Daredevil (Lev Gleason Publications)
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This article is about the 1940s superhero. For the Marvel Comics superhero, see Daredevil (Marvel Comics). For other uses, see Daredevil.
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The fictional 1940s comic book superhero Daredevil, a separate and unrelated entity from Marvel Comics' Daredevil, was the star of popular comics from the publisher Lev Gleason Publications during what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books. While he ceased to appear in original stories by the end of the decade, the character nonetheless had an enduring impact on generations of comics creators influenced by the gritty, anything-goes storytelling of its most prominent writer-artist, Charles Biro.
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[edit] Publication history
This original Daredevil was created by Jack Binder for an eight-page backup feature in Lev Gleason Publications' Silver Streak #6 (Sept. 1940). Editor Jack Cole, who would create the classic Plastic Man a year later, revamped the character in the next issue 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 — that last of whom, with remarkable daring, was killed two issues later. By the late 1940s, with superheroes going out of fashion, the Little Wise Guys took center stage, edging out Daredevil altogether with issue #70 (Jan. 1950). The series lasted through #134 (Sept. 1956).
[edit] Fictional character biography
As a child, Bart Hill 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. Upon his partial revamping in the issue following his debut, only Hill's identity and the boomerang remained; the mute angle was dropped without explanation, and the costume redesigned to a dark red-and-blue, symmetrically-divided bodysuit with a spiked "dog collar" belt.
[edit] Legacy
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 in DC Comics' Kingdom Come series, when Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt — a character whose regular costume was inspired by Daredevil's, according to creator Pete Morisi — wore a new costume very similar to that of the Golden Age Daredevil.
