Sometimes it takes a while to get it right. Daredevil was a clever concept whipped together to take advantage of the burgeoning popularity of The Amazing Spider-Man, another acrobatic hero with limits. In the case of Daredevil his limit was actually his strength, he was a blind man who wasn't, but who had a bizarre network of highly developed senses which actually made him "see" more clearly than a normal person. Combined with top-flight fighting skills he took to the streets to fight crime but alas he chose to do so in a costume which was at best regrettable.
Daredevil wore this outfit in the first half dozen issues of his run as drawn by Bill Everett, Joe Orlando and ultimately by Wally Wood. It was Wood who took the initiative to give DD a new look, one of the finest superhero costumes in the history of the genre, a red costume full of rich shadow and atmosphere. I'm convinced without this change that Daredevil would've joined Giant-Man on the ash heap of failed early Marvel features.
Here is DD in all his red and yellow glory!
And then suddenly this appeared. Instant success!
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Red is certainly a more appropriate colour for a 'devil', but I must confess to having a soft spot for the original colour scheme. Considering that Stan was comparing DD to Spidey, the two-tone outfit perhaps wasn't actually too out of place for a crime-fighting, wisecracking superhero. However, red's a better fit for the grim-dark DD of today. When did that DD True Believers issue hit the stands, Rip? Must get one, even though I have the original issue.
ReplyDeleteIt landed last week. Today I'm looking for the Hero for Hire issue!
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Yup, Ripd, I agree. Sorry Stan and early artists but what were you thinking? Yeah yeah it did seem just fine back then but I was 14 and not too discriminating. Hooray for Wally Wood and his killer redesign.
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