Daredevil’s Meditations on Morality

Marvel’s runaway success with Daredevil on Netflix came out of left field and surprised many viewers. What used to be a fairly poor and largely forgettable 2003 film starring Ben Affleck is now one of the most talked about series, with some extremely memorable performances, well-choreographed action sequences, and a fantastic script, that makes Marvel’s other series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter look a bit naff by comparison.

What makes Daredevil such a good show, besides the technical details of acting, directing, pacing, and such, is the theme of morality that the show explores. Daredevil is a dark series. The show focuses on street-level crime fighting fought in the dingy concrete jungle of Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan; far removed from the bright colour palette and epic battles of the Avengers. In Marvel’s first R rated adaptation, we see real violence committed by real people, and a real city in danger of collapsing into the murky underworld of crime that lies beneath. Our protagonist is yet another superhero with abilities beyond that of an ordinary man, but not so far beyond as to be an invincible juggernaut such as Thor or Hulk, or even Spiderman.

Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) is a blind lawyer, who lost his sight in an accident during his childhood, but miraculously gained extremely enhanced senses, allowing him to hear sounds and sense things beyond the usual spectrum of human experience. Combine this with extensive training in martial arts and a vague explanation of his insane stamina, quick healing and endurance (it’s chalked up to meditation) and you essentially have the ultimate ninja.

What really makes Matt Murdock tick, however, is his Catholic morality. This is the first live action comic book hero we have seen in recent memory with a strong religious conviction. Previously, religion has been a relative non-issue within the Marvel universe. Bruce Banner is a man of science, The Guardians of the Galaxy are mostly space aliens from other worlds, Thor is himself is a Pagan God and it’s hard to imagine Tony Stark thumbing through a bible in between his drinking episodes and jet set playboy lifestyle. Captain America occasionally hints at a Christian faith, but it’s never extended beyond being an old timey Americanism in order to show what a living anachronism he is — his primary character motivations are patriotism and freedom, not Biblical values.

Matt Murdock makes for a fascinating hero precisely because of his strong Catholic convictions, separating him from other heroes. This is not a man saving the world from a vast existential threat like an alien invasion or dark overlord, but rather a man who sees evil in his neighbourhood and takes it upon himself to stop it. Matt Murdoch is a skilful lawyer by day (he can use his sense powers to tell whether someone is telling the truth or not). By night he becomes a vigilante, determined to karate kick criminals until they fall down and are eventually dealt with by the law. Though he’s far from invincible, his skill with the martial arts and mastery of his senses sees him carve a path of destruction through the criminal underworld, leading to many frightened criminals to whisper the name “the devil of Hell’s kitchen”.

Taking this alias upon himself, he ironically gains a devilish persona and calls himself Daredevil. Far from being a killer in the shadows however, his Christian faith instils in him a morality of sin and repentance, which is why he never kills. This adds an extra layer of ethics to the usual demands for justice that we know from Batman.

Claire Temple: Okay, I find a guy in a dumpster who turns out to be some kind of blind vigilante who can do all of this really weird shit like smell cologne through walls and sense whether someone’s unconscious or faking it. Slap on top of that, he can take an unbelievable amount of punishment without one damn complaint.

Matt: The last part’s the Catholicism.

Being a good Catholic, he also suffers from good old Catholic guilt. When Matt returns home from his night time crusades against crime as the sun is coming up, he’s often chastised by his roommate, co-worker and (notably) hetero “life partner”, “Foggy” Nelson (Elden Henson). It’s strongly hinted at many times that beneath Matt’s longing for justice and his need to help people, is a kind of self-destructive masochism that threatens to ultimately consume his personal and professional lives. He simply cannot abide the crime and evil he sees around himself, and must take it upon himself to rid his city of violent crime, even if he’s not totally up to the task and even, especially, if it destroys him in the process. His tireless and reckless vigilantism clashes against his career as a lawyer and is the first dichotomy we see within the series, as Matt Murdoch/Daredevil become a kind of Jekyll and Hyde; with Matt leading a secret life in which he must become something horrible – “the devil of Hell’s Kitchen” in order to take the law into his own hands and defeat evil.

As season one progresses, we are introduced to Daredevil’s new arch nemesis, Wilson Fisk, A.K.A: Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). As the name “Kingpin” suggests, Fisk is a plutocrat. Like our hero Daredevil, he also has a desire to make a difference in his city and clean up his neighbourhood. Like two sides of the same coin, our hero and villain are contrasted against each other, yet share similar goals. Whilst Daredevil gets up close and personal with crime using his fists, Fisk works behind the scenes as a mafia boss, using others to indirectly get what he wants.

Fisk: “What I said about what I want for this city is the truth. But money and influence is not enough to usher change on such a scale. Sometimes it requires force.”

He’s the ultimate secret tyrant, strong arming his way into power and using his money and connections to destroy or assimilate his rivals with ruthless cunning. He also leads a relatively normal life in which he is a cultured business magnate with a taste for fine dining as well as sophisticated art and music. We see that he’s far from a megalomaniac like Loki or a terrorist supervillain like the Mandarin, but instead has a genuine desire to improve his surroundings and make a better world for himself and his fellow man to live in –- that world being Hell’s Kitchen and Manhattan. Where the two differ is that Fisk, in true villain style, is a pragmatist with an almost nihilistic conviction that the ends justify the means. In attempting to realize his vision of his city, he’s willing to stoop to almost any level, and in doing so becomes a criminal mastermind himself. As he becomes frustrated in his campaign, he begins more and more to embrace the identity of a sadistic mob boss, and like Murdock becomes a twisted mirror image of himself –- the thing he hated the most.

Fisk: “I’m not the Samaritan, that I’m not the priest or the Levite… that I am the ill intent who set upon the traveller on a road that he should not have been on.”

Daredevil on the other hand, insists that people can be saved, and makes it his mission to stop Fisk and his clandestine criminal empire. The two share similar obsessive convictions to save their city, and begin a conflict with one another that quickly spirals into full blown war for the streets; Daredevil trying to stop Fisk’s creeping corruption of the city, and Fisk trying to squash what he sees as an idealistic fool and a thorn in the side of his criminal operation. Thanks to two fantastic performances from the lead actors and a strong script, it’s a hell of a ride that became one of the most popular shows overnight and is perhaps the deepest exploration of heroes and villains Marvel have yet put to screen.

Season 2 had a lot to live up to after high standards set by the first, but manages to broaden the thematic spectrum of the Daredevil universe by successfully introducing new characters with their own unique take on justice and morality.

It comes to Daredevil’s attention that there’s someone leaving a trail of bodies through the criminal underworld. This person is clearly a homicidal maniac on some kind of vengeful crusade against the criminal gangs of Hell’s Kitchen and is hell-bent on killing anyone who gets in his way. Unlike Daredevil’s honourable use of martial arts to incapacitate his opponents ‘till the cops arrive, this man exercises his right to bear arms and employs a small arsenal of guns to deadly effect. He makes Daredevil’s midnight confrontations with crime look like Jehovah’s witnesses compared to his SWAT team. This is contrasted with Daredevil’s strong belief in second chances (repentance and redemption), and the two soon come into conflict as Daredevil tries to track him down and stop his murderous rampage.

It’s revealed that the man is Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), a highly dangerous and extremely motivated veteran whose family was murdered during a shooting one fateful day. With his wife and daughter killed by crossfire, Frank is so damaged and distraught that he becomes a man with nothing left to lose, and begins a relentless campaign of carnage and killing to find those responsible. He reasons that the people he kills are beyond saving; that the court system is hopelessly overwhelmed and that by playing executioner and putting these criminal gang members in the ground he’s making the world a better place. There are many among the public who agree with him.

Frank: “You hit them and they get back up, I hit them and they stay down!”

The criminal underworld begins to call him “The Punisher” a name which he gladly takes for himself, indicating that far from simple justice, he’s a full on sadist who enjoys inflicting destruction upon his victims. This puts him at odds with Daredevil, but the two are often forced to share an uneasy alliance as they fight against the same enemies. The conflict of ethics between the two makes for undoubtedly the best scenes in the show and Frank Castle’s incendiary public court case (handled by Murdock and his law firm) is some of the most compelling TV I’ve ever seen.

Enter Elektra. As if Matt didn’t have enough going on already, Elektra (Elodie Yung) is an exotic seductress from his past who shows up out of the blue and immediately complicates Matt’s life. Unlike the other deeply moral and principled characters fighting for a cause they believe in, Elektra is a nihilist and seems to live a life of hedonism. Contrary to Matt’s deeply committed cause to help the innocent and do the right thing, Elektra is purely out for herself. Whilst the other characters are trying to influence the world with their own view of order and justice, Elektra is a more animalistic force that yields to simple whims and chaotic impulses.

This brings out the worst in Matt and draws him away from his disciplined fighting as Daredevil as well as his otherwise diligent law work and his budding relationship with his co-worker, Karen Page. Elektra is a remorseless murderer who kills for fun rather than a cause, and she tempts an often repressed Matt to use his abilities for his own selfish enjoyment and let his wild side out. Like Yin and Yang, the two are conflicting opposites yet irresistibly attracted to each other.

Lastly, a mysterious group of ninjas known as the Hand is introduced and has a big role to play in the latter half of the season. They appear to be up to something awful, and wield occult magic to seemingly bring back the dead. They are contrasted to the others in that they are the show’s pure evil who are up to no good and must be stopped at all costs. As yet however, their motives and history are mostly left undisclosed. If they reappear in the next season, perhaps they could cause all characters, even Fisk to join forces to fight against them; after all they may threaten the existence of Hell’s Kitchen itself, which all the other major players are invested in protecting in their own way.

These characters all have their own unique philosophies on crime, and it’s seeing them and their philosophies clash, backed up by great performances, a strong script and all round quality production, that creates some of the most compelling drama and action of any series around today. Although based in the world of superheroes, Daredevil is really about vigilantes, and it’s the most fully realised and challenging adaptation Marvel have produced.