In the early days of Marvel, new characters were introduced and, in many cases, the artistic team started a decently long run, and set the tone for the look and feel of the book. The formula was pretty straightforward. Lay out the origin, set the costume, establish the primary villains, and introduce the supporting cast. And, if you look at many books today, those original themes and names haven’t changed. That’s a tribute to the staying power of those early artistic teams. The early issues set a “look” for a character, and it takes a pretty long run to move off of that first look. For example, Steve Ditko set a look on ASM that was distinctive, and was “the look” till John Romita took over the book. Still today people argue (politely of course) over which Spider-Man is the more memorable Spider-Man, but that’s for another time. Obviously, everyone has their favorite example, but my point is that the look and tone is often set early in a character’s run. Think about the early days of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, X Men, Thor, Iron Man, or the Hulk. One or two pencillers were responsible for much of what we see today. But, what about Daredevil? Well, ol’ hornhead got a bit of the shaft. In the first 15 issues, penciling chores were handled by no less than Bill Everett, Joe Orlando, Wally Wood, Bill Powell, and John Romita (Kirby is credited with Layouts for the first couple of issues in the Romita run, but we won’t count that). How about costume? Yup. DD changed his costume in the now classic Issue #7.
When most people think of Daredevil, they normally think of two artists; Gene Colan and Frank Miller. It wasn’t until Gene Colan came on the book that DD really picked up a certain style. But, if you hadn’t looked back, you might not have realized that Colan didn’t take over the book with pencils until issue #20. Of course, Frank Miller “restarted” Daredevil with #158.
Some people really like the Wally Wood version. Having recently re-read the first 20 issues, I just found it interesting that the character changed so much in the first two years. Personally, I took a real shining to John Romita’s take on Matt Murdock. So, when I had the chance to grab a splash from the early issues of DD, I jumped on it.
Please enjoy the splash to Daredevil #15 by John Romita, “…And Men Shall Call him…OX!”.
