Daredevil #92

Oct 1972 · Marvel · 0.20 USD

📊 ~48,031 copies sold its debut month

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“On the Eve of the Talon!”

★ 1st appearance — Damon Dran

About this Issue

Daredevil #92 marks the single most visible editorial promotion Natasha Romanova ever received on the Bronze Age Man Without Fear title: starting with this issue, the cover logo was officially retitled 'Daredevil and the Black Widow,' a distinction that held for sixteen consecutive issues (#92–107) and cemented her status as a genuine co-lead rather than a supporting player. Writer Gerry Conway had already been reshaping Natasha into a more active, independent character in direct response to feminist criticism of her earlier portrayal; #92 is the issue where that editorial commitment became impossible to miss on the cover itself. The issue also delivers two notable first appearances — the paranoid munitions magnate Damon Dran (later known as the Indestructible Man, and one of the more persistent enemies of both Daredevil and Black Widow for decades) and the short-lived Blue Talon — while deploying Black Panther in a clever identity-cover gambit that resolves a brewing secret-identity crisis for Matt Murdock.

In "On the Eve of the Talon!", Daredevil faces a dangerous new threat as the Black Widow and reporter Danny French are taken by the sinister Damon Dran, who presses them for information about Project Four. When a San Francisco journalist publicly exposes Matt Murdock as Daredevil, the masked hero arrives just in time to intervene in a brutal clash between himself and the mysterious Blue Talon. Written by Gerry Conway and illustrated with moody precision by Gene Colan, with inks by Tom Palmer and colors by the same, this 1972 classic features a cover by Gene Colan and John Romita.

writer Gerry Conway · artist Gene Colan · inker, colorist Tom Palmer · letterer John Costanza · cover Gene Colan, John Romita, Tom Palmer

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $12

CGC 9.8 · 21 in census $421

CGC 9.6 · 36 in census $161

CGC 9.4 · 33 in census $93

CGC 9.2 · 16 in census $87

CGC 9.0 · 16 in census $61

CGC 8.5 · 14 in census $50

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CGC 8.0 · 12 in census $47

CGC 7.5 · 7 in census $38*

CGC 7.0 · 1 in census $32*

CGC 6.5 · 3 in census $29*

CGC 6.0 · 5 in census $28*

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $23*

CGC 5.0 · 4 in census $23

CGC 4.5 · 1 in census $21

CGC 4.0 · 1 in census $21

CGC 3.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 3.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 2.5 none in existence

CGC 2.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 1.5 · 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

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History

Gerry Conway, who had taken over the Daredevil writing duties as a teenager with issue #72, was in the middle of an ambitious push to reinvent the title by relocating it to San Francisco and elevating the Black Widow to equal-partner status — a move he described as 'a way to re-energize the title.' Editor Roy Thomas oversaw the run. The cover of #92 carries pencils attributed primarily to Gene Colan, with alterations on the Blue Talon figure by John Romita Sr., a behind-the-scenes detail uncovered by researcher Nick Caputo; an earlier Grand Comics Database indexer had credited Gil Kane, so the cover art attribution was contested for some time. The Comics Code Authority's restrictions on cohabitation forced the creative team to engineer careful in-story workarounds — explicitly noting that Daredevil and Natasha occupied separate floors of their San Francisco mansion, with her guardian Ivan Petrovich always present — a real-world censorship constraint baked directly into the storytelling of this era.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Damon Dran (the Indestructible Man), a Cold War–paranoid munitions magnate created by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, who went on to recur as an antagonist against Daredevil, Black Widow, and Captain America across multiple decades.
First (and only) appearance of Blue Talon (Itto Yamura), Dran's operative, who dies in the same issue when he accidentally strikes a gas main during his fight with 'Daredevil.'
This is the issue with which the series' cover logo was officially retitled 'Daredevil and the Black Widow,' a branding that ran continuously through issue #107 (January 1974) before reverting to the original title with #108.
The Black Widow is listed as co-star on the cover logo for the first time in the series' history.
Black Panther (T'Challa) appears in disguise as Daredevil to help Matt Murdock publicly disprove a reporter's claim that Murdock and Daredevil are the same person — a memorable identity-protection cameo.
Written by Gerry Conway; interior pencils by Gene Colan; inks by Tom Palmer; letters by John Costanza; edited by Roy Thomas.
Cover pencils are attributed to Gene Colan (with John Romita Sr. retouches on the Blue Talon figure), though earlier sources had credited Gil Kane — a discrepancy documented in the Grand Comics Database.
The issue has been collected in Essential Daredevil Vol. 4 (2007), Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil Vol. 9 (2015), and Daredevil Epic Collection Vol. 5 – Going Out West (2021).