Early Daredevil and Black P...

Daredevil (1964 1st Series) #69 (Oct. ‘70) by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan is a great story guest-starring T’Challa the Black Panther. Billy Carver, a young man recently returned from Vietnam, volunteers to work for Matt Murdock’s boss the D.A. (Foggy Nelson) in order to infiltrate a gang to gather evidence against them. Just as Daredevil breaks up a robbery committed by the gang, young Lonnie Carver (Billy’s little brother) wrecks the gang’s truck trying to get away. T’Challa arrives on the scene and he and Daredevil rush young Lonnie to the hospital. When they go up to the roof to compare notes, T’Challa explains that Lonnie is a student of Luke Charles, T’Challa’s identity he uses as an elementary school teacher. The Black Panther tells Daredevil that he himself is Luke Charles, and when DD asks why he volunteered that info T’Challa tells him that he knows Daredevil is Matt Murdock. [T’Challa explains that he tailed DD in Daredevil #52 (May ‘69) and found out his identity then.] Young Lonnie hangs on by a thread because he’s lost his will to live - he believes that his older brother Billy has turned into a bad guy, not knowing that Billy is working for the D.A.’s office. DD and the Panther go to the gang’s warehouse to take them down, and when Billy gets the drop on the gang’s leader after T’Challa and Matt have pretty much cleaned house, T’Challa immediately figures out how Matt knew where Billy was; since Billy works for Matt’s boss Foggy. When Daredevil tells Billy about Lonnie, they go to the hospital and through the magic of a twenty-page comic book story young Lonnie’s condition immediately improves when he’s told Billy was working for the good guys all along.

This street-level superhero story from way back in 1970 gives some insight into why T’Challa took over as the protector of Hell’s Kitchen after the Shadowland crossover in late 2010 when the Daredevil series continued in Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #513 (Feb. ’11). Colan’s artwork is top-notch (especially during the fight scenes) and Thomas’ script conveyed the mutual respect the two heroes had for each other back then.