{"id":10939,"date":"2025-04-27T15:48:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T14:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10939"},"modified":"2025-04-27T15:48:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T14:48:21","slug":"daredevil-villains-51-smasher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10939","title":{"rendered":"Daredevil Villains #51: Smasher"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>DAREDEVIL #149 (November 1977)<\/strong>
\n“Catspaw!”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Jim Shooter<\/strong>
\nPenciller: Carmine Infantino<\/strong>
\nInker, colourist: Klaus Janson<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Denise Wohl<\/strong>
\nEditor: Archie Goodwin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marv Wolfman is gone, and next up is Jim Shooter, whose short run lasts from issues #144 to #151. Even some of those are co-written: the first two are co-credited to Gerry Conway, while the last sees him hand over to incoming writer Roger McKenzie. By this point, Daredevil <\/em>is floundering. With issue #147, the book is relegated to a bimonthly schedule, and it’s going to stay there until the 1980s.<\/p>\n

This is the only Shooter issue that we’ll be covering, since the rest of his run relies on existing villains: the Man-Bull (#144), the Owl (#145), Bullseye (#146), Death-Stalker (#148) and the Purple Man (everything else).<\/p>\n

There were reasons for this. For one thing, on Shooter’s own account, he was generally averse to creating new characters on Marvel’s 1970s work-for-hire terms – although he did introduce Paladin as a supporting character in issue #150. But in any event, Shooter’s top priority was to tie up some storylines that had been left unresolved by Marv Wolfman.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A plot about shady dealings within Glenn Industries, the company run by Heather Glenn’s father, had started all the way back in issue #131 and still hadn’t really gone anywhere. More remarkably, Foggy’s fianc\u00e9e Debbie Harris had been kidnapped in issue #132 and she was still missing. Matt had done basically nothing to find or rescue her, unless you count him pausing every so often to observe that the whole situation made Foggy very sad, which was a terrible shame. By the time Shooter took over, this subplot had been running for over a year, and it was preposterously overdue for resolution.<\/p>\n

Shooter reveals that the Purple Man is behind all of this. He’s exploiting Glenn Industries’ resources by using Heather’s father as his mind-controlled pawn. Debbie’s father is also high up in the company, and for some reason the Purple Man is using her as a hostage. But having set up an actual villain that Daredevil can fight, Shooster still doesn’t get around to resolving the storylines. He leaves that to his successor Roger McKenzie, who drags it out still further. The Purple Man is finally defeated in issue #154 – which, thanks to the bimonthly schedule, is two and a half years after the story began.<\/p>\n

But amongst all this, Jim Shooter gives us a single story focussed on a new villain… well, kind of. After bringing back Death-Stalker in issue #148, Shooter devotes issue #149 to Death-Stalker’s henchman, the Smasher.<\/p>\n

This one is actually the second Smasher. The original appeared in issue #138, a crossover with\u00a0Ghost Rider\u00a0<\/em>#20, where he was also a henchman of Death-Stalker. I didn’t give that Smasher an entry, because Death-Stalker was the main villain of the issue and the Smasher was just a super-strong henchthug to round out the plot. But this time round, Death-Stalker is absent and the Smasher is the focal point. And, well, if we don’t do this issue, we’re skipping Shooter entirely.<\/p>\n

Besides, it’s not without its charms as a story. It’s got guest art by Carmine Infantino, inked by Klaus Janson in a rather effective combination. There are unusually pleasing storm effects on the first few pages, admittedly somewhat spoiled by the weather suddenly clearing up on page 6. Heather Glenn, who has a bit of a doormat up to this point, finally gets a scene taking Matt to task for his complete lack of support while her father is in trouble – a bit of melodrama that gives Infantino something to get his teeth into.<\/p>\n

After that, it’s time for the Smasher. This big thug has been given super strength by the Death-Stalker, and sent out to kill Daredevil. But while the Death-Stalker has equipped his agent with physical power, he doesn’t seem to have briefed the poor guy with any sort of plan, or tracking device, or, well, anything. Instead, the Smasher’s plan is to wear a big coat over his costume and wander around areas of New York where Daredevil has been sighted, hoping to bump into him.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Smasher, this technique actually works, because there wouldn’t be a plot otherwise. Once he spots Daredevil on a rooftop, the Smasher races merrily to the top of the building by punching hand holds in the wall, and the fight is on. We establish that the Smasher thinks he was a “nobody” until Death-Stalker transformed him, and that he’s delighted by the opportunity to repay the favour. The big lug isn’t especially skilful, but he’s fast and strong, and punching him does no good at all, so he’s a perfectly serviceable brick wall villain. But his signature character trait is a puppy-like devotion to the Death-Stalker.<\/p>\n

Daredevil slips away to advance the Purple Man subplot, and we regroup for a second round at the end of the issue. Daredevil tries to persuade the Smasher that the Death-Stalker will betray him and kill him, but the loyal Smasher isn’t having it. So Daredevil shrugs his shoulders and knocks the guy out with a couple of nerve strikes. The poor Smasher seems genuinely bemused to discover that he wasn’t invincible after all.<\/p>\n

An odd little coda sees Daredevil tell the police not to bother arresting the Smasher, since if he’s actually imprisoned anywhere, the Death-Stalker will easily find him and kill him – he can teleport into prisons, after all. The Smasher never appears again, so either Death-Stalker kills him off panel as Daredevil expected, or he’s still out there somewhere. Death-Stalker dies in issue #158, so the Smasher wouldn’t have had to go on the run for too long.<\/p>\n

Realistically, of course, the reason why the Smasher never returns is that he’s a generic thug who exists to provide a couple of fight scenes to fill an issue while the Purple Man storyline is advanced in the subplots. He’s such an all-purpose Silver Age brawler that he’s even wearing green. It’s a more enjoyable issue than you’d expect given that remit – it’s efficiently done, and the Smasher’s trusting naivety, which isn’t laid on too thick, has a certain charm. It’s decent filler, then, but still filler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAREDEVIL #149 (November 1977) “Catspaw!” Writer: Jim Shooter Penciller: Carmine Infantino Inker, colourist: Klaus Janson Letterer: Denise Wohl Editor: Archie Goodwin Marv Wolfman is gone, and next up is Jim Shooter, whose short run lasts from issues #144 to #151. Even some of those are co-written: the first two are co-credited to Gerry Conway, while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daredevil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10939"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11028,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10939\/revisions\/11028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}