Daredevil #159
Daredevil #159 is the second issue drawn by Frank Miller on the title and the first to begin feeling, in tone and craft, like the genuinely street-level noir series the run would become — what one contemporary reader and critic described as the moment 'the Frank Miller era kicked off.' It introduces mob enforcer Eric Slaughter, who would recur as a minor antagonist throughout Miller's tenure, and it reframes Bullseye not as a colorful hired gun but as a calculating predator who orchestrates the entire hit solely to study Daredevil's fighting style on film, deepening the villain into the obsessive, chess-playing threat Miller would exploit to devastating effect in later issues. The issue also marks the first time colorist Glynis Wein deliberately darkened her palette to match the creative team's noir sensibility, a visual shift that helped define the look of what is broadly regarded as the most significant artistic run in the character's history.
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Frank Miller had debuted on the title just one issue earlier with Daredevil #158 (cover date May 1979), brought in by editor Allen Milgrom while Roger McKenzie remained the series writer; #159 was the first issue the Miller–McKenzie–Klaus Janson team produced from scratch together. The series was at that point in danger of cancellation, published on a bimonthly schedule reflecting sluggish sales, which gave the new penciler unusual creative latitude to experiment with darker page compositions and a more restrained dialogue style. Behind the scenes, tensions were already simmering: Miller disliked McKenzie's scripts and had to be talked out of leaving by editor-in-chief Jim Shooter; eventually new editor Denny O'Neil would fire McKenzie so Miller could take over the writing as well, beginning with issue #168.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover-dated July 1979 (on-sale April 3, 1979); written by Roger McKenzie, penciled by Frank Miller, inked by Klaus Janson, colored by Glynis Wein, lettered by Jim Novak; editors Mary Jo Duffy and Allen Milgrom.
- First appearance of Eric Slaughter, a recurring mob figure who reappears throughout Frank Miller's entire run on the title.
- First appearance of several Slaughter gang members: Leach (dies this issue), Smitty, Stilly, and Fiver — all debuting and indexed in the Marvel Database.
- Bullseye appears under the alias 'Mr. Poindexter,' secretly engineering the Slaughter hit as a means of filming Daredevil's combat techniques for study — an early example of the villain's calculating, long-game characterization that Miller would develop further.
- Second issue overall drawn by Frank Miller on Daredevil; his debut was #158. He would not take over scripting duties until #168, which also introduced Elektra.
- The issue contains a one-page feature titled 'Daredevil's Billy Club,' spotlighting the weapon's mechanics and, for the first time in the series, emphasizing its use as a thrown projectile.
- Collected in the trade paperback Daredevil: Marked for Death (Marvel, 1990/1991), which reprints issues #159–161 and #163–164, with a cover by John Romita Jr. — one of the earliest Marvel trades devoted to the Miller era.
- Original pages from this issue were later featured in IDW's Frank Miller's Daredevil Artist's Edition, confirming its place as one of Miller's earliest landmark artistic efforts on the character.
Cast · 9 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Slaughter gathers his men to take out Daredevil. Bullseye decides to strike at Daredevil through the Black Widow.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).