Friday, Daredevil hits the multiplexes. Following the huge success of last summer’s blockbuster, Spider-Man, Daredevil has huge shoes to fill.

But to hear Stan Lee talk about how he came up with Marvel’s Manhattan duo, there was a little less pressure at the time.

“I was just trying to tell good stories, so I didn’t get fired,” he says on the DVD of Daredevil Vs. Spider-Man, an animated feature released in hopes of capitalizing on the resurgence of comic book films.

The feature is 80 minutes long and is only designed to please people who enjoy cartoons. But the rest of the disc goes further into celebrating the creation of the comic book character, with multiple, overlapping interviews with Lee, who is candid in his conversations about his creations. One of the bonus features on the DVD is even called “Stan Lee’s Soapbox.”

As far as the battle between the superheroes, the actual conflict lasts approximately 30 seconds of screen time. It’s all a big mishap where Daredevil thinks Spider-Man is a bad guy and out to get Peter Parker, when in fact, as we all know, Spider-Man actually is Peter, and he can’t just go around telling people, even if they are dressed as goofy as he is.

So they join forces and fight the Kingpin.

The mistaken identity subplot is somewhat borrowed for the big-screen version of Daredevil, as Elektra (Jennifer Garner) foolishly thinks the man in the red mask and tight leather pants actually killed her father.

The DVD allows viewers an added insight into how all of these worlds mingle and it’s a good complement to the release of Daredevil.

The other bonus features include old cartoon episodes of Spider-Man, as well as an episode of the Fantastic Four, featuring Daredevil.

But the interesting aspect of the DVD is the unintentional title. Ironically, Daredevil will try earnestly this weekend to hold its own against Spider-Man, which is now one of the top 10 all-time blockbusters.

Premiere magazine reported that after the success of last year’s comic book movie, Daredevil’s effects were beefed up as to not look like the “poor-man’s Spider-Man.”

Well, we’ll see if Daredevil can carry the torch that Batman picked up and dropped, until Spider-Man came along to keep the superhero fire burning. But if it does fail, X-Men returns this summer and will battle at the box office with The Hulk.

Contact Will Albritton at oraclewill@yahoo.com