Daredevil #39
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeDaredevil #39 marks the debut of the Exterminator (Philip Wallace Sterling), a villain whose ripple effect would reach all the way to Frank Miller's landmark run on the title. Over a decade after his introduction here, the Exterminator was retroactively revealed to be the Death-Stalker — the antagonist in Daredevil #158, Miller's very first issue on the book — meaning this Silver Age issue quietly seeded the opening chapter of one of comics' most celebrated creative runs. The issue also introduces the full Unholy Three (Cat-Man, Ape-Man, and Bird-Man) as a named super-powered team under their new employer, deepening the Daredevil rogues' gallery at a moment when Gene Colan's expressionistic art was reshaping the visual identity of the series. Set squarely within the 'Mike Murdock' era's closing acts, the story also advances the slow-burn soap opera surrounding Foggy Nelson's political ambitions and his romance with ex-con Debbie Harris, illustrating how Stan Lee wove genuine personal stakes into Silver Age superhero plotting.
In "The Exterminator and the Super-Powered Unholy Three," Daredevil finds himself caught in a deadly game when the Unholy Three return — but with a new leader whose mysterious time displacement gun hints at a threat beyond the present. As Matt Murdock and Jo navigate a double-date gone wrong, the trio’s brutal retaliation against a traitor reveals a chilling new level of danger. Written by Stan Lee and brought to life with moody precision by Gene Colan, with inks by George Tuska and letters by Artie Simek, this 1968 classic features a cover by Gene Colan and Frank Giacoia that captures the tension perfectly.
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The issue was scripted by Stan Lee and penciled by Gene Colan, who had taken over the Daredevil penciling duties from John Romita beginning with issue #20 in 1966 and would maintain an essentially unbroken eighty-one-issue run through #100. The cover was inked by Frank Giacoia while the interior pages were finished by George Tuska, one of several inkers who rotated through Colan's pages during this period before Tom Palmer became his more settled collaborator. Released with a February 8, 1968 on-sale date and an April 1968 cover date, the book carried a twelve-cent cover price and fit squarely into Marvel's then-standard twenty-one-page story format under Lee's sole editorship.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the Exterminator (Philip Wallace Sterling), the villain who is later retroactively identified as the Death-Stalker in Daredevil #158 (May 1979) — Frank Miller's debut issue on the series.
- First appearance of the Unholy Three as a named costumed team: Cat-Man (Townshend Horgan), Ape-Man (Monk Keefer), and Bird-Man (Henry Hawk), operating now under the Exterminator rather than their previous employer, the Organizer.
- Written by Stan Lee and penciled by Gene Colan; cover inked by Frank Giacoia, interior inked by George Tuska; lettered by Art Simek.
- Story title: 'The Exterminator and the Super-Powered Unholy Three'; on-sale date February 8, 1968; cover date April 1968; 21-story pages at a twelve-cent cover price.
- The Exterminator's signature weapon is the T-Ray, a device that displaces its targets into a dimensional limbo just slightly out of phase with reality — the very mechanism that later transforms him into the intangible Death-Stalker.
- Part one of a two-part story concluded in Daredevil #40; the Exterminator's arc effectively closes in #41, with the character believed destroyed before his return as Death-Stalker.
- The issue has been reprinted multiple times: in Essential Daredevil Vol. 2 (2004, black-and-white), the Daredevil Omnibus Vol. 1 (2017), the Daredevil Epic Collection: Mike Murdock Must Die! (2018), Daredevil: L'intégrale (Panini France, 2017), L'Incredibile Devil #36 (Italy, 1971), and Diabólico #39 (Mexico, 1969), among others.
- Colan's run on Daredevil at this point encompassed almost all issues from #20 onward in an otherwise unbroken 81-issue stretch — making #39 part of the sustained artistic collaboration that defined the look of the Man Without Fear through the late Silver and early Bronze Ages.
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Reprinted in Dæmonen #39 (1968), Hit Comics #74 (1968), Diabólico #39 (1969), L'Incredibile Devil #36 (1971), Strange #38 (1973), Die Fantastischen Vier #100 (1977), Devil Classic #11 (1993), Essential Daredevil #2 (2004), Daredevil : L'intégrale #1968 (2017), Daredevil Omnibus #1 (2017), Daredevil Epic Collection #2 (2018), Demonen #7/1968, Diabolico #39, Die Fantastischen Vier #101, Uncanny Tales #63
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