DAREDEVIL #62 (1970): Nighthawk joins 616

daredevil vs nighthawk

This is a very interesting issue.  Nighthawk is an alternate Marvel Universe version of The Batman, created as part of the JLA spoof-team, Squadron Sinister.  Apparently, after that team was defeated by The Avengers, Nighthawk failed to return to his alternate timeline. And seeing as how Daredevil is, in many ways, Marvel’s answer to Batman, it makes sense that he and Nighthawk face off.

What’s strange, though, is that he owns a mansion here in the 616. And an origin story. He drank “champagne…”

That was switched by Grandmaster into super-soda. Then he fought The Avengers.

But doesn’t that mean he wasn’t part of the Squadron Sinister? How could he have been a part of a team from another Earth if he was living here?

There is no answer to this obvious, glaring problem.

It’s very hard to set those concerns aside and just enjoy the ride of this book, which isn’t bad, but also isn’t great. Nighthawk just tries to replace DD as a New York street hero. Which also doesn’t make sense because at this time there are several other NYC street heroes (Spider-Man, Flacon, e.g.)–clearly there’s room for another.

The sloppy plotting makes it impossible to rate this issue higher than a C-., despite the cute scene where Daredevil stops a robbery of a family outside a movie theater–another Batman reference.

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