Daredevil #42

Jul 1968 · Marvel · 0.12 USD

📊 ~67,651 copies sold its debut month

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“Nobody Laughs at the Jester!”

★ 1st appearance — Jester

About this Issue

Daredevil #42 (July 1968) is the debut issue of the Jester — Jonathan Powers — a gadget-wielding villain whose origin as a humiliated, failed actor gave him an unusually grounded psychological motivation for a Silver Age antagonist. The issue also serves as the narrative hinge resolving the long-running 'Mike Murdock' triple-identity subplot: with issue #41 having staged the fictional death of Matt's fake twin brother, #42 picks up the fallout and introduces a fresh antagonist to fill the dramatic vacuum, effectively closing one era of the Daredevil mythos and opening another. The story's crossover continuity with Spectacular Spider-Man #1 (the landmark 1968 magazine debut) makes this issue a documented node in Marvel's emerging shared-universe storytelling. The Jester would go on to become a recurring Daredevil adversary whose later plots — including the use of faked video broadcasts to manipulate public trust and bring down Foggy Nelson — gave him a surprising long-term relevance in the title's street-level political storytelling.

writer Stan Lee · artist Gene Colan · inker Dan Adkins · inker Jim Steranko · letterer Sam Rosen · cover Gene Colan, Dan Adkins

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VG) $8

CGC 9.8 · 21 in census $800

CGC 9.6 · 40 in census $283

CGC 9.4 · 85 in census $187

CGC 9.2 · 40 in census $107

CGC 9.0 · 49 in census $82

CGC 8.5 · 45 in census $68

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CGC 8.0 · 36 in census $68

CGC 7.5 · 27 in census $37

CGC 7.0 · 18 in census $35

CGC 6.5 · 29 in census $23*

CGC 6.0 · 14 in census $21*

CGC 5.5 · 8 in census $20

CGC 5.0 · 7 in census $20

CGC 4.5 · 14 in census $20

CGC 4.0 · 5 in census $20*

CGC 3.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 3.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 2.5 none in existence

CGC 2.0 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

GD $9.99 VG $11.25 FN $13.5 FN $14.99 FN $14.99 FN $14.99 FINE $19 FINE $19.99

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History

The issue was written by Stan Lee and penciled by Gene Colan, who had been the book's primary visual architect since issue #20 — a run of extraordinary consistency for the period. Dan Adkins served as inker, and letterer Sam Rosen completed the regular production team. The Grand Comics Database, citing a letter by Dan Adkins published in Amazing Heroes #167 (June 15, 1989), documents a notable production footnote: Jim Steranko inked a single panel (panel five, page twelve) — a small cameo contribution from one of the era's most celebrated artists. The issue shipped with a possible arrival date of May 14, 1968, per a back-cover stamp recorded by the GCD, with its on-sale date confirmed by the 1968 Periodicals records of the Library of Congress Copyright Office.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance and origin of the Jester (Jonathan Powers, Earth-616), created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan; Powers would become a recurring Daredevil villain across decades of Marvel continuity.
Story title: 'Nobody Laughs at…the Jester!' Cover date: July 1968; on-sale: May 9, 1968. Cover and interior pencils by Gene Colan; inks by Dan Adkins; letters by Sam Rosen; edited by Stan Lee.
The Jester's backstory — a failed off-Broadway actor (Cyrano de Bergerac) who turned to costumed crime after being publicly humiliated — is fully established in this issue, making it simultaneously his first appearance and his origin story.
Jester is hired by corrupt mayoral candidate Richard Raleigh to coerce Foggy Nelson into dropping out of the District Attorney race, directly implicating street-level political corruption in the plot.
The issue directly follows the resolution of the 'Mike Murdock' triple-identity subplot: Matt had been posing as a fictional twin brother named Mike (who was also 'Daredevil') to protect his secret, a storyline dropped in issues #41–42 when Mike's death is staged.
Jim Steranko inked one panel (p. 12, panel 5) — documented via a letter from Dan Adkins in Amazing Heroes #167 (June 15, 1989).
The issue is explicitly noted as a crossover with Spectacular Spider-Man (Marvel, 1968 series) #1, sharing contemporaneous story continuity with that landmark magazine debut.
Reprinted internationally and domestically in: Essential Daredevil Vol. 2 (2004, black and white); Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil Vol. 5 (2009); Daredevil Epic Collection Vol. 3 — Brother, Take My Hand (2017); Daredevil Omnibus Vol. 2 (2023); and foreign editions including Marvel UK's Mighty World of Marvel #146 (1975), Italian and French editions.