DAREDEVIL #8 (1965)
by Stan Lee & Wally Wood
This is the last currently scheduled Daredevil issue in the villain origins retrospective, and fittingly it’s for the guy who gets mentioned every time Daredevil’s problem with bad villains comes up: Stilt-Man. But is his reputation of being a joke villain justified? Let’s find out.
As you’ve already noticed from the cover, Daredevil is FINALLY wearing his iconic costume, which debuted only in the previous issue.
We’re still in the swashbuckling era, though, and we begin with Daredevil saving a woman from the slowest runaway car ever.
For a blind man, Daredevil ends up in the driver’s seat a surprising number of times.
Daredevil… just stop trying to be funny like Spider-Man. You’re just terrible at it.
While Daredevil is busy with the car, Stilt-Man wastes no time robbing a helicopter that is being used to delivery payrolls. (????)
Wait, what do you mean “he’s wearing armor under that”? He IS wearing an armor, what do you think he has ANOTHER armor under it!?
I love how even this early in Marvel history the civilians are already resigned to dealing with supervillains as a regular occurrence.
Daredevil BARELY loses Stilt-Man. Considering all he did was just lower his height, shouldn’t Daredevil’s super-hearing detect him? I can’t imagine Stilt-Man being very silent!
A recurring subplot of this era is people suggesting Matt Murdock to get an operation to fix his sight…
… and him being afraid to do it for usually stupid reasons.
Case in point, later in the story:
Foggy still looks nothing like him in this era. I wonder if he put on weight to cope with his jealousy over Karen because HE wanted to get busy with the secretary?
Matt then goes on to deal with his latest customer, an inventor who has been cheated out of his invention.
This is something we rarely get to see in stories with lawyers: the idea of settling out of court.
There’s a reason it doesn’t show up often… it’s far less exciting than a court battle… but it’s cool to see it addressed, since it’s how the VAST majority of lawsuits get settled.
Little known fact, but Daredevil’s horns used to be functional! I get why this was dropped, but I wouldn’t have minded keeping the idea that the costume enhances his super-senses (they got to be quite ridiculous over the years).
Stilt-Man’s skills are quite specific, but you have to give it to him: he really goes out of his way to find situations where “having really high stilts” is a winning strategy.
Plus, how can you not love a guy who carries with him flash granades and a vacuum cleaner?
Also, and this is probably his best feature, he gives the artist a chance to draw crazy perspectives. Too bad Jack Kirby (who only got to draw him on covers) or Steve Ditko never got to draw him, it would’ve bene amazing!
Daredevil’s first fight with Stilt-Man lasts exactly one panel. ONE.
He’s having a little more success as a laywer. The inventor and the guy he’s suing both show up in his office to argue.
Still in the period where there are limitations to Daredevil’s super-hearing. In a later era he wouldn’t have any problem to check if both were lying or not.
It took this long to connect the invention of the new hydraulic lift to Stilt-Man’s stilts.
Daredevil then follows the rich guy, who has an electrified car. This is treated as something any normal rich inventor would have.
But Daredevil can’t investigate further because it’s time for his second fight with Stilt-Man…
…which he ALSO loses.
Okay, I’m calling it now.
Does Stilt-Man look absolutely ridiculous? Of course he does!
But is he still awesome? Heck yes!!!
Then Daredevil decides to break the law in his civilian identity (????) by trespassing on the rich guy’s property, discovering he’s secretly Stilt-Man!
OR IS IT?
In a very well played twist, it turns out the rich inventor who has an electrified car is NOT the supervillain. It’s the unassuming little guy with glasses!
And now, ladies and gentlemen, is when the story goes absolutely bonkers.
Yes.
NOW.
Yep. The guy invented Stilt-Man’s stilts and A SHRINKING RAY.
Stilt-Man looks considerably less threatening when he’s not wearing the full armor. And he didn’t look all that threatening to begin with!
Daredevil FINALLY gets a win when he “““accidentally””” hits Stilt-Man with his own shrinking ray.
Stan Lee must’ve loved having a “the bad guy shrinks into nothingness” finale, because this exactly the same thing that happened to Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four #10.
And so we end with Matt Murdock avoiding going to jail for trespassing by straight up lying.
Well he IS a lawyer.
Stilt-Man will return in Daredevil #26, where we’re given an explanation for what happened to him after he was shrunk down. Turns out that… just kidding, we got nothing.
Despite having all the hallmarks of becoming an actual supervillain, Dr. Kaxton will only have a second appearance, 1973’s Daredevil #102, where Stilt-Man kidnaps him and his daughter.
Bonus: just how much crap is inside Daredevil’s billy club!?
Historical significance: 6/10
Stilt-Man is probably nobody’s favorite villain, but still, decent early Daredevil villains are hard to find.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
On the Marvel scale, but that shrinking ray seriously comes out of NOWHERE.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
The Daredevil series still has some growing pains to go through, but this wasn’t bad! Its biggest flaw is the whole shrinking ray part, which really clashes with the typical Daredevil setting.
But the twist about Stilt-Man’s real identity still works surprisingly well, and the ridiculousness is kept to a minimum until the finale.
Ridiculous Daredevil gadget of the day
The Snooperscope™, also called the Portable Privacy Lawsuit™.
How close is this to the modern character? 8/10
Stilt-Man looks absolutely ridiculous, but he WAS treated as a legitimate menace throughout the 60s and the 70s. So what happened to turn him into a joke character?
I think it’s a combination of factors. First of all, when Daredevil took a serious turn during the Frank Miller run, a guy like Stilt-Man looked too silly. The fact that he was robbed of his armor by Daredevil’s favorite punchbag Turk didn’t help.
Yes, he was robbed by freaking TURK of all people!!!
Picking on people way, WAY out of his league like Thor didn’t help.
This started a very long period where Stilt-Man oscillated between two kind of stories: either someone else was taking the armor, or the original was being humiliated again and again.
But he was STILL getting decent stories, and even small victories every now and again.
Probably the best thing that happened to him was being unceremoniously killed by the Punisher in 2006…
…because after he was resurrected in 2017 in a Spider-Man storyline involving clones (don’t ask), he went on to be the surprising bad guy in the AWESOME 2021 Christopher Cantwell run on Iron Man.
This run gets WEIRD, but in a good way. Who would’ve thought that Stilt-Man would be the best possible choice to lead a space commune for high-tech alien revolutionaries!?
But don’t worry, he was still ultimately the bad guy.
I really hope he’s grown out of being a joke villain at this point.
Especially because during his death, another character showed up who works MUCH better as a joke villain… his number one fan, Lady Stilt-Man.
Yes. That is SERIOUSLY her name, and she’s blatantly used for laughs (she debuted in a Deadpool story, so of course she is).
