Daredevil (1964 series) #222

Glorianna O’Breen is on a flight back from Dublin to New York when suddenly her plane gets a hijacked! The hijacker demands that they land at the Tinkerville airport. Glorianna bravely tackles the hijacker causing him to shoot a case held by a nearby passenger. The case starts to leak a strange gas that soon overtakes the whole plane! Meanwhile, Matt Murdock returns to his law office where Foggy proudly asks Matt what he thinks about him shaving his mustache, forgetting that Matt can’t see it. Becky then worriedly alerts them to a radio report she just heard claiming that Glorianna’s plane crashed into the New Jersey swamp of Tinkerville!

Matt and Foggy reach the crash site, where the police inform him that everyone’s been accounted for, except for Glorianna and two others, a Dr. Ephesus Sadd and a local named Junius Mudd. Matt stresses that another woman he cares about may have just died, when Foggy is startled by the arrival of his ex-wife Debbie! Debbie reminds him that Glorianna is her niece after all, and he’s glad to see her, at least until a man comes up and kisses her! Debbie introduces Foggy to her compatriot, a man named Carleton Corona, and Foggy realizes that whatever they had is now truly dead and buried! Not far away, Matt changes to Daredevil to search the swamp for Glorianna, when he senses someone following him! He gets the drop on his pursuer, who turns out to be the Black Widow! Turns out she’s tracking Dr. Ephesus Sadd. He’s made a more potent version of Mr. Fear’s fear gas, and she was supposed to rendezvous with him to arrange a transfer, but of course his plane never arrived. The two then decide to search the swamp together, despite being out of their element.

Not far away, Junius Mudd meets up with his brothers, the captured Glorianna and Dr. Sadd in tow. He offers Glorianna as the bride for his brother Drawley, and plans to force a wedding. Daredevil and Black Widow continue to search for them, as Junius reveals that he was hired to kill Dr. Sadd, but thinks he may be more useful alive to sell to whichever side wants him most. As they continue their pursuit, Daredevil ends up getting his foot caught in a rope trap, while Natasha starts to sink into quicksand! The Mudd brothers get everything ready for the faux wedding and Dr. Sadd convinces them that he can help too, with something very special! Daredevil and Black Widow manage to free themselves from their predicament, and Matt admits he wonders if his love life is cursed.

The faux wedding is set up, and Dr. Sadd offers to give a sermon, pontificating on the nature of fear! He then lets loose some of the fear gas he developed causing all of the Mudd brothers to go wild with fear. Glorianna attempts to hold her breath until she’s bumped by one of the brothers, taking a breath on instinct! Daredevil and Black Widow soon find the hut and quickly dispose of two of the brothers mad with fear. Daredevil then finds Glorianna, who lunges at him after viewing him as a monster, forcing Natasha to gently knock her out. Daredevil and Black Widow then head outside, where they take out the other two Mudd brothers after they try to get the drop on the heroes. They spot Dr. Sadd in the distance and chase after him until Sadd trips over a tree root, and his remaining vial of fear gas breaks open in front of him. Sadd panics from the gas until he literally dies of fear. Natasha then notes that there was a bullet hole in his cannister that must have occurred on the plane. Sadd’s cannister was empty, meaning he scared himself to death over absolutely nothing!