Daredevil Battles The Man Of Hate!

Once upon a time in America, Adolph Hitler was the epitome of evil. He was the loathsome skunk who forced two of my uncles to go to war to protect the civil order of the Western world itself. Once upon a time we all hated him. And we have the comic books to prove it. Arguably the most infamous is the cover above for the debut of the Daredevil series from Lev Gleason which has the one-off title of Daredevil Battles Hitler! Signing as "Woodro" the infamous cover above was created by Charles Biro. 

In this absolute riot of a comic book Daredevil battles Hitler and his minions on many fronts, and he is helped by other Lev Gleason heroes of all kinds in this comic dated July 1941. (For the record, I love comic images which showcase heroes coming out of the very pages of book or even bursting through the cover.)

Daredevil joins forces with Silver Streak to combat the malevolent dictator. This splash page showcases Hitler as a giant crushing regular folks under his boot and crashing buildings to the ground. Charles Biro produces both story and art for this initial chapter. 

One the biggest "stars" for the company was actually the villain the Claw, who is a maniacal giant with fangs. He seems like an ideal choice to help the little dictator but as the title suggests there's little honor among malevolent maniacs. The villains team-up but then fall-out as Daredevil does his best to wind the day. Writer Biro was joined by the great artist Jack Cole for weird outing. 

The action switches to the jungle where Daredevil joins up with Lance Hale, a Tarzan inspired hero. The duo drive the Nazis out of this little corner of deepest darkest Africa. It's assumed Biro wrote this one, bt the artist's name is lost to time. 

I love this double-page spread which advertises the various heroes Lev Gleason publishes. Not all of them get featured in this comic. 

When Dickie Dean invents a new decoding machine, the news reaches the ears of Joseph Goebbels who sends out his henchmen to kidnap Dickie and his friend Zip Todd. Daredevil seeks them out in enemy territory and the heroes not only return with the machine but do some harm to the Nazis as well. Biro and Cole team up again for this story. 

Next Daredevil takes to the skies as he teams up with Cloud Curtis to battle Herman Goering's dangerous fighter planes. It takes more than a dash of derring-do to subdue the enemy. Sadly, again the artist for this story is unknown. As we learned yesterday, they produced them fast at Lev Gleason. 

In perhaps the strangest of the adventures Daredevil is in conflict with Grand Admiral Von Roeder who is attacking shipping. The Pirate Prince appears from the mists of time to assist in putting down this threat and then he and his sailing ship disappear just as mysteriously. Harry Anderson supplies the artwork for this Biro story. 

The comic takes a turn by leaving off with these focuses instead on Adolph Hitler himself and muses upon how his vile man came to power. The story is both written and drawn by Bob Davis. 

Hitler's notorious biography is tracked in a two-page prose offering which details many of how he came to prominence and ultimately a threat to the world. 

We then get some potent pages showing how Hitler and his forces moved beyond their borders and became an immediate menace to all of Europe and beyond. The story has the Roman god of war Mars join Hitler in his predations. 

The story "Man of Hate" was reprinted in 2001 in All-Hitler Comics from Bill  Black's AC Comics. 

This is a wild comic book, published before the beginning of the war and so it could be argued was needlessly provocative. Those arguments are largely hogwash. Recognizing the immensity of a menace, whether overseas or in one's own homeland, it's necessary to face up to the task of defeating evil. 

I read this story in The Original Daredevil Archives from Dark Horse. If you can't wait and I haven't spoiled too much, you can read it here. 

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