Daredevil Message Board

[harryhausen]

I know it’s a fool’s (maybe, in this case, fools’ errand) to analyze a character’s powers too carefully, but I’m curious to hear from some of you about times that DD has done things that would seem to be beyond what we have come to expect from him. I’ll give him his crazy gymnastics (though some writers really push that one, to me – I mean, he regularly jumps 30 and 40 feet down to the ground and his billy club line line seems to be as long as he needs it to be sometimes, but that’s cool – I don’t want him hailing cabs, you know?). I’ll also give him his indomitable will power (“Blind Alley,” for instance). I love the senses (thank you, Mr. Chichester, for such great work on what is, after all, his superpower).

To the point, I recently reread the Bendis/Maleev issue (I think its #42) where he flips over the limo. Now, I know that everyone knows that’s plain crazy (and the summary page on this site points out that Bendis acknowledged that it should be beyond the scope of DD’s powers).

Can you folks think of other times that you’ve been reading our main man and thought, “Wait, a minute . . . that’s not right . . .” about something he was doing?

[james castle]

Isn't there a bit where he touches a TV screen to "view" what's on it? I'm not entirely sure why I'm sure but all I can say is that I'm sure that wouldn't work.
_________________
JC

So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?

[rgj]

Yeah, I think he does the tv screen bit during the Echo/Mack run. I . . . think. I definitely recall seeing it somewhere. And, yeah, he can't do that.

The limo thing was definitely an error, and I think Bendis himself admitted it. I actually thought that it wasn't really DD, that it was some guy on MGH wanting to be DD (the imposter thinking DD can do that). So, it was a bit perplexing at the time.

I'm more interested in the things that Matt might BE ABLE to do. Stuff that hasn't been explored and is based on Stick's ninja training. Remember when Matt was thrown over the bridge by Typhoid just before New York went to hell . . . well, Inferno? Matt was actually concentrating (as per narrative) to speed up his healing process. And, what about the telepathic powers Stick had. Couldn't Matt learn how to do that? And, heck, maybe those ninja, mystical mental powers could even make him immue to mind attacks like the ones the White Queen and her ilk use. There are alot of stuff that hasn't been explored regarding Matt's ninja training as a youth by Stick.

In the last issue of DD, I actually thought that Matt really wouldn't have been able to escape the police car by kicking the door clean off. I just don't buy that he would be that strong. Heck, I don't even think he would be strong enough (much less have the leverage) to kick it open on it's hinge.

But, whatever. I'm sure Matt's radar (which apparently is based on his hearing now ) picked out the weak spot on the door and Matt's ninja kick gave him an iron foot (feet!) to kick the door clean off.

For the record, while I didn't buy Matt being able to do this, I wasn't bothered by it. Like the limo thing.

rgj

[Francesco]

That old issue with the Ox, where he picks up the Police's radiowave frequency, obtaining information on the position of the rampaging villain.

[Isaac]

[Dimetre]

Issue #208 where he is able to make out a painting of the Death Stalker's mother from the middle of the room.

[rgj]

[harryhausen]

So, rgj, is right. Instead of looking at the “iffy” moments, I should have looked to the positive and asked about times his powers were used in brilliant fashion. I’m always with the glass half-empty, it seems.

I always like the way that some writers (Chichester, in particular) play up the fact that DD’s radar is 360 degrees. That’s a really amazing idea to me. Also, it would seem that many writers just use his senses to make up for his lack of sight – “evening” the equation so he’s basically, you know, Batman who can hear heartbeats. It’s an amazing superpower, I think, and should be exploited way more. Plus, the ninja thing isn’t nearly investigated enough, either.

Maybe this is obvious to everyone, but it just recently occurred to me that it would be plausible that DD would be getting better and better at using his senses all the time. If he has this crazy radius (what was it, like, 1.2 miles or something?) in which he can sense so much, it’s logical that after using this for 20 years (or however old he’s supposed to be in this Marvel world where Tony Stark got his heart blasted in Afghanistan [not Vietnam]! ) he would always be honing it – a continuation of the process that Stick helped him with and that made it shift from a painful deluge to a tightly-controlled stream of information. I guess I’m saying that if writers wanted to make it more of a part of his world as time wore on, I would welcome it.

Oh, I think that TV screen/computer screen stuff was in some issue where he was investigating Glenn Industries records, maybe?

[james castle]

I don't know if one "hones" their sense. I've been seeing for a while and that's just getting worse.
_________________
JC

So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?

[harryhausen]

I think he could get better at picking out certain things and ignoring the rest, just like he did when he was first learning about the hyper-senses. The same way a musician can improve his or her 'ear' - not the actual hearing, but the mental aspect of processing sound quicker and better. You know, at first you hear a note, then can identify a register, and eventually can say, 'oh, that's an f-sharp.' The more you do it, the better you get. I always thought of the mental aspects of DD's focus in this framework. I would think that he's always getting a flood of info, but his filters improve all the time.

An yeah, my eyesight is only getting worse, too!