Daredevil #2
Daredevil #2 represents the young Marvel Universe actively weaving its new hero into the shared continuity it was rapidly building: just one issue after Matt Murdock's debut, Stan Lee planted him squarely inside the world of the Fantastic Four and recycled Electro — a villain who had appeared only once before, in Amazing Spider-Man #9 — making this the second appearance of both Daredevil and Electro, and the first time the Fantastic Four crossed paths with Nelson & Murdock as paying clients. That two-pronged crossover strategy, deploying established characters to validate a brand-new title, was a defining tactic of early-Silver-Age Marvel and this issue is a clear example of it in action. The issue also marks the first sustained look at Karen Page as a supporting character with a romantic interiority — her photograph of Matt and her thoughts about marriage appear here — laying groundwork for a relationship that would fuel the series for decades.
In "The Evil Menace of Electro!", Daredevil takes on a high-stakes assignment when the Fantastic Four enlist him to inspect the new lease on the Baxter Building—only to find the building already infiltrated by the sinister Electro, who’s after Reed Richards’ most guarded secrets. Written by Stan Lee and brought to life with dynamic art by Joe Orlando and inks by Vince Colletta, this 1964 classic features a cover by Jack Kirby that crackles with tension.
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With Bill Everett reportedly having missed his deadline so severely on issue #1, Marvel turned immediately to Joe Orlando — a veteran of EC Comics' horror and science-fiction line who had done occasional freelance work for the company in the 1950s — to pencil the story titled 'The Evil Menace of Electro!' under Stan Lee's script. Orlando's run on the title was brief, covering issues #2 through #4, and it marked his first foray into superhero work; he would later become far better known as a writer-editor at DC Comics and an associate publisher of Mad. Vince Colletta, who had spent roughly a decade on Marvel romance titles and was beginning to shift into inking superhero books, inked the issue — one of his first superhero assignments — and the cover was supplied by the established team of Jack Kirby (pencils) and Colletta (inks), keeping the look of the cover consistent with the broader Marvel house style even as the interior represented entirely new creative hands.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: June 1964; on-sale date: April 2, 1964. Published by Marvel Comics at a cover price of 12 cents.
- Story title: 'The Evil Menace of Electro!' Written by Stan Lee; pencils by Joe Orlando; inks by Vince Colletta; letters by Sam Rosen. Cover pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta.
- Second appearance of Daredevil (Matt Murdock), following his debut in Daredevil #1 (April 1964).
- Second appearance of Electro (Max Dillon), whose only prior appearance was Amazing Spider-Man #9; the issue's narration explicitly references that earlier appearance, reinforcing Marvel's shared-universe continuity.
- First appearance of the Fantastic Four as clients of Nelson & Murdock: the Thing visits the law firm on behalf of the team to retain Matt Murdock for the renewal of the Baxter Building lease, making this the inaugural crossover between Daredevil's cast and the FF.
- All four members of the Fantastic Four — Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), Invisible Girl (Sue Storm), Human Torch (Johnny Storm), and the Thing (Ben Grimm) — appear in the story, with Spider-Man (Peter Parker) receiving a textual mention only.
- Joe Orlando's pencil work on this issue constituted his first superhero comics assignment; previously he had worked in horror, science fiction, western, and war genres, most notably as a key contributor to EC Comics before that publisher's collapse.
- The issue has been reprinted in multiple collections and international editions, including Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil Vol. 1, the Marvel Epic Collection: Daredevil Vol. 1 ('The Man Without Fear,' covering 1964–1966), and international editions in Germany (Die Fantastischen Vier #2, 1974), Australia (Yaffa/Page Daredevil #1, 1977), and France (Editions Héritage, 1979 — notably with Daredevil's costume re-colored red on the cover despite the yellow costume inside).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Demonen #1/1966 (1966), Diabólico #2 (1966), Dæmonen #2 (1967), Smash! #76 (1967), Smash! #78 (1967), Demonen #2/1968 (1968), Marvel Super-Heroes #22 (1969), Strange #2 (1970), L'Incredibile Devil #2 (1970), The Mighty World of Marvel #22 (1973), The Mighty World of Marvel #23 (1973), Die Fantastischen Vier #2 (1974), Daredevil #1 (1977), Atlantic-serien [Fantastiske Fire] #2/1978 (1978), Atlanticserien #2/1978 (1978), Daredevil l'homme sans peur #1/2 (1979), Hulk Pocket [Hulk Superseriepocket] #2 (1980), Der unglaubliche Hulk #2 (1980), Diabolico #2 (1981), Eks almanah #377 (1983), Marvel Masterworks #17 (1991), Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil #[1] (1999), Essential Daredevil #1 (2002), Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil #1 (2003) + 11 more
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