Daredevil's Grim and Gritty Christmas

Marvel Fanfare #1
“Snow” (second story)
Writer: Roger McKenzie
Penciller: Paul Smith
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Shelly Leferman
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Editor: Allen Milgrom
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
Cover: Michael Golden
Published by: Marvel
Released: Dec. 8, 1981

I've seen Daredevil portrayed as cracking wise, smiling even, exhibiting a – dare I say it? – devil-may-care attitude. But most of my exposure to Matt Murdock has been of the dark and brooding variety so this 10-page story from the first issue of “Marvel Fanfare” #1 is pretty much what I would expect for a Daredevil Christmas tale.

I'd heard of Marvel Fanfare but had read little if any before Billy Dee, aka Doc Strange, invited me to join him and Ed Moore on his new show on the Magazines and Monsters podcast to index the title. The main attraction here is a Spider-Man story by Chris Claremont and Michael Golden, where the web-slinger accompanies the X-Men's Angel and the lovesick Tanya Anderssen in search of Dr. Karl Lykos, aka Sauron. You can hear us talk about that when the episode premieres soon, but I decided to add to my not-as-robust-as-I-thought collection of Christmas comic posts with this dark Christmas Eve story.

McKenzie has Daredevil narrate the story with pitch perfect film noir dialogue. We open on a Santa Claus with his own beard, collecting money for children on the night before Christmas. He's waylaid by some thugs who take the cash and leave Kris Kringle, aka Lewis, battered in an alleyway in that visceral page up top.

Lewis was supposed to bring his donation and himself to the annual Christmas party at St. Michael's Hospice for Handicapped Children, a name that's probably been revised in the Hell's Kitchen of the 21^st century. Awaiting his arrival are Murdock, his law partner Foggy Nelson and Debbie Harris and Heather Glenn. The ladies have decided Foggy can fill Santa's suit, or at least his jacket. As he protests, Matt slips out the window to go looking for Lewis, who brought hope at Christmastime to Matt when he was a patient at St. Michael's after the accident that blinded him and gave him his powers.

He finds Lewis, devoid of both money and Christmas spirit and feeling like he let down the children. Daredevil wants to know who did this, and Lewis said it was “junkies, mainliners” but the real problem is Haskill, the dealer selling the drugs they want to buy with the stolen money. Daredevil tracks Haskill to a burned-out tenement and finds the thieves about to partake of the heroin they bought with the money they stole from Lewis.

Daredevil does his intimidating best and attacks the thieves, with a different outcome against this man in red. He lets one of them escape, who runs straight to Haskill. Daredevil begins administering some fist-based justice when the remaining “snowbird” jumps him, allowing Haskill to make a break for the roof.*

Haskill keeps chugging along, ignoring the snow, and tries to leap to another roof. He would have gotten away with it too, if it weren;t for those pesky kids and their... no, wait, that's Scooby-Doo. It's the snow that foils this attempted flight.

Daredevil wanted to scare Haskill, sure, but no doubt planned to deliver him to the police, albeit with contusions and possibly soiled underwear. This was not the ending the Man Without Fear was seeking.

But it does wrap up in a darkly happy manner as the wind carries the money from Haskill's briefcase over Lewis, praying in a street light for God to somehow intervene in this bleak evening. Presumably he got back what he lost and then some and is able to deliver it to the children after all.

McKenzie plays it straight, with Haskill's death a dark bit of irony but not a casual dismissal of life, even one so misused as this one. Lewis hears the man's cry as he falls, without realizing exactly what's happening, and laments to himself and God, “Doesn't it ever stop?”

Smith's art is perfectly suited to this story, which feels both simple and … not profound, but … significant, maybe? The best thing I can say about it is to return to what I said at the start: It's exactly what I would imagine for a Daredevil Christmas story – grim, gritty, with a dash of faith and hope lighting the darkness.

But for a more upbeat and offbeat holiday adventure, check out my all-time favorite from "Marvel Two-in-One" (Vol. 1) #8!

* - Which seems like a bad escape plan, whether you're a drug dealer or otherwise.