Daredevil #38

Daredevil is trapped in the steely prison…of Doctor Doom’s body! Stuck in a cell at the Latverian Embassy, Matt Murdock remains helpless as Doom exacts his revenge on the FF. But what trick does Matt have up his sleeve? And will our hero be reunited with his rightful body by the end of this issue?

The Living Prison

Daredevil finds himself trapped inside Dr. Doom’s body due to the mind transfer Doom put him through in the last issue. Although delighted that he can see again, DD knows he must stop Doom who is headed to the Baxter Building in Daredevil’s body. Chancing the egomaniacal Dr. Doom is unlikely to have told his underlings of his plan, Daredevil shouts out to the guards in the Latverian embassy to free him from the dungeon. The guards free “Dr. Doom” and are ordered to stop “Daredevil” before he reaches the Fantastic Four. Meanwhile the real Dr. Doom, in Daredevil’s body, arrogantly strolls through New York and wonders why his “vision” has become cloudy. Putting this down to the opaque eye filters on DD’s costume, Doom suspects Daredevil’s reduced vision is the key to his heightened senses. Back at the Latverian Embassy, despite enjoying his returned sight, Daredevil contacts the FF and warns them of Doom’s plan. Although Johnny Storm and The Thing are sceptical after hearing Doom’s voice, Mr. Fantastic argues Doom doesn’t know their secret frequency as Daredevil does, plus if anyone can perform a body transfer it’s Dr. Doom.

Meanwhile Doom’s henchmen have caught up to “Daredevil” and attack. “Daredevil” savagely beats them up and shows them the imperial ring he removed from Dr. Doom’s body before the transferral. Doom then uses the power beam in the ring to punish his witless lackeys but lets them live so they can go back and recapture Daredevil. As the lackeys run off, they literally bump into their target and another fight ensues. Albeit struggling to adjust to his armour, “Dr. Doom” nonetheless hands out another beating to the henchmen while a crowd gathers. The police soon spot the fight and recognising “Dr. Doom” as a foreign Chief of State, arrest his attackers. “Doom” then leaves to find “Daredevil”. Meantime at the offices of Nelson & Murdock, Debbie Harris leaves after her date with Foggy Nelson. Karen Page asks Foggy if he should be dating an ex-con while running for D.A. when out of the window Foggy sees Debbie approaching “Daredevil”. Not recognising her, “DD” shoves her aside and Foggy is enraged. Shortly after, the real Daredevil catches up to his counterfeit who tells him as long as he is in trapped in Dr. Doom’s body, he can never truly escape. “Doom” then hands “Daredevil” a radio and tells him to listen to the next news broadcast to know how he will escape. “Daredevil” doesn’t bother chasing his foe as he leaves because he feels his plight is hopeless.

“Dr. Doom” arrives back at the Latverian embassy and again heads for the radio room. He contacts the Latverian Prime Minister via the tele-viewer and orders him to immediately declare war on Latveria’s four bordering countries. Hearing this reported on the news on the radio given to him by Daredevil, the real Dr. Doom rushes back to his embassy fearing his country will be destroyed in retaliation. Knowing he can only withdraw the declaration of war as Dr. Doom, “Daredevil” uses the tranformatron on himself and “Dr. Doom” to switch their minds back to their original bodies. Instantly after the process is complete, Daredevil breaks out of the transformatron and destroys it. The Man Without Fear then faces Dr. Doom who tells him he has so rarely been defeated that it amuses him and DD is free to go. After cancelling the declaration of war, Doom mimics DD’s voice with a voice modulator and warns The FF in a radio message that Dr. Doom is headed towards them disguised as Daredevil. The FF are fooled into believing the message and The Thing decides it’s clobberin’ time!

Continues in Fantastic Four #73.