Karen Page - The One That (Almost) Got Away

Karen Page was a member of Daredevil's supporting cast from the very first issue. Initially written as a typical Silver Age love interest for the hero, she was smitten with Matt Murdock at first sight, and rarely a moment away from tears.


And as long as she was written by Stan Lee, that's how she remained. When Roy Thomas took over the writing chores on Daredevil, he shook things up a little. First he had Matt reveal his secret identity to Karen...


Then when he refuses to give up being Daredevil, she leaves Matt and moves to L.A. (Okay, she still does a lot of crying, but at least she's taking her destiny into her own hands!)


And Karen chooses to stay there and she becomes a successful actress. I love this sequence of her phoning Matt - her relaxed demeanour contrasts beautifully with Matt's disappointment that she's not calling to say she's coming home. Great facial expressions from artist, Gene Colan.


Matt gets all emo over Karen for a few issues but then new writer, Gerry Conway, has him hook up with the Black Widow. Natasha even shares cover billing with Daredevil for a year or so.


Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, Johnny Blaze gets a job as a stuntman, so Karen joins the supporting cast of Ghost Rider.


After Johnny leaves L.A., Karen carries on as an actress - sadly off-panel.


She's that rarest of supporting characters; somebody who leaves the orbit of a superhero of her own free will, and survives with her dignity and sanity intact. And she lives happily ever after... RIGHT??

Okay, so Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli bring her back 10 years later as a heroin-addicted pornstar in "Born Again" then Kevin Smith kills her off (with a little help from Bullseye.) But I like to think in another universe, she lived a full life with no regrets. What if..?








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Birth Of The New X-Men

Image
Considering the popularity of the X-Men nowadays, it's difficult to believe that by 1971, and after 66 issues, the X-Men weren't popular enough for Marvel to continue publishing new stories about them. Rather than cancel their book completely, however, Marvel started reprinting old stories, but continuing the numbering of the title. This continued for the next 3 1/2 years, from #67 to #93. In 1974, Al Landau, Marvel's president, held a meeting with Stan Lee (who, by then, was Marvel's publisher) and Editor Roy Thomas. Landau had decided that Marvel needed a book with an international cast that they could export to the countries represented in the book. Roy Thomas had been wanting to relaunch the X-Men, so he proposed that they create a new team of X-Men with characters from around the world. The idea was approved, and Thomas approached Mike Friedrich to be its writer, arranging to meet him at the Auto Pub in the General Motors building, a themed restaurant where the boo...
Read more

From The Black Bomber to Black Lightning

Image
In 1976, DC Comics decided it was time they introduced a superhero of colour. Marvel had given Luke Cage his own title in 1972, and they also had the Black Panther and the Falcon, so DC had some catching up to do. A script was commissioned by Gerry Conway from long-time DC scribe, Robert Kanigher, and what he came up with was "The Black Bomber." In a similar vein to the 1970 movie "The Watermelon Man", directed by Melvin Van Peebles, the main character was a racist white guy, who took part in an experiment that caused him to turn into a black superhero in times of stress. Kanigher gives his side of the story below, but DC deemed it unusable. So they called on Tony Isabella and asked him if he could salvage The Black Bomber. Isabella considered Kanigher a friend and a big influence on his writing, but felt that he and Conway were too close to their concept to realise it had gone horribly awry. Instead, Isabella came up with Jefferson Pierce, whom he christened "...
Read more