Daredevil (Lev Gleason Publications)

The 1940s comic book character Daredevil, a separate and unrelated entity from Marvel Comics' Daredevil, was the star of popular comics during the Golden Age of comic books. The character is believed to be in the public domain, as no successor company has picked up the rights to the character when the original publisher went out of business.

This original Daredevil was created by Jack Binder for an eight-page backup feature in Lev Gleason Publications' Silver Streak #6 (Sept. 1940), and was almost immediately revamped by Jack Cole (who would create the classic Plastic Man a year later). Bart Hill, as a child, had been rendered mute by the shock of seeing his father murdered and himself being branded with a hot iron. Orphaned, he grew up to become a boomerang marksman, in homage to the boomerang-shaped scar left on his chest. Like Batman, introduced a year earlier, he took up a costume to wage vigilante vengeance.

Daredevil Battles Hitler (July 1941). the premiere issue of Daredevil Comics. Art by Charles Biro (pencils) and Bob Wood (inks).

Editor Cole revamped the character the next issue, keeping only Hill's identity and the boomerang. Cole redesigned the costume to a dark red-and-blue, symmetrically-divided bodysuit with a spiked "dog collar" belt, dropped the mute angle without explanation, and pitted him against Silver Streak's lead character, the villainous Claw, for a five-issue battle that made Daredevil a star. The final installment was written by Don Rico, who would write the character through Silver Streak #17 (Dec. 1941).

By this time, publisher Lev Gleason had already launched Daredevil's own comic with Daredevil Battles Hitler #1 (July 1941), in which Daredevil and other Silver Streak heroes fought Der Fuehrer. As with Captain America #1 (March 1941), in which Hitler gets an ignominious sock in the jaw, the comic anticipated U.S. involvement in World War II. It was written and partially drawn by Charles Biro, who continued on the book when its title changed to Daredevil Comics with issue #2, and who in his 16-year run would make the character one of the most acclaimed of the Golden Age. Biro rewrote Daredevil's origin in #18 (August 1943), now depicting Hill as having been raised by aborigines in the Australian Outback.

Biro introduced popular supporting characters the Little Wise Guys in Daredevil #13 (Oct. 1942). A "kid gang" similar to DC Comics' Newsboy Legion and many others, the group consisted of Curly, Jocko, Peewee, Scarecrow and Meatball — the latter of whom, with remarkable daring, was killed two issues later. By the late 1940s, with superheroes going out of fashion, the the Little Wise Guys took center stage, edging out Daredevil altogether with issue #70 (Jan. 1950). The series lasted through #134 (Sept. 1956).

In homage to the Golden Age Daredevil, Marvel Comics' Daredevil would wear a similar costume in the alternate-reality Mutant X series.

A similar, earlier homage was made a few years earlier in DC Comics Kingdom Come series, when Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt - a character whose regular costume seems to be inspired by Daredevil's - was shown using a new costume, very similar to that of the Golden Age Daredevil.

External links

• Don Markstein's Toonpedia: Daredevil
• From the Archives, Vol. 3, #1, 1996
• The Grand Comic-Book Database