Daredevil Message Board

[james castle]

As I posted below, I recently got the Omnibus Companion. Aside from being all around kick ass, getting the Companion has also given me the chance to re-read Man Withour Fear. My original issues are back at my parents place so this is the first time I've read the mini in about 8-9 years. Anyway:

I might be wrong but I feel like people have complained about Matt being too young when Jack dies in MWoF. For some reason I thought that was the case. Re-reading it though, it appears that Matt is 18-19 when Jack dies. Jack dies and then "a year later" Matt is a first year in law school. Admittedly, he's a couple years younger than in the original origin but I don't think it makes much difference.

As for Elektra - her character in MWoF is much cooler than I remembered. First off, I think a lot of the Elektra bits are just Miller doing his thing. Her jumping off the cliff, the car incident, the guy falling through the skylight onto the piano...those are just super cool scenes. Do they really fit with Elektra from the Elektra Saga? Not really but they're cool. With Miller, sometimes that's enough.

Plus, Elektra in MWoF isn't pure evil or anything. Sure, she kills 5 thugs in an alley. That's not good but she explicitly says that "the voices" are urging her to kill innocent people and the only way she can deal with it is by killing the guilty. She's at least trying to do good in a weird, twisted way. I think that's kinda interesting.

Also: it's strongly, strongly hinted that the "voices" she hears are actually coming from The Hand as they try to seduce her to their side. It's further hinted that The Hand set up her father's death to drive her over the edge. I think both of these ideas are super cool. Far from Elektra being a 2 dimensional character in MWoF, she's actually more interesting. She's talanted and kinda naturally bad but trying to be good but also being set up and seduced by The Hand. In any event, it makes her whole "dad is dead, time to be a ninja" decision make more sense.

Very last note is: remember the scene where Kingpin kills the head gangster? He takes a rose off the gangster's lapel and affixes it to his own. It's a symbol of him taking control of the underworld. What are the chances that MSJ saw that and mistakenly thought that a rose was the Kingpin's callng card? I say high.
_________________
JC

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

[Francesco]

Well, it wouldn't have hurt if Miller had made all these hints about Elektra's personality a little more explicit.