Daredevil Battles Hitler

By 1941, the original Daredevil was popular enough to headline his own title, and its debut arrived with one of the most memorable covers of the era: Daredevil Battles Hitler. Guided by creator and editor Charles Biro for Lev Gleason, the book put its acrobatic hero into direct, propagandistic confrontation with the Axis leadership—an aggressive stance that predated the United States' formal entry into the Second World War.

The cover typified a wave of comics that enlisted their heroes against real-world tyranny, channeling the anxieties and defiance of the moment into pulpy, cathartic action. It also marked a step in Biro's rise; he would become one of the Golden Age's most commercially astute creators, soon steering Lev Gleason toward the true-crime material that made the company's later reputation.

As a vivid document of comics as wartime morale-builders—heroes as home-front weapons—the title is both a striking artifact and a window into the industry's political engagement. And because Lev Gleason's copyrights lapsed, Daredevil Battles Hitler is now public domain, freely preservable as a snapshot of how popular art rallied against fascism.