Murdock and Marvel: 1970

Comics Over Time

Episode 8 - Murdock and Marvel: 1970

We have made it to the second decade of the Marvel era! The 1970s saw significant changes and challenges for comics, and we start to see them immediately as we take a look at the very first year of this eventful decade!

Preshow

• Steve Ditko is now a “Disney Legend.” https://d23.com/disney-legends-2024/
• Dan and Siena C2E2 panel is on Saturday, April 27th from 10:30am – 11:30am. Room S405-B https://www.c2e2.com/en-us.html

The Year in Comics

1970 marks the end of the “Silver Age of Comics” and the start of the “Bronze Age.”

Underground comix continue to flourish

The Steranko History of Comics by Jim Steranko (https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=482701) and All In Color for a Dime by Richard A. Lupoff (https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=20515571) were published

Robert Overstreet publishes his first Comic Book Price Guide

The first Golden State Comic Book Convention is held in San Diego, with 300 attendees

Shazam Awards honored comics excellence annually from 1970-1974

The Year in Marvel

With a new distribution deal in place and its bullpen bursting with young talent, Marvel continued to expand in all directions, with 15 new titles that covered nearly every major comic genre.

New Titles (and lots of reprints)

New Characters

Big Moments

Who's in the Bullpen

• ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Marv Wolfman

The Year in Daredevil

Appearances: Daredevil #60-71, Avengers #82

• Stan Lee continues as Editor through these books with Roy Thomas writing most and Gene Colan continuing for another year as the artist.
• After Deborah cancels her engagement with Foggy after the fact that she is an ex-convict comes up once more.
• Daredevil takes down Crime Wave’s illegal gambling ship and captures the boss – who's revealed to be Foggy’s Assistant Hollis.
• Daredevil must deal with another villain team up as the Trio of Doom lure him into a trap at an old amusement park.
• Daredevil gets upstaged by another would be superhero – Nighthawk - who turns out to be just another villain in disguise.
• Daredevil fights the Gladiator who pretends not to be the gladiator in an attempt to escape prison. While this is happening, Karen – fed up with Murdock, leaves for Los Angeles.
• Daredevil heads to LA to try to find Karen, but instead finds the Stunt-Master – who has agreed to steal a film as a way to try to earn money.
• Karen gets a job acting on the now struggling Strange Secrets TV Show. After she witnesses the actor playing Brother Brimstone attack another actor (as well as her), She is stocked by a new Brother Brimstone who is trying to murder the cast and crew. Daredevil finds Karen and saves her from the La Brea Tar Pits. Brother Brimstone isn’t so lucky.
• While on the set of the new Stunt-Master Tv Show, Daredevil fights Stilt-Man who is posing as Stunt-Master. Afterwards, DD tells Karen that he has to go back to New York. Karen declines to go with him having found she enjoys her career as an actress.
• Daredevil helps out his Dad’s old coach get his current boxer out from under an extremist group
• Daredevil and Black Panther help out the Carver brothers who are being bullied/harassed by the Thunderbolts.
• Finally, Daredevil goes up against the Tribune who’s attempting to be judge, jury and executioner of the New York Three after they are arrested for blowing up the New York Hilton

New Powers, Toys or Places

New Supporting Characters

New Villains

This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #70 Nov 1970 “The Tribune” and Daredevil #71 Dec 1970 “If an Eye Offend Thee...!”

Recap

Why We Picked This Story

The Takeaway

Tough year for Marvel

Questions or comments

We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

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THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES

Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm. You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.

The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.

Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.

Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.

The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years. Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.

Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics. This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377.

My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss. This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage.