I keep telling you, this blog is "Random Happenstance." Not "Timely Happenstance." Although it could be "When I Damn Well Get Around to It Happenstance." Like today's issue, since we mentioned it back in December: from 1986, Daredevil #234, "Madcasting" Written by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Steve Ditko, inks by Klaus Janson.
A gun-smuggling operation is interrupted by the sudden arrival of "some fruit in a clown costume," as one thug puts it, since he's glad it wasn't Spider-Man or Daredevil. He might later wish it was, though: it's Madcap! The lunatic with a better healing factor than Wolverine and a madness-inducing stare! And he's not so much fighting crime, as just happened to run into these guys. Too bad for them.
After sending the thugs to looney-tunes land, Madcap runs into cable newsman Dollar Bill--he was a supporting character in old issues of Defenders, but had apparently his star had fallen, since he now had a one-man cable public access show. Still, the man knew talent, and saw potential in Madcap. I don't know if Dollar Bill has appeared in a comic in the last two decades, but that name alone is due for a comeback...
This issue was back when the leather-masked crimelord the Rose was competing with the Kingpin for control of the city's rackets; and the gun-smugglers were his. He offers five grand--which seems a little small-change even for the time--to anyone who gets rid of this new vigilante. But he gets results quickly, even with Daredevil investigating; but Madcap is introduced to the ominous-sounding Max the Axe. Well, it'd be ominous for anyone else: even axed several times, then burned "almost beyond recognition," as DD puts it, Madcap recovers and returns to try and commandeer Dollar Bill's show.
Daredevil's barely in this issue, but Janson's inks still make it seem like his series, more than anything. Still, not one of DD's greatest hits, at any rate.
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