r/Daredevil • u/Sammaylearts • 4d ago

Comics Daredevil is messed up!

Been revisiting a lot of Daredevil stuff recently and the thing that really stood out to me is how much of Matt Murdock’s life is built around guilt.

His dad, Elektra, Karen, Kingpin, even the people he fails to save…he seems to carry all of it like it’s somehow his responsibility. The whole “Man Without Fear” thing feels almost secondary compared to how self-destructive he can be.

I ended up putting together a deeper video about it because there was way more to unpack than I expected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRmaYlWKt3k

Curious what people think though, does being Daredevil actually make Matt a better person, or does it slowly ruin his life?

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6

u/Vio_ 4d ago

Just good old fashioned Catholic guilt in a nutshell lol.

It's a bit of a joke and a cliche, but it's not without merit.

Spoilers for S3 Matt coudln't even get properly angry or process that feeling of betrayal and other emotions in a healthy way on any level without Lantom giving him the absolute worst kind of Catholic guilt trip by demanding that Matt forgive him and Maggie for lying to him his entire life with his literal dying breath.

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u/dcothan 9h ago

Still i think his final words and what he did fit very well even if you dont believe he should have done so. I believe its in character for a man with such history in the church at the time he was in to be exactly as he was in his final moments.

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u/Vio_ 8h ago

Oh, it is 100% all of that yes.

It's more that the show rarely lets Matt have healthier emotional processing time and outlets, because that's often the primary fuel for the plot and his character arcs.

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u/Screwdgie 3d ago

Trying to read everything Daredevil I can with minimal spoilers, so I haven't watched your video (although it is now in my watch later), but his self-destructive nature seems to be integral to his character, even if it honestly annoys me at times. The things he blames himself for can definitely be a stretch at times. He has a lot of bad stuff happen to him, for sure, but I wish he spent more time blaming himself for the stuff that actually IS his fault.

Throughout most of Volume 1, especially, Matt Murdock is a gigantic sized ASSHOLE in my opinion. He is a huge womanizer (not that more modern comics don't keep that ball rolling), fakes his death a number of times, lies to his friends daily, etc. Don't even get me STARTED on Heather Glenn. I pretty much entirely blame him for her fate in the comics.

I don't think the Daredevil identity necessarily makes his life better or worse, I think he would screw stuff up for himself regardless. I just read an issue where he cheats on his mf wife for Christ's sake. Had nothin to do with his crime fighting side. He's just a self-loathing jerk at times.

Don't confuse this with hate, though. I love Daredevil and his comics. I just cannot believe the amount of stuff fans let slide. He is objectively not a good person at times in ways that can be tough to swallow, but I guess that just makes him more human.