Daredevil is one of the best characters in not just Marvel comics, but in all comics.
Don’t believe me? Ask yourself this: How many characters do you know of that are deeply complex?
Daredevil, as a character, is filled with dichotomies. Matt Murdock is a lawyer who breaks the law as a vigilante when justice can’t be done by civil means. He’s a blind man who has enhanced senses and a “radar” sense that helps him see better than anyone else. He’s also a devout Catholic who dresses up as the Devil and beats criminals up at night. Daredevil is a saviour who can’t stop sinning.
Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil series is amazing! This take on the complex character we know and love makes him even more tragic than he already is.
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SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ CHIP ZDARKSY’S DAREDEVIL SERIES!
Chip Zdarsky has done an excellent job adding to the complexity of the Daredevil character by having him accidentally kill someone.
Before, Chip Zdarsky’s take on the character, we see Matt Murdock get struck by a truck in Charle Soule’s run and rehabilitated in Jed MacKay’s run. This intense trauma and rehabilitation has left Matt rusty when it comes to fighting crime.
Shortly after recovering, Matt senses criminals in his area. He rushes into this fight more out of touch than ever before. The man who could once fight an army of ninjas from The Hand, can barely take on three low-life thugs. In a desperate attempt to take control of the situation, Daredevil lashes out in anger and kicks Joe Carraro in the face. The criminal falls backwards, hits his head on a cement wall and dies from blunt force head trauma.
The man who swore to protect life has just taken a life in Hell’s Kitchen.
This direction is brilliant as this forces the reader to answer difficult questions.
Is Daredevil truly at fault for killing this man?
What punishment is just for this mistake?
How can one truly atone and redeem himself for this misdeed?
All of these questions and more are asked through the lens of Matt Murdock. The man who can forgive everyone but himself.
Daredevil is one of the most tragic characters in all of comics. His Mother abandoned him as a baby due to post-partum depression, his Father was killed by mobsters at a young age and the love of his life, Karen Page, died at the hands of the deadly assassin, Bullseye.
Chip Zdarsky adds to the Daredevil mythos by making Matt Murdock even more tragic. The man who swore to protect life, no matter how much they lost their way, has killed someone. Guilt ridden over accidentally killing another, Matt goes through an identity crisis.
At first, Matt does not know how to reconcile with this. After word gets out that Daredevil has killed another person, Daredevil is now at odds with the public and law enforcement. Matt quickly loses control as he jumps from one extreme vigilante stunt after another.
After getting into a fight with a cop and The Punisher, his friends, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Spider-Man attempt to stage an intervention. Spider-Man, in particular, is the one to step in and tell Matt the last thing that he wants to hear. Matt Murdock’s time as Daredevil has come to an end. It’s at this moment that Matt realizes that he can no longer protect life. This is all the more tragic for Matt as he’s one of the few people who can hear all of the suffering in Hell’s Kitchen. He can no longer answer anyone’s prayers as Daredevil.
Now that Daredevil is out of Matt Murdock’s life, he’s forced to answer even more difficult questions.
What must he do to redeem his soul?
If he can’t protect Hell’s Kitchen as Daredevil, what role does God want Matt to fulfill?
As Matt Murdock drops Daredevil, the side of himself that’s capable of intense violence, he finds himself at odds about what he should do.
Dropping his addiction to violence is easier said than done. Despite how he’s no longer Daredevil and has less-than-stellar fighting skills, he starts to get back into vigilantism in his old black suit. He soon takes up training from Elektra, his former lover who happens to be an assassin, to handle missions that he’s currently capable of.
Shortly after Matt Murdock renounces Daredevil, innocents get put in harms way.
While he’s doing that, Hell’s Kitchen quickly realizes that Daredevil is no longer around to protect its citizens. It goes without saying that criminals and low-life’s take full advantage of this.
In retaliation, the citizens of Hell’s Kitchen take on the Daredevil symbol to fight back. As we all know in the dark and gritty world that Daredevil operates in, fighting crime isn’t easy. When you fight crime, it tends to fight back. You have to be a special type of tough to fight in Hell’s Kitchen, and not many have Daredevil’s grit. The citizens of Hell’s Kitchen find themselves having a hard time staying in the fight for Hell’s Kitchen’s soul.
What I love about this series is that, no matter what Matt Murdock does, there’s consequences. There’s consequences when he acts as Daredevil, and there’s consequences when he doesn’t.
The conflict in Hell’s Kitchen escalates when the super deadly assassins Stilt-Man, Rhino, Crossbones, Bullet and Bullseye attack the city.
It doesn’t take long for the Man Without Fear to take up the mantle of Daredevil again.
After Matt successfully protects the good in his neighbourhood and subdues his deadly foes, he reveals to the media the guilt that he’s been carrying. He reveals to the press that he accidentally killed Joe Carraro.
At first I didn’t know how I felt about Daredevil accidentally killing somebody. Later on, I realized that this is an excellent direction to take the character. It grounds him in a way that hasn’t been done before. In the real-world, there are huge ramifications to violence. Accidents happen and innocent people get caught in the crossfire. And outside the world of violence, I think it’s safe to say that people try their best yet mistakes still happen. The only thing that we can take control over is to take accountability and to try our best to make sure the mistakes won’t happen again.
Daredevil is a deeply flawed character filled with dichotomies. It’s rational to expect him to make mistakes from time to time, much like our other loveable Marvel heroes.
Like Daredevil, the best we can do is seek penance for our sins, keep the Devil at bay and pray that God will let us be born again!