Daredevil Message Board

[Kuljit Mithra]

I had a pretty good discussion on Twitter (@manwithoutfear) earlier today with many DD fans about some questions I posted...

Namely...

Is Matt Murdock's race or religion a vital part of his character to you?

Also, do you consider Matt Murdock and Daredevil to be two separate characters?
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Kuljit Mithra
www.manwithoutfear.com

[DesignDevil]

I'm assuming this question arouse from a discussion of the new Ultimate Spider-man. As far as that goes, its a new character so his race shouldn't matter. I think Marvel knew what a polarizing thing they were doing and did it simply for shock value to increase sales, which is their current business model.

On to your question. For Matt Murdock his race and religion kind of go hand in hand. He's Irish Catholic. Certainly there is argument to made made either way on how much DD's religion should play in his character. Kevin Smith took the Catholicism way overboard. Miller, Bendis, and Brubaker really knew how to have his religion play a part of his character without overwhelming the story or other parts of the character. I personally think the "Catholic guilt" and Irish heritage are pretty important and defining parts of Matt's character. With that, the odds of Matt Murdock being a pasty white guy are about 99.9%. Now if for some reason, one day, Marvel decided to kill or retire Matt Murdock and have a replacement Daredevil who is a different race? No problem with that.

Matt Murdock is a character whose race is a part of who and what the character is. Just like Captain America. Just like Black Panther. Or Magneto.

[theunrealstudios]

well in terms of character the catholic guilt didn't become apparent till the miller run in the 80's which defined the Matt Murdock we know for many years to come. Before that he was the swashbuckling crime fighter so in more ways then some did religion define him. it came down to personality rather then attending church however with that whole lapsed catholic attitude and it defines that strong sense of guilt to try and do the right thing.

now on Daredevil and Matt Murdock being seperate characters well.....the way i see it is that (small comparison) if batman is the face and bruce wayne is the mask and Clark Kent is the face and superman is the mask with Matt Murdock he just wears a red uniform. But that's not a bad thing because Murdock has prob done more good for hells kitchen then Daredevil ever did. King of hells kitchen he donated 400 mil to the city and gave them hope, not to mention all the good people he's saved in courts. However the main point to stress i think is that Miller wanted to show us in "Born Again" that Daredevil really is just clothing and the real man is Matt Murdock because he had everything stipped away (the costume was barely in the book at the end) and we were shown a raw view of his character that lived up to the words of "never give up".

Brubacker while Matt was in prison after Foggy was attacked also showed us that Daredevil kept Matt "in check", that it was an outlet for Matts anger and rage but it never was the true persona

Truth be told when you look at any of the stories in the 2000's Daredevil and Matt Murdock act so simlairly anyways to the point that you could figure they're the same man (apart from handicap).

He's still the same old girlfriend/wife cheating, lying, selfish, angry, emotionally monotone asshole in and out of costume but that being said he's no less then an caring angel to the people of Hells Kitchen. That's what i get from reading Miller, Nocenti, Bendis and Brubaker. Bad thing? hell no.....it's prob the most interesting features of his character is how F#$%ed up he is in the head (and i think the current run of Waid proves that in a nice disregard of current affairs kinda way)

long story short i don't see him as two people because of the way he acts because his actions towards justice and feelings towards people are too similair in and out of costume.

[The Mast]

His Catholicism probably doesn't get brought up much nowadays, but Frank Miller made no bones about saying that he had to be Catholic.

It depends on the story, really. If the story calls for religion to play a part in his morality, then yeah it matters. Otherwise, I could honestly read Daredevil forever and never miss another allusion to religion.

I don't think the fact that he's white matters at all.

They're not separate characters, but Daredevil's anonymity allows Matt to do things he couldn't otherwise. If anything, Daredevil makes Matt Murdock more like Matt Murdock. Without the freedom that red costume affords him, I don't think he could totally be Matt Murdock.