Daredevil (1964 series) #218

Two inmates engage in a prison fencing program, suggested by one of the dueling men, the Jester! When the guards tell the two to wrap it up, they discover that the man they thought was the Jester was another inmate in disguise, while the real Jester escapes in the prison laundry truck! Meanwhile, Matt Murdock sees Glorianna O’Breen off at the airport. Glorianna has decided to head back to Ireland to sort out her thoughts and the two have a somber farewell. Just then, Matt passes an arriving actor named Benedict LaForge, there to do a performance of Cyrano de Bergerac. He acts quite condescendingly to Matt as they each exit the airport. LaForge is picked up by his driver, whose voice seems familiar to Matt, but he can’t put his finger on it. Sometime later, we discover that the driver was actually the Jester, who kidnapped LaForge in order to take his place as Cyrano, the character and play he’s obsessed with as a failed actor!

Later, Matt meets with Foggy for dinner and Foggy reveals that Debbie has filed for a separation. Clearly quite depressed, Foggy also takes the blame for their struggling law practice until Matt feels he needs to get away from Foggy’s self-pity, which feels too much like his own. Realizing Glorianna’s leaving affected him more than he thought, he decides to clear his head as Daredevil. He flips around until he suddenly recognizes the driver’s voice from earlier as that of the Jester! Daredevil heads to the Jester’s house to discover what he’s up to, to find three henchmen waiting for him with some of the Jester’s gag gadgets. Daredevil easily takes out each of the men, in rather embarrassing fashions for them. He then questions them about the Jester and all they can tell him is that the Jester swore to prove the critics wrong as the definitive Cyrano de Bergerac!

Realizing what he’s up to, Daredevil races to the TV studio where LaForge’s performance of Cyrano was to be filmed. He quickly discovers the Jester has taken LaForge’s place as expected. What’s unexpected is that the Jester is actually…good! Amazing, even! Daredevil feels he’d be depriving the audience of a great performance and plans to nab the Jester after the show. He then spots the Jester’s costume in the corner just as Rafael Scarfe and a few other cops arrive to arrest the Jester. Daredevil puts on the Jester’s costume and leads the police on a merry chase through the studio, giving the real Jester time to finish his performance. The police finally corner Daredevil, who reveals the ruse by removing the Jester mask over his own. With the performance finished, the Jester happily turns himself in and Daredevil explains that he knew the Jester wasn’t planning to escape afterwards, and felt like he deserved to finish out the performance. Now that he’s accomplished his dream, the Jester feels he won’t need crime anymore!