Slugging through the tragic origin of The Man Without Fear
by @bryan-imhoff via @exploreunlimited
Here in this "third round" of Exploring the Unlimited, we'll be celebrating the new release of The Defenders, Netflix's latest installment in it's ever growing list of Marvel cinematic shows, by having a look at where it all began... Battlin' Jack Murdock.
Daredevil: Battlin' Jack Murdock is a 4 issue "mini-series" released in 2007 featuring a story and artwork by Italian artist Carmine Di Giandomenico and script by Zeb Wells.
Di Giandomenico's career began in 1995 with his first major exposure to the American comics market coming a decade later. He's also worked in the film industry as a storyboard artist for directors as prominent as Martin Scorsese.
Zeb Wells has been a prolific writer for Marvel comics for over a decade and has also won Emmy and Annie awards for his work on the comedic stop motion animated show, Robot Chicken.
Fallen Angel
Daredevil is without a doubt the cornerstone of the Marvel Comics Netflix roster. The most well known and storied character, he's been the Man Without Fear since his classic introduction in 1964. What occurs across two pages (12-13) of Daredevil's debut is expanded into 4 gut wrenching issues with Battlin' Jack Murdock, introducing drama, nuance, and tragedy on a deeper and more meaningful level.
The four fateful issues of Daredevil: Battlin' Jack Murdock take place across a single night where Jack finds himself at Madison Square Garden, fighting for the championship... and winning a fight he was supposed to lose. The beginning and end of each issue focus on that night, presenting Jack's thoughts and mental struggle over being forced to throw the fight. The middle of each segment fades into a flashback that delves deep into Jack's past... which is of course inseparable from his son's, Matthew Murdock, the man better known as Daredevil.
The basis of the tale is true to the Daredevil origin story. Battlin' Jack is a run down boxer who gets mixed up with the wrong people.
Ordered to throw a fight, he refuses, and is gunned down in retaliation. His son Matt, blinded in a tragic accident that unbeknownst to others also gave him superhuman abilities hunts down the man responsible as the justice seeking vigilante Daredevil.
The tale reads like a mix of Rocky and The Sopranos. Di Giandomenico and Wells take us deep into Jack's struggles with alcoholism, crime, and depression.
We glimpse Matt's mother, a troubled woman named Maggie who embraced the life of a nun, leaving Matt to the be cared for solely by Jack.
The story has nods to characters and locations familiar to today's Daredevil mythos. Battlin' Jack is supported and loved by a young Josie, and is already on the same payroll an adolescent Turk.
But the Devil is in the details. Daredevil: Battlin' Jack Murdock adds a fresh take to the origin in multiple ways.
One of the first twists is a look at what happened just before Matt's fateful accident. In his lowest moment of guilt and despair Jack loses control, and strikes a defiant young Matt. The guilt and sadness is palpable as Jack holds vigil beside Matt's hospital bed with the heavy realization that moment of abuse was the last time his blinded son would ever see his face.
The bigger surprise is why Battlin' Jack defies "The Fixer" and wins the biggest fight of his life. What would make a man walk knowingly toward his doom and risk the lives of all he loves?
For that answer... you'll have to do some reading.
Di Giandomenico's art is excellent. It is unquestionably cinematic, no surprise given his storyboarding credentials. The works style strongly shows his European comic sensibilities, and serves the story wonderfully as it is squarely a crime drama and not your average super hero fare. Overall the work is both refined, and also bloody and visceral. This is nowhere more apparent than on the covers where more time was lavished, the linework is gorgeous and Richard Isanove assisted wonderfully.
Daredevil: Battlin' Jack Murdock gets 4 out of 4 rounds. It hits hard in every one. I'd give it an even higher score but it's already a knockout victory.
You can read this story via the Marvel Unlimited service, or purchase it for Comixology, Kindle, or in paperback form via Amazon.