Warning: spoilers for Daredevil #30 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Mike Hawthorne, Adriano Di Benedetto, Marcio Menyz, and VC’s Clayton Cowles are ahead.
Daredevil from Marvel Comics is best known for his showdowns against villains like Kingpin and Bullseye. But besides those two villains, Daredevil does not have the best choice of villains in comparison to other New York-based superheroes like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. This unfortunate part of Daredevil’s publication history was pointed out by Elektra Natchios, the current iteration of the character, in Daredevil #30 (written by Chip Zdarsky, pencils by Marco Checchetto and Mike Hawthorne, inks by Marco Checchetto and Adriano Di Benedetto, colors by Marcio Menyz, and letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles).
Unlike Matt Murdock’s Daredevil, Elektra is not afraid to kill, and in her brief time as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, has reflected on the differences between her and Matt’s modi operandi. While hunting down an organized crime boss, Elektra muses that Matt was ordinarily satisfied once organized crime died down in the area before “turn[ing] his attention to a joke-of-the-month like Stilt-Man or Matador.” Unlike Matt, Elektra does not stop until she kills her enemies.
Elektra’s jab at Matt Murdock’s methods as Daredevil not only speaks to a common occurrence in Daredevil comics, but also the themes that have characterized this particular series by Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto. Daredevil may have some of the most lackluster villains in Marvel Comics, but Zdarsky’s writing has sidestepped this throughout the series by focusing on the roots of crime that have produced these villains to begin with. This has used Daredevil to his greatest potential as a character.
Throughout Zdarsky and Checchetto’s run, they have diverted Daredevil, whether through Elektra or Matt Murdock, from dealing with “joke-of-the-month” villains to tackling institutional problems like police corruption and the failings of the criminal justice system. By reorienting the hero in this fashion, Daredevil has gone deeper into the core tenet of his character, justice, by exploring how it hardly exists on a structural level. And while this has not worked out conveniently for Matt Murdock in the series’s narrative, it has spawned a version of Daredevil where his villains aren’t colorful personalities, but sprawling societal institutions.
Matt Murdock’s life as both a lawyer and a vigilante has made Daredevil a unique Marvel hero since he first debuted in 1964. By having a front row seat to multiple ends of the justice system, Daredevil has a greater regard for what “justice” means than most superheroes do in Marvel Comics. This is why his “joke-of-the-month” villain reputation has been more a reflection of a missed opportunity than anything else.
The movement away from individual villains also reflects how institutions are seldom operated by a single person–rather, they are a network that cannot be brought down overnight. Viewing villains as individuals acting separately from institutional issues oversimplifies reality, and this is something that Matt has already demonstrated an awareness of. It seems that at this point in his publication history, both character and creator have caught up to this attitude, and the result has produced a much more nuanced version of the character who is finally faced with a significant challenge.
Taking Daredevil beyond the scope of individual villains allows the character to examine the meaning of “justice” on a deeper level. While there is an interpersonal level of justice that exists, Matt Murdock has yet to discover how “justice” can be achieved on a structural level. The serial nature of superhero comics is conducive to longterm growth for characters, and there has never been a better time for Daredevil to embark on this journey.
