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the perfect daredevil movie does exist and it's all the donnie yen bits from john wick 4

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Daredevil ‘Penny and Dime’ (2.04)

#the head tilt! #daredevil #charlie cox #deborah ann woll

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Mattea Murdock, the Daredevil Drummer of Philly

In celebration of the forthcoming new Spider-Punk: Arms Race series (not to mention Hobie stealing scenes in "Across the Spider-Verse" last year), I wanted to finally write up my long-overdue overview post on Mattea Murdock! If you haven't read her introductory run yet, check it out here.

Mattea truly stands on her own in the wide canon of alternate universe DDs. She is a female Daredevil, she is Latina, and she somehow managed to escape Marvel's NYC gravity and base herself in Philadelphia, where she defends its citizens from violence and exploitation. Hobie and his self-styled Spider-Band encounter her in Spider-Punk (2022) #3, when they make a detour to fix the busted Spider-Van. They are all immediately-- and correctly-- impressed.

Mattea: "Yo, Kam!" Hobie: "Wait, you know each other?!" Kamala: "Duh! You think I wouldn't know the Daredevil Drummer of Philly?" Hobie: "You're a drummer too?" Mattea: "Best in town." Hobie: "Oh man, my friend Gwen is a pretty dope drummer too. I think y'all would definitely get along." Mattea: "Hope they're ready to get outplayed by a pretty, blind girl." Spider-Punk vol. 1 #3 by Cody Ziglar, Justin Mason, Jim Charalampidis, and Travis Lanham

I talked a little about her killer character/costume design when she was first introduced (I was a fool; of course she's blind), and my love for her look has only grown. It's badass, distinctive, and it slots her beautifully into Hobie's punk rock world while still evoking that trademark Daredevil image (red, sticks, pointy bits...). Her irises are red, which is a visual choice I enjoy in more heightened, fantastical DD stories/art styles, and I think it works for Mattea. Heck, I could even imagine them being colored contact lenses she's chosen to wear for the aesthetic. Also, one detail that wasn't in the previews is the fun little laughing devil face on the back of her jacket (I'm not punk rock enough to get the reference if it is one, but it reminds me of Darkdevil):

Of course, always a big priority for me is Daredevil's power-set, and Mattea provides a quick primer on her unique perspective, mostly focused on hearing and the radar sense:

Mattea: "What? You think just 'cause I'm a blind girl, I can't see? Echolocation, my abuelas used to call it. But it's more intimate. Instinctual. Can hear a kick drum from ten blocks away. Can see it too. If I think hard enough, I can even see what the garage it's being played in looks like." Hobie: "Yo, are you doing it right now?" Riri: "She's definitely doing it right now."

This is not my favorite description of Daredevil's powers, nor-- to be honest-- a particularly informative one. She can gather spatial information through walls...from ten blocks away? I also never love an overuse of visual language in any explanation of these powers, especially as it's implied that Mattea, like Matt, is completely blind. Surprisingly, no direct mention is made here of the hypersenses as a whole, beyond the reference to hearing a kick drum from ten blocks away. Even her hearing doesn't receive that much attention in the story overall, which feels like a missed opportunity for such a musical character. Her blindness, too, is pretty much irrelevant to the story, and never comes up again. But I do LOVE that she uses the term "echolocation", though is still very clearly the radar sense, in all its vague, undefined, semi-magic glory.

And visually? This is great. I'm always a fan of the cross-hatching visual, especially against a black background, and artist Justin Mason doesn't go too overboard on the detail, which is another preference of mine. And thematically, I love the ways in which Mattea's drummer identity is tied into her superheroics-- not just for laying a beatdown on bad guys, but also for channelling and enhancing her echolocation/radar sense. One of my favorite scenes in the comic is when she plays a drum solo on a roof edge to scope out the Kingpin's lair. I'm willing, in that moment, to ignore any gripes about radar sense irregularities out of respect for the coolness and thematic heft of the concept. I mean, this rocks:

Mattea: "Come on, show me the good stuff."

At the end of the day, though, this is not a Daredevil comic and Mattea is not the main character. Plus, it's only five issues long, and introduces a bunch of other new characters as well. There was only ever going to be room for the creative team to offer a cursory introduction, hopefully generating enough interest to prompt these characters to appear again in other comics. In that, I think they fully succeeded with Mattea; we get a cursory sense of her powers (or at least, enough to show that they're the normal DD set), her personality (delightfully cocky, playful, tough, fearless), a few hints of her backstory, and some truly kickass fight scenes. There's a bit of suspension of disbelief required to believe she can use drumsticks as a stand-in for billy clubs (unless her drumsticks are made of something really hefty-- and hey, maybe they are), but this is Spider-Punk. Hobie killed Norman Osborn with a guitar--twice. It's not about realism, it's about style.

Mattea: "Been waiting for this for a long time, Fisk. Real long time." Fisk: "I'm going to break you, li'l girl--AWGGH!" Mattea: "Big, strong man who sends out his band of wackos to push over people too weak to fight back." Fisk: "Wouldn't get too cocky, girlie...you're not the only one who's fast! I'm gonna hurt ya. A lot. Then I'm gonna kill ya. And I'm gonna love every second of it. You know, this is the same look you had when I had your old band clapped a few years back. I like it. Brings out your eyes--GAAAH!" Mattea: "There's something you need to understand about me, papi. I'm not the kinda girl who goes down without a fight."

I can't wait to see more of Mattea and learn more about her, her world, her friends, and her enemies. In particular, she seems to have a history (possibly romantic?) with this world's Kamala Khan, and I would love to see more of that relationship. While Mattea Murdock clearly has a lot in common with Matt Murdock, she also seems happy to be a team player, unlike Matt, and I really enjoy that. Though I guess it's not that surprising a distinction. After all, every drummer needs a band.

#what a fun character!! #mattea murdock #daredevil drummer of philly #i love her

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That face says he knows exactly what he's doing 💀

#i'm listening #daredevil born again #charlie cox

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Matt Murdock/Daredevil

1. Catholic

2. Excellent free climber

3. Kind of a slut

4. Also a lawyer

You got me. That's. That's the perfect recipe. Wow.

Matt is. Goddd. He's such a bad lawyer. He's such a bad Catholic. He's such a good climber. And it doesn't matter.

Being blind probably provides some defense against hypnosis, certainly against Dracula's basilisk stare. It also means he's a perfect hire for Dracula because he really doesn't look like a threat and he's not going to see anything suspicious. Dracula applauds himself for his own cleverness over and over for this one.

There is no shaving mirror incident, because what use is a mirror to Matt Murdock? On the other hand his combat strategy of killing the lights and punching people in the dark will have no effect on Dracula. They both sneak down the wall at the same time and it gets Real Awkward as they pretend not to notice each other - the next day at dinner Dracula's like "so, uh... I was of course out on Business but you didn't happen to uh... go out of your room yesterday did you?" and Matt's just like "ahaha I do not climb walls that is my least favorite thing to do anyway I'm blind anyway it would be fine if I did right?" And Dracula's like "ahaha of course you're not a prisoner and who said anything about climbing walls I definitely use doors like an alive person but yeah don't sleep in weird places you'll die." And just sits there staring at him like "...but do the butts match???"

Matt would try to rescue the baby and it would come to Ninja Fighting and he would get badly badly beaten but run off into the wilderness and collapse in the nearest church coughing up blood. Foggy would pick him up two to six months later and just be like "so have you learned a valuable lesson about trying to handle things on your own?" and Matt would be like "in my defense he was a Vampire." And then have complex feelings about the interplay of good and evil or something. And Foggy would be like "...okay but did you at least bill him properly??" And Matt would have to be like "actually I got robbed."

But yes, Matt "Daredevil" Murdock can survive Castle Dracula

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THAT SHOULD BE ME

She needs to ease up!

Sorry guys for freaking out look at how good he looks HELP

#stay slutty king #daredevil: born again #who is she? who knows #good luck! don't let the daredick kill you

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Charlie Cox in Daredevil (3.02)

#his milkshake brings all the boys to the yard #matt murdock #daredevil #charlie cox

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green suit matt!

#he's done nothing wrong ever #matt and his stupid little face :3 #matt murdock #daredevil

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if you enjoyed mattjen may i direct you to mattkirsten

#DARE-SPLAINING #daredevil #matt murdock #kirsten mcduffie #mark waid

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“I’m not Daredevil, Stu.”

Daredevil (2011) - Issue #1

Waid | Rivera

#the whole neighborhood knows #he's not beating the allegations #daredevil #matt murdock #mark waid

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CHARLIE COX on the set of DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN (2024)

#daredevil born again #charlie cox

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EVERYONE SHUT UP AND LOOK

#nelson murdock and page #😭 #daredevil born again

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Daredevil by Jacob Edgar

#eeby deeby #daredevil

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“He’s a slut, your honor” - Foggy Nelson about Matt Murdock in a courtroom probably

Marvel’s Daredevil | S01xE01, Into the Ring

#they way they summed up decades up comics in 30 seconds #daredevil

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Earlier in their relationship, he would have given Jason the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he really was staring down a parking enforcement officer. Maybe he simply didn't hear Matt's question (pesky hearing loss!).

It is not earlier in their relationship. Matt knows better.

Matt exits the platform, and somehow makes it out to the street all in one piece. A little well-timed bumbling gets a couple of kind strangers to hold doors open for him when he needs them. Past that, he follows the gentle purr of a high-powered engine and the familiar sound of Jason's heartbeat in close proximity. He suspects Jason will be a laying it on thick when he spots him. Taking his bags, getting the door, full VIP treatment. Matt will let him. Once they're in the car, he'll have him cornered anyway.

"Good thing you got that spot when you did," Matt says clicking his seatbelt into place and leaning in for a peck. He waits until Jason's down's the road a ways before adding innocently, "Remind me, is it an 'I'm not Daredevil wink wink' few days or not? I didn't hear what you said earlier."

Jason can't lie, not even over the phone. He knows well enough that Matt will be able to hear it. Quite honestly, he doesn't even know which version of the truth he's supposed to tell Matt.

Yeah. Everyone sort of knows.

"Oh, um—fuck—I gotta go. I think I'm about to get a parking ticket. I'll see you at the station, okay? Call me when you're pulling in." It's not the cleanest getaway he's ever managed, but he does want to get to the station with a few minutes to spare so Matt's not waiting for him in the cold, and that's gotta count for something, right?

It's busy, the travel crowd in flux with the approaching holidays, so all that extra time is exactly what he needs to grab himself a spot on the curb by the pick-up lane. Everything else he can smooth over when Matt actually gets here, he figures. Easy.

#he just left! #jason peterthon todd #hoodedmenace

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"I — wow. For a family that tends to juggle double identities, you really tell each other everything." Matt doesn't know what to do with that. In some ways, Jason keeps so few secrets. Matt can't even imagine it.

"You know, given that Tim seems to be an actual wizard when it comes to computers, I'm just going to assume he ran a deep background check on me, poked around my email accounts for dirt, found every embarrassing photo of me on the internet, and knows I'm You-Know-Who." Honestly, where is Wayne finding these kids?

He's not even going to comment on the casual way Jason tossed out that some of Batman's circle is going to drop by. Every time he remembers that Jason is on first-name basis with Wonder Woman, he nearly chokes.

"So no one else knows I'm — you know — right?"

"Then he'll be getting Flamebird's attention." Jason rumbles more than he laughs, but, yeah, some moron calling himself the Gingerbread Man would fuck with the Gotham trains to get Batman's attention. Thankfully, he's pretty sure that's not in the cards for tonight. "Uh, not at a lot, really. Me, Alfred, Tim—he's the new kid I've been telling you about, keep your phone away from him and enable like, five-factor authorization or whatever. Dick, obviously, his—" Wally? The Flash? How the hell is he supposed to explain that too? And this is entirely dependent on how quickly Matt catches on to who exactly Bruce is because it's super convenient for all the birds to be living under one roof reporting to the same man.

At this point, he just thinks it's funny to keep stretching it out as long as possible. "—his boyfriend. Some of B's circle are probably going to drop by at their own leisure. Dick's friends. Bruce. Probably." A pause. "...I think at this point it's easier to ask who doesn't know. That's complicated. It's fine, you'll see when you get here."

#can't wait til matt realizes tim is the new robin #hoodedmenace

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"The Firebird? You wouldn't be showing off for me at all, would you?" Matt's practically lapping it up. He has decided to live inside the contradiction of disliking Bruce Wayne's extravagant displays of wealth and thinking Jason's are charming and sweetly indulgent. Just add it to the list of the mental gymnastics he does every day.

"I'm thirty minutes away assuming some guy calling himself the Gingerbread Man doesn't stop the train in order to get Batman's attention." One day Jason will get tired of him ragging relentlessly on Gotham, and until that day's Matt's going to keep it up. "Hey, I meant to ask, who all is going to be around the house for the holidays? Have you told everyone about me?"

"No, baby, of course I'm gonna make you take a cab and walk." The tinny sound coming through Jason's end as background noise signifies that he's somewhere with a crowd, and the tone of his voice suggests that he very much is joking. "We have a giant door knocker cast in the shape of a huge dollar sign and snipers situated on every roof. Obviously we don't have a doorbell." Jason's voice drifts for a moment, away from the speaker to say oh, yeah, just the two, thanks before he comes back.

"As long as the basket and your stuff can fit in the backseat of the Firebird, we don't have a problem. I'm sure Alfred will be absofuckinglutely delighted." A shuffle, like Jason is shifting the phone from one shoulder to the other. "How far out are you? Just so I know how much time to keep killing."

#hoodedmenace