Daredevil #2
Daredevil Comics #2 (August 1941) is one of the most densely packed debut issues in Golden Age history, introducing a remarkable cluster of characters — Pat Patriot, the Bronze Terror (Real American No. 1), Nightro, the Whirlwind, and the hero London — all in a single 68-page anthology assembled months before the United States entered World War II. The issue cemented Charles Biro and Bob Wood as the editorial architects of the Lev Gleason universe and demonstrated that an entire shared superhero line could be built almost overnight around a unifying patriotic purpose. Its Claw backup, in which President Roosevelt receives a direct extortion letter from the monstrous villain, pushed American comics further into overt wartime political commentary than almost any title of its era. The series this issue launched ran for 134 issues through 1956, making it one of the longer-lived Golden Age titles.
In "The Kiss of Death," Jean Rogers learns her brother Dick has vanished with an entire train of soldiers bound for Army maneuvers, while President Roosevelt is handed a chilling ultimatum from the mysterious Claw: surrender control of the nation's gold or face a terrible fate. Written, drawn, and inked by Bob Wood, this 1941 thriller blends wartime tension with pulp espionage, all captured in a striking cover by Charles Biro.
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The issue's creation is one of the more colorful production anecdotes in Golden Age lore: according to Gerard Jones's history Men of Tomorrow (as recounted in contemporaneous collector sources), Biro and Bob Wood were given roughly three days to complete the book and assembled a skeleton crew — including Jerry Robinson, Bernie Klein, George Roussos, and Biro's brothers — who worked through a snowstorm, running out of food before the pages were finished and sent to press. The extraordinary demand was a direct consequence of the sales success of the one-shot Daredevil Battles Hitler (#1, July 1941), which Lev Gleason had rushed out on a similar crash schedule; reader response was strong enough that publishers essentially locked another team in a studio to produce a follow-up that would transform the one-shot into a monthly series. The Grand Comics Database records the editors on the issue as Charles Biro and Bob Wood, with Biro also providing the cover art.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published August 1941 by Lev Gleason Publications (indicia publisher: Your Guide Publications Inc.); 68 pages, full color; cover price 10 cents.
- Cover and primary story art by Charles Biro; editors listed inside as Charles Biro and Bob Wood.
- First appearance and origin of Pat Patriot (Patricia Patrios), a female costumed hero who became a recurring feature through Daredevil Comics #11.
- First appearance and origin of the Bronze Terror (Jeff Dixon), an Apache attorney-turned-superhero created and drawn by Dick Briefer — a notably progressive portrayal of a Native American hero for its era — also billed interchangeably as 'Real American No. 1.'
- First appearances of Nightro, the Whirlwind (Terry Turner, a boxer), and the hero London (Marc Holmes); the Pioneer also debuts in this issue but makes no further appearances despite a promise in the final panel.
- The Claw backup story features President Franklin D. Roosevelt receiving an extortion letter from the Claw, while the 'London Can Take It!' feature (scripted by Jerry Robinson) depicts Winston Churchill and introduces the character Dian.
- Artist contributors documented across the issue include Jerry Robinson, Reed Crandall (credited by the Dark Horse Archives reprint, though the original art attribution is debated by GCD), Dick Briefer, George Roussos, and Edd Ashe — many of whom were at the very beginning of careers that would define the field.
- The entire issue, along with Daredevil Comics #1, #3, and #4, was reprinted in The Original Daredevil Archives Volume 1 (Dark Horse, June 2013), with a foreword by Michael T. Gilbert.
Cast · 7 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
After leaving work, Jean Rogers reads in the paper that her brother Dick is missing after an entire trainload of men enroute for Army maneuvers has vanished. Meanwhile, President Roosevelt receives a letter from the Claw stating that he has those men held prisoner, and unless the President grants trhe Claw full control of the nation's gold supply, the men await a horrible fate!
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
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