Today on Welcome to the Mast I have something special. By special I mean absolutely self-indulgent and possibly pretentious. In my defense, this method of tackling this kind of post was suggested to me by another, so shut your pie holes.
Something I'm asked a LOT, besides: "What's your favourite dairy product?", is who my favourite Marvel characters are and why. Naturally, not many people still know of Deadpool or who he is, hence my Deadpool & Me post toward Christmas last year. Today is another post like that, except it doesn't involve The Crimson Comedian, The Regenerating Degenerate, no. It doesn't involve Deadpool.
It involves another crimson-clad warrior whom is extremely dear to me. If anyone could contend with Deadpool for the top spot, it's this guy. I realise me hyping him without naming him is redundant, considering his name is in the title...
Anyway, I present to you my take on The Scarlet Swashbuckler, The Guardian Devil, The Man without Fear!
Daredevil.
As I always plan to do with these kinds of reviews, I'll start by telling you how I first came to be aware of Daredevil. From the top!
Daredevil #187 was my first experience with Daredevil. Unlike when I got into Deadpool - a character who had only been in ONE comic prior to the comic I saw him in - Daredevil had been in 186 of his own comics before this issue. Figure into that fact that he has also had guest appearances and that I first read this comic in 1991. The comic itself came out in 1982! The point is, Daredevil had a whole wealth of history when I had read this comic, and a lot had happened SINCE that issue.
What drew me in was the cover, that's how I so specifically remember it. It was a the same night that I discovered Deadpool (I remember because the X-Force #2 that exposed me to Deadpool came out in Sept of '91). Amongst all the colourful piece of art adorning these comics, this one stood out. A man on his knees, clutching his head (Resist the crass jokes, people) in agony of some kind, with nothing else but a while background. The fact that Daredevil's costume is bright red made everything just pop out at me.
The difference between this and any other comic series or character that stuck with me back then was the fact that the guy owned a LOT of Daredevil, comics I now own. I opened the comic to discover a rather dark plot, way far away from what I thought comics would have been. Remember, this was my first real night of comic exposure. I thought superheroes just went around kicking ass, not experiencing trauma. If that intrigue wasn't enough, the guy who owned them told me he was blind...what do you say to something like that? At first I was scoffing at the concept. Needless to say, it didn't last long.
Many of the single issues I got given to me were not sequential (Though he DID have a lot of continuing issues of other comics), and Daredevil was one of just two characters that I really wanted to piece together the stories for. Well, three if you count Deadpool, but as I said before, that wasn't a success.
Daredevil's series was a series I had CONSISTENTLY been reading from then to now. Obviously there were some gaps, but being that he was so popular, I always got people to buy me whatever the latest issues were when they went to the comic store. I always likened him to Batman, kind of like Marvel's Batman in a sense. Daredevil is what we call a street level hero, though. While it's the Fantastic Four and The Avengers who are off dealing with Galactus, Daredevil is risking his life on the streets every single night, against supervillain and common thug alike. That's what I actually loved about him.
You know that you're never gonna hear about an alien invasion on the news, but you hear about muggers and thieves, robbers and such. These are the kind of people Daredevil dealt with and, as a result, the comics carried a far grittier, realistic-within-reason feel than anything else.
I've still got an amount of Daredevil comics to get before I own them all, but I pretty much know the guy inside out. I would say that, up there with Deadpool, he is my main area of Marvel character expertise. In the beginning, Daredevil was characterised in a remarkably similar way to a lot of heroes at that time; he was a semi-wisecracking superhero who said his own name a lot and was overly descriptive about what was going on around him (God bless Stan Lee's frozen-in-time writing). For example, if a guy was too strong because he had impenetrable skin, Daredevil would say something corny like: "I...can't hurt him! It's like his skin is made of metal! I'd better be careful!", haha.
Indeed, his nickname was The Scarlet Swashbuckler back then. Very much a rogue-type battler with a sense of, I guess, romanticisim about his plight. He was still crazily unique due to the fact that he was blind, but a lot of the plots were kinda laughable and so were the villains. Something you may NOT know is that Daredevil's costume was not always the red, bad-ass simplicity we know and love. Oh no. The above picture shows what his original costume was like; a yellow outfit with a red vest type garment. Not too bad-ass. Luckily, he ditched this in issue #7 (Which I WANT, but it's £69 on eBay).
Throughout the comics, past and present, Matt Murdock would also put his heroism to work in the courtroom. An established and excellent lawyer, he would come to the aid of various Marvel heroes during his existence. That's another thing Stan Lee brought to the world of comics, continuity and connection.
His stories, like most of the Marvel characters post-Stan Lee (No disrespect to the man, he was a genius, but he was limited too), evolved considerably over the years. Most notably when the great Frank Miller took over art on the book in 1979 (May, Daredevil #158, the finale of Roger McKenzie's run). He brought a classily dark, almost noir feeling to the books and it garnered heavy interest in a character that had essentially been second tier up until now. Such was the critical acclaim that he eventually took over full duties as writer in issue #168. This was the most considerable writer change in Daredevil's history, almost inarguably.
Not only was this a monumental issue in terms of what Miller would do with Daredevil, but it also introduced Elektra, one of Miller's best-loved and most famous creations. All of a sudden Daredevil has a past that had either been alluded to or not mentioned at all. Frank Miller brought in The Kingpin, most famous from Spider-Man's comics, and made him one of Daredevil's most formidable villains.
This was when things started becoming legendary. Obviously Daredevil's villains still retained costume qualities with the likes of Elektra (More than a villain, but whatever) and Bullseye, but it was now more firmly rooted in the gritty crimeworld of New York's underbelly as a result of The Kingpin. Something Miller also introduced to great effect, tying it into Daredevil's history and future, was a martial arts element. Ninja clans such as The Hand and their heroic opposite, The Chaste, were introduced to shake up the idea of what a villain could be to a superhero.
Controversy was rife upon Miller's departure from the title. Not long after introducing Elektra, sparking massive fan acclaim, Miller killed her off in the now legendarily epic fight with Bullseye. It was a turning point for Daredevil, as well as his feud with Bullseye, but the controversy lay not in the fictional settings of the comic, but in Marvel Comics itself.
Miller wanted Elektra to remain dead and only revived if he saw fit, and if he was writing for her. It's WIDELY considered to be true that the editor of Marvel at this time (Ralph Macchio, not The Karate Kid) promised Miller, to one degree or another, that Elektra would be left as he desired and any further resurrection or use of the character would have to be approved by him.
Again, for one reason or another, this failed to be maintained. Some say that it was due to Marvel going from a private to a public company and Macchio no longer having the decision, but the truth remains a relatively uncovered mystery.
His run ended at Daredevil #191 (1983), but before he left Marvel for good, Miller returned for a run that many fans consider one of the best runs in comic books. The storyline known as Born Again (#227-#233, February to August 1986) changed Daredevil in a way that fans had never seen, and was way more focused on Matt Murdock than Daredevil himself.
Karen Page - a long-time love interest, first seen in Daredevil #1, who hadn't been seen for ages - had been revealed to have descended into severe drug addiction due to a failed movie career (Causing her to become a porn star). In return for a quick fix, she sells Daredevil's secret identity and this info gets back to The Kingpin. With this priceless info in hand, and after checking its authenticity, The Kingpin sets about systematically destroying Matt Murdock's life. Everything from messing with his finances and freezing his accounts, to costing him his job and leaving him a homeless, borderlined-destitude wreck. It was the darkest point in his life and a the highest mark of Miller's work on the title.
It serves not only as a depiction of one man's struggle against crippling odds and circumstance, with only the desire to not be beaten by crime and corruption as a driving force, but as a stark reminder that some things should always remain guarded and what people can do with them if they so choose.
I would love nothing more than for Miller to write Daredevil again, someday, but I'd say the chances of this are slim-to-none.
Over the years Daredevil would have a number of acclaimed and important runs, garnering critical and commercial acclaim, but none seeming to reach the heights of Frank Miller's run. In my opinion, that was true until recently; Bendis came mighty close, Brubaker smashed it and Diggle looks like he's going to make it three in a row. Before those three guys, however, came another writer who set off the second Daredevil on-going series with a BANG. That man's name is Kevin Smith.
"Wait, Kevin Smith? Fat Kevin Smith? View Askewniverse Kevin Smith? Disses-Fans-at-Comic-Conventions Kevin Smith?", I hear you ask. Yes, that Kevin Smith.
Kevin Smith kicked off the Guardian Devil storyline. A story that re-invigorated interest in Daredevil INSTANTLY. It's still one of my favourite Daredevil runs and I truly believe it worked out because he is a fan of the character. It was a story filled with tragedy that kinda shocked a lot of us, especially with some of the events that happened in it. It weighed heavily on an aspect that hadn't really been touched on to great effect; religion. Daredevil, at least Matt Murdock, is a man of Catholic faith and he hadn't been in touch with it for years. Kevin Smith really piles it onto Daredevil in this run, to the point that Matt Murdock eventually considers killing himself.
It's a harrowing, touching story and it really surprised me to see how well Smith can write. It also opened my eyes to how fucking awesome Marvel's editor (Then and now), Joe Quesada, is as an artist.
Since then, he has been fortunate to have had a string of great runs from some great writers. Bendis, Brubaker and now Diggle are all writers that can say they've contributed weighty pieces to the Daredevil historical puzzle. Those of us who truly adore the character and wondering when the luck will run out and he'll be stuck with a writer who can't write him for shit, but we're enjoying it while it lasts.
If someone asked me to pick a character that I honestly felt I would be reading until I'm too old to do so and my eyes give out, I'd say Daredevil. Deadpool is number one in my heart as a character, probably always will be. Daredevil, however, has always been my favourite comic more or less.
Daredevil stands alone. Many say it, but Daredevil truly does. He's got some acquaintances, he's had some extended runs with a few other people (His comic was actually called Daredevil & Black Widow for a bit, and they had a serious relationship at one point), but he's predominantly a loner.
He's not usually there at big events, he's not blighted my masses of tie-ins, but he's always there somehow.
He's never been an X-Man or never been one of The Avengers.
He doesn't save the world, but he does a little bit each day in the best way he can, for the reasons he thinks are right. He doesn't defend the Earth once every blue moon against a massive cosmic threat, but he's the man that puts the fear into the people that would make life Hell for the residents of his city.
He's out there to strike fear into the hearts of the minions and those who run it all. Whether it's a lowly mugger or The Kingpin of all crime in New York City, he risks his life to make those who want no part of it are safe as they can be. Yet, if someone asked for his help to go fight a cosmic or otherworldly enemy that could probably kill him, he'd still do it. He's had Mephisto and Blackheart as enemies, that shows how truly fearless he is. That's why he is called The Man without Fear; not because he is incapable of being afraid, but because he isn't afraid of fear. Even if it cripples him, he's pushing through it.
He's a remarkably strong character and one of the truest testaments to the human spirit in better and worse senses. There're literally so many reasons why Daredevil is an amazing creation and why so many writers are owed a debt of gratitude from myself for making him who he is.
As majorly flawed and, in some places, sickening as the movie adaptation was (The Director's Cut is a much more tolerable and enjoyable version, though still pretty flawed), I feel like it contains a quote that perfectly captures Daredevil's character (The movie didn't, but the quote did), and it's only fitting I end with it.
"Hell's Kitchen is my neighbourhood. I prowl the rooftops and alleyways at night, watching in the darkness, forever in darkness; a guardian devil.".
That's about all I can say with regards to why this character is a huge part of my life and has been for years. If you aren't sold on the character by now, you never will be! As with anything pertaining to comics or music, if you are curious about getting into Daredevil, I can always tell you where to start if you leave a comment with your questions.
---
I think that about does it until Thursday, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for reading, I hope you found some kind of enjoyment in this post and that it gave you some kind of insight into why I do what I do and love what I love.
Until next time, peace.
-The Mast
