The Lee and Colan Issues
This section covers the issues Stan Lee wrote in collaboration with the definitive Daredevil Artist, Mr. Gene Colan.
Daredevil #31: "Blind Man‘s Bluff!"; 20 pages
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Gene Colan, pencils, John Tartaglione, inks
With his super-senses gone thanks to Mr. Hyde's serum, Daredevil has to rely on Foggy Nelson to help him take on the madman--who is conducting a crime way with his reluctant partner, The Cobra.
This is the middle part of a three-part storyline that introduces Hyde into Daredevil's rogue's gallery--a place he'll pretty much stay, with brief side trips to take on Captain America, The Avengers and Spider-Man, for the rest of his existence. It's also a story smack in the middle of Stan Lee's ludicrously silly ‘Mike Murdock' storyline, where Matt tries to throw his best friends off the scent by claiming his sighted twin brother is Daredevil. To my surprise, this angle lasted for over a year before being discarded during the Eliminator story in DD #39-41.
Not surprisingly, being as this is the middle part of a story with the gimmick of Matt finding himself without his super-senses, the focus of the story is on our hero's reactions...and Matt is not reacting well. Even taking into account Stan Lee's over-enthusiastic writing style, some of Matt's inner dialogue comes off as hysterical--although Gene Colan's eerie depictions of DD literally feeling his way around New York manages to salvage things. And, admittedly, the sight of Karen Page getting all upset because 'Mike' Murdock's blindness (explained away as a weakness in the eyes that wasn't evident in 'Mike' until now) prevents him from appreciating her new hairstyle makes you wonder what Stan really thought of women.
Surprisingly, Lee spends an inordinate amount of time to a sequence where Cobra and Hyde go on a safecracking adventure...time that he spends delineating the two villains' personality. In contrast to the way Hyde is portrayed as early as the late 70's, Lee's take on Calvin Zabo is that he's a thrill addict; when questioned by the Cobra about why he chooses not to use his strength to tear off the safe door, Hyde proclaims that he loves the challenge of crime, the fun of getting away with murder. It's a pretty startling claim in light of the sadomasochistic bully he becomes in later stories, and creates a much more interesting set of motivations for him--and why he hangs out with someone he considers a lesser like The Cobra.
(As an aside, another unique variant from the ‘standard' portrayal of Mr. Hyde is Colan's positively simian look for the character, complete with bare feet and prehensile toes. With the exception of a Sam Keith-drawn issue of The Incredible Hulk, this is the only time we've seen this look for Hyde)
What is firmly in place is the hectoring, competitive and nasty nature of the Hyde/Cobra partnership. These two simply Don't Like Each Other Much (granted, as we get further down the line it becomes evident that Hyde Doesn't Like Anyone Much, but we're talking about an early appearance here). The sniping and snarling that commences between the two is different for a permanent duo; notice how other teams throughout the Marvel Universe (The Puppet Master and The Thinker, for example) are based either on mutual respect or feign said respect to each other's faces. Not Hyde and The Cobra...you get the impression they'd prefer to beat on each other rather than Daredevil. It's amazing the team stayed together as long as it did before being permanently broken up in a Captain America two parter.
Even though it is mired in that ridiculous Mike Murdock silliness, this is a typically enjoyable issue of Daredevil, topped off with a wonderful final page by Colan (although how The Cobra imitates Foggy's voice is never quite revealed). There are enough little touches to make this a worthwhile tale to seek out.