Thursday, July 3, 2003

Daredevil – The Man Without Fear | Comics

Matt Murdock becomes "The Man Without Fear" after he lost his sight and developed super-senses to seek payback for his father.

Matt Murdock grew up in the neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen as a young, loner boy unlike other kids. He would often go skateboarding and then sneak up into the gym of his father, "Battlin’" Jack Murdock, who was a professional boxer. Jack would often cry at night over a woman named Maggie and Matt would help him back to bed.

The other night, Jack was getting beat down by a henchman of The Fixer, who wants him to become an enforcer for him. Though Murdock refuses even after they threaten to kill him, they warn him to kill Matt too if he doesn't comply and seeing no other way out, he ended up doing the job so that his young boy could go ahead in life.

As he sold out a part of his soul to do Fixer's job, he hopes for young son Matt is to stay away from trouble and to be established really well. When he hears that his boy is fighting other kids on the block, Jack beats him in a fit of rage but regrets immediately after. Matthew decides to abide by the rules from then and isolates himself from everyone.

Matt loses his vision in a road accident when he was trying to save a blind man crossing street from an incoming truck carrying radioactive substances that got spilled on his eyes. In exchange for his vision, his other senses like hearing and touch are heightened to superhuman levels, where he can hear a simple pin drop from a block away.

marvel's daredevil comics
Daredevil – The Man Without Fear | Comics

People in general took pity on the boy and wanted to help him but there comes a man who carefully observes him. He is picked by ninja master Stick who is also without vision and trains Matt to develop and master his certain set of skills. Soon, he could jump from rooftops and even shoot arrows to a target with pinpoint accuracy.

Later, Jack is approached by The Fixer after a while to set up a boxing match next day for him to make a bundle out of it but knowing that his son is watching the fight, he refuses to fall or give up until the last moment and knocks out his opponent. He is later cornered by Fixer's men into an alley, who beat him up badly before shooting him dead.

After playing dumb to the cops, little Matt, finds men of Fixer's gang and beat the hell out of them. He then confronts the big one in the gym and breaks him too before their boss arrives to see this. Fixer's attempt to run from the vengeful boy caused him to die of a heart attack after a Hail Mary chase over to the subway of New York.

In his freshmen years, he met with Franklin "Foggy" Nelson and they became good friends while studying law. There, the enigmatic Elektra came to his life like a wind and bonded because of their thrill-seeking nature. They starts having an affair and begin training together but eventually got separated, breaking Matt’s heart.

Back in Hell’s Kitchen, one of his arch-enemies to be in his upcoming years as the vigilante crime-fighter Daredevil, the Kingpin of crime rises to power by killing off mafia boss Don Rigoletto and taking over his organization. He reshapes the underworld with drugs and child prostitution while ruining countless lives for this.

Matthew came back to his old place after finishing law school and picked fights with punks working for the Kingpin. Having a history of standing up against bullies, Matt eventually took a stand against the biggest bully in the city upon learning of his activity and debuted as a vigilante by trashing down his operation to ground.

man without fear
Matt Murdock Training With Stick

Here is your links to buy "Daredevil – The Man Without Fear" from Marvel Comics in issues on Amazon.

Daredevil – The Man Without Fear 01

Daredevil – The Man Without Fear 02


Daredevil – The Man Without Fear 03


Daredevil – The Man Without Fear 04


Daredevil – The Man Without Fear 05

Here is your links to buy "Daredevil – The Man Without Fear" from Marvel Comics on Amazon.

Daredevil – The Man Without Fear (Softcover)

Daredevil – The Man Without Fear (Hardcover)

"The Man Without Fear" is a five issue limited series featuring Daredevil, published by Marvel Comics in 1993. Renowned comic-book legend Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Strikes Again) and artist John Romita Jr. (Avengers Vs. X-Men, World War Hulk) teamed up to re-tell the origin story of the relentless vigilante hero.

Miller's work on Daredevil monthly series in the early 80's made him a series regular and Romita had a history in contributing to the series as well. The origin story was sort of a "Batman – Year One" treatment to DD, also created by Miller himself.

daredevil frank miller
A Blind Ronin

"The Man Without Fear" is considered as one of the greatest Daredevil stories around and a classic origin tale to get a fresh start with this crime-fighting superhero right from his very beginning but Miller depicted the tale slight differently than his early works. He took this opportunity to include additional details to the plot.

Although much more further in plot by the time, the third season of Marvel's Daredevil web television series on streaming service Netflix adopts the black costume Matt wears at the end of this story throughout the whole season. The origin of Elektra, Stick and The Hand is also heavily influenced from the mini-series.
If you like the post, then PLEASE leave a comment.