Daredevil #56
Daredevil #56 marks the formal start of Roy Thomas's independent storytelling voice on the series — the first issue in which he was no longer clearing the runway after Stan Lee's Starr Saxon arc, but actively building new mythology. Its primary historical claim is the debut of Death's Head (Dr. Paxton Page), Karen Page's father, whose origin fuses Cold War nuclear anxiety with Gothic horror imagery to deliver one of the most visually distinctive one-arc villains of the Silver Age. The issue also sets the stage for the single most consequential moment in Daredevil's pre-Miller continuity: Matt Murdock's deliberate, voluntary unmasking to Karen Page in the very next issue, a story beat that this issue's plot mechanically enables. Gene Colan's atmospheric rendition of a glowing skeletal horseman in a rural New England setting demonstrates how thoroughly he had moved the book's visual identity away from the Kirby-era house style and toward the moody, cinema-influenced approach that would define the title for years.
In "And Death Came Riding!", Daredevil follows Karen to her family estate in Virginia, where a quiet reunion turns uneasy as a haunting, glowing horseman begins terrorizing the grounds. With Gene Colan’s moody art and Syd Shores’ inks bringing the eerie atmosphere to life, this 1969 issue delivers a chilling blend of romance and supernatural dread—written by Roy Thomas and colored by Michele Robinson, with lettering by Artie Simek. The cover, penciled by Colan and inked by George Klein, captures the dread with a striking, otherworldly silhouette.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 20 grades ▾
More listings for this title
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
Roy Thomas took over as writer with Daredevil #51, after Stan Lee — who had written every prior issue — stepped back from day-to-day scripting to assume a broader editorial role at Marvel, though Lee remained the issue's credited editor through this period. Thomas inherited Gene Colan as his artist, a collaboration already well-established, and with the Starr Saxon blackmail subplot resolved, #56 was his first opportunity to introduce wholly original villains; he promptly populated the run with new antagonists rather than revisiting Daredevil's existing rogue's gallery. Thomas's interest in nuclear-threat villains — he had already created the Cobalt Man for the X-Men in 1967 — carried over directly into the cobalt-radiation backstory he constructed for Paxton Page, giving Death's Head a grounding in contemporaneous Cold War fears about radiological weapons. The cover and interior pencils are by Colan, inked by Syd Shores, with lettering by Artie Simek; Stan Lee is listed as editor.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Death's Head (Dr. Paxton Page), Karen Page's father and the issue's primary antagonist, created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan.
- First appearance of supporting characters Penelope Page (Karen's mother), Garth (the Page family butler), Pop Arkham, and the Fagan Corners Police Department.
- Story title: '…And Death's-Head Came Riding!' — released July 15, 1969, with a September 1969 cover date.
- Creative team: writer Roy Thomas, penciller Gene Colan, inker Syd Shores, letterer Artie Simek, editor Stan Lee.
- Paxton Page is established as a physicist who perfected the cobalt bomb, was branded a traitor for refusing to share his research with the U.S. government, and was driven insane and mutated by prolonged cobalt radiation exposure — causing him to adopt the Death's Head identity based on an 'Aztec' skull mask kept in the family estate.
- The issue includes brief cameo flashbacks of Black Panther and Starr Saxon, tying directly into the preceding story arc.
- Karen's hometown, 'Fagan Corners, Vermont,' is a tip of Thomas's hat to real-life Vermont comics fan and Rutland Halloween Parade chairman Tom Fagan, whose name and town would recur in several early-1970s Marvel and DC comics.
- The story was reprinted in Essential Daredevil Vol. 3 (2005, black and white) and in the Daredevil Epic Collection Vol. 3: 'Brother, Take My Hand' (2017).
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Dæmonen #56 (1970), HIP Classics #19153 (1970), Hit Comics #153 (1970), Uncanny Tales #78 (1971), Diabólico #56 (1971), Strange #55 (1974), Essential Daredevil #3 (2005), Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil #6 (2011), Daredevil Epic Collection #3 (2017), Daredevil Omnibus #2 (2023), Daredevil l'homme sans peur #59/60, Diabolico #56, L'Incredibile Devil #53
Key issues in Daredevil
Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.