The Man Without Fear

The simplest correlation to make with Daredevil is that justice is blind.  This works out because Daredevil is a vigilante bent on bringing justice to criminals that the system cannot handle.  However, it also works because Matt is a lawyer.  This is obvious to those familiar with the character, yet what does this say about the type of stories that can be told about The Man Without Fear?

The stories of this character tend not to be only the musings of some writer flatly penciling a story about some street-level super hero.  They are in fact a story about a hero that spends 50% of his time in the costume, but 100% of his time as a hero.  Matt (and his writers) have designed his life to fight injustice on and off duty.  Therefore, most of Daredevil’s stories lend themselves to be tales of defending those individuals that can’t defend themselves, whether that be due to the powers that be, the faults of the system, or the insurmountable odds of convicting evidence.  And in the midst of this, Daredevil stands firm.  He is blind to the odds, just as justice is blind.

Next, let me touch on the subtitle of the book: The Man Without Fear.

Fear blinds us to the truth.  You’ve heard it said that True Love is blind?  Well it’s also said that True Love casts out all Fear.  I like to think of this as the ability to ignore fear because your sight doesn’t get in the way of what you are trying to do when your motives are right.  Daredevil does not fear.

He does not fear the system; he does not fear the powerful; he does not fear the circumstances.  He overcomes.  He looks fear in the face and sees nothing.  He is the Daredevil–daring the unjust to take him on.  He is The Man Without Fear.

Daredevil epitomizes man’s struggle against injustice in all it’s forms.  His character is juxtaposed to the one thing that cripples humanity when faced with overpowering challenges.  In reality Matt’s super power is not heightened senses, but rather his ability to overcome the first obstacle to any challenge.

Bendis, Brubaker, and Diggle have immortalized this character over the past decade by realizing this very fact.  Looking back over the book, the true enemy that has been creeping in attacking Matt at every turn was Fear.  This hurdle was personified by Brubaker by using the Mr. Fear character, Bendis used the tension about his identity, and Diggle used Matt’s loss of self-control to bring woe to his life.

These stories represent some of the best theme-centric comics of our modern time. And where we are right now with Matt’s story is a stroke of genius.  Daredevil has finally let Fear overcome him.  He has been taken down by the only enemy that could do it:  himself.  Matt is no longer The Man Without Fear, because he now has fear.  He fears himself.  He fears what he has become and what he has done.

What Daredevil needs now is to be Reborn.