Daredevil: Born Again - The title and cover of this trade paperback publication reflect the overtly religious (and Catholic) nature of both this book specifically, and the Daredevil character generally. The volume collects Daredevil issues #227-233, written by Frank Miller and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli.  |
Daredevil was apparently not overtly identified as a Catholic character when he first appeared. It seems likely, however, given Daredevil/Matt Murdock's family background and name, that Stan Lee and Bill Everett generally thought of the character as Catholic when they created him in the 1960s. It was not uncommon during that time for real-world religious affiliation to be viewed as a taboo subject. The religious affiliation of most major comic book characters was never overtly identified, even when writers created characters with a specific ethnic/religious background in mind.
Later writers of the Daredevil comic book series, including Frank Miller during his influential runs on the series, overtly identified Daredevil as Catholic and more frequently portrayed him in Catholic religious settings and situations. Frank Miller once said, "I figured Daredevil must be Catholic because only a Catholic could be both an attorney and a vigilante."
Daredevil (2003): The character's big screen debut features an overtly Catholic portrayal of the hero. Much of the film takes place within the Catholic church Daredevil regularly attends confessional. Daredevil (Ben Affleck) shares the screen with a Greek Orthodox girlfriend, Elektra (played by Jennifer Garner). |
In the "Born Again" storyline written by Frank Miller, it was revealed that Matt Murdock's mother, who he never knew as a child, had left his father sometime after Matt was born and became a nun. Sister Maggie apparently watched her son from afar throughout his life. In the "Born Again" story, Sister Maggie saves Matt Murdock from dying after she finds him severely injured by the Kingpin. When he touches the gold cross that Sister Maggie wears, Matt recalls that the same nun wearing the same cross came to him after he was injurred in the accident that first blinded him and gave him his super powers in his youth. Matt asked Sister Maggie if she as his mother, and although she lied to him and said no, his heightened sense of smell confirmed to him that her scent was so close to his that she was his mother.
From: Andrew A. Smith (Scripps Howard News Service), "Comics superheroes of many faiths", published 3 February 2000 in The Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/religion/446482.html; viewed 30 November 2005):
Matt (Daredevil) Murdock is a well-established Catholic of Irish descent whose mother is a nun. (A number of terrific stories have emerged from the conflict between his deeply felt beliefs and his secret life as a vigilante.)From: "Daredevil" article on Wikipedia.com website (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daredevil_(comics); viewed 8 October 2005):
Matt Murdock is one of the most complicated characters in comic books, mostly due to the additions made by Frank Miller:From: Terry Mattingly, "Comic book visionaries", nationally syndicated "On Religion" column, 5 November 2003 (http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/2003/11/05/; viewed 1 December 2005):Catholic - Reflecting upon the character of Daredevil, Frank Miller has said that a person so conflicted as to be both a lawyer and a vigilante must be a Catholic. Identifying a religious affiliation was uncommon in comics as it was often seen to alienate those who were not part of that religion, though also, perhaps, because many early comic creators were Jewish. Miller's addition of the character's Catholicism offered many opportunities to comment on the overwhelming "Catholic guilt" that would cause him to think of himself as a devil. Kevin Smith, a Catholic himself, also utilized this aspect of the character prominantly in his run on the series.
"Anyone who knows where to look can find plenty of examples of faith in the comics and the culture that surrounds them," [Leo Partible, an independent movie producer, graphic artist and writer] said. "There is darkness there, but lots of light, too."Popular film director Kevin Smith (a self-described practicing Catholic) first delved into comic book writing with Daredevil. Smith prominenly included Catholic themes in his stories. From: John Fellows, "The List; Daredevil", published 11 August 2003 in 9th Art (http://www.ninthart.com/display.php?article=638; viewed 30 November 2005):...Hollywood writer Kevin Smith's "Daredevil" hero wrestles with guilt while leaning on his Catholic faith.
GUARDIAN DEVIL
Released as DAREDEVIL VISIONARIES: KEVIN SMITH
By Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada & Jimmy Palmiotti
US $19.95
ISBN: 0785107371Before the series was recently revamped, DAREDEVIL had become a second-rater, a book with a fondly remembered past, wallowing in an indifferent present. Letting it fade out of memory long enough for people to forget those low points, Marvel then handed the reins to Kevin Smith, noted director of CHASING AMY and MALLRATS.
Matt Murdock's life is torn apart when his girlfriend leaves him, his best friend - Foggy Nelson - is accused of murder, he's left looking after a lost baby, and worse is still to come. Is this the workings of a higher force? Or the sick machinations of a more human agency?
Smith brings DAREDEVIL's Catholic symbols and anxieties to the fore in GUARDIAN DEVIL, and though his style is overly wordy, his first shot at writing mainstream comics leaves an indelible mark on the hero. The heaped tragedies build to a crescendo that's all too typical of Murdock's life as he loses another loved one. The fact that GUARDIAN DEVIL occasionally demonstrates a lack of follow-through on certain points belies Smith's heartfelt emotions in the rest of the piece.
This reference occurs after Daily Bugle investigative journalist Ben Ulrich tells Milla what he has been able to piece together about the recent events that led up to Matt Murdock (Daredevil) going missing for many days. Then Milla tells Ulrich that she simply wanted to meet him to ask his help in finding Matt, her husband. Ulrich is shocked by what Milla said, as he did not previously know that Murdock had recently married.
BEN ULRICH: I've checked everywhere. All the places you'd think he'd go and about a dozen places you wouldn't-- Matt Murdock has disappeared. I hope he's okay. Usually I wouldn't even worry about it. I mean, Matt always ends up okay. But with everythng upside down like it is -- Everything so-- I don't know-- I just hope he's okay.
MILLA: I-- I certainly appreciate your taking the time with me, Mr. Ulrich. I-- I didn't understand what was going on and--and your perspective on it-- It certainly-- yes, it certainly sniff. . . I'm sorry.
BEN ULRICH: It's okay . . .
MILLA: But, Mr. Ulrich, I don't care about any of this. I don't. I know I should, but I-- I don't. I called you here because I need your help in the worst way. I am at my wit's end. I'm-- I'm sick to my stomach . . . I just need you to help me find my husband. Please help me find Matthew.
BEN ULRICH: [a shocked expression on his face] Husband . . . Milla, when did you and Matt Murdock . . . get married?
MILLA: About-- about four months ago. May 4th.
BEN ULRICH: [shocked; says nothing]
MILLA: Hello?
BEN ULRICH: I'm-- I'm sorry. I'm just stunned.
MILLA: Well, I am blind. So could you be 'stunned' a little louder.
BEN ULRICH: I'm sorry. I, um, I just-- I guess I just never saw him as the marrying type.
MILLA: Good Catholic boy. Sure.
BEN ULRICH: Well . . . guess he never found the right woman.
MILLA: That's nice, thank you. He said-- he said I was like the this whole city all pushed into one woman. And-- and he does love this city, so . . .
Below: The excerpts from the surrounding pages below (with some panels deleted and cropped for the sake of space) are from the last page of Daredevil volume 2 issues #57 and the first two pages of issue #58:
Sister Maggie, a Catholic nun, visits young Matt Murdock in the hospital after the accident that blinded him but also gave him his powers. At the time, Matt did not realize that the woman with the gold cross was his mother. Scene from Daredevil #229, Marvel Comics Group: New York City (1986), page 4, written by Frank Miller, illustrated by David Mazzucchelli. Reprinted in Daredevil: Born Again trade paperback, Marvel Entertainment Group: New York City (2005), 7th printing, page 56.  |
Below: Text from Daredevil #229, page 4: the scene in which Matt Murdock's mother visits him in the hospital after his accident. This may be the first time that Matt's mother is shown as a nun, although it is not yet made clear in this scene who the woman is. In the previous issue (#228), Matt Murdock attacked the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), but was defeated and badly beaten by him. The Kingpin arranged to have the unconscious Murdock trapped in a car that was then driven into the bay, in an effort to make authorities believe that a despondent Murdock had committed suicide. Matt Murdock/Daredevil managed to escape, but collapsed in an alley due to his injuries. In the scene shown below, he is dreaming, recalling the event surrounding the childhood accident with radioactive material which blinded him:
MATT MURDOCK'S THOUGHTS: Dad's anxiety paints the world red. He finally leaves and it's another night of terror and the endless coughing of someone down the hall. Then . . . soft steps . . . a soft woman's scene . . . a soft voice . . .
SISTER MAGGIE: Why does it hurt?
YOUNG MATT (in flashback): So loud . . . so smelly . . . everything . . .
SISTER MAGGIE: I see . . .
NARRATION/ADULT MATT MURDOCK: She breathes. Down the hall the coughing subsides. When she speaks again it's a gentle whisper.
SISTER MAGGIE: This . . . may not be a bad thing. What you could do with it . . .
YOUNG MATT (in flashback): Do . . . with it?
SISTER MAGGIE: Just think of it. It's a blessing, Matt. It's yours. Yours. And it's our secret. Don't tell anyone. Promise me now . . .
YOUNG MATT (in flashback): Who are you?
NARRATION/ADULT MATT MURDOCK: Lips, warm . . . kissing my forehead . . . lovingly . . . and something hard, dangling from her neck . . . [Young Matt's hand is shown reaching up to touch the cross necklace.] It's a cross . . . made of gold . . .
SISTER MAGGIE: Promise me . . .
NARRATION/ADULT MATT MURDOCK: A kind woman's gift of hope to me. I never understand it-- and she never comes back. But it gets easier . . .
At the end of the scene above when Matt says "It gets easier," he was referring to the fact that being blind and having super-enhanced other senses gets easier for him, as he adapts to his new condition and learns to use his other senses to compensate for his blindness, and also learns how to control or deal with the abundance of sensory information bombarding him. The flashback/dream continues as we see Matt's father visit him again. These scenes of Matt in the hospital with his father were adapted fairly faithfully to the 2003 feature film Daredevil, but the movie makes no mention whatsoever of Matt's mother.
Later, in the same issue (Daredevil #229), Sister Maggie finds Matt Murdock collapsed, bleeding from injuries, in the gym where Matt's father (Maggie's former lover or husband) used to train. The final page of this issue is a poignant full-page image showing Maggie, the nun, cradling her injured now-adult son.
In Daredevil #230, in a story titled "Born Again" (by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli), Sister Maggie has brought an injured Matt Murdock (her son) to the basement of her Catholic church. She has been praying for him, and now exclaims, "Praise God! He's alive!" when she feels a pulse.
Below: Text from Daredevil #230, "Born Again", written by Frank Miller, illustrated by David Mazzucchelli, pages 7-8:
MATT MURDOCK'S THOUGHTS/NARRATION: They've done some work on me. The broken rib is back where it belongs. I'm not bleeding. I'm one big bruise. Best not to pay attention how I feel. The more I focus outside myself, the -- that stench [referring to a homeless person or wino lying in the cot next to him] -- even his sweat smells like cheap wine -- I can taste his hangover with him -- can't stand it -- must move further out . . .
Sounds are muffled by the snow. The gulls, they only sound like that in the morning. Complaining. Like the whole city's complaining. I'm still in Manhattan. Narrow it down. Even past Brother Gallo next to me I can smell the neighborhood. Rats and concrete dust. Hell's Kitchen. I grew up here.
But what kind place am I in? Church bells. I'm in a church. Must be in the basement. A mission. Just me and the winos. Got to get away from these smells. [Matt tries to get out of bed, but collapses on the floor.] Okay -- who took the muscles out of my legs?
SISTER MAGGIE: You idiot . . . [Sister Maggie pulls Matt off the floor and back onto the cot.] My name is Maggie. You're staying here.
Below: Text from Daredevil #230, "Born Again", written by Frank Miller, illustrated by David Mazzucchelli, pages 14-15:
MATT MURDOCK'S THOUGHTS/NARRATION: When I first got my powers, I lived through a night of utter agony. My senses were wild. Everything hurt me. Every sound and smell. A woman came to me with words of hope. But never told me who she was. She wore a gold cross. I touched it. My fingers never fogot it. [Matt touches the cross hanging from his neck, a cross he was not wearing before, and which he notices now that he wakes up again after recovering further from his injuries.] It's this cross. This cross.
Who could love me so much . . . and stay away so long? Who are you Maggie?
ANOTHER NUN: Still the fever climbs, sister.
SISTER MAGGIE: It will break. It will.
After the injuries he received at the hands of the Kingpin, as well as subsequent injuries, Sister Maggie and other nuns at the Catholic church mission in Hell's Kitchen patched up Matt Murdock as well as they could. But he became feverish and close to death. Sister Maggie (Matt's mother) prayed for him. Below: Text from Daredevil #230, "Born Again", written by Frank Miller, illustrated by David Mazzucchelli, page 20:
SISTER MAGGIE: [praying] The fever grows in him. No Earthly force can stop it. He has lost too much blood. His body cannot fight. He will die.
But he has so very much to do, my Lord. His soul is troubled. But it is a good man's soul, my Lord. He needs only to be shown your way. Then he will rise as your own and bring light to this poisoned city. He will be as a spear of lightning in your hand, my Lord.
If I am to be punished for past sins, so be it. If I am to be cast into Hell, so be it.
But spare him. So many need him. Hear my plea.
After Sister Maggie's prayer, Matt Murdock recovered fully from his fever. In this scene, he finally realizes, for the first time, that Sister Maggie is his own biological mother. Below: Text from Daredevil #230, "Born Again", written by Frank Miller, illustrated by David Mazzucchelli, pages 21-22:
MATT MURDOCK/NARRATION: A heartbeat can tell you a lot. Mine, for instance, has slowed considerably the past few hours . . . ever since the fever broke. It's a pleasure just to sit and listen to it.
NUN: God has been merciful to that boy.
SISTER MAGGIE: God is just, Sister.
MATT MURDOCK/NARRATION: Maggie's heart is juts to my right. It's in great shape. She's got a lot of years left. And the tension has gone out of her sweat. She carries the same scent she brought to my hospital room, years ago.
SISTER MAGGIE: Are you hungry?
MATT MURDOCK: Not yet. But I will be-- Thanks to you.
MATT MURDOCK/NARRATION: It's a pleasant scent. So much like my own.
SISTER MAGGIE: Give your thanks to the Lord.
MATT MURDOCK: Maggie . . . Are you my mother?
SISTER MAGGIE: Of course not, child.
MATT MURDOCK/NARRATION (THINKING TO HIMSELF): A heartbeat can tell you a lot. Hers just jumped. She's lying.
Matt Murdock, sitting up in bed, far more healthy than before, smiles as he thinks these thoughts. He realizes here that Maggie is indeed his mother. Although she told him she isn't his mother, it is not even clear that she intended to deceive him. She knows, after all, of his heightened other senses. Also note the smile on her face as she answers him, and the way she addresses him as "child" while tellin Matt that she isn't his mother. Whatever her intention, the mystery of who Sister Maggie is has been cleared up for Matt, and forever after this he she was his mother.
After Daredevil #230 (titled "Born Again"), the very next issue, Daredevil #231, was titled "Saved," once again continuing the Christian-based themes of this story arc. In this issue, a revitalized Matt Murdock begins to bounce back and fight back against the Kingpin, who has tried to ruined his life. At the end of the story Matt Murdock is finally reunited with the former love of his life, Karen Page, the woman who at a low point in her life sold Daredevil's secret identity to the Kingpin for a drug fix, thus triggering the events told in the overall "Born Again" story arc.
From: Steve Beard, "Bamf! The gospel according to Nightcrawler", on Thunderstruck.org website (http://www.thunderstruck.org/nightcrawler.htm; viewed 8 December 2005):
Out of all the myriad of cartoon superheroes created in the last fifty years, very few have articulated or been indentified with a specific religious faith. There have, however, been exceptions to the rule. Last year, it was revealed in the comics that Ben Grimm (a.k.a The Thing) of The Fantastic Four was Jewish. In the movie Daredevil, crucifixes and other religious iconography flood the screen (as well as visits to the confessional) in order to convey Matt Murdock's struggle between vigilantism and his boyhood Catholic faith. In the Spider-Man movie, the Lord's Prayer is featured prominently when Aunt May is attacked by the Green Goblin.An excellent article by Jeffrey Weiss, published in the Dallas Morning News, reported on religion in comic books, citing Daredevil and Nightcrawler as two of the relatively few superheroes who are depicted as explicitly religous in the comics. The article, published before the release of the movies X2: X-Men United (2003) and Daredevil (2003), incorrectly stated that the religious affiliation of these characters would not be a part of their depiction in the upcoming movies. This proved to be incorrect. In fact, both Daredevil and Nightcrawler were depicted in a very prominent way as explicitly religious. The big screen depictions of Nightcrawler and Daredevil were not only a departure from how superheroes are normally portrayed in movies with regards to religiosity, these characters were remarkable for mainstream Hollywood movies in general for being sympathetically portrayed religious characters. From: Jeffrey Weiss, "Comic-book heroes seldom reveal their faith: Recent revelation of the Thing's religion was a rare moment for pop culture", published in Dallas Morning News, 24 August 2002, re-posted on BeliefNet.com website under headline "Comic Faith: The Thing's Religion Revealed" (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/113/story_11303_1.html; viewed 30 November 2005):
There have been a few characters over the years whose faith has been made explicit. Daredevil, the blind superhero who will be played by Ben Affleck, is Catholic. Nightcrawler, a member of the X-Men who may make it into the next movie, is considering becoming a Catholic priest.From: Jeffrey Weiss, "Comic-book heroes seldom reveal their faith: Recent revelation of the Thing's religion was a rare moment for pop culture", published in Dallas Morning News, 24 August 2002 (http://www.bluecorncomics.com/thingjew.htm; viewed 21 December 2005):But their religion will not be a part of the upcoming movies. Neither is Ben [Grimm]'s faith a part of the plan for the FF movie, or the Punisher's for that character's movie, Marvel officials said. Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad declined to explain why faith wasn't woven into the scripts. But comics industry experts said it was for the same reason religion hasn't been a big part of the books: Not offending is safer.
Over the years, the writers told readers all kinds of things about the habits and foibles of the characters. We knew about their taste in clothing, their troubles with relationships, their sense of humor. But we rarely discovered whether they followed any particular religion.That seems odd in one way. Back in the dawn of the modern comic book, more than 90 percent of Americans self-identified with a particular religion, mostly some kind of Christianity. Why wouldn't reality-linked superheroes have a particular religion?
Explicitly Religious Comics Characters
[list of 20 characters features 8 characters under the "Christian" subheading, including:]
Daredevil, Matthew Murdock, is a blind superhero and is Catholic.
