Daredevil #25

Well, I gotta say.  There are underwhelming villains and then there are villains whose first glance of them is in a suit with a handkerchief around the bottom half of their face and with coil springs on the soles of their shoes.  Yes, folks, meet the Leap Frog, possibly brought into duty because Slightly Bored Man was unavailable.  Okay, I'm being a little unkind.  But, hey, as with the Owl's mechanical bird a few issues back, Stan, obviously embarrassed, has Matt on page two asking "How corny can you get?" 

And yet... Gene Colan produces a stunning picture at the bottom of page two, where the Leap Frog's shadow falls across an airport strip in very dramatic fashion, which works really well, considering the mediocrity of the villainy on display.  In the corner of the frame, a cop notes, "I could nail him from here... but he probably hasn't done anything serious enough for gunplay!" which is somewhat relieving constraint from the boys in blue.  Having said that, I'm not sure he would be so reticient in an airport security scenario today.

There's a bit of an editorial error back at Nelson and Murdock.  Last issue, Karen opened a letter from Spider-man stating that Matt Murdock was Daredevil (that reliable ol' spidey sense, huh?).  This issue she remarks that she shouldn't have opened it as it was a personal letter for Matt.  Now there's a problem here.  If the letter has been written in aramaic script, then surely Matt would ask Karen to read it to him anyway (so as not to give away his identity).  Alternatively, if the letter is in braille, well, is our favourite legal secretary more talented than we've given credit in the past?  Of course, that would also mean that Spidey's a dab hand in braille too.  Nope, bit of a faux pas there, I would suggest.

Matt turns up and has to think of an excuse quickly about why he hasn't been around the last few days.  Of course, he isn't going to tell Foggy and Karen the truth - that he's been in Europe - because that would tie him in too easily with the man without fear.  So instead he comes up with a lame excuse about having a few days by the sea.  He states that he was 'tired' after all the excitement at Madison Square Garden a few issues back.  This is of course the sixties.  Today he would be complaining about post traumatic stress disorder and suing the city for grievances.

Unfortunately for Matt, his colleagues don't believe him.  Which, actually, I'm pretty pleased about.  Too often secondary characters blindly assent to everything the hero of the book throws out at them.  Here, Stan's obviously intent to show both Foggy and Karen (who of course up to now has been a simpering mess much of the time) as intelligent human beings, equals with Matt.  Instead they prod him for a response to Spidey's claims about him being Daredevil.  So what's Matt's response?  Sigh.  An even cornier story.  Cornier than a field full of corn in the land of corn. 

Matt babbles out that he has a twin brother, Mike.  Foggy is unimpressed.  He's never mentioned him before in all the time they two spent rooming together in college.  He demands a meeting.  Of course, Mike turns up later and, what a shock, he's nothing like responsible Matt .  Mike wears horrible yellow shirts and green shades (hmmm, wonder why he's wearing shades indoors?) and calls Foggy 'pudgy' and Karen 'baby'.  If Matt was early era Beatles with the tight suits and haircuts, Mike's the later era with the wonky clothes and penchant for free loving.  Even Foggy's moved to describe him as a 'hip hyena'.  Of course, there's no sign of Matt whilst Mike's around - but Karen and Foggy are too wowed by the twin's appearance to notice.

So what's the Leap Frog up to whilst Matt is thoroughly embarrassing himself?  Well, not content to be dressed as a normal man with springs on his shoes, he develops a frog costume that is not dislike the one previously worn by Frog Man (surprise, surprise) in the Organiser storyline.  It's truly hideous, particularly the way Colan draws it.  I can imagine he had fun designing it, though you do fear for the villain's sanity.  He's going to be sectioned running around the streets dressed like that.

Matt and Froggy have a couple of battles this issue.  Nice piece of dialogue from Matt during the second encounter.  "Nothing beats a solid punch in the kisser," he tells the man in green.  "It's as American as mom's apple pie!"  I'm not American but I'm not sure I'd be flattered by such a comparison.

Peculiarly, this is another issue where the villain of the piece has no alias.  We've already seen this with the Gladiator and, more deliberately, with the Masked Marauder, who appears to be being set up for a big reveal further down the line. 

Billy Club watch:  This issue Matt anthropomorphises his club.  "I've got fresh batteries in her," he announces rather queasily.  The batteries, in question, can make the club form a hook, which helps release his cable so that Matt can drag things.   I think later this idea is merely replaced by the two ends of his billy club being the same length and that automatically hooks itself when he throws it.  This notion here makes the billy club perhaps overly elaborate, though since he's had a tape recorder and massive sheet in there in previous issues, perhaps it's not so big a deal.