Silver Streak Comics #6

Silver Streak Comics #6 (1940)
by Jack Binder

You all know Daredevil, right? The superhero who fights crime with a throwing weapon despite his disability? Well you know the Marvel one, but long before Matt Murdock there was a Daredevil in the Golden Age.
Who was a superhero fighting crime with a throwing weapon despite his disability.

Silver Streak Comics comes from Lev Gleason Publications, and like most superheroes from lesser-known publishers his origin story is given through a single infodump.
Which tells us he’s been mute since his parents were tortured in front of him as a child!

Not only that, but the future Daredevil was ALSO tortured as a child, by having his chest BRANDED WITH A HOT IRON.
The Golden Age was ruthless!

We begin the story with Daredevil going after a gangster.

Daredevil supposedly has no superpowers, but I’m not buying it considering he can knock down a plane with his boomerang!!!

He then proceeds to smash his way through a gambling den.

Daredevil is far from the first Golden Age hero with incredible acrobatic skills, but he’s one of the few that could be mistaken for having the ability to fly.

He also pre-dates Spider-Man’s gimmick of leaving behind personalized notes by more than 20 years.

See what I meant about him flying?

Somehow the gangsters don’t notice this, leading him to their meetup at a lumber yard of all places.

They’re not exactly a big threat to him.

Not that I’m rooting for the gangsters or anything, but if they can’t hit a bright yellow target at that range, they deserve to lose.

And because Daredevil is mute, we have to end with someone else giving the final plot details.

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Historical significance: 0/10
Daredevil is historically signicant in his own right, but basically nothing from this first story carries over. He doesn’t even have his definitive color scheme!

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Nothing particularly outrageous for a superhero, and with a surprisingly violent origin.

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
If you include the first page with the infodump, this is a 8 page story and it doesn’t even have enough plot to cover that. It’s not the worst minor Golden Age story out there… which makes it even worse, because nothing stands out.
Even the only notable novelty… having a superhero with a disability… doesn’t mean anything because it’s not even used in the story.

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How close is this to the modern character? It’s complicated
Even if you do have a passing familiarity with the Golden Age Daredevil, you might not even recognize him. That’s because he doesn’t have his traditional color scheme until his SECOND appearance, in the following issue.

Which COMPLETELY ignores the first issue, because he’s not mute anymore. And instead of a stoic badass, he’s just Clark Kenting his secret identity.

This time Daredevil does fight the original star of Silver Streak Comics, the Fu Manchu wannabe called The Claw.

We went from fighting gangsters in a lumber yard to Fu Manchu drilling through the ocean floor in the span of ONE ISSUE.

Fu Manchu copycats are a dime a dozen in the Golden Age, but I have to admit The Claw is easily the one with the most stage presence.

From a visual standpoint, Daredevil receives a MASSIVE upgrade. Even if he’s now as generic as they come when it comes to personality and abilities, that is one killer design.

The artwork is also a MASSIVE upgrade.

Daredevil continues its run on Silver Streak Comics for a while, and he was popular enough to get his own special: “Daredevil Battles Hitler”.

Which is notable for having Hitler’s actual picture on the cover and being published before America entered the war, thus bringing Daredevil in the same category of Captain America for being willing to punch Hitler since his first story.
(technically Cap did it first)

Since the book is in the public domain, you can read it yourself. 

Silver Streak is in it; he’s the guy who gave Silver Streak Comics the name, but honestly he’s not significant on his own.

You should really read the story yourself, but if you’re asking yourself is Daredevil does ACTUALLY punch Hitler in the story, and not just on the cover like Captain America did…
YES. HE DOES.

TWICE.

That was written and partially penciled by artist and cartoonist Charles Biro, who continued on the series once it was re-titled Daredevil Comics from its second issue.
The series would later called just Daredevil.

And in Daredevil #18 (1943) we get a NEW origin for this Daredevil.
Which involves Australia, because of course it does.

Turns out the Australian Aboriginals have their own Red & Blue Panther: a chief with incredible abilities who dresses in a weird costume.
But in this case, a chief that is swindled by a greedy relative of the future hero.

I would do the usual “please don’t do anything racist” gag, but… it’s 1943, what did you expect?

The now orphaned American kid ends up growing up as Australian Tarzan until adulthood.

After learning he’s white…

…he wins the title of chief. Which he uses to abandon his people.

 Daredevil lasted up until 1950. His last appearance on his own book was on Daredevil #70, which doesn’t even feature him on the cover: he’s been kicked out by the Little Wise Guys, comedy sidekicks the he had introduced in his own setories.

The Daredevil series itself, without Daredevil, lasted until 1956.
Lev Gleason Publishing ceased publications the same year.

 

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With Daredevil entering the public domain, you can find Daredevil in various other forms in the following decades… but more often than not with a different name, to avoid confusion with Marvel’s much more famous hero (and because Marvel has the trademark on the name).

Most surprisingly, AC Comics brings him back on the pages of FemForce by renaming him “Reddevil”.
Well FemForce is all about double Ds, so of course they like Daredevil.

He also stars in his own one-shot, with Reddevil #1 being a team-up with FemForce against The Claw.

It’s a surprisingly meta story, revolving around The Claw having erased Daredevil Reddevil fighting Hitler…

…which is just a prelude to FemForce #51.

Defeating The Claw will require recovering the original Golden Age comics…

…and gratuitous fanservice, because FemForce.

 On a COMPLETELY different tone, Daredevil shows up in the 1986 Roy Thomas miniseries Alter Ago, renamed Double Dare.

Daredevil also shows up on the pages of Savage Dragon, where he gets to keep his name and meets several Image characters.

Dynamite Entertainment brought him back for its “Project Superpowers”, using the name Death-Defying Devil for trademark purposes.

This is BY FAR his best-looking era, considering the gorgeous Alex Ross covers.

He also has ventures into other media: in prose, thanks to Legends of the Golden Age by Wild Cat Books.

And also in movies, with the name DoubleDare, thanks to Avenging Force: The Scarab.

I’ve mentioned that movie like four times already and I still don’t believe it exists.