Random Happenstance

This was the first weekend in recent memory that I didn't have to move stuff; so of course I end up doing a bunch of overtime. Still, I had time to flip through a few recent pickups I hadn't read before, starting with today's book: from 1993, Daredevil #314, "Shock Treatment" Written by D. G. Chichester, pencils by Scott McDaniel, inks by Bud La Rosa.

If you were to rattle off Daredevil villains, I think even the hardcore fans would still easily miss Mr. Fear. And there's been multiple versions of him, as his fear gimmick and suit have been passed around: I don't know if he was replaced every time he got beat, but it's close. The daughter of the fourth Mr. Fear arranges to have him shanked up a bit in prison, to get access to the fear formula, which she uses to commit a robbery, then to seemingly become a monster! I wonder if Shock here wasn't an attempt to open DD's rogues' gallery a bit--he had recently faced a female Surgeon General, Calypso from Spider-Man, and now her. Still, if you were trying to establish a new villainess, maybe you don't open the issue with a dream sequence featuring Elektra: they're going to have a hard time measuring up to her.

We blogged DD #318 a couple years back, but I wasn't reading the title regularly again until Fall From Grace. I know I had DD #316, though; Matt Murdock vs. the subways. I wonder if that wasn't foreshadowed a little here, as Matt shows Ben Urich a braille subway map. (There also a too-contrived sequence with Matt using a tourist t-shirt as an improvised mask.)

Also this issue: another USPS Statement of Ownership. Total Number Copies Printed (net press run): Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 305,225. Single issue nearest to filing date: 241,100. Paid circulation, actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 161,350.