Mister Fear is the name of four supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The character is often depicted as an antagonist to the hero Daredevil .
91-529: Mister Fear is the identity of multiple supervillains who use a special 'fear gas' fired from a gas pellet gun; the original version (Zoltan Drago) first appeared in Daredevil #6 (February 1965) and was created by Stan Lee and Wally Wood . Starr Saxon first appeared as the second version in Daredevil #54 (July 1969). The third version (Larry Cranston) first appeared in Daredevil #88 (June 1972) and
182-528: A Daredevil . He asked me, "What would you do with this page?" I showed him on a tracing paper what I would do, and then he asked me to do a drawing of Daredevil the way I would do it. I did a big drawing of Daredevil ... just a big, tracing-paper drawing of Daredevil swinging. And Stan loved it. When Romita left to take over The Amazing Spider-Man , Lee gave Daredevil to what would be the character's first signature artist, Gene Colan , who began with issue #20 (September 1966). Though #20 identifies Colan as
273-546: A battle axe that is in the shape of Venom's spider emblem. Using his battle axe, Venom starts to shred his way through the Symbiote Dragons upon noting that Knull has become afraid of him. Knull even unleashes a Symbiote-controlled Celestial to aid him, only for Venom to behead it. As Venom rips off Knull's armor, Knull states that the darkness is in Dylan. Venom then picks up Knull, flies into the air, and punches through
364-530: A brand-new volume written by Chip Zdarsky . The primary artist on the series is Marco Checchetto. In August 2021, it was confirmed that vol. 6 of the series would end in November 2021, at issue #36. The series lead into the crossover event Devil's Reign with the same creative team. Following the conclusion of that series, Daredevil vol. 7, also written by Zdarsky, was launched in July 2022. In March 2023, it
455-662: A chrome form and turns his surfboard into a sword while Knull transforms his armor into one that would enable him to combat Silver Surfer. As Knull begins to fight Silver Surfer, the members of the Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-Men charge towards Knull so that they can aid Silver Surfer. Just then, Venom appears having been transformed into Captain Universe stating that he'll handle Knull from here. As Knull claims that he has killed Venom many times, Venom manages to make use of Mjolnir and Silver Surfer's surfboard which he then merged into
546-490: A compound based on the flight scent pheromone —chemicals produced by most animals, used to communicate a variety of simple messages over distances. This flight-scent pheromone stimulates fear reactions in herd animals. The drug is tailored for human beings, whose reactions to pheromones are not completely understood. It induces severe anxiety, fear, and panic, and sometimes nightmarish hallucinations in his victims, rendering them incapable of fighting or resisting his will. The drug
637-483: A few issues together, but Gene was basically trying to move on at that point. He'd just started the Dracula book , and he'd been doing Daredevil for God knows how many years. I think he wanted to do something else." After six issues with fill-in pencilers, including several with Don Heck , Bob Brown took over as penciller. Tony Isabella succeeded Gerber as writer, but editor Len Wein disapproved of his take on
728-417: A fill-in penciller, Romita's work load prevented him from returning to the title, and Colan ended up penciling all but three issues through #100 (June 1973), plus the 1967 annual, followed by ten issues sprinkled from 1974 to 1979. He would return again for an eight-issue run in 1997. Lee never gave Colan a full script for an issue of Daredevil; instead, he would tell him the plot, and Colan would tape record
819-399: A gifted intellect and was an accomplished sculptor of wax figures. He was also a talented amateur chemist, and invented the fear pellets that he and the others used as Mister Fear. Larry Cranston had a law degree, and a fair amount of legal expertise. He sometimes employed one-man jet devices, as Mister Fear. When Larry came after Matt Murdock in an attempt to ruin the man's life, he displayed
910-481: A large variety of different backgrounds, a "lot of backgrounds and secondary figures on the fly and cobbled the cover and the splash page together from Kirby's original concept drawing". Wally Wood , known for his 1950s EC Comics stories, penciled and inked issues #5–10, introducing Daredevil's modern red costume in issue #7. Issue #7, featuring Daredevil's battle against the Sub-Mariner , has become one of
1001-418: A major part in his youth, such as Elektra , an ex-girlfriend turned lethal ninja assassin. Elektra was killed fighting Bullseye in issue #181 (April 1982), an issue which saw brisk sales. With #185, inker Janson began doing the pencils over Miller's layouts, and after #191 Miller left the series entirely. O'Neil switched from editor to writer. O'Neil was not enthusiastic about the switch, later saying "I took
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#17327901824291092-525: A man sexually irresistible to women. Alan is a highly adept businessman. He briefly wore a suit of armor, which presumably at least provided protection from injury. Chronic exposure to his various chemicals has resulted in accumulation of his fear drug within Fagan's skin. Though he has not proven able to utilize this himself, samples of his skin were used by Ariel Tremmore to gain superhuman powers as Shock. Daredevil (Marvel Comics series) Daredevil
1183-540: A month or two before, and I’d fallen in love with the city as a location. I thought the idea of Daredevil, who spent so much time leaping and diving from rooftop to rooftop, doing this in such a hilly city could make for spectacular visuals. I’ll admit the idea of a blind hero jumping around the rooftops that gave Jimmy Stewart vertigo appealed to me as well. Also, it would allow him to be the costumed hero for an entire city, which would allow him to flourish without having to defer to more superpowered heroes like Spider-Man or
1274-541: A nonprofit drug and legal clinic, while Nocenti crafted stories confronting feminism , drug abuse , nuclear proliferation , and animal rights -inspired terrorism. New writer D. G. Chichester and penciler Lee Weeks continued from where Nocenti left off. The critically acclaimed "Last Rites" arc from #297–300 saw Daredevil regaining his attorney's license and finally bringing the Kingpin to justice. The creative team of Chichester and penciler Scott McDaniel changed
1365-644: A prison "king", surrounded by bodyguards, saluted by prison guards, and entering a lavish cell with a female officer waiting to greet him. During the " King in Black " storyline, Mister Fear is among the villains recruited by Mayor Wilson Fisk to be part of the Thunderbolts at the time of Knull 's invasion. Alan Fagan was born in Madison, Wisconsin . He is Larry Cranston's nephew and Ariel Tremmore's father. When Larry seemingly died, he came into possession of
1456-696: A private army. The chemical failed to create life in wax, but Drago discovered that it could evoke fear when inhaled. He designed a frightening costume for himself as the Mister Fear persona. As the original Mister Fear, Drago used his fear-gas to make terrified slaves of the brutish Ox of the Enforcers and the Eel . Naming his triumvirate as the Fellowship of Fear , he ran afoul in New York City and
1547-481: A short backup feature he had written, new editor Denny O'Neil fired McKenzie so that Miller could write the series. The last issue of McKenzie's run plugs a two-part story which was pulled from publication, as its mature content encountered resistance from the Comics Code Authority , though part one eventually saw print in Daredevil #183, by which time Code standards had relaxed. Miller continued
1638-642: A single series, but the addition of the Black Widow revitalized interest in the comic. Due to the Comics Code Authority 's restrictions on the depiction of cohabitation , the stories made explicit that though Daredevil and the Black Widow were living in the same apartment, they were sleeping on separate floors, and that Natasha's guardian Ivan Petrovich was always close at hand. Steve Gerber came on board with issue #97, initially scripting over Conway's plots, but Gene Colan's long stint as Daredevil's penciler had come to an end. Gerber recollected, "Gene and I did
1729-530: A sphere around Earth to cut it off from the Sun and has the living abyss swallow some of the superheroes including Storm which Professor X reacts to. As Venom, Eddie goes to confront Knull and offer his services to him. Knull grabs Venom as he recognizes Eddie as the one who killed Grendel, then he states to Eddie that the Brock he is looking for is Dylan Brock . When Eddie begs for Knull to take him instead, Knull rips
1820-507: Is Knull. Emperor Hulkling dispatched Talos to investigate the Kree and Skrull bases that went dark with Av-Rom, Keeyah, M'lanz, Virtue, and Tarna. Two days later, a Kree/Skrull Alliance armada headed by General Kalamari finds Talos' escape pod. After recuperating in the sick bay, Talos recaps to Kalamari about what happened on his mission that involved an encounter with Knull. Talos then informs Kalamari that his distress beacon on his escape pod
1911-635: Is a warning that Knull is coming. Outside the ship, Knull is riding a Symbiote Dragon as he swoops in for an attack. Sensing Knull coming at the start of the " King in Black " storyline, Eddie Brock alerts the Avengers. Knull unleashes the Symbiote Dragons on Earth as the Avengers , the Fantastic Four , and the X-Men fight them even when Knull is shown to have Celestials Arishem the Judge and Tefral
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#17327901824292002-505: Is depicted as an immortal being. He is able to generate and manipulate eldritch darkness, as he can manifest darkness to create weapons and living creatures, whom he calls the "Living abyss." He is able to forge different types of symbiotes with various abilities, such as dragon-like symbiotes. He can remotely influence and control the symbiotes he creates. Knull is also a shapeshifter, being able to turn his human-like mouth into fanged jaws with an elongated tongue—a feature passed on to
2093-437: Is most commonly used in the form of gas pellets shot from a gun. The pellets rupture on contact, releasing the flight scent, which is inhaled by the victim. The dosage contained in one pellet is enough to incapacitate a normal adult male for about 15 minutes, or an exceptionally fit male, such as Daredevil, for about five minutes. The side effects of anxiety, edginess, and mild nausea can persist for several days. Zoltan Drago had
2184-404: Is the name of several comic book titles featuring the character Daredevil and published by Marvel Comics , beginning with the original Daredevil comic book series which debuted in 1964. While Daredevil had been home to the work of comic-book artists such as Everett, Kirby, Wally Wood , John Romita Sr. , Gene Colan , and Joe Quesada , among others, Frank Miller 's influential tenure on
2275-650: The All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, written by Charles Soule with art by Ron Garney with the first two issues released in December 2015. Charles Soule released his final Daredevil storyline "Death of Daredevil" during the October and November 2018 releases, in a 4-part bimonthly release which ended the series. Afterwards the series went on hiatus for two months and resumed distribution in February 2019, with
2366-642: The Celestials arrived and began creating the 7th iteration of cosmos–the Marvel Universe. The Celestials offered Knull the position of "King in Black", whose purpose was to look after the Celestials' creations, but awakened by the "Light of Creation" and outraged by his kingdom of darkness being despoiled, Knull retaliated by creating All-Black the Necrosword –which he used to eliminate one of
2457-683: The Marvel Universe . Knull has been described as one of Marvel's most powerful supervillains. Knull made his cinematic debut in the Sony's Spider-Man Universe film Venom: The Last Dance , portrayed by Andy Serkis . The character was first introduced in Venom vol. 4 #3 (Aug 2018), giving a nod to a nameless being appearing in Thor: God of Thunder #6. The character would be mentioned in various issues of Web of Venom , Guardians of
2548-670: The Vietnam War . The procedure was dubbed the Sym-Soldier program . This reawakened Knull, allowing him to take control of the Sym-soldiers who went rogue before being captured by Nick Fury and Logan , except one piece, named Rex, which escaped Knull's control. Years later, Eddie Brock ( Venom ) unknowingly freed the dragon and, after a battle against Eddie and Spider-Man , the dragon began searching for Rex to free Knull. However, Venom merged with Rex and eventually trapped
2639-625: The status quo with their "Fall From Grace" storyline in issues #319–325 (August 1993 – February 1994). Elektra , who was resurrected in #190 but had not been seen since, finally returned. Under writers Karl Kesel and later Joe Kelly , the title gained a lighter tone, with Daredevil returning to the lighthearted, wisecracking hero depicted by earlier writers. Gene Colan returned to the series during this time, but though initially enthusiastic about drawing Daredevil again, he quit after seven issues, complaining that Kesel and Kelly's scripts were too " retro ". In 1998, Daredevil ' s numbering
2730-601: The "light and creation" in the process. He continued killing gods, while also enslaving others. At some point, he was approached by the time-displaced Silver Surfer who had been weakened after Silver Surfer had created a little star to free a world from Knull's control. After a brief fight, Knull was able to bond a symbiote to Silver Surfer, but the latter was saved by Ego, the Living Planet . When Knull reached Silver Surfer, he tried to defeat him and re-infect Silver Surfer with his abyss, but Silver Surfer, who had gathered
2821-491: The Celestials. Seeing this, the other Celestials banished Knull and the severed celestial head deeper into the Void. He then used the celestial head to forge the symbiote and combined it with the cosmic energies of the head, which would eventually become Knowhere . In doing so, he unintentionally gave the symbiotes their weaknesses to high sonic frequencies and fire. He created a symbiote armor and, with All-Black, started killing
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2912-623: The Fantastic Four. Concerning the Black Widow, he said, "I was a fan of Natasha [Romanoff, the Black Widow], and thought she and Daredevil would have interesting chemistry." She served as Daredevil's co-star and love interest from #81–124 (November 1971–August 1975), of which #92-107 were cover-titled Daredevil and the Black Widow . The series had been suffering from slowly declining popularity, and in November 1971 Marvel announced that Daredevil and Iron Man would be combined into
3003-649: The Galaxy and " War of the Realms ". After that, Knull was the main antagonist in Donny Cates ' Silver Surfer : Black #1. Knull returned in King in Black as the main antagonist, which centers on his attack on Earth with his symbiote army. Knull is a primordial deity that came into being following the destruction of the sixth iteration of the cosmos. He was originally content to drift through "the endless void" until
3094-635: The God of Light (another name for the Enigma Force) is the one thing that can take down Knull before passing out. Silver Surfer arrives to where the Enigma Force is and frees it from the Symbiotes. Knull reels in pain and Eddie is chosen to be the new Captain Universe . As Silver Surfer faces off against him, Knull recalls his previous fight against him. Through the God of Light, Silver Surfer assumes
3185-594: The Grendel in a blast furnace, incinerating it and Rex both. Afterward, the Maker and Project Oversight retrieve the Grendel's codex from the furnace. In Carnage Born , after Scorn joined a cult worshiping Knull, they stole the Grendel's codex and Cletus Kasady 's deceased body, and after implanting the codex inside Cletus, the Carnage symbiote's codex was absorbed by Grendel, causing Grendel to become god-like. After
3276-584: The Kree/Skrull Alliance, and the Zn'rx while rendering the galactic economy fragile enough to go bankrupt. Knowing that she won't make a profit, the Profiteer teleports Peacekeeper and the bio-bomb away. While thanking Zoralis Gupa for fooling the Profiteer with the bluff, Zoralis Gupa states to Super-Skrull and everyone present that something darker than Galactus is destroying the worlds and its name
3367-659: The Nameless, a group of Kree explorers, after being infected by the Exolons, had their skin slowly fade with their outward appearance now resembling Knull. Ian Cardona of CBR.com referred to Knull as a "cross between Marvel's Dracula and the main villain behind Spider-Verse , Morlun ", writing, "There is an ethereal, wraith-like quality to his demeanor. He's got the appropriately haunting build, with his broad shoulders and chest covered by armor that makes him appear both regal and powerful. He has terrifyingly sharp teeth, and
3458-638: The Proscenium and find that the Chitauri Peacekeeper and the Profiteer were responsible sometime after the events of the " Empyre " storyline, Zoralis Gupa of the planet Silnius takes an urgent call while mentioning to the person on the other side to warn all neighboring systems. He tells Victoria that it's the End of Everything as different planets are starting to die in the planets owned by the Shi'ar,
3549-931: The Raft prison facility, being a thrall of the villain Crossfire . During his efforts in Crossfire's service, Fagan was again defeated by Spider-Man. As opposed to Cranston, Fagan has been hired by the Hood to take advantage of the superhero community split caused by the Superhuman Registration Act . During the Fear Itself storyline, Fagan discovers that the Serpent and the Worthy are outdoing his talents of inducing fear in people. Mister Fear employs
3640-721: The Surveyor possessed by his symbiotes. When Captain America gives the command to the other heavy hitter they enlisted, it turns out to be the Sentry . He takes Knull into Earth's orbit and tried to do the same thing he once did to Carnage only for Knull to do a reversal upon being familiar with what happened to Carnage that time. Knull breaks Sentry and assimilates the Void into him upon it emerging from Sentry's body. Venom and Captain America react to this as Iron Man urges them to retreat. Knull then proceeds to have his Symbiote Dragons form
3731-579: The Symbiote barrier surrounding Earth, where Knull states that the Void is eternal and the abyss has teeth. Venom then states he doesn't care if he is right as he plunges his hand into the sun and uses the Uni-Power to vaporize Knull. As a result of Knull's death, the Venom Symbiote translates to Eddie the language of the hostless Symbiotes and the Symbiote Dragons that he has become the new God of
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3822-616: The Symbiotes now that they are free of Knull's control. As the new King in Black, Eddie learns from his future self known as the Eventuality that the Kings in Black are picked by the Celestials to serve the same purpose as the Beyonders —maintaining the multiverse—but they work from the inside instead of the outside. Knull had refused the work and rebelled against the Celestials. Knull possesses superhuman strength and durability. He
3913-583: The Venom symbiote off him and absorbs it into his body while planning to absorb Dylan into him as well. Eddie is then dropped by Knull into the symbiote-covered streets below. Knull finds out where Dylan is and is about to get him when Thor arrives. Together, Thor and Dylan help free some of the infected heroes including the Hulk . Thor and Knull fight and Thor gains the upper hand until Knull distracts Thor by bringing in his symbiote-possessed Celestials and stabs Thor in
4004-507: The Widow from the series. Wolfman's 20-issue run included the introduction of one of Daredevil's most popular villains, Bullseye . He was dissatisfied with his work and quit, later explaining, "I felt DD needed something more than I was giving him. I was never very happy with my DD—I never found the thing that made him mine the way Frank Miller did a year or two later. So I was trying to find things to do that interested me and therefore, I hoped,
4095-406: The ability to influence the minds of other people into doing whatever he wanted them to do. Using a drug he created, he also made himself fearless. He also trained extensively in hand-to-hand combat for his confrontation with Daredevil. Alan Fagan discovered that the flight scent can be administered in other ways: he has used a miniature hypodermic needle mounted on his ring to inject a large dose of
4186-425: The acclaimed " Daredevil: Born Again " storyline in #227–233. Miller intended to produce an additional two-part story with artist Walt Simonson but the story was never completed and remains unpublished . Three fill-in issues followed before Steve Englehart (under the pseudonym "John Harkness") took the post of writer, only to lose it after one issue due to a plot conflict with one of the fill-ins. Ann Nocenti
4277-488: The back. Knull plans to control Dylan since the latter has the Symbiote codex, but Dylan fights back freeing Cyclops , Invisible Woman , Doctor Strange , Black Cat , and the Human Torch . Doctor Strange morphs into a stronger form and together the heroes fight back against the symbiotes. Namor , Thor and Storm deal heavy damage while Jean Grey 's psychic powers immobilize Knull, seeing Knull's past and realizing that
4368-426: The character as a "compelling, layered and visually striking character". IGN ranked Daredevil as the third best series from Marvel Comics in 2006 Comic Book Resources ranked Daredevil as the 13th-best Marvel superhero, but said it had the best overall comic runs because "writers have been able to craft their vision as intended, which isn't always possible with more well-known titles". The series has also won
4459-416: The connection between Knull and the symbiotes, as witnessed when Phage , Agony , Lasher , Riot and Scream also became corrupt. Knull was finally reawakened after Dark Carnage tricked Eddie into killing him after claiming the remaining codices. Knull promptly destroyed Klyntar, manifesting a suit of draconic armor and coalescing its constituent symbiotes into a fleet of symbiote-dragons. Meanwhile, Knull
4550-572: The contact with Knull, Cletus decided to free Knull by collecting every codex of every host who had at some point bonded to symbiotes to overload the symbiote hive mind and scatter the Klyntar. After Cletus reunited with Doppelganger and Shriek , they reformed the cult dedicated to worshipping Knull. They then returned to Doverton, Colorado, where they got the codices from citizens and animals who were infected by Carnage during Carnage USA . During " Absolute Carnage ", as Carnage grew stronger, so did
4641-413: The conversation to refer to while drawing the issue, leaving Lee to add the script in afterwards. Though Colan is consistently credited as penciler only, Lee would typically give him the freedom to fill in details of the plot as he saw fit. Lee explained "If I would tell Gene who the villain was and what the problem was, how the problem should be resolved and where it would take place, Gene could fill in all
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#17327901824294732-723: The course of issues #153–163. Halfway through his run, McKenzie was joined by penciler Frank Miller , who had previously drawn Daredevil in The Spectacular Spider-Man #27 (February 1979), with issue #158 (May 1979). Sales had been declining since the end of the Wolfman/Brown run, and by the time Miller became Daredevil's penciler, the series was in danger of cancellation. Moreover, Miller disliked Roger McKenzie's scripts, and Jim Shooter (who had since become Marvel's editor-in-chief) had to talk him out of quitting. Seeking to appease Miller, and impressed by
4823-468: The criminals of Hell's Kitchen a drug that causes the user to become psychotic and completely unafraid of death, in the " Without Fear " storyline. He also made an attempt to overthrow the Hood , as New York's main crime boss. In an attempt to make Daredevil's life miserable, Cranston also secretly gave an overdose of the drug to Milla Donovan (Daredevil's wife); the result led to an innocent man's murder by Milla. The two fought, but Cranston, having murdered
4914-412: The details. Which made it very interesting for me to write because when I got the artwork back and had to put in the copy, I was seeing things that I'd not expected." The 31-issue Lee/Colan run on the series included Daredevil #47, in which Murdock defends a blind Vietnam veteran against a frameup ; Lee has cited it as the story he is most proud of out of his entire career. With issue #51, Lee turned
5005-448: The drug's creator and destroyed all of the antidote's known samples, forced Daredevil to spare his life due to the fact that he was the only one whose testimony could save Milla from being sentenced to death for the murder committed earlier. But before he was sent to prison, Cranston had one of his henchmen provide him with a new chemical compound he had created: one that made everyone worship him. With this new power, Cranston entered jail as
5096-533: The energy of the cosmos, created a star which was enough to defeat Knull. When one dragon-like symbiote arrived on medieval Earth to claim the planet as part of the Symbiote Hive, the young Thor arrived in aid of the Viking villagers and defeated the dragon, which the villagers called " Grendel ", causing the connection between Knull and the symbiote hive mind to break. The symbiotes that were scattered over
5187-404: The fear gas and other equipment. Unlike the other versions, Fagan's primary adversary was Spider-Man , not Daredevil. As the fourth Mister Fear, Fagan attempted to use his fear-gas in blackmail schemes which were stymied by Spider-Man, with the aid of Hawkeye . Fagan was brutally attacked in prison, much of the skin carved from his face by men in the employ of Ariel, who used the skin to draw out
5278-533: The fear-gas residue his daughter used to turn herself into the villain Shock . Fagan recovered from these injuries and received improved weaponry from Latveria 's interim ruler Lucia von Bardas , including a suit of armor resembling a metallic version of the traditional Mister Fear costume. The weaponry was destroyed at the climax of the Secret War miniseries. Fagan was one of the many criminals to escape from
5369-528: The following awards: Daredevil's comic series has been collected into many trade paperbacks, hardcovers and omnibuses. Knull Knull ( / n ʌ l / ) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics , commonly in association with Venom and Carnage . He was later retroactively established as an unseen enemy of Thor and the Silver Surfer , as he
5460-474: The gig mostly because there didn't seem to be (m)any other viable candidates for it." He continued McKenzie and Miller's noir take on the series, but backed away from the antihero depiction of the character. Janson left shortly after Miller, replaced initially by penciler William Johnson and inker Danny Bulanadi, who were both supplanted by David Mazzucchelli . Miller returned as the title's regular writer, co-writing #226 with O'Neil. Miller and Mazzucchelli crafted
5551-544: The greatest creative tenures in Marvel history" and commented that it rivaled Frank Miller 's work. Writer Ed Brubaker and artist Michael Lark became the new creative team with Daredevil vol. 2 #82 (February 2006), no longer under the Marvel Knights imprint. The series returned to its original numbering with issue #500 (October 2009), which followed vol. 2 #119 (August 2009). New writer Andy Diggle revised
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#17327901824295642-402: The hall from Zoltan Drago. He happened to overhear Starr Saxon killing Drago, and after learning that Saxon himself had died, Cranston decided to take on the Mister Fear guise himself. As the third Mister Fear, Cranston went mad during his first effort against Daredevil in San Francisco, jumping off a building, assuming that he was wearing a rocket pack which he had previously worn in battle with
5733-406: The hero in a series of charity-funding battles against the superhero. In the final battle with Daredevil, Saxon was unmasked, and plunged to his death. Saxon's robots would use his mind as the template for the Machinesmith's central consciousness. Lawrence "Larry" Cranston was a law school classmate of Matt Murdock who also became an employer for a while. Cranston was staying in a hotel room across
5824-415: The hero, and seemingly died due to injuries sustained in a fall. Cranston survived the fall and returned years later. He masterminded a series of campaigns meant to discredit Daredevil with the aid of the Enforcers , the Eel, and the sleepless woman Insomnia . Daredevil defeated them and Cranston abandoned the Mister Fear identity. Cranston later resurfaced, along with the Enforcers at his side, providing
5915-417: The light all the while journeying to Earth, using his living abyss to claim entire planets to his cause, while haunting Eddie with pointed nightmares, and briefly imposed his influence over Dylan Brock to ensure that he would pledge allegiance to the Symbiote Imperium. At the time when the Guardians of the Galaxy were investigating the death of Zn'rx Emperor Stote during the Galactic Council's meeting at
6006-411: The liquid directly into his victim's bloodstream. He has also used a hand-held weapon that fires capsules of the fear gas. Small but effective doses of the flight scent can be absorbed through the pores in the skin within an enclosed space, but the length of time it takes limits its usefulness. Working with an unidentified chemist, Fagan has also adapted other pheromones to his use, including one that makes
6097-458: The most iconic and reprinted stories of the series. Issue #12 began a brief run by Jack Kirby (layouts) and John Romita Sr. The issue marked Romita's return to superhero penciling after a decade of working exclusively as a romance -comic artist for DC. Romita had felt he no longer wanted to pencil, in favor of being solely an inker. He recalled in 1999, I had inked an Avengers job for Stan, and I told him I just wanted to ink. I felt like I
6188-399: The most powerful Marvel Comics villains in history." Knull received particular attention in Sweden and Norway, due to the word knull being the noun form of "fuck" (referring to copulation), in Swedish and Norwegian. Knull appears in the Spider-Man promo "The Secret History of Venom", voiced by Ben Pronsky . This version created the Klyntar to serve as living weapons against
6279-427: The other deities, until he crash-landed on an unnamed planet where Gorr took All-Black from the incapacitated Knull. Knull eventually reawakened and discovered he could bond his living abyss to "lesser creatures" and control their new forms as vessels. He created an army of symbiotes with himself in the center of the hive mind and used them to spread across the universe, thus establishing the Symbiote Hive and killing
6370-469: The readers. Ultimately, I couldn't find anything that made DD unique to me and asked off the title." His departure coincided with Brown's death from leukemia . With issue #144, Jim Shooter became the writer and was joined by a series of short-term pencilers, including Gil Kane , who had been penciling most of Daredevil's covers since #80 but had never before worked on the comic's interior. The series's once-solid sales began dropping during this period, and
6461-452: The series and sent him off after only five issues, planning to write it himself. Instead, he ended up handing both writing and editing jobs to his friend Marv Wolfman with issue #124, which introduced inker Klaus Janson to the title. It also wrote the Black Widow out of the series and returned Daredevil to Hell's Kitchen; the post-Conway writers had all felt that Daredevil worked better as a solo hero, and had been working to gradually remove
6552-760: The seven-issue "Parts of a Hole" (vol. 2 #9–15). David Mack brought independent-comics colleague Brian Michael Bendis to Marvel to co-write the following arc, "Wake Up" in vol. 2 #16–19 (May 2001 – August 2001). Following Mack and Bendis were Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale and artists Phil Winslade and David Ross for the story "Playing to the Camera". Mack continued to contribute covers, while Brian Michael Bendis wrote further stories such as Daredevil: Ninja . Issue #26 (December 2001) brought back Brian Michael Bendis , working this time with artist Alex Maleev . IGN called Bendis's four-year-run "one of
6643-586: The signature symbiote tongue." Bradley Prom of Screen Rant called Knull one of Marvel's "memorable antagonists", saying, "It took all of Earth's heroes, along with intergalactic heroes such as the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Kree-Skrull alliance to finally stop him. However, before they all teamed up, Knull beat Silver Surfer, the Avengers, the X-Men, and more, forcing the ultimate team-up to stop one of
6734-561: The status quo, with Daredevil assuming leadership of the ninja army the Hand . Following this came the crossover story arc " Shadowland ". Murdock then leaves New York, leaving his territory in the hands of the Black Panther in the briefly retitled series' Black Panther: Man Without Fear #513–523. In July 2011, Daredevil relaunched with vol. 3 #1 (September 2011), with writer Mark Waid and penciler Paolo Rivera . Waid said he
6825-537: The symbiotes, his influence can still be observed as when Gorr , Old Galactus , Ego , and King Loki , after being infected by All-Black, continued Knull's crusade to annihilate all existence. When Malekith bonded with the Venom symbiote he called himself the Butcher of Thor. Venom formed a similar emblem with mixed design of Knull's emblem and the Spider-Woman emblem worn by Julia Carpenter . Similarly,
6916-429: The symbiotes. With his regenerative healing factor, Knull can recover quickly from injuries. Knull also has the ability to fly. He is an expert combatant, using All-Black to kill Celestials and other gods, while wearing an armor made from symbiote-matter. Knull's armor is decorated with a red dragon and spiral emblem, which was based on Spiral of Carcosa from True Detective . Despite his severed connection to
7007-555: The title in a similar vein to McKenzie. Resuming the drastic metamorphosis the previous writer had begun, Miller took the step of essentially ignoring all of Daredevil's continuity prior to his run on the series; on the occasions where older villains and supporting cast were used, their characterizations and history with Daredevil were reworked or overwritten. Spider-Man villain Kingpin was introduced as Daredevil's new nemesis, displacing most of his large rogues gallery. Daredevil himself
7098-557: The title in the early 1980s cemented the character as a popular and influential part of the Marvel Universe . Daredevil debuted in Marvel Comics ' Daredevil #1 ( cover date April 1964), created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett , with character design input from Jack Kirby , who devised Daredevil's billy club. When Everett turned in his first-issue pencils extremely late, Marvel production manager Sol Brodsky and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko inked
7189-495: The universe, now free from Knull's control, began bonding to benevolent hosts and learning about the Light . The symbiotes rebelled against their god and trapped him inside an artificial planet formed of billions of symbiotes, which they called Klyntar—"cage" in their language. After thousands of years, S.H.I.E.L.D. discovered the body of the Grendel and bonded the pieces of the dragon to soldiers to create Super-Soldiers to fight in
7280-598: The writing chores over to Roy Thomas (who succeeded him on a number of Marvel's titles), but would remain on board as editor for another 40 issues. 18-year-old Gerry Conway took over as writer with issue #72, and turned the series in a pulp science fiction direction. He also moved Daredevil to San Francisco beginning with Daredevil #87, and simultaneously brought on the Black Widow as co-star. Conway explained, I’d just spent some time in San Francisco
7371-621: Was announced Zdarsky's time on Daredevil would end in August 2023. In May 2023, it was announced that Saladin Ahmed would serve as the writer of Daredevil vol. 8 and that Aaron Kuder serving as illustrator. The first issue is set to debut in September 2023. Empire praised Frank Miller's era, and referenced Brian Michael Bendis, Jeph Loeb, and Kevin Smith's tenures on the series, describing
7462-603: Was behind Gorr the God Butcher 's mission to hunt down and kill various deities, in addition to having come into conflict with the Silver Surfer via temporal black hole through time. The character is depicted as an evil deity who created the weapon known as All-Black the Necrosword and the alien races known as the Klyntar/Symbiotes and Exolons. The character would go on to play a more important role in
7553-456: Was brought on as a fill-in writer but became the series's longest-running regular writer, with a four-and-a-quarter-year run from #238 to #291 (January 1987 – April 1991). The shuffle of short-term artists continued for her first year, until John Romita Jr. joined as penciller from #250 to #282 (January 1988 – July 1990) alongside inker Al Williamson , who stayed on through #300. The team returned Murdock to law by co-founding with Page
7644-420: Was burned out as a penciller after eight years of romance work. I didn't want to pencil any more; in fact, I couldn't work at home any more – I couldn't discipline myself to do it. He said, 'Okay,' but the first chance he had he shows me this Daredevil story somebody had started and he didn't like it, and he wanted somebody else to do it. Romita later elaborated: Stan showed me Dick Ayers ' splash page for
7735-480: Was created by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan . The fourth version (Alan Fagan) first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #92 (April 1980) and was created by Steven Grant and Carmine Infantino . Zoltan Drago was the proprietor of a financially ailing wax museum who attempted to use his knowledge of chemistry to create an elixir which would turn his wax statues into living creatures, with which he would create
7826-444: Was downgraded to bi-monthly status with issue #147. Shooter still had difficulty keeping up with the schedule, and the writing chores were shortly turned over to Roger McKenzie . McKenzie's work on Daredevil reflected his background in horror comics, and the stories and even the character himself took on a much darker tone. McKenzie created chain-smoking Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich , who deduces Daredevil's secret identity over
7917-454: Was gradually developed into an antihero . Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "Almost immediately, [Miller] began to attract attention with his terse tales of urban crime." Miller's revamping of the title was controversial among fans, but it clicked with new readers, and sales began soaring, the comic returning to monthly status just three issues after Miller came on as writer. Miller introduced previously unseen characters who had played
8008-473: Was interested in "tweaking the adventure-to-depression ratio a bit and letting Matt win again". Daredevil vol. 3 ended at issue #36 in February 2014. Daredevil vol. 4 launched under Waid and Chris Samnee with a new issue #1 (March 2014) as part of the All-New Marvel NOW! storyline. Daredevil vol. 4 officially ended with issue #18 in September 2015. Daredevil vol. 5 began as part of
8099-534: Was rebooted, with the title "canceled" with issue #380 and revived a month later as part of the Marvel Knights imprint. Joe Quesada drew the new series, written by filmmaker Kevin Smith . Its first story arc, " Guardian Devil ", depicts Daredevil struggling to protect a child whom he is told could either be the Messiah or the Anti-Christ . Smith was succeeded by writer-artist David Mack , who contributed
8190-469: Was soundly defeated by Daredevil and imprisoned. Drago was later killed by Starr Saxon for his Mister Fear equipment, and later Larry Cranston decided to take on the Mister Fear gear. Criminal engineer Samuel "Starr" Saxon desired the means to confront Daredevil directly. Despite his knowledge with robots, he gunned down Zolton Drago and stole the Mister Fear gear. As the second Mister Fear, Saxon humiliated Daredevil in televised battles, casting himself as
8281-552: Was tracked down by Wraith who wanted Knull to remove the Exolon (parasites that attach to a host while feeding on their soul) from his body. Knull revealed to Wraith that Exolons were just his failed experiments on symbiotes and he dumped that "trash" in The Exoteric Latitude, he stripped the Exolon from Wraith's body turning it into his sword and kicked off Wraith into the space. Soon, he resumed his campaign against
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