Daredevil Villains #9: The Organization
DAREDEVIL #10 (October 1965)
“While the City Sleeps, part 1: The Organization”
Writer, finishing penciller, inker: Wally Wood
Layout penciller: Bob Powell
Letterer: Artie Simek
Editor: Stan Lee
DAREDEVIL #11 (December 1965)
“A Time to Unmask!”
Writer, editor: Stan Lee
Penciller: Bobby Powell
Inker: Wally Wood
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Even the most casual glance at those credits might suggest a troubled production, and that’s exactly what this is. According to Brian Cronin’s “Comic Book Legends Revealed”, it goes something like this: Wally Wood didn’t care for the Marvel method and felt that he was writing the book without being paid for it. So he asked to write a story and Stan Lee agreed. But when Wood’s story came in, Lee hated it.
Accounts vary as to how heavily Lee edited issue #10. Wood claims that relatively little was changed. Lee, in a spectacularly ungracious bitching session on the letters page of issue #12, said that “about the only thing left that Wally himself had written was his name”. The surviving original art suggests the truth is somewhere in the middle and that the published story is basically what Wood wrote. Either way, Lee refused to let Wood finish the story, wrote the concluding half himself, and fired Wood after reducing him to working as inker on part 2.
So what did Stan Lee find so objectionable about this story? It’s obviously different from the issues around it. The plotting is much denser, the tone is less fantastic. There are supervillains, but they’re not Stan Lee’s normal type of supervillains. It does feel a little old fashioned for the mid sixties. This is not Stan Lee’s vision for Daredevil. In fact, it’s closer in tone to issue #1 than to the stories that followed – which means it’s also closer to the style of Daredevil that eventually succeeded. But that’s not what Stan Lee wanted to do in 1965.
The story involves Foggy Nelson agreeing to run for District Attorney as the candidate of the Reform Party. You can imagine Stan’s heart sinking already. The Reform Party’s actual policies are left vague beyond a suggestion that they’re running on an anti-corruption ticket, but since the core members are all “prominent, wealthy men”, and nobody suggests that it’s unreasonable for Foggy to associate with them, presumably they’re meant to be centre-right.
In reality, the Reform Party is a vehicle for the Organizer, a mysterious hooded man. Part of the gimmick is that we’re meant to work out which of the various interchangeable politicians is the Organizer – the rest are honest stooges, just like Foggy. This mystery is in fact solveable – the Organizer always wears the same distinctive ring, whether he’s in costume or not. The art never draws attention to it, but it’s there.
Whether you actually care which politician is the Organizer may be another question. Is it Abner Jonas, mayoral candidate? Milton Monroe, candidate for assemblyman? Or could it be – brace yourself now – Bernard Harris, candidate for borough president?
To British eyes there is something quite adorable about the low ambitions of a supervillain whose main goal is to seize control of local government. At last, responsibility for waste collection, pothole repair and school catchment areas shall be mine! But even today, stories treat the Mayor of New York as an important position, so it must play differently to Americans.
The Organizer’s main henchmen are Ape-Man, Bird-Man, Cat-Man and Frog-Man. The basic plan is for them to commit a bunch of crimes so that the city government looks weak, and then target the Reform Party itself so that everyone will think that criminals are desperate to stop the Reform Party from winning the election. The other party members, including Foggy, seem to have been chosen on the grounds that they’re easily manipulated. To that end, the Organizer also brings out Foggy’s ex-girlfriend Debbie Harris, who will eventually return as a regular supporting character, but debuts here as a manipulative femme fatale. The animal-themed guys will eventually wind up as “the Ani-Men”, at this stage they’re all just the Organization.
The Organizer directs his men remotely, appearing to them on screens, and monitoring them using their headsets and the TV cameras mounted on their chests. This being 1965, what was no doubt intended to be cutting edge now looks absurdly cumbersome. Wood seems to have been aiming for some sort of “remote control” gimmick, but it never comes to much – there’s nothing inherently new or hi-tech about a behind-the-scenes mastermind, which is basically all the Organizer is. But for years to come, the Ani-Men will still cart around their headsets as a hangover from this story.
The Organization’s animal theme seems to be completely arbitrary – presumably, the Organizer just wanted his villains to look like a coherent group and plucked a theme out of the air. But the Ani-Men are a bit odd, and they don’t feel like normal Silver Age Daredevil villains. Part 1 opens with a lengthy recruitment montage, in which they’re apparently picked for their experience, but come across as baffled middle aged guys who’ve been hauled off the streets. At least two of them are being blackmailed to make them stick around. None of them are quite sure what the Organizer is trying to achieve or why he wants them to dress up as animals. None of them seem to be particularly effective fighters – Frog-Man is a former Navy frogman and knows what he’s doing underwater, but never seems like a threat otherwise.
By part two, the campaign is not going so well. The Organizer decides to shift tack: he’s going to kill the present mayor so that the Reform Party’s candidate will win the election unopposed. I’m not quite sure how that works when you’re a third party candidate, but that’s the plot. In due course Daredevil impersonates Frog-Man and uses his camera to film the Organizer – which at least tries to tie the “remote control” theme into the resolution by having it backfire. As for Foggy, he gets to redeem himself by helping to expose Jonas as the Organizer, Jonas is defeated, and Debbie Harris vanishes as suddenly as she appeared.
It’s not a wholly successful story. The mystery is undercut by the potential Organizers all being basically identical. And the story gestures in the direction of being about political corruption without ever really going there – we’re emphatically assured that the other Reform Party members were just innocent dupes.
But Daredevil seems to fit in a story about political shenanigans, and the future Ani-Men are unexpectedly endearing as a bunch of guys who land somewhere between being real supervillains and pretend ones. Their ridiculously basic gimmicks make so much more sense in that context. If you were so inclined, you could even see them as parody supervillains. They’re literally a bunch of schlubs who were paid to dress up in silly costumes and play the role. The fact that they actually come back as minor villains in later stories, without the Organizer, is rather odd. Their origin story boils down to “this weird guy gave me a costume, and I still have it”.
As for the Organizer, he’s a one-off villain in concept – once you’ve exposed the scheme, that’s him done. So it’s understandable that nobody thought to bring him back, quite aside from Stan Lee’s obvious aversion to the story. The Organizer’s remote control theme has either aged badly, or didn’t click in the first place. On his own, he’s a generic schemer villain; he needs the Ani-Men to make him fun, and perhaps that’s why they’re the ones who came back.
I had no idea that the Ani-men first appeared in Daredevil or that they were just wearing costumes. That throws a weird new light on their appearance in X-men.
Ape-Man’s name is given as Monk Keefer in this story. There was a thug named Monk who fought Captain America in Avengers 12. It was eventually decided that Ape-Man was the same Monk from Avengers 12.
Weirdly, the next time the Ani-Men appear Frog-Man is absent and only Ape-Man, Bird-Man and Cat-Man are appearing. Thery’re called the Unholy Three this time and are working for the Exterminator- in Daredevil 39-41. Then they make another appearance as the Unholy Three in Marvel Team-Up 25.
Then, in Uncanny X-Men 94-95, Frog-Man reappears and they’re working for Count Nefaria. Nefaria uses his technology to turn them into actual animal men and gives them a female partner called Dtagonfly. Claremont apparently (correctly) felt they needed actual powers in order to fight the X-Men.They’re called the Ani-Men for the first time in this story.
Then in Iron Man 115-116. the Ani-Men reappear, apparently having reverted to human form (since Tony Stark can knock out Cat-Man without his armor) . They’re able to give Tony a hard time without his armor but Tony easily defeats them when he changes into Iron Man. They’re seemingly killed by a bomb planted by Spymaster.
Then Ape-Man, Bird-Man and Cat-Man show up shortly afterward in Daredevil 157-158 working for Death-Stalker. It turns out the Ani-Men really did die and Death-Stalker is really the Exterminator. Weirdly, Ape-Man and Cat-Man get killed by Death-Stalker but not Bird-Man. (Gruenwald has Bird-Man II killed by Scourge later in Captain America,)
But we’re still not done yet! Chuck Dixon had the Ani-Men appear in a flashback in the Code of Honor series that took place during Secret Wars, which was impossible since both versions were dead at the time. This scene was filled with continuity errors, since it also featured the Brothers Grimm- the first versions were dead and the second versions didn’t appear until after Secret Wars. Later on we see a new set of Ani-Men working for Hammerhead during Civil War- this was apparently also a continuity error, those it’s theorized that the guys in Code of Honor and the guys in Civil War are the same guys.
There’s also the High Evolutionary’s Ani-men and the Dan Slott version that fought the Great Lakes Avengers, both of which appear to be actual manimal hybrids
Paul said: It does feel a little old fashioned for the mid sixties. This is not Stan Lee’s vision for Daredevil. In fact, it’s closer in tone to issue #1 than to the stories that followed – which means it’s also closer to the style of Daredevil that eventually succeeded. But that’s not what Stan Lee wanted to do in 1965.
It’s so odd that Daredevil ended up with the very noirish art of Gene Colan, given Lee’s drive to make it a flashy, colorful, swashbuckling adventure strip.
Wally Wood also arguably pushes the envelope a bit with Debbie Harris, who’s very strongly implied here to be seducing Foggy to keep him loyal to the Reform Party, but actually romantically involved with the Organizer.
Some of the dialogue is risqué in a way that seems more like Wally Wood than Stan Lee. In particular, there’s a panel wherein Deborah refers to Foggy’s “hidden talents” in a context that makes it a veiled sexual reference.
Michael said: Weirdly, the next time the Ani-Men appear Frog-Man is absent and only Ape-Man, Bird-Man and Cat-Man are appearing. They’re called the Unholy Three this time and are working for the Exterminator- in Daredevil 39-41. Then they make another appearance as the Unholy Three in Marvel Team-Up 25.
At a guess, Friog-Man was pensioned off because Stan Lee and Gene Colan had since introduced a different frog-themed foe for Daredevil, the Leap-Frog.
The “Unholy Three” name is very likely a reference to the twice-filmed 1917 pulp novel by Tod Robbins, which was very successful as a silent film by Tod Browning in 1925 and remade as a sound film in 1930. Quite what three guys in animal suits has to do with murderous circus folk — the premise of the novel and films — is unclear.
In practice, the Ani-Men/Unholy Three/Organization are basically Spider-Man’s villains the Enforcers, with Bird-Man as a Z-list Vulture. Paring them down to a trio just underscores the similarities.
Perhaps someday someone will revamp them, making Cat-Man into a nature-loving badass who desperately wants to be a hero but ultimately lacks the moral fortitude, and turning Bird-Man into a hapless attorney at a nutty law firm for contrast with Matt Murdock 😉
As a Canadian now living in Los Angeles, I can confirm Americans do treat the Mayor of New York as an extremely powerful and important figure. The New York mayor is almost constantly in the news, and is probably better known to most Americans than their own local mayor or governor. Three recent NYC Mayors made serious, albeit unsuccessful, runs for President.
As for the Mayor’s power — well, they control the police of the country’s largest city, and a municipal budget larger than Bulgaria’s entire GDP. It’s not unreasonable to consider this a powerful position.
And to build on what Rob said, within the context of NYC politics, the borough presidents are actually Very Big Deals.
NYC has more people than some states.
NYC has more people than many countries
Imagine being the mayor of NYC in the Marvel Universe.
The most stressful job ever.
“Mr. Mayor, I know you’re busy with the Commission on Subway Safety but we have reports of Frost Giant raiders on Long Island and the U-Foes attacking the MoMA.”
The importance of the Mayor of New York goes back right to the dawn of Golden Age Marvel – the Sub-Mariner beats up Fiorello LaGuardia in Marvel Mystery Comics #7.
We should lobby hard to make that Namor’s version of Cap punching Hitler.
I had no idea that the Ani-men first appeared in Daredevil or that they were just wearing costumes. That throws a weird new light on their appearance in X-men.
In a bit of flashback dialogue in UXM #94, Count Nefaria says to the Ani-Men that he “used Maggia Science to create stronger allies…to make you less than human…and far, far more.” It’s accompanied by art that shows the original costumes juxtaposed with their new mutated forms.
On a related note, the same issue has an early advertisement for Hasbro’s GI Joe toy, which is remarkably banal compared to the superhero-adjacent toys they later became.
Imagine being the mayor of NYC in the Marvel Universe. The most stressful job ever.
I mean, 9/11 turned Giuliani into a sycophantic Mini Me to a megalomaniac. How much worse could it get?
I was trying to think of other non NYC “celebrity mayors” in the modern US. History. The only one that immediately comes to mind is Richard Daley in Chicago, but that was more infamy than fame, unlike Ed Koch or Guliani, who were on talk shows and sitcoms as themselves. I can think of more governors that had some degree of fame (Reagan, Jerry Brown, Mario Cuomo, GWB).
In fact if NYC were a state, it would rank 13th of 50 by population. Mayor of New York is more akin to being a state governor than being mayor of a town or even a small city.
“Count Nefaria says to the Ani-Men that he “used Maggia Science to create stronger allies…to make you less than human…and far, far more.””
I hope the Ani-Men consented to that procedure. It doesn’t sound like the kind of thing your normal street-level thug would want.
The path to a mayor becoming famous runs through the national media, so you need a) to be in the national media capital (NYC), b) to do something bad that draws national attention, or c) to be extremely thirsty for coverage. A covers all the famous New York mayors, B covers examples like Marion Berry or Kwame Kilpatrick, C covers Gavin Newsom and arguably Pete Buttigieg (though for him it’s conflated with a presidential campaign). There’s also a miscellaneous D category for less common or harder to predict types of notoriety (Willie Brown, Rahm Emanuel, Keisha Lance Bottoms). But in general I bet the typical American could name more mayors of New York than of all other cities they don’t live in combined.
Thom H. said: I hope the Ani-Men consented to that procedure. It doesn’t sound like the kind of thing your normal street-level thug would want.
If you’re not joking, it’s actually a very minor plot point in Uncanny X-Men #94 that the Ani-Men other than Dragonfly are pretty unhappy with their mutations, and are working for Nefaria partly on the promise that they’ll be restored to human form.
Of course, Nefaria does the same thing again — duping his henchmen into thinking they’ll get cool power-ups, but screwing them over — in his next appearance in Avengers v.1 #164-6, in which he just steals the powers of Whirlwind, Power Man (Erik Josten), and the Living Laser for himself and becomes evil Superman/Marvel’s General Zod.
There’s something compelling about a group of hapless mooks who fell into fake supervillainy and keep getting screwed up. Could make for a good Astro City’s story.
I always thought it was cool that the Ani-Men are the villains in Chris Claremont’s first issue of X-Men and in Frank Miller’s first issue of Daredevil.