capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
Umm... Daredevil has been a regular member of Marvel's 'high-profile' superheroes since his creation in the early 60's. Are you joking by pretending you've never heard of him?
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Registered: Sep 2001
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Not only is Daredevil blind, but he's a blind lawyer. See? Because the justice system is blind.
Stan Lee was cutting edge, brother.
apparently the need to dress up in fetish gear and wrestle criminal men who cackle and wear spandex is a powerful one, no matter your handicap.
There is a super-chick named Silhouette that can't walk. She has crutches with electric charges in them that are used like cattle prods, and she can fight like a ninja. A ninja that can't walk, that is.
There are several mute super-heroes. Several more have speech impediments.
I think they said once that Tony Stark was color blind. Which is why he let a black guy wear his Iron Man armour, I guess.
And of course the Hulk is retarded.
Comics were PC before PC was cool.
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Yes, but - how does this guy smite the forces of evil then? Flail about wildly with his cane? I'm getting a Rutger-Hauer-in-Blind Fury vibe here. . .
Daredevil (Matt Murdock) was your typical scrawny geek-type who always ends up becoming a superhero in comic books. His father was a prizefighter, his mother deceased. Matt was a timid kid, not physical at all, and the other kids taunted him by calling him 'Daredevil' (among other things.)
Matt lost his vision in an accident while pushing an old man out of the way of a truck which was carrying radioactive waste (See how many teenagers would do that nowadays). A canister fell out of the truck and struck Matt on the face, destroying his sight. However, Matt soon discovered that while his vision was gone, the sensitivity of his other senses had increased to an astounding degree, and he had developed a kind of 'sonar' which enabled him to 'feel' around distant objects, sort of like a bat. (We all have this sonar to a very minor degree, actually.)
When his father was murdered by the Kingpin's men for refusing to take a dive during a fixed fight, Daredevil, having honed his senses and finally begun working on his physical skills as well, avenged his death, and took up the name and costume of "Daredevil."
(At least, that's the original origin story. YMMV.)
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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And Daredevil then found a blind master to teach him martial arts. His name was Stick. After he started fighting a lot of ninjas in almost every other issue, Daredevil was beloved by the fans for being the most realistic character they had ever produced.
He fights them with a stick, too. A red stick.
Realism, yes.
Incidentally, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were originally a homage to Daredevil. A pretty funny one in some ways. Daredevil fights the Hand. The Turtles battle the Foot. Ha.
Registered: Jan 2001
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I used to be thoughtcriminal84. Semi-regular here for awhile. But then my computer fucked up.
I have a new computer now, so I'll be a nuisance again.
Registered: Jan 2001
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
Daredevil started getting more realistic during the 70s/ 80s when the book wandered out of the costumed adventure genre, and started with grim, realistic depictions of real crime and street life. you still had the unlikely metahuman in red tights at the center of the show, but the book phased out a lot of focus on costumed supervillains and fantastic plots for a while and depicted drug dealers, prostitution, etc etc and made its mark around then. Frank Miller worked on it, working on the same 'true crime' sense he later honed in Dark Knight and Sin City.
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Registered: Sep 2001
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I have all of miller's run. There was some grim and gritty stuff, this is true. The issues with the Punisher are some of my favorites. But there was also a lot of ninjas.
Not cutting it down, you understand. I like ninjas, and I like Daredevil. But it wasn't nearly as "real" as some folks make it out to be. Hence the jokes.
[ May 29, 2002, 03:55: Message edited by: thoughtychops ]
Registered: Jan 2001
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