New Generation Meets "Daredevil"
Friday brings us the latest superhero to break into movies, Marvel's Daredevil. Which probably leaves a lot of you saying: "Who?"
For the answer, we have to travel back to the heady, early days of Marvel Comics, when the company exploded on the pop-culture scene with the Fantastic Four (1961); Spider-Man, Thor and the Hulk (1962); the X-Men, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, The Avengers and Sgt. Fury (1963); and a Captain America revival (1964).
Of course, there was a clunker or two. Ant-Man, for example (1962). Plus our new pal, Daredevil (1964), by Stan Lee and Bill Everett.
Daredevil starred Matt Murdock, struck blind as a boy by radioactive material that enhanced his remaining four senses to superhuman levels, and gifted him with a "radar sense." This "radar" allowed young Murdock to maneuver even better than sighted people, while his supersenses allowed him to determine if someone was lying by listening to heartbeats, or read a newspaper by feeling the ink impressions, or identify someone on a crowded New York street by scent.
Murdock's father was a washed-up boxer (his mother was dead or missing), who constantly harangued the boy to earn a living with his head and not his hands. Being a dutiful son, Matt never tried out for sports and constantly cracked the books - earning him the derisive neighborhood nickname "Daredevil."
Stung by those taunts, Matt kept his superhuman abilities secret and worked out privately to become a superior athlete and hand-to- hand combatant. His supersenses served him well; his balance and coordination were incredible and it was child's play for him to pick out nerve clusters or weak spots on an opponent.
This secret life came in handy when his father ran afoul of some crooked boxing promoters, who murdered 'Battling Jack' Murdock when he refused to throw a fight. Matt concocted a disguise from various boxing and wrestling outfits and tracked down his father's killers, using only a billy club that his sense of touch and balance allowed him to throw unerringly.
I mentioned that Murdock can do many amazing things with his supersenses. But one thing he can't do is determine color - he really is blind - which may explain why his first supersuit was a hideous assemblage of yellow, red and black. This was quickly corrected with Daredevil No. 7 (April 1965), when he donned an all- red "devil" suit (which you'll see in the movie).
Daredevil wasn't bad, mind you. But compared to Marvel's insanely popular books like Amazing Spider-Man, it was something of an underachiever. Marvel tried a number of fixes to make the character more popular, such as inventing a fake third identity for Matt ("twin brother" Mike Murdock), co-stars such as The Black Widow (both lover and partner for a time), lots of guest appearances in other books, and so on and so forth.
Nothing much clicked, though, and for much of its run, Daredevil slipped into bimonthly publication (always a bad sign).
Until, that is, the advent of writer/artist Frank Miller in 1979. This is the fellow who later created The Dark Knight Returns (1986), inspiring Warner Bros. and director Tim Burton to create the popular 1989 Batman movie.
Miller lifted a Spider-Man foe called The Kingpin of Crime to be Daredevil's perpetual nemesis, and made a character called Bullseye (who never misses, and can turn even a paper clip into a deadly missile) into DD's most formidable opponent. He also introduced Elektra, a beautiful and deadly assassin - who had a hidden romantic past with Matt Murdock that was revealed slowly over numerous issues. And he turned Murdock's long-running (and mousy) love interest, secretary Karen Page, into a junkie porn star who sold Daredevil's secret identity to The Kingpin for drug money.
These characters formed an ensemble of explosive dramatic possibility, which Miller (and his successors) milked to turn Daredevil into a fan favorite.
His battles with Bullseye hit every conceivable target, his love/ hate relationship with Elektra was electrifying, the fall and redemption of Karen Page a page-turner, and always in the background was The Kingpin, New York City's crime lord, using his ill-gained knowledge to complicate Matt Murdock's life at every turn.
Even today many of these themes form the core of Daredevil - a book not remotely in danger of going bimonthly. It's so popular that director Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, Dogma) jumped at the chance to write a new Daredevil title in 1998, and will have a cameo in the film.
Speaking of which, it's Frank Miller's opus that will form the storyline for the movie. Whether the movie will live up to the promise of the original story is yet to be seen.
But at least you know what the hype is about now. So get ready, because - as DD's logo said for many years - "Here comes . . . Daredevil: The Man Without Fear!"
