The Daredevils (Marvel UK)
First issue: January 1983
Last issue: November 1983
Issues: 11
Absorbed: The Mighty World of Marvel (1972)
Absorbed into: The Mighty World of Marvel (1983)
No, that’s not a mistake in the lines above: The Daredevils did indeed absorb Marvel UK’s flagship title The Mighty World of Marvel (by which stage it had been renamed Marvel Comic and then Marvel Super-Heroes) and was then in turn absorbed by the second incarnation of The Mighty World of Marvel. There was also a third volume of MWOM, which we’ll be mentioning later. If this seems confusing, then please feel free to check out our Marvel UK 1900s Timeline to see how it all hangs together!
Despite the title, The Daredevils‘ lead character was not Da Red Evil himself, but very definitely Captain Britain. On this very blog we took an extensive look at Cap’s original weekly comic a couple of years ago. After it was absorbed into the ongoing Spider-Man comic (appropriately renamed Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain), he next showed up in Hulk Comic, and then in the aforementioned Marvel Super-Heroes.
Yes, poor ol’ Brian Braddock spent a long time trying to find a forever home, but with The Daredevils it really felt like he’d finally made it. (Hint: He hadn’t.)
(There were a couple of other appearances too, he hastily added for fear of upsetting those CB fans who seem to think that if I don’t mention everything Brian Braddock ever did then I’m somehow attacking them.)
Edited by Bernie Jaye, The Daredevils was fantastic comic. It was a monthly title, black and white interiors, 52 pages, and felt more “grown up” than many of the Marvel UK comics of the era. And more respectful of the material, too: for a start, it didn’t slice the reprinted stories into lots of three-page episodettes. Consequently, it felt more respectful of the fans.
Regular strips:
Captain Britain (#1-#11)
Script: Alan Moore
Art: Alan Davis
Letters: Jenny O’Connor (#1-#3), John Aldrich (#4), Steve Craddock (#5-#11)
Daredevil ( #1-#11, reprinted from Daredevil #159-#170)
Script: Roger McKenzie (#1-#7, co-plotter #6 & #7), David Michelinie (#8), Frank Miller (#9-#11)
Pencils: Frank Miller (also co-plotter #6 & #7)
Inks: Klaus Janson (#1-#11), Josef Rubinstein (#4)
Letters: Jim Novak (#1, #4), Joe Rosen (#2, #6-#11), Diana Albers (#3), John Costanza (#5)
Spider-Man (#1 to #4, reprinted from The Amazing Spider-Man #52 & #53)
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: John Romita
Inks: Mickey Demeo (AKA Mike Esposito)
Letters: Sam Rosen (#1, #2), Artie Simek (#3, #4)
Night Raven (#6 to #11, illustrated text story)
Text: Alan Moore (#6-#10), Jamie Delano (#11)
Illustrations: David Lloyd (#6), Alan Davis (#7-#11)
Other strips that appeared in The Daredevils include:
#5: Star Death (Reprinted from Doctor Who #47. Script: Alan Moore, Art: John Stokes, Lettering: uncredited)
#6: 4-D War (Reprinted from Doctor Who #51. Script: Alan Moore, Art: David Lloyd, Lettering: Elitta Fell)
#7: Black Sun Rising (Reprinted from Doctor Who #57. Script: Alan Moore, Art: David Lloyd, Lettering: Jenny O’Connor)
#8: Grit (Daredevil parody. Script: Alan Moore, Pencils: Mike Collins, Inks: Mark Farmer, Lettering: Steve Craddock)
#10: The Origin of The Crusader (reprinted from Rampage Monthly #41. Script: Paul Neary, Plot & Art: Alan Davis)
But it wasn’t just the comic strips that helped elevate The Daredevils above most other publications of the era… There were also features. Oh yes! And top-notch they were, too, for the most part. Issue #1, for instance, features a hefty six-page “Inside Comics” profile of Frank Miller by none other than Alan Moore, an awesome Daredevil pin-up by Garry Leach, an Early Artwork portfolio from Garry Leach, Fanzine Reviews by Alan Moore again, and Marvel News by Frank Plowright.
Later issues included more comics features (Comicana 1982 convention, Stan Lee, Invisible Girls and Phantom Ladies: Sexism in Comics, Current Comics Publishing, Music and Comics, Chinese Comics, Bloody Sunday Comics, Iron Fists & Silver Swords, Night Raven, Knockabout Comics, Collecting Comics), pin-ups (Spider-Man by Paul Neary, Black Panther by Terry Austin, Special Executive by Alan Davis, Mephisto by John Higgins, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants by Jerry Paris, The Fury by Alan Davis, Merlin and Roma by Alan Davis), Early Artwork (Jerry Paris, Paul Neary, John Higgins, Dave Gibbons, David Lloyd, Steve Dillon, Alan Davis), more Fanzine Reviews and Marvel News…
And speaking of news… From the readers’ perspective, The Daredevils‘ end came about rather abruptly: no “Exciting News for All Readers Inside” on the cover, just a brief editorial from Bernie Jaye in which she announces that the comic is to be merged with The Mighty World of Marvel (volume 2) and that she is moving on from Marvel Comics. The letters page of that final issue gives us a little more info on the merger, but more notably includes a lengthy tribute to Ms Jaye from Alan Moore and a half-page strip by Alan Davis in which Cobweb of the Special Executive bids her a fond, though typically off-kilter, farewell…
(Ms Jaye did continue to work with Marvel US, Marvel UK, and Fleetway as a writer, letterer and colourist before leaving the comics industry in the 1990s.)
The Captain Britain and Night Raven stories continued in The Mighty World of Marvel v2 from #7, with the former departing after #16, when he was given his own monthly title.
Night Raven stuck around until issue #17 of MWOM v2, but that proved to be the final issue: it was absorbed into The Savage Sword of Conan with issue #85 (and stayed until #92, that comic’s penultimate issue).
The monthly Captain Britain comic fared better than The Daredevils, but not by much. It ran from January 1985 to Feb 1986, for fourteen issues. In this one, we were treated to a Night Raven comic strip, along with the sublime Abslom Daak, among others. As with The Daredevils, the monthly Captain Britain title is considered by many fans to be one of the very best comics ever to emerge from Marvel UK’s fruitful orchard.
As for The Daredevils‘ title strip… its final page in issue #11 features a hasty-looking and poorly-punctuated caption: “For news of Daredevils next appearance in British Marvel comics watch the editorials!” Well, Daredevil fans were left hanging for a loooong time until The Mighty World of Marvel vol 3 appeared. Worse, someone in editorial either ignored The Daredevils or was unaware of it, because instead of picking up where the reprints left off and starting with Daredevil #171, MWOMv3 went back to DD #159 again, which meant that readers didn’t get the first “new” DD story until MWOMv3 #9 in October 2003… A month shy of twenty years since the end of The Daredevils bought the dust.
So… where does all that leave us? Well, copies of The Daredevils are very much sought-after, particularly by fans of Alan Moore. Issue #5 alone contains twenty-three pages of Mr Moore’s comics and features. In 1983 his star was rising at an astronomical speed: around the same time, Warrior #10 contains twenty-one Alan Moore pages (between Marvelman with Alan Davis, V for Vendetta with David Lloyd and Warpsmith with Garry Leach), while for 2000AD he was writing Skizz (with Jim Baikie) and Time Twisters (with an assortment of artists).
As I write this, there’s someone on Ebay flogging issue #6 of The Daredevils for £80.00. It was originally sold for 60p. Now, in 1983 an ounce of gold cost around $423.71, but today it’s about four and a half times that, at $1,934.13. If gold had increased in price at the same rate as a copy of The Daredevils, an ounce would cost $56,494.67.
So, y’know, invest in comics, folks!
Rusty Staples 
In my comics fallow period (between about the age of about 13 to 18) someone gave me a copy of Daredevils – having heard I was a comic fan – but, callow youth that I was I was “yeah, I was into comics and that looks cool, but you know, not my thing” (readers: I was well in to comics) For the brief time I had those comics, I read and re-read all of them cover to cover dozens of times, and what struck me most was how joyful Alan Moore’s articles where, iirc, he was doing small press comic reviews in them.
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