Daredevil Villains #54: Mr Hyle
DAREDEVIL #162 (January 1980)
“Requiem for a Pug”
Writer: Michael Fleisher
Artist: Steve Ditko
Colourist: Petra Goldberg
Letterer: Jim Novak
Editor: Allen Milgrom
So here’s where we are. Frank Miller is already established as Daredevil‘s artist. In just a few issues time, he’ll take over as writer and bring the book back to commercial success and critical acclaim. Daredevil will go into the 1980s as the book of the moment.
But we’ll get back to that. In the meantime, here’s a fill-in issue by Michael Fleisher and Steve Ditko. “Requiem for a Pug” is a melodramatic throwback which re-enacts Daredevil’s origin story and dares to ask: what if the Fixer had been a black guy with a leopard?
The story opens with Daredevil helping to shut down a “meson-reactor” which is about to explode. In the process, he’s exposed to vast amounts of radiation. Radiation, as we all know, is magic stuff that makes the plot happen. So as Matt makes his way home that night, he collapses in an alley. Then he wakes up the next morning as an amnesiac. Because that’s what radiation poisoning does.
Amnesiac Matt can’t understand why he’s got a cane and dark glasses – as far as he’s concerned, he can “see” just fine – so he gets rid of them. Naturally, he stumbles onto a diamond heist, and being a hero, he instinctively puts a stop to it. The two thieves work for Mr Hyle, who is hanging around in a nearby limousine. Hyle’s entourage include a glamorous girlfriend, a pet leopard called Ramona, and an in-house boxing coach called Puggy. Why is Hyle hanging around with a boxing coach? Because apparently his main thing is promoting boxing matches, and the diamond heist is just some kind of sideline.
So Hyle and Puggy both decide that this complete stranger who’s just beaten up their diamond theives is clearly pretty good at the whole punching thing. And, as you do, they recruit him as a boxer on the spot. Matt just goes along with this, and nobody seems to ask any awkward questions about who he actually is, or where he lives, or… anything, really. Matt notices that he’s wearing a Daredevil costume under his clothes, but decides to worry about that later. Instead, he just hangs around with his new boxing coach Puggy for literally weeks, bonding with the guy, since Puggy is basically just a nice old boxer who’s got sucked into Hyle’s orbit.
Matt starts fighting his way through the ranks to earn a title shot. You’d think someone might recognise missing famous lawyer Matt Murdock somewhere along the way, or at least remark on the resemblance, but nope. Matt just remains an amnesiac boxer until it’s time for his title shot. Of course, all this is leading to the obvious final act: Hyle wants Matt to take a dive, just like his father did. Puggy tries to talk Hyle out of it, arguing that Matt is so good that they’d make more money just promoting him legitimately, but Hyle is having none of it. Just like his dad, Matt refuses to take a dive. Hyle tries to kill Matt, just like his dad. But Puggy throws himself in the path of the bullet, Matt instinctively calls him “father”, and his memories come flooding back.
Of course, Daredevil then has to take down Hyle to end the story, which is why it was so thoughtful of Hyle to bring the leopard. She doesn’t last long, though, as Daredevil grabs the innocent creature by the tail and whacks her head first into the wall. So Hyle himself enter the fight, and his other gimmick is a pair of knives that can shoot their tips across the room. Hyle accidentally hurts the poor leopard, who really is having a bad day of it, and she responds by killing him.
Daredevil offers some reflections. “Tonight, in a sense, I became Daredevil a seocnd time, because at a crucial moment those dread events of long ago rose up to remind me, as nothing else could have, of who I am – and why the world needs a Daredevil!” It’s that sort of story.
This issue is, to put it mildly, out of place in the McKenzie/Miller run. Since Daredevil was on a bimonthly schedule at this point, it’s hard to understand why it was running a fill-in issue at all, to be honest. But issue #161 had trailed a guest appearance by the Hulk for the following month, and that story does indeed see print in issue #163, so apparently the book really was just running late.
Perhaps running the story at this point wasn’t the worst idea in the world. Marvel had paid for it, after all, and it would be a couple of years before Marvel Fanfare came along to serve as a dumping ground for unused inventory stories. Waiting to run it during the Miller/Janson run would not have been any kinder to it.
As for Hyle, he’s a jazzed up stand-in for the Fixer, with more of a gimmick and able to put up a bit more of a fight. That’s fair enough – the whole point of the story is that he’s inadvertently playing the Fixer’s role and re-enacting Daredevil’s origin story. The leopard is quite endearing – she livens up the otherwise mundane scenes, and she works quite well as shorthand for Hyle’s character. He’s the sort of guy who takes a leopard everywhere in order to make people uncomfortable. Making Hyle himself a vaguely competent fighter feels a bit more forced, but hey, Daredevil can’t just end the story by beating up a leopard.
Obviously, Hyle never appears again. Then again, maybe that’s not so obvious. With the actual Fixer out of the way, perhaps there could have been a role for a villain who had taken over his spot. Hyle himself could have been retooled for a more contemporary story. The problem isn’t the concept of a modern Fixer; it’s just that he comes from a fill-in that feels like it could have been lying in a drawer since 1970.
Maybe Hyle could have teamed up with Quothar to battle Daredevil and Tagak. Or maybe Calvin Zabo could retain Nelson and Murdock to sue Hyle over trademark dilution.
aka the one omitted from all the Daredevil by Frank Miller tbs.
I was a few paragraphs in before I registered that his name wasn’t Mr Hyde. My brain had just inserted the more famous character so I think Calvin has a case!
I mistook him for Mr. Hyde twice.
First, a while back I was looking at an online comic retailer’s site which includes nice synopses of the comics in order to refresh my memory of these DD stories in order to see which issues still needed to be covered before Miller took over on writing. I thought that the David Michelinie fill-in was all that was left, as I read Mr. Hyde was the villain in this issue. Huh. Steve Ditko drawing Mr. Hyde twice for DD? I don’t remember that (as Ditko does draw Mr. Hyde for a fill-in issue around the Nocenti run). I even thought that maybe they did the “Mr. Hyde could have been Jack the Ripper” thing based on the cover, thinking Mr. Hyde was holding those knives.
Then, I come to the site today and see this issue’s cover, and once again read that Mr. Hyde is the villain. Wait a second, Mr. Hyde already fought DD during the Roy Thomas run, why is Mr. Hyde getting covered, I once again thought. I quickly figured it out.
What a forgettable comic.
Before Kingpin, someone should have realized that DD’s true arch-villain was the leopard. I’m sure someone could have made it work, “They say the leopard never changes its spots, yet Matt Murdoch’s entire life is lived by the maxim that this leopard did, indeed, change his spots.”
I guess it’s good that Miller came along, as I don’t see Daredevil’s popularity picking up with that quote over, “A man without fear is a man without hope.”
During Roger Stern’s run on Avengers. three Avengers are kidnapped by Kang and Captain America has to explain to Namor that they were kidnapped by KANG, not KRANG.
It would be perfect for an Avengers/Namor/TMNT cross-over.
Cap: “Kang?”
Namor: “No. Krang.”
Leonardo: “Krang?”
Namor: “Yes, Krang, but not that Krang.”
Except, little does Namor realize that Krang has teamed up with Kang and Krang.
Brining in 60s-era Star Trek and there’s another Kang in the mix, too.
Of course, not everyone would enjoy it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq-HMmiqitU
Now it’s getting as confusing as that proposed Marvel, Aircel, 2000 AD crossover mini-series. You remember: Warlock, Warlock, Warlock 5, and Nemesis the Warlock.
One of those big green aliens in the Simpson’s Halloween specials is also called Kang. It’s a whole gang of Kangs.
Plus it’s a real life family name. I’ve known a Ms. Kang.
There is the Council of Kangs. Some are from much farther distant in the multiverse. I never thought about the fact that the Marvel time traveller*, the Klingon, or the Simpsons alien were Korean though.
*Don’t try to argue that Kang isn’t actually his surname.
Kang and Kodos from the Simpson both share names with classic Trek characters, so that’s probably intentional.
And from the “things you can’t do in 2025,” there was a Asian villain in an episode of Get Smart named The Claw, but due to his accent, Max thought his name was The Craw. And yes, he was played by a white actor. And yes, Max teamed up that episode with a Charlie Chan analogue named Harry Hoo, who was Hawaiian and yes, played by a white actor.
If Kang and Krang had the Nega-bands, they could switch places with a klang!
(Or was that the sound Quantum and Woody made when they recharged?)
I just want to know what piece of media gave rise to the idea of large cats as urban go-getter accessories in the ’70s. Like that time Conan the Barbarian was trapped in the “present” and got all pimped out with a leopard or cheetah of his own.
There seemed to always be so Rich folks/celebrities that had “big cats” at pets. Born Free was 1966. Tippi Hedren had big cats around the same time.
I can’t recall if pimps having them was a real thing or just in pop culture. Same with Bond or Bond-type villains in popular culture.
The story turns on a very Ditko-era Tales to Astonish or Amazing Adult Fantasy kind of twist, where the hero finds himself repeating a narrative he’s already lived through once before. It’s very comic book-y, but that kind of paranoid deja-vu is the kind of thing Ditko could sell in his sleep, and it works well enough here. I was left with the feeling that this could easily be adapted into a more modern story – and it turns out that it was.
The basic plot of this issue was remade as a six-issue story at the end of Ann Nocenti’s run (284-290). The villains and mechanics of the plot are different, but Daredevil’s character arc is remarkably similar:
– He starts out as an amnesiac, realizes that though he is ‘blind’ he can functionally see and then falls in with a group of kindhearted criminals.
– He begins a boxing career and is unstoppable, until the moment comes when he is asked to throw a fight.
– Just like in the Ditko story, refusing to throw the fight leads to him regaining his memories as he flashes back to his father’s death.
It’s more fleshed-out, of course, and there is an entire subplot with Bullseye running around wearing the DD costume.
It also works as a “born again” storyline for Matt, as it returns the book to its NYC Nelson & Murdock status quo after Nocenti’s wildest period where Daredevil is running around with a chicken farmer and the Inhumans fighting literal devils and in rural America.
…Nocenti’s run on Daredevil has long been on my to-read list, but it just went up by a lot after that last sentence.
Chris V,
I also did that, trying to work out why a sixties Lee Kirby Thor Character was being coved as Daredevil Character form the 80’s. But we can make this work we know that Clavin was experimenting of his formula before Quake was born so he could already be working in the underground at the time of Battling Jim’s fight.
He was looking for Chemical Reactions that made men stronger and more aggressive and Physical so he could be monitoring and experimenting on Boxers. Fixing Fights to see how peoples bodies chemistry changes when they are trying to win and try to loose. HE knows his experiments are unethical so he makes up a name, thinking of the Hyde project he dedicated is his life to he used Hyle.
I realize now I missed the fact that his is a modern fixer, so even easier fix Zorbo has new formula that makes him more stable but also less strong and Black (like the one punisher took that time), he hides from the Avenger in this guise under the name Hyle.
The Nocenti run is full of lots of new villains, including another Ditko fill-in.
Going to be interesting once we get there.
Hope you survived the experience, @Si.
@Aro
#284-290 gained a bit of relevance recently, due to recent developments in DD’s ongoing.
We may also consider Vol 1 #376-379 by Scott Lobdell. There are some significant differences, but it is also an identity/amnesia plot.
Interesting how often DD specifically becomes a plataform for power loss and amnesia plots.
Outside of the Kingpin and (at the very end of her run) Bullseye, the Ditko drawn issue (still with Nocenti writing) is the only other issue by Nocenti to use a previous DD villain (the Owl). Otherwise, while Nocenti does use a few villains from the wider Marvel Universe (mainly during the crossover events), such as Sabretooth or Ultron, all of Nocenti’s villains were created for her run.
Krzysiek Ceran-Nocenti’s run is, indeed, amazing. Aro’s description doesn’t even do justice to the weirdness of that period of her work, as it fails to mention Number Nine, the genetically engineered perfect housewife created by the chicken farmer.
@Alastair: So kind of like the Truth miniseries, but for Mister Hyde rather than Captain America?
@Luis Dantas: I think a lot of that can be traced back to the Mike Murdock stuff, and arguably even the weird way Matt creates “Daredevil” as an identity as a way around his promise to his father that “Matt Murdock” won’t become a fighter like his old man.
Examined by post-Silver Age standards, these suggest some identity issues were always there, a bit like how Hank Pym’s mental instability is very easy to read back into stories like Tales to Astonish v.1 #35, ToA v.1 #44, and Avengers v.1 # 59-60.
Another reason for an issue like this is one which hasn’t been mentioned yet; retellings of the origins for superheroes were very common for fill-in issues. This was before comic shops were especially common and trade collections of old comics were virtually non-existent. Every recap/credit page had a summary of the character’s origin, but kids liked to read it for themselves. So since back issues were a novelty and most readers grabbed their comics from newsstands or pharmacies (which seldom sold back issues), a retelling of the origin was an easy way to fill pages (and was seen as an “evergreen” story that could be plugged in anywhere).
So many times a fill in issue would either be a new retelling of it, like this issue, or a straight up reprint with a few pages of new material to act as a framing device. Iron Man, in particular, was kind of infamous for this, but even Spider-Man was doing it into the mid to late 80s (not long before he married MJ; in fact the framing device was MJ asking about his origin).
“Every issue is someone’s first” as the saying goes. And the conventional wisdom of constant churn of child readers at the time, growing out of comics when others come aboard.
Respect to Michael Fleisher for using clever naming to making sure no one else would ever use his character. Rejected names for Mr. Hyle include Bull-eye, Master Fear, and Elektro.
@AMRG- The Spider-Man issue where he tells MJ his origin (275) was different. The issue featured an actual story with Peter deciding to quit being Spider-Man, Flash hitting Sha Shan and then the Hobgoblin kidnapping Sha Shan. The reprinted issue was just a bonus.
Generally, Marvel stopped using reprints of old stories as filler after the 1970s. There were still issues where a character’s origin was retold but those were part of an actual story. In Ghost Rider 68, Johnny’s origin is retold but it’s part of a story where Johnny encounters a murderer disguised as a priest. In Dr. Strange 56, Strange’s origin was retold but that was part of a story where Strange deals with three followers of Mordo disguised as reporters.
DC, on the other hand, continued to slip reprints of old stories into its issues without warning as late as the 1980 and these often interrupted important stories. There were two reprints of old stories in the last 10 issues of Len Wein’s run on Green Lantern in 1984- and those 10 issues dealt with Hal deciding to quit being Green Lantern and John Stewart becoming Green Lantern. And in Flash, issue 327 ended with Superman deciding wihether or not to kick Barry out of the Justice League, issue 328 featured a reprint and issue 329 featured Superman deciding Barry can stay in the League.
Katherine Hepburn had a pet big cat in Bringing Up Baby (1938).
Jim Shooter passed away. RIP
Ah yes, in those days it was as easy to acquire a pet leopard as sea monkeys simply by ordering one out of the back of your typical comic book.
Seriously though, it really wasn’t completely unusual to see people walking down the street in London with pet big cats prior to the Dangerous Animals Act of 1976 in Britain.
Look up sightings like the Beast of Bodmin Moor too. People in Cornwall were claiming to see a black panther. Skeptics claimed it was folklore or mistaken identity. Look at the timing of the sightings though, late-1970s and early-1980s, shortly after the passing of the new law. It’s easy to imagine someone owning a pet black panther who doesn’t know what to do now that it’s illegal and decides to set it loose in the countryside.
For what it’s worth, this issue doesn’t really re-cap that much of Daredevil’s origin. There’s only a single page of flashback about Battlin’ Jack but there’s nothing about how Matt got his powers and nothing about being a lawyer. The previous issue, #161 by MacKenzie and Miller had also spent about a page recapping how Battlin’ Jack was murdered.
Now obviously, this Ditko issue was a fill-in and probably completed quite a bit earlier, but their issue is no more a re-cap story than #161 is. They both just call back to earlier bits of lore.
In fact, that scene is pretty much the only callback in the Ditko issue, probably because it had to stand on its own. There’s no Foggy, no Karen, no other reoccurring characters. And since Hyle never appeared again, it really just exists as its own self-contained story – a rarity, really!
And yes, the Nocenti run is very worth reading – some of my favorite super hero comics, I think.