The first meeting between Spider-Man and Daredevil happened in Amazing Spider-Man #16, and it happened early in Daredevil’s career. He is still in his yellow costume in this issue, penciled by Steve Ditko and written, as usual, by Stan Lee. It is also full of unintentionally funny stuff, as well as some enlightening insights into Matt’s senses. We’ll get to all of that, but first let’s look at how the first meeting came about. Why, it’s the classic super-hero saves blind man from being mugged! Not to be confused with not-yet-superhero saves blind man from being run over by a truck transporting radioactive goo… (Clicking an image will make it “pop” and let you view it at full size.)
Spider-Man saves Matt from being mugged
To save some time getting back to the office, Matt changes to Daredevil and launches into the mandatory explanation of how his powers work. This makes sense considering that Marvel is trying to introduce Daredevil to a wider audience, but who he’s supposed to be talking to within the actual story is beyond me.
Matt sneaks off and changes to Daredevil
More Daredevil and Spider-Man under the cut –>
Tagged as:
Humor,
Spider-Man,
Stan Lee,
Steve Ditko
Okay, time for one of those wacky powers again! This is from issue #235, written by Danny Fingeroth (his only work on the title) and pencilled by Steve Ditko. What we have here is Daredevil busting some arts thieves, and determining that they have stolen a genuine Picasso! Now how does he do this, you ask? Well, by feeling the paint strokes (and note the rather wacky extra radar rings coming from his hand in this panel…).
I have a couple of problems with this power: 1) Paint feels like paint, feels like paint. I seriously doubt one brush stroke feels that different from another brush stroke painted by some other artists using a similar technique. 2) In order to determine that this is a genuine Picasso, wouldn’t he need some kind of reference to go on? That is, wouldn’t he have had to actually touch a genuine Picasso painting in the past in order to know what such a painting feels like? This is perhaps the most damaging piece of evidence, and the one that clearly proves that this power belongs in the wacky category. Very few people in the world are allowed to touch a painting by Pablo Picasso, and I doubt that Matt Murdock is among the few to have done so.
Daredevil determines the origin of a painting, from Daredevil #235
Description: Panel shows Daredevil hold up a painting that was wrapped in sheets. He’s thinking to himself, “Paintings! I can feel the paint’s imprint with my fingertips. This is an original Picasso, worth millions.” He then says, to no one in particular, “You boys have taste. You left the money and got the good stuff.
Tagged as:
Danny Fingeroth,
Daredevil science,
Daredevil vol 1 #201-250,
Steve Ditko,
Wacky powers
