Silver Streak Comics #7
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSilver Streak Comics #7 (on sale November 1940, cover-dated January 1941) is the opening chapter of one of the Golden Age's first extended multi-issue superhero sagas: 'Daredevil Battles The Claw,' a five-part serial that ran through issue #11 and transformed both characters from supporting players into headlining stars. In this issue, Jack Cole overhauled Bart Hill's Daredevil root-and-branch — restoring his speech, redesigning his costume in the now-familiar red and blue, and introducing his girlfriend Tonia Saunders — then pit him against The Claw in a pulp-scaled assault on New York City, demonstrating that a serialized superhero vs. supervillain conflict could sustain reader interest across months. The runaway reader response to this arc directly precipitated Daredevil's promotion to his own title (launching as Daredevil Battles Hitler in mid-1941) and caused Silver Streak Comics to accelerate from bimonthly to monthly publication, making #7 a measurable inflection point in early comics publishing history.
In "Daredevil Battles the Claw: Part 1," Jack Cole delivers a gripping early tale of vengeance and paranoia, as Mortimer Skinn, haunted by the violent deaths of his family on their birthdays, seeks police protection on his own. With Jack Cole handling every aspect of the art and storytelling, the issue builds tension through a mystery rooted in twisted family loyalty and a hidden villain whose blindness masks a terrifying intellect.
In "Daredevil Battles the Claw: Part 1," the Claw unleashes a subterranean assault on New York City, sending his minions burrowing beneath the Atlantic to strike from below. When the attack begins, Bart Hill is on hand—and with a swift transformation, he becomes the Daredevil to face the threat head-on.
In "null," Silver Streak follows the trail of the mysterious "Fire Death" to Fantasy Isle, a place of eerie secrets and twisted inhabitants. There, he uncovers a sinister scheme involving kidnapped victims and a hidden cult of strange, malevolent beings.
In "The Wrath of Rokula," Zongar races to thwart a madman wielding a hypnotic machine that enslaves kidnapped inventors, forcing them to build weapons for universal domination. With time running out and the fate of the world in the balance, Zongar must outthink a genius bent on conquest—before the machines are complete.
In "The White Dragon Flower," pilot Cloud races against time to stop a traitor within the ranks of aviation leadership, suspecting airline owner Jackel of sabotaging national defense by smuggling classified military designs aboard a plane bound for a crucial emergency meeting in Washington D.C. With the fate of the nation’s war preparations hanging in the balance, Cloud takes to the skies in a high-stakes pursuit that tests both courage and loyalty.
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The issue went on sale November 19, 1940, under the indicia publisher 'Your Guide Publications Inc.' — the imprint through which Arthur Bernhardt and Morris Latzen distributed the title before full Lev Gleason control — with Lev Gleason credited as editor and Jack Cole listed as Editor in the Statement of Ownership printed inside the issue. Cole had already written and drawn the lead Silver Streak strips for the title; after Jack Binder introduced a mute, darkly-costumed Daredevil in issue #6, Cole seized the character in issue #7 and refashioned him as a speaking, brightly-uniformed hero whose redesign proved immediately and decisively more appealing to readers. Cole was simultaneously working across multiple Gleason features, and the concentrated energy he brought to this opening chapter of the Claw saga — with its subterranean tunnel from Tibet to New York and skyscraper-melting supervillain — set the visual and narrative template for the remaining installments.
Trivia · 8 facts
- On sale date: November 19, 1940; cover date January 1941; published under the 'Your Guide Publications Inc.' indicia with Lev Gleason as editor.
- Contains Part 1 of 'Daredevil Battles The Claw,' the first confrontation between Bart Hill (Daredevil) and The Claw — a five-part serial that continued through Silver Streak Comics #11.
- First appearance of Tonia Saunders, Daredevil's girlfriend and a recurring character throughout his subsequent adventures in Silver Streak Comics and beyond; she learns Bart Hill's secret identity in this very issue.
- Daredevil's significant visual and narrative retool: Jack Cole dropped the character's original muteness and introduced the now-classic red and blue costume, replacing the darker look from his debut in issue #6.
- Jack Cole is credited as both the writer/artist of the Daredevil lead story and, per the Statement of Ownership inside the issue, as Editor of the title.
- The serial's popularity caused Silver Streak Comics to shift from bimonthly to monthly publication beginning with issue #8, a direct editorial response to reader enthusiasm for the Daredevil/Claw clash.
- The Daredevil story from this issue has been reprinted at least three times: in The Golden Age of Comic Books (Random House, April 1977), in Gwandanaland Comics #1377 — Daredevil and the Claw: Volume 1, and in Dark Horse's Silver Streak Archives Featuring the Original Daredevil Volume 1 (June 2012).
- The issue is an anthology containing multiple features beyond the Daredevil lead, including Silver Streak and other short-lived backup strips; at 68 pages, the Daredevil/Claw chapter occupied a full 16 pages — the most prominent real estate in the book.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Captain Battle Comics #3 (1941), Silver Streak Comics #[22] (1946), The Golden Age of Comic Books #[nn] (1977), Ace Comics Presents #1 (1987), Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 #[nn] (2009), Silver Streak Archives Featuring the Original Daredevil #1 (2012), Gwandanaland Comics #1377, L'âge merveilleux des Comics #2
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