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Marvel Keeps Ignoring Daredevil’s Secret Weapon & It’s Hurting A Great Hero
Daredevil is one of Marvel’s most interesting heroes, and that’s mainly due to the fact that he’s a web of contradictions. He’s blind, but he sees more of the world than everybody around him. He’s a lawyer dedicated to upholding the law, yet every night takes the law into his own hands to save innocents. Most interestingly, he’s a devout Catholic, but he dresses like the Devil to inject fear into the hearts of those he fights. Matt firmly and truly believes in Catholicism, yet he goes against a lot of its teachings in order to fight like he does, lying and giving in to his rage every day. This messy, contradictory existence is what makes Daredevil such a fun character to play with, and yet Marvel massively underutilizes the most interesting part about him.
Daredevil’s Catholicism is very underutilized in the majority of his stories, and even when it is used, it is often in very similar ways instead of pushing the boundary. Instead of focusing on a surface-level depiction of Matt’s belief, Marvel has to focus more on digging into it and showing why it matters to Matt. By not deep diving into Daredevil’s belief, Marvel is depriving themselves of their best storytelling potential.
Daredevil’s Faith Opens Infinite Doors
There aren’t many superheroes who have faith as prominently as Daredevil. The only other popular character who is known for being as devoutly Catholic as DD is Nightcrawler. Even then, while Nightcawler is one of the most popular X-Men, the blue BAMFer is usually treated as a side character who supports others, so the spotlight is almost never solely on him, and thus not able to explore his beliefs in depth. There are few others who have religion as a major part of their lives, such as Miss Marvel, but with them, the focus on their faith doesn’t bring with it the personal struggle that makes Matt’s depiction so interesting. Instead, it’s usually focused on the community and perception of their faith, rather than the faith itself.
Most superheroes don’t have religion as a prominent part of their character, and Daredevil being so popular and so religious creates the chance for Marvel to explore stories that they can’t tell with anyone else. A story focusing on the very emotional line between free will and God’s will would not hit nearly as hard if someone like Spider-Man was leading it, but that type of story is right up Daredevil’s alley. Marvel literally as a version of the Judeo-Christian God as a character in the One Above All, who has interacted with tons of Marvel’s best characters from Spider-Man, to Hulk, to the Fantastic Four, and yet has never talked to Daredevil.
Think about Daredevil learning about the rage of the One Below All, or exploring Daredevil having deeply introspective interactions with Marvel’s other divine figures like Thor and Hercules. There are hundreds of interesting stories that can be told by exploring Matt’s faith, but instead, Marvel resorts to the same old stories they always tell with him.
Daredevil’s Belief Has to Be Explored
Some of Daredevil’s best stories focus on his faith. “Born Again” famously invokes imagery of the Stations of the Cross and revolves around the idea of dying and resurrecting, and Chip Zdarsky’s instant classic Daredevil run featured Matt’s struggle to live in accordance with his beliefs as a prominent theme. Daredevil sees himself as a soldier of God, using wrath he knows he should let go of to save others, all the while questioning if righteous violence is still at all different from regular violence. Matt is a man who fully believes, but often struggles to reconcile that belief with how he knows he must live his life. And yet, despite how amazing the stories that focus on this are, not every interpretation of this is created equal.
Plenty of Daredevil stories evoke some aspects of Catholicism, but more often than not, they bring up very surface-level ideas that don’t say much of anything. Look at Saladin Ahmed’s run on Daredevil, for example. The main story features Matt reborn as a priest, and his past comes back to haunt him in the form of the seven deadly sins given life. This is the perfect ground to explore Matt’s relationship with his faith and how it can ground him in the sea of mistakes he has made, but instead of asking interesting questions about the nature of Matt’s sins or how he sees his faith, the run uses the religious imagery as shorthand to create villains and tension without going in depth.
Instead of Matt facing difficult questions, he just recites a Bible verse before he fights a monster that vaguely resembles the idea of the sin it is, but isn’t grounded in Matt’s decades worth of continuity or characterization. It wastes the infinite potential this set up had by not going in depth with the depiction of Daredevil’s belief, only having question if he believes instead of what believing means for him.
At the end of the day, Daredevil’s faith is one of the most important parts of his character, but when it isn’t used to its fullest potential, Marvel nutters themselves. Matt is a man of contradiction and struggle, but refusing to ask the interesting questions about Matt’s belief can make it seem more like a narrative crutch than an amplifier. Daredevil’s Catholicism is vitally important, and when it’s used correctly, it can be a vehicle for the best stories ever told.
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