Daredevil #105
Daredevil #105 is the issue where Heather Douglas — previously a minor, largely unexplained schemer operating under the embarrassing alias 'Madame MacEvil' in Iron Man #54 — is fully reborn as Moondragon, one of Marvel's most compelling cosmic characters. Writer Steve Gerber and artist Jim Starlin use the issue to deliver her first proper origin story and her first appearance under the Moondragon name, firmly anchoring her to the expanding Thanos mythology that Starlin was simultaneously building in Captain Marvel. That cross-title bridge made this a rare moment in early Bronze Age Marvel where a street-level book like Daredevil fed directly into a cosmic epic, and the first appearance of the earth-elemental creature Terrex adds yet another debut to an already dense issue.
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue's production has an unusual back-story: according to a letters column in Captain Marvel #29 (corroborated by Brian Cronin's Comic Book Legends Revealed), the Moondragon origin pages drawn by Jim Starlin — covering roughly ten interior pages — were originally prepared for an issue of Iron Man, likely intended as Iron Man #57, before Starlin and others moved on from that title. When Steve Gerber took over Daredevil under editor Roy Thomas, those orphaned Starlin pages were folded into issue #105, giving the book a split-penciler structure: Don Heck handled the Kraven-and-Black-Widow action sequences while Starlin drew the Moondragon origin flashback section. The cover, credited to Don Heck and Mike Esposito with Moondragon touch-ups by John Romita Sr., reflects the same patchwork energy of the interior.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Heather Douglas under the name Moondragon (she had previously appeared as 'Madame MacEvil' in Iron Man #54, January 1973).
- Moondragon's first cover appearance: the character is prominently depicted on the cover, penciled by Don Heck and Mike Esposito with touch-ups credited to John Romita Sr.
- First full origin story for Moondragon, revealing her upbringing on Titan under Mentor (A'Lars), her training at the Shao-Lom monastery, and her Thanos-driven motivation for empowering San Francisco villains Dark Messiah, Angar the Screamer, and Ramrod.
- First appearance of Terrex, the earth-elemental creature created by Kerwin J. Broderick and Moondragon, who erupts at the issue's cliffhanger ending.
- The Moondragon origin segment (approximately pages 17–26) was penciled by Jim Starlin using pages originally prepared for Iron Man, making this a rare cross-title recycling of unpublished art from another book.
- The issue is a tie-in to the 'Thanos War' crossover running concurrently through Iron Man and Captain Marvel — Thanos appears in a single Starlin-drawn panel, one of his handful of cameos across the saga.
- Iron Man (Tony Stark) and Namor the Sub-Mariner appear only in cameo, referenced within Moondragon's origin flashback explaining her manipulation of them in Iron Man #54.
- The story was later reprinted in black and white in Essential Daredevil Vol. 5, and the issue's origin material was noted in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #7 as having been subsequently retconned to align with later, canonical accounts of Moondragon's backstory.
Cast · 19 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Kraven throws Daredevil off of a cliff to his death, but Daredevil disappears before he strikes bottom. Daredevil finds himself in an elaborate underwater domain inhabited by Moondragon. She accuses him of being a thrall of Thanos and then tells him her origin to let him know what this means. Touching Daredevil's mind, Moondragon discovers that she has been lied to and that Daredevil is one of the good guys. The real villain appears as none other than Kerwin J. Broderick, Matt's law partner and he gloats as he unleashes Terrex on the world.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).