One was a pretty persistent foe for a long time, the other one I had never seen face DD, in today's book: from 1976,
Daredevil #140, "Death Times Two!" Written by Bill Mantlo, layouts by Sal Buscema, finishes and colors by Klaus Janson.
After a bus driver has a heart attack, Daredevil manages to stop the bus...by crashing it pretty hard, but not bad for a blind guy. He gets a hearty thank you from the NYPD, something he wasn't used to, as well as some bad news, which he was pretty accustomed to: Gladiator had escaped from jail in Florida. (Where we saw him beat by the Man-Thing, back in
DD #114!) And Glady's made a friend: none other than the Beetle, in his old outfit with the creepy fingers. (Excuse me: "
Suction-tipped hydraulic fingers.") Together they hijack a train, forcing the passengers to jump off, then crashing it into Grand Central Station! ...why, though? Pretty much just to call out DD and kill him. Ooh, how mad would they have been if Spidey or Cap showed up instead?
How Gladiator never took a chunk out of himself with his circular-saw blades, I have no idea. Although he gets dinged a few times, Daredevil maneuvers Beetle into getting sliced a bit, but Gladiator then takes the old man running the newsstand hostage. Not so he can get away, but force DD into the open. DD smashes him, as well as what's left of the newsstand. In the wreckage, we can see
Tomb of Dracula and
Nova--I think
Nova #3, but those books aren't mint anymore! I kind of thought they would be books written by Mantlo, but they were both by then-regular
Daredevil writer Marv Wolfman.
Since I just got his figure, also this issue: a Hostess Twinkies ad, with Spider-Man vs. the Human Fly! Sadly, the Fly action figure did not come with in-scale Twinkies; it came with Razorback, Silvermane, Molten Man, and a very small purple Spidey. I kinda would've preferred the Twinkies...
4 comments:
I REALLY want that Fly figure, but don't really want to shell out for the other figures, although Razorback does look pretty damn decent overall. Maybe I'll luck out one day & find one loose on Ebay or Mercari.
Legit good point about Gladiator never accidentally cutting himself. That would be both hilarious & gruesome, making a fun story for an episode of "Bizarre ER stories."
Wait, he fought Man-Thing? Meaning he got burnt right?
I'm actually liking this era of Sal Buscema/Klaus Jansen breakdown & finishes as opposed the very darker & thicker inks of Jansen over Sal's pencils later on during the mid-90's on Spectacular Spider-Man.
Man, Bill Mantlo really did fill-ins for everything in the 70's, didn't he? I don't know if he even had a regular series until Micronauts. Still, you know you're going to get something fun at least.
I think we looked at that issue but it mostly happens off-panel: Gladiator gets scorched, maybe lightly braised by Man-Thing. Which is understandable, since that would've been terrifying: you think your saw-blades are going to turn this weird thing into so much mulch, but it's got the consistency of mud and that's not working...!
Meaning he’d REALLY gunk up his blades with swamp goo. Not to mention that swamp water & salty Florida air would rust the hell out of them as well.
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