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Lev Gleason Publications (Daredevil Comics, Crime Does Not Pay, Boy Comics, etc.)
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Started by Electricmastro,

136 posts in this topic

MrBedrock

MrBedrock

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, pemart1966 said:

Daredevil gets my vote as being the biggest waste of a superhero in the Golden Age if not all time.  The character had the look; the artists; the main villain etc etc.  Lev Gleason just let the character fade away with his title being taken over by the Little Wise Guys.  Seriously?  Why did this happen?

Daredevil, the character, was a little one dimensional, while The Little Wise Guys created all sorts of story opportunities for the writers. And as weird as it may sound today, readers at that time preferred the stories of the kids to the costumed character. Daredevil, the comic title, was a fairly strong seller lasting fifteen plus years. Time and experience have a way of changing our perspective for sure. But please read some of those later Little Wise Guy stories if you get a chance. They are really very good. Near mint even.

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Cat-Man_America

Cat-Man_America

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, pemart1966 said:

Daredevil gets my vote as being the biggest waste of a superhero in the Golden Age if not all time.  The character had the look; the artists; the main villain etc etc.  Lev Gleason just let the character fade away with his title being taken over by the Little Wise Guys.  Seriously?  Why did this happen?

It's just my opinion ...albeit one shared by "some" older collectors... that the blame for Daredevil’s emasculation as a character falls squarely on Charles Biro and Bob Woods as editors.  Lev Gleason put a lot of trust in the creative talents of this team based on their promise to turn out 12 regular monthly issues of the Daredevil comic under Biro’s guidance.  The title proved to be very popular ...more so than the anthology title Silver Streak... and Gleason granted them full editorial control of the title along with the freedom to chart the direction of the comic.  

Biro, as an editor, was an advocate for literacy in the comics under his control and less concerned about building patronage for existing characters.  As a result, the comics he edited became notoriously “wordy” in the estimation of many collectors.  While Daredevil would gradually take a back seat to the Little Wiseguys ...eventually Daredevil hung up his costume altogether and turned his attention to being a mentor... the stories were thematically stronger and better written than most in the GA.  The Little Wiseguys developed a loyal fan base and the character Daredevil eventually disappeared from the masthead.  Also, Charles Biro was one of the first, if not the first, editors to establish a regular “Letters to the editor” page which proved quite popular.

I agree with you that Daredevil being tethered to the Little Wiseguys was a tragic waste of an iconic superhero, but it did pay off for Lev Gleason.  It’s hard to say how popular the title would’ve been without this teaming.  Not being a big fan of kid teams, Daredevil’s second banana status disappoints me as well.  That said, I can understand why kid groups were popular and so many school kids identified with them back then.  This is just my take, others may have differing views on how this played out, but Daredevil is certainly worthy of closer examination.  This topic has been discussed by fans for decades and not without controversy as hinted at in the very next post.  :grin:

:tink:

Edited by Cat-Man_America
the perfunctory MrB caveat edit ;0)
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MrBedrock

MrBedrock

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11 minutes ago, Cat-Man_America said:

This is just my take, others may have differing views on how things played out.

:tink:

Thanks for allowing us that. (thumbsu

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Electricmastro

Electricmastro

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12 hours ago, pemart1966 said:

Daredevil gets my vote as being the biggest waste of a superhero in the Golden Age if not all time.  The character had the look; the artists; the main villain etc etc.  Lev Gleason just let the character fade away with his title being taken over by the Little Wise Guys.  Seriously?  Why did this happen?

Yeah, despite the Golden Age Daredevil having been one of the most successful superheroes of his time (his comic having amassed 134 issues, appearing in about 70 of them), it rather stinks how he has fallen into obscurity as much he has. That said, though his namesake lives on more popularly with Matt Murdock, it was still nice to see Dynamite Entertainment give Bart Hill more attention.

2173227-01a.jpg

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pemart1966

pemart1966

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Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, Electricmastro said:

Yeah, despite the Golden Age Daredevil having been one of the most successful superheroes of his time (his comic having amassed 134 issues, appearing in about 70 of them), it rather stinks how he has fallen into obscurity as much he has. That said, though his namesake lives on more popularly with Matt Murdock, it was still nice to see Dynamite Entertainment give Bart Hill more attention.

2173227-01a.jpg

He may have appeared in "about 70" issues of his own titled magazine but for the vast majority of them he played a supporting role to the Wise Guys.  Complete waste of a very cool looking character that had boundless potential.

Imagine if Jack Cole had gone on a long run with this character...

 

 

Edited by pemart1966
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