First there’s gunman Sad Sam, who is tested with wax bullets… (WTF!?)

…and then there’s strongman Ape who WRESTLES A GORILLA!!!

Yeah, uhm, despite the great first impression of the very first panels, the Owl hasn’t been particularly impressive so far.

Also… he has a physical resemblance to an owl!? HOW!? His hair doesn’t even have the crazy hairstyle he’ll eventually have, and he’s not even drawn with huge bulging eyes!

But he does have a superpower… kinda: he can gently glide.
That’s it.

As a contrast, Spider-Man’s second supervillain could do THIS in his first story:

A quick recap of 95% of the Matt Murdock subplots in the first 50 issues of Daredevil:

But BY SHEER COINCIDENCE, turns out that the Owl is now hiding… in the empty apartment right next to Murdock’s office. Which means he looked for him all over the city only to find he’s LITERALLY next door!!!

Time for Daredevil to fight the Owl’s henchmen… and defeating them in the same page.
In case you’re wondering: no, “Sad Sam” and “Ape” never showed up again.

Aaaand it’s about time for Karen Page’s regularly scheduled kidnapping.

Now, if this happened at the beginning of the story, perhaps the Owl would’ve just killed Daredevil, or maybe escaped with Karen as a hostage.
But we are already in the ridiculous phase of the story.

Yeah I kind of get why this idiot wasted the opportunity to become the Kingpin of his age.
He doesn’t even TRY to unmask Daredevil!!!

Daredevil managed to escape thanks to the fact that the bad guys were stupid enough to tie him to his billy club. Who ties up a victim to his own weapon!?!?!

How the heck does SHE know that!? If the Owl said something about it, Daredevil has been in the same room the whole time!!!

Either that is some seriously weak metal or Daredevil has super-strength. Considering the Owl’s record in this issue… he doesn’t.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I intend to prove that Daredevil is terrible at keeping his secret identity. Evidence A:

Evidence B:

The whole issue has been building up to this moment: Daredevil versus the Owl! The Man Without Fear versus The Guy Who Kind Of Looks Like A Harmless Bird!
Aaaaand the Owl goes down like a b##ch.

You know, I’m starting to think there are other things Daredevil sucks at. Being a superhero, for once.

The Owl escapes, his goons are arrested, and we end with basically the same ending of all early Daredevil stories.

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Historical significance: 6/10
The Owl was supposed to be Daredevil’s greatest adversary, but he never got the chance to play that role. He’s one of the most recurring ones, especially in the 60s and 70s, but skipping pretty much the entire gritty 80s era has not done him any favors. 

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
On the DC scale this would be nothing, but at Marvel it’s surprisingly camp.

Does it stand the test of time? 2/10
Saved from a 0/10 by the start of the story. It’s a surprisingly effective introduction to the Owl… who then proceeds to completely squander any sort of potential.
It’s natural for the main character to still try to find his footing in his third appearance, but it’s clear that it’s going to take Daredevil a while before he can find his place.
The whole backpack bit is a good example: we spend a surprising amount of time establishing it… and Daredevil stops using that thing next issue!!!

Ridiculous Daredevil gadget of the day
Admittedly it’s not a ridiculous gadget to have, but why does he keep it in his cane!?

How close is this to the modern character? 4/10
The Owl has been through a lot. From being Guy-With-A-Really-Bad-Hair-Day…

…to Guy-Who-Thinks-He-Can-Pull-Off-The-Wolverine-Look…

…to Guy-Who-Stole-His-Look-From-The-Vulture…

…to Craziest-Hair-Outside-Of-Anime-Guy.

There’s a reason for his ever-changing design.
Because once Kingpin was firmly established as Daredevil’s nemesis, there was no place left for the Owl to just remain a mob boss with a lame gimmick.
So they introduced the idea that he uses a sort of super-serum that gives him his flight abilities and generally turns him into a freakish human-owl hybrid.

Unfortunately there’s no consistency about him. Sometimes he’s fully human, sometimes he just has claws, and sometimes he eats rats.

So as you can see, the Owl has really struggled to stay relevant as a Daredevil villain.
He was okay when Daredevil was a Spider-Man knockoff, and considering the competition it wasn’t hard to see him as one of the worst enemies of the Man Without Fear.
But after the Frank Miller revamp, fitting him into Daredevil’s world has become more and more difficult. Let’s face it: as a mob boss he’s nothing next to Kingpin, and as a flying bird-themed villain he’s nothing next to the Vulture.

The decision to push the animal theme was a bad one, in my opinion. That could work if he was a Spider-Man villain, but no other Daredevil villain works like that… Daredevil has nothing animalistic! And if we compare him to other animal-hybrid villains, he still sucks.

The only re-imagining that I think really clicks is the one from the Mark Waid run, where a now surprisingly slim Owl was reimagined as the Kingpin of San Francisco and during the course of the storyline gained the power to hook electronic data directly into his brain… making him a mob boss that is constantly watching everybody at all times!!!

We’ll see if it sticks or if the Owl reverts to his classic portrayal.
It’s probably going to happen, but this role would fit a Daredevil villain perfectly… the blind hero against the villains who sees everything, anyone?