Daredevil Message Board

[jumonji]

Has everything shown on the pages of Daredevil from 1964 until today actually "happened"? Okay, so I put that last words in quotation marks since we all know it didn't exactly happen in real life. What I'm getting at here is this: To what extent are all events depicted a part of the actual life history of the character as he is written today?

I first started thinking about this when I read Daredevil:Yellow a while back. In the unlikely event that the people on this board haven't read it or don't know about it (even more unlikely), the mini-series in question retells some of the early stories in the format of Matt's letters to the recently deceased Karen Page. While many of the events follow the original tales quite faithfully (and I, for one, love the anachronistic blending of the 60's and modern times that is evident in the art), you also notice which parts are left out. I'm thinking specifically of the events of Daredevil (vol 1) issue #2 when DD is sent into space in Elektro's rocket. It is my understanding that that issue is widely regarded as a very rushed and quite un-impressive hack job quickly thrown together at the last minute. Not only is the story not very good, it also features one of the most absurd uses of his powers I can think of. What I'm getting at is that it is very difficult to imagine a post-Miller Daredevil being sent into space and successfully landing a rocket. So, the question becomes: In the life of the post-Miller rendition of the character, did that event actually take place? In Daredevil: Yellow, other events of issue #2 are retold, but the author seems to take a "Well, let's just pretend that never happened" stance to that particular event. I personally think that's a wise decision since I'm sure we can all think of scenes from this and other books that have seemed absurd, out of character or just plain stupid.

This whole idea applies to the characters as well. Like in one early issue when Matt is believed dead in a plane crash and Foggy gets jealous of (the presumed dead) Matt when he sees Karen cry. That scene is very hard to reconcile with our current view of Foggy as an amazingly loyal character who loves Matt like a brother. So, did that scene actually happen?

What about the "Mike Murdock affair"? Now, I think we would all say that a development that went on for that many issues certainly must have taken place, but again, the goofiness of it is also difficult to reconcile with current events in the book (although I must say that Mike Murdock's wardrobe choices are solid proof that Matt really can't "see" colors ). Aside from the awesome nod to the classic era seen in Brubaker's take on "Mike Murdock," the events were never alluded to again.

On the one hand, one might say that "Oh well, it's just a fictional character so who cares?", but (as evidenced from reading many of the threads on this site) people really do care and most readers have a pretty firm idea of what events and character traits are considered to be in canon.

Okay, so this was a long meandering post which didn't end up being quite a lucid as I would have preferred, but what's your take on this? Is Frank Miller's DD the same character as Stan Lee's, or a reinterpretation of the character? To what extent can writers reinterpret a character and get away with it? What about powers? Should writers be "allowed" to reinterpret them the way Bendis did with the radar sense (I would have personally been fine with dropping the traditional, and ill-defined, radar for something more realistic, but didn't like Bendis's execution)?
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The Other Murdock Papers

[Blind Alley]

The short answer would be : No, it did not really happen, it happened in a comic-book...

Another answer would lead to "Continuity is overrated" as JC once said.
It's not about the number of years the book has been in print.
It's more about the amount of events that have been depicted.
There's way too many facts for a lifetime !

So, I guess we can see the DD series as cycles that are following each other.
The basics are blind Matt Murdock, dressed as a devil, kicks the bad guys' asses.
With that, writers tell the tales they want to.
Continuity only matters for facts like DD global scale of powers (he couldn't suddenly turn as an energy manipulating mutant or a telepath) or his origins (the writer can't decide Matt grew up in a circus or whatever) and the deads (if Karen or Heather come back, the writer shoud at least explain it)
A lot of other details can be modified because the medium itself (monthly comic-book published since 1964) requires it.
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Visit the Red Shaker

[jumonji]

[Gloria]

[Francesco]

Regarding the Ox, his reappearence was explained somewhere by saying that he was Ronald, twin brother of the original Ox, Raymond Bloch.

Also, in Spider-Man #95 (1998) it is explained that Raymond didn't die at the end of DD #86, but was just severely wounded and was recovered by the Kingpin.

[jumonji]

[Gloria]

[Gloria]

[james castle]