Daredevil 158

Daredevil's Fighting Style

Daredevil is unique among the major heroes because he's blind. This necessitates a slightly different fighting style that the best writers can get creative with. We're going to take a look at Daredevil in a fight as presented by the team of Frank Miller and Klaus Janson.

Up against DD is the fearsome Death-Stalker.

Death-Stalker used to be the villain known as Exterminator; an accident threw him to Limbo, Immortus' realm, a place out of time where all timelines meet (For more on Limbo, check out my post on Thor's adventure in that incredible place). His stay in Limbo gave Death-Stalker two of his key weapons. First, is the ability to kill just by touching, an artificial ability that makes use of an Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) design. Second, Death-Stalker's link with Limbo means he is not altogether a part of our timestream. This allows him to become intangible, or entirely disappear, in our reality; but only if he's not using his touch of death.

With that, let the battle begin.

Normally, Death-Stalker registers as a blurred haze in Daredevil's radar sense, but when Death-Stalker activates his death touch, he comes fully into our world and appears sharp in Matt's radar.

As can be seen by the panel below, Daredevil uses his hyper sensitive hearing in order to detect movement.

Here we see Death-Stalker disappearing from our world.

An ambush!

Once again, extremely sensitive hearing saves the day.

Another Daredevil characteristic is his incredible agility.

Best of all, Daredevil is a cerebral fighter - always trying to think his way into victory. In this well-crafted set of panels he realizes that he has to place himself in a position of advantage against Death-Stalker; he does just that by "turning off the lights"!

And now for the coupe de grace! The billy club smashes Death-Stalker's hand in a panel so good it jumps off the page.

If you're in the mood for some street level fighting, you can't go wrong with a good Daredevil comic. This is from issue 158 of the first series - the first issue of Frank Miller's first Daredevil run. Quality stuff.

Posted by Pete Albano - October 26, 2011

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