Daredevil: Season 1

There's Marvel superheroes and then there is Matthew Murdock, a soft spoken, blind lawyer by day and the notorious Daredevil at night; both alter egos fighting the corruption of Hell's Kitchen. All three seasons of Daredevil had been on my Netflix queue for ages and after seeing Matt Murdock's hysterical cameo appearance in Spiderman: No Way Home, it was incentive enough to watch the series. Of all the Marvel films and shows that I've watched nothing could have prepared me for a story about a disabled man whose is a devoted Catholic and understands the true value of all life. 

When Matthew Murdock was a child, a terrible accident caused him to lose his sight. Born in Hell's Kitchen, Matthew spent his life learning how to fight. Raised by his single father, Jack, a boxer who loves his son, but tends to take too many chances with his life. When Jack is killed, Matthew is alone and is sent to live in a Catholic orphanage where he honed his other senses to take the place of his sight. With only a kindly priest as his guide, Matthew goes from a lonely child to a young lawyer wanting to take down the corrupt forces and mobsters of Hell's Kitchen. 

While Matt gives the appearance of a handsome and charming attorney, he is also a vigilante who listens to the suffering of the residents of Hell's Kitchen and comes to their defense. Wearing only a black mask to hide his identity, Matt's years of training his senses and mastering martial arts begins to earn him a reputation as a hero to many in Hell's Kitchen and a menace to the kingpins. 

When Matt and his best friend and partner, Foggy Nelson meet Karen Page, a young secretary who comes across falsified information within the company she works for, the doors of the bloodthirsty underworld are thrown open. When not aiding Foggy and Karen with trying to track down the elusive, Wilson Fisk, a crime boss with no empathy and little emotion, the Daredevil takes beating after beating which brings his to the doorstep of a beautiful nurse, Claire Temple. 

In the midst of all of this, Matt struggles with his deep Catholic faith that is his moral compass and forbids him to take any life, no matter how dark and hopeless that life might be. Matt Murdock is both an angel of mercy and a damned devil, determined to protect the weak, defend the innocent and bring justice to his city. 

I must have binge watched this show in two days! My only complaint is that there were several episodes where the violence went too far, but Daredevil isn't exactly a kid's character either. Charlie Cox is a great actor (see There Be Dragons where he plays Father Josemarie Escriva. WOW! What a performance!), and even though he's from England, he (like fellow English Marvel actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Holland) totally nailed the easy going American. It's actually really hard not to fall in love with Matt Murdock.  I also loved how faith is explored and respected and can understand why people responded so well to the show.

While I appreciate when superheroes can be written as mentally and emotionally broken, I've been somewhat dismayed that most of Marvel and DCs characters have little to no physical flaws. However, there are some that have made their own way as heroes. Characters such as Professor X who is paralyzed from the waist down and must rely on a wheel chair, Stephen Strange whose hands will always be disfigured, Clint Barton who is deaf from years on the job (in the comics it was from the abuse he received as a child) and finally, Matt Murdock, blinded in childhood with little if any hope of succeeding in life. 

As someone who has a disability, I have great admiration that the comic book world can take people who have lost some part of their physicality and become stronger because of the loss itself. Looking beyond what have been taken away and becoming heroes in their own right because they didn't let the world push them down and tell them they had no value. Matt Murdock is the definition of all of this.