Matt Murdock has a good ol’ fashioned yard fight in the rain in Daredevil #29. Written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Marco Checchetto, colored by Marcio Menyz, and lettered by Clayton Cowles, Daredevil #29 finds the Goop gone but the problems remaining. Matt on the inside is having to deal with escalating violence while on the outside, Elektra imparts more wisdom on her new ward and fights to keep the Kitchen safe HER way. Surely that won’t backfire at all.
Justin Partridge: Before we start this month’s discussion of our favorite Catholic, some slightly bittersweet housekeeping.
As you’ll have noticed already, my beloved Vishal has moved on beyond Speak of the Devil. You’ll be finding more of his fantastic words in and around our new CXF wrestling coverage and it’s just wonderful already. We, naturally, wish him well in his future endeavors and I will always treasure the time we spend together talking Murdock as this was my first really major beat here even pre-CXF.
BUT, as Vishal exits, I am provided a new partner in patter! And she’s an actual FREAKING DOCTOR.
Please join me in welcoming the embarrassingly talented Anna Peppard to Speak of the Devil! Anna literally jumped at the chance to discuss Daredevil as she’s written gobs on Matthew already and has read far more Daredevil than probably anyone ever, so I am going to allow her the floor for a bit to show just why she’s the perfect new partner for me here.
PLEASE, take it away, Anna.
Anna Peppard: Oh wow, how can I possibly live up to that glowing intro? By griping, of course! Even though Daredevil is one of my all-time comic book baes, and while I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading your back-and-forths with Vishal (which are always knowledgeable and funny and passionate in all the best ways), I’m less enthusiastic about this run than you’ve been. But I want to keep the positive energy flowing. I’m ready to accept this run, and each individual issue, on its own merits, and try to focus on the good. Or at least, I will be, once I do just a bit of griping about the story up to this point.
First of all: I’m sure some readers will find this surprising, but I have read 600+ Daredevil comics and have never really thought of Matt Murdock as quite this actively Catholic? My read of him is: Catholicism plays a huge role in his psychology, moral outlook, and sense of family and community, but his church attendance, and even his belief in God, has historically been shaky at best. So understandably, it’s been a bit jarring for me to read so many internal monologues that position Matt as strongly devout, at the expense of the other types of faith and spirituality he’s been shown to have in the past. That said—I think this run is a defensible take on Matt’s relationship with religion, even if it doesn’t jive with my personal understanding of his history, or my preferences for his psychology. (I personally think he’s more interesting when he’s constructing an idiosyncratic spirituality that combines the multi-faith teachings of his many mentors, mirroring the way his fighting style combines Eastern and Western influences, but I digress.)
For me, this run has also had a bit of a greatest hits” feel. That’s not always a bad thing; the Bond movie Spectre was pretty much all “greatest hits” scenes, and I enjoyed the heck out of that. But some of the references to past stories have landed a little flat for me. I haven’t enjoyed this prison stint as much as the one in Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark’s run. I haven’t enjoyed the sex and romance as much as I did in Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s run. I haven’t enjoyed the noir elements as much as those in Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s run. I haven’t enjoyed the Matt/Elektra dynamic as much as in the Frank Miller and John Romita Jr. stories. And I haven’t enjoyed Zdarsky’s take on Typhoid Mary at all. She’s something of a sacred character to me—one of the most psychologically complex female villains of all time, courtesy of her co-creator, the great and powerful Ann Nocenti, who poured all her considerable insight and creativity into Typhoid Mary during her still-underappreciated post-Miller run with JR Jr. Zdarsky’s Mary has felt very hollow in comparison, though to be fair—this has been true of pretty much every version of Mary not written by Nocenti. Once again: these are very subjective gripes. It’s extremely difficult to keep 57-year-old serialized stories looking and feeling fresh, and I can see how this run is trying to push Matt in new directions, having him face new doubts and consequences that compel personal introspection and metacommentary on the nature of superhero justice. This is a worthwhile story to tell, and I am 100% on board with Luke Cage no longer being the only person calling Matt on his white privilege.
One last thing, that I’m going to stand behind as a less subjective, more valid gripe: while I really appreciated seeing Matt’s complex reaction to new physical limitations at the beginning of this run, I think on the whole, this run has taken a step back with regards to representing Matt’s unique sensory experience. Waid’s run wasn’t perfect (no story is). But I really appreciated the effort Waid and talented artists like Samnee as well as Marcos Martin and Paulo Rivera put into representing Matt’s radar and other senses. Showing how Matt’s perceptions are different from those of both sighted people and “normal” (i.e. non-superpowered) blind people is important for navigating the problematic “Magical Disabled Person” tropes that are always lurking in Daredevil stories; exploring the precise nature and limits of Matt’s senses helps his stories feel less stereotypical and appropriative. Those unique senses are also central to my passion for this character, so anytime they’re minimized, I’m going to be grumpy. I love the gendered tensions that often play out between Matt’s determined stoicism (which is very traditionally masculine) and his literally super-powered sensuality (which is much less traditionally masculine). That tension’s been sporadically present in this run, but hasn’t been a focus.
Whew—I feel so cleansed! Ready to dive into this week’s issue, and talk about some of the things I do enjoy about this run. (Though I’m going to continue calling out less-than-stellar depictions of female characters and disability, where appropriate.)
JP: Oh, God, you are gonna fit in SO WELL HERE. It’s almost disgusting.
BUT, enough preambling, LET’S HIT IT.
Matt’s Powers—How Do Those Work? (Probably Miracles)
AP: As loyal readers of Daredevil and this column will recall, the last issue ended on a cliffhanger involving Matt, currently in prison as Daredevil, realizing he’d been poisoned. I feel like we deserved a super-science explanation for why Matt wouldn’t smell that poison. I get there are lots of poisons that are “odorless,” but is anything truly odorless to someone with magical smelling powers? (If it wasn’t already clear above, it’s definitely obvious now that I am NOT the science-y type of doctor.) But I was happy to see Matt use Stick’s training to help him deal with his predicament. It feels like he’s lost touch with some of that training of late, which is understandable if they’re trying to move the character away from being a White Savior, but also because he’s been struggling with his identity throughout this run, including losing touch with what had been, in the past, a thoroughly holistic relationship with his body.
In all seriousness: I did like this sequence a lot. It’s more creative than simply having Matt get beaten up, and creates some nice tension and pathos. I haven’t really felt genuine sympathy for Matt in a while (his relentless self-sabotage has made that difficult), but his truly lost expression after he pukes was so deeply human, identifiable, and vulnerable, it made me want to jump into the page and offer to hold his hair back—my poor lil’ devil boy.
This might sound a bit dark, but… I’m also happy to see how passionate Matt is about wanting to live? He started this run in a pretty bad place, and while he’s still in a bad place, I want him to feel that sense of purpose he’s been missing. Knowing his work—whatever that ends up being—isn’t done seems like a positive first step, maybe? At the very least: he’s not operating with a death wish in the fight scene with the other prisoners (I think, maybe—it’s sometimes hard to tell with Matt).
JP: Oh, Matt. You never met a masochism you didn’t love completely.
I DID TOO love this sequence. And I will stick up a little for the poisoning sequence that kicks it all off. For the reader’s at home or at wherever you are stealing wi-fi from currently, when we left Matt, post-gooping in the “King in Black” tie-in, he had just been poisoned at chow time.
We open #29 moments after that wonderful cliff hanger. Matt is now fully in the grips of the poison and is trying to clear his body of the contagian…while also having to deal with a gang of inmates ready to jump him in the yard in the rain. It is all very The Raid 2. I absolutely agree with you that there should be a consistency to Matt’s “power set”, especially in terms of his “super senses”. In books and runs past, he would be able to clock the scent down to the strain of deadliness it was. Here, he can’t and is now having to actively DEAL with it in a way we haven’t really seen him do before.
We HAVE seen Danny Rand do stuff like this with the aid of his chi, but you are right that it seems a bit flippant. HOOOWEEVVVERRRR, I find myself okay with it largely, because I REALLY like the moment, as well as the weird bit of pulpiness it sets up in and around Stick and his brutalist training regime. You’ll find my bit here usually is to like everything because I’m dumb and just love comics too much to really learn me much better.
Second however, I also, like you, love tremendously the idea that Matt is committing to this new turn toward hope. I know you haven’t been nearly as hot on this run as us, but I am glad you are picking up and responding to Chip trying to make some real-deal headway with Matt (even if it might be a touch shaky in some parts). Just in time to stick a knife between his ribs and send us off with another helluva cliffhanger.
And we still have SO MUCH MORE.
Elektra Natchios… Role Model?
AP: I’m nervous about the tropey-ness of Elektra finding heroism by essentially becoming a mother. There’s ways to tell that story that aren’t terrible but… it makes me nervous. Elektra is a character who’s already deeply mired in gender tropes (she’s literally named after a Freudian daddy complex), and having her discover morality and heroism through motherhood isn’t necessarily an improvement. The trope is: a bad woman becomes good by taking on a more gender normative (i.e. more “natural”) role, with implications that denying nurturing impulses fed into the woman’s badness.
So far, though, I’m pleased to see that Elektra continues to be Elektra. She’s not making bagged lunches or driving to soccer practice or attending PTA meetings; she’s illegally (?) adopted an orphan girl who she’s now taking with her on nighttime raids and training to be a ninja without really offering her any other options. That’s well short of a full turn toward gender normativity! (Or heroism, for that matter.)
She’s also policing the Kitchen her way, while still inspired by Matt’s example. Elektra “doing this for Matt” also makes me nervous (the “love of a good man” turning a bad woman virtuous is another problematic gendered trope). But seeing her figure out how to be her own version of Daredevil helps alleviate some of those fears. I love her going straight to demanding protection money, something Matt would never do, but which makes sense. Punching people in alleys isn’t enough; Elektra and/or Matt need another strategy.
Do I think Elektra’s strategy is the right one? Probably not. But it’s worth a shot. Also, her deflecting the bullet into the guy’s knee and then saying (paraphrasing), “I didn’t shoot you—you shot you” was a great little character moment. This has always been Elektra’s version of righteousness: you’re only responsible for the violence you personally dish out, so if a guy shoots at her, and she deflects it back at him, that’s his fault, not hers. It also reminds me of something my engineering professor father used to say to students who came begging for a passing grade after failing the final exam: “I didn’t fail you—you failed you.” Yesterday, I didn’t think my dad had anything in common with Elektra Natchios. Now I know better. (Though for the record: after he’d made his pithy point, my dad often did let deserving students do extra credit assignments to pass.)
JP: It’s a tremendous line and better still, one that absolutely does feel like Elektra.
Again, I think I may be hotter on this stuff than you, but your concerns are absolutely valid. Doubly so in and around Elektra as she’s been mishandled before during “face” turns, but I still find myself really into this!
VG and I last time talked a bunch about how we were really digging that Elektra finally realized that playing the superhero game like Matt was going to get her killed. Worse, it was going to get Kitcheners killed. So, she did what she always does and she made a plan. But now she has to contend with the complication of the innocent with the dubious adoption status.
I can also see how THAT could also be worrying as we have seen how THAT ALSO has been warped, even by some of the best of creators, but I have faith in Chip to at least kind of stick some neat thematics onto this (and is also unlikely to “fridge” anyone just for shocks). Seeing her starting to operate fully though, as “her” version of Daredevil, really was a treat. And I also love that she’s not really toning herself down too terribly much. Yeah, she’s not murdering anyone right now (that’s in Savage Avengers, which she has been absent from lately obviously), but she’s still dispensing some choice hurt on some low-level skels.
All the while, gaining the attention of her OWN “Kingpin”, Izzy Libris. I mean, C’MON, even you have to admit that’s pretty fun, right Anna?
AP: “Even me”—I’m not that pessimistic, I swear! I’m just a terribly intense DD fan AND an academic so of course I gotta over-analyze everything through a hyper-critical lense and write/say the word “problematic” twenty times a day 😉 But yes—I’m glad you brought up Elektra having her own Kingpin, because I hadn’t really thought of it that way, and now that I have, I LOVE it. One column in and you’re already converting me to neglected virtues of this run!
Mike Murdock for President
AP: Especially because of how downbeat (or, frankly, dour) this book has been, I’m beyond grateful for the breath of fresh air that is the Silver Age zaniness of Mike Murdock. Matt’s been such a self flagellating bummer, I’m about ready for him to stay dead so we can focus on the adventures of Elektra and Mike. He’s a horrible person but at least he’s fun! But maybe it’s too tonally inconsistent to have a literally magic character in a book that’s otherwise pretty determinedly grounded? What do you think?
JP: OH BOY DO I LOVE ME SOME MIKE.
Again, some context for our reader, as Chip gives us some check-ins with our main cast, Mike…*ahem* excuse me, “Matt” Murdock is back on the scene. And trying to position him and Wilson Fisk’s secret son (revealed in Daredevil Annual #1) to the best place to take advantage of the incoming war between the new genderswapped Kingpin and Daredevil.
I am WAY, WAY into this. I was hoping Mike would start to play more into the ongoing plots in some way or another and I think keeping him on the outskirts of the story right now is a canny move. It also adds a neat wild card to the whole thing, doesn’t it? Like we have a pretty good handle on what most of our leads “want” at this point. Matt wants redemption. Elektra wants to be a hero her way. Fisk, like always, wants power (and is willing to play with some dangerous elements to get it, which we will reveal below). But we REALLY don’t know what Mike wants except other than to flirt with the lady at his favorite sandwich shop. My gut says money, but I have a feeling that Chip has some bigger plans for him than just a one time pay day.
Any theories, Anna?
AP: My knee-jerk response was: Mike wants to be Matt, and he’s going to continue Talented Mr. Ripley-ing him until he achieves that. But I’m not sure if that’s quite right. Mike’s own manipulations of reality have created a long history and deep bond between him and Matt. So I think Mike’s motivations may be more complicated. I do feel reasonably sure Mike isn’t the “criminal mastermind” type, though. I see him as a chaos agent and opportunist with a lot of resentment and jealousy and understandable existential dread about his strange existence. What’s exciting for me is there’s no real way to predict what he’ll do, because I don’t think Mike knows what he’s going to do from one day or hour to the next, beyond those vague schemes of money/power/prestige that, if the DD annual are anything to go by, rarely end well. Really looking forward to seeing how it plays out. Also, a plug for our readers who may not have encountered the 60s Daredevil comics where Mike first appears (in the form of Matt pretending to be his own twin brother): they are AMAZING and you should stop whatever else you’re doing and read them right after you finish this column [Ed. Note: Starting in Daredevil #25 of course!]. There was a time when Matt Murdock thought it was a good idea to preserve his secret identity by creating a THIRD alter-ego in the form of a plaid jacket and green wraparound sunglasses-wearing beatnik who flirts with Karen Page in ways Matt would never dare. And you know what: he was RIGHT. Current-Matt should take inspiration from that level of irrational confidence and outside-the-box thinking.
Marvelous Musings
- No Foggy or Kirsten again this month, which is a bummer.
- As teased above, it seems Fisk and his crime BFF Wesley have gotten their hands on a Bullseye. He seems to be the genuine article, but time will tell how he intends to play him in this new Hell’s Kitchen.
- More WONDERFUL Elektra Hair here also. You love to see it.
- Speaking of lovely hair: I (Anna) am very concerned about Matt’s. Can he even wash it if he’s wearing his mask in all the prison common areas? He’s been complaining about the noise in prison but surely scalp itch + super-senses is an even more pressing issue. I’m just going to go ahead and assume having perfectly lustrous hair at all times no matter what is another facet of Matt’s powers.
Checchetto does a great job making Mike visually similar but different from Matt. He gives him different glasses, more vibrant facial expressions, and silly swoopy hair that evokes his Silver Age origins. There’s even a hint of physical comedy when Mike slaps his hands over his face in surprise. Giving a character their own visual language is the mark of a great artist!
Anna Peppard
Anna is a PhD-haver who writes and talks a lot about representations of gender and sexuality in pop culture, for academic books and journals and places like Shelfdust, The Middle Spaces, and The Walrus. She’s the editor of the award-winning anthology Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero and co-hosts the podcasts Three Panel Contrast and Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow!
