User blog:TAO Florida/An unappreciated classic

There are moments in life when you are reawoken to the fact that so much joy and power can be be found in a well told story. It's encoded in our DNA, going back to times when our ancient ancestors were huddled around a fire, and the only thing that beat back our terror of what filled the darkness was someone telling their tale.

Harlan Ellison's story, "The Deadliest Night of My Life," in Daredevil #208 was one of those moments in my young life.

In the summer of 1984, I remember buying this issue, along with several other less memerable comics, from the little family drug store up around the corner from my grandmother's home. Not really knowing a lot about Daredevil, it took me a while to finally work my way through the rest of the assorted illustrated stories of heroes in capes to finally gin up the interest to read Ellison's tale.

It blew me away. The story is based around a simple premise. Matt Murdock is tricked into entering a deathtrap by an unknown enemy. A petty basic comic book trope.

Instead of being a throw away issue though, Ellison crafted an intricate and heart pounding tale of survival and perseverance in the face of impossible odds, where the hero is forced to muster every inch of his intellect and inner strength to survive. I feverishly reread it so many times that the ink from the pages wore off and colored my fingers.

Reading this story of Murdock pushed beyond human endurance, yet still refusing to give into defeat changed how I viewed heroes.

It changed how I approached life.

Harlan Ellison died this week. Although I never read much of his other work, I want to thank him for beating back the darkness for a little while that surrounded my 10 year old self, with nothing other than his imagination.