#Happy Saint Patrick's Day from the most Irish version of Matt Murdock.

[daresplaining]

Matthew Murdoch: The Devil Who Dares!

    Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert, and Richard Isanove’s 1602 is considered one of the best alternate universe comics Marvel has ever produced. We agree, because among its many admirable qualities, it gifted us with our all-time favorite variant of Matt Murdock. We’ve geeked out about him before, but never in detail, so let’s do this... 

    Matthew Murdoch was a perfectly normal lad, until he ate some green goo off the wall of a cave. 

Caption: “And he wasn’t scared. Not of darkness, and then, when he saw the green glow, not of that. It oozed down the walls, and it seemed to pulse as he looked at it. It burned like green fire. He had never seen anything like it.”

    (Matt, no!)

    Clearly, this wasn’t the type of goo typically found in the wilds of sixteenth-century Ireland, because it changed him in strange and wondrous ways. When young Matt emerged from the darkness of the cave, he discovered that he’d been stricken completely blind-- but that his other senses had been supernaturally enhanced.   

    But he didn’t let this get him down-- which is one of our favorite things about this version of Matt. Given the shortage of lawyers (especially blind ones) during this time period, as an adult he became the obvious equivalent: a traveling balladeer, making a living by entertaining drunks in pubs all over Europe.    

Matt (singing): “So the bosun he ups and he says to Sir Reed, My crew they are shaking with fear, So we’ll take to the boats and we’ll wave you goodbye... for we’re leaving the four of you here, you here, We’ll leave every one of you here...”

Natasha: “I’ll give you a penny to stop singing, Matthew.”

    But of course, this is Matt... who has exciting secrets in every universe.

Foggy: “Master Murdoch? [...] It’s been five years you’ve been using my ship. I was wondering why you travel.”

Matt: “I travel to see the sights, Captain.”

Foggy: “[...] I was wondering... Y’see... A sailor I met, a lowlander, told me of a time that he and several others tried to rob a blind Irish balladeer, in a port town, at night. He said that they were lucky to escape with their lives.”

Matt: “Surely, the same can be said of any fellow who asks too many questions, Captain.”

    Matthew Murdoch’s cheerful, harmless facade hides a stone-cold badass. He uses his career as a wandering nobody as a front for his work as a mercenary and spy. When asked, he puts his hypersenses and physical prowess to use running secret missions for people as high up as Sir Nicholas Fury, Queen Elizabeth’s personal advisor. None of his clients know how he does what he does, or quite understand who-- or what-- he is. They just know that he gets results.  

Peter: "Do you need light, sir?”

Matt: “If I wanted light, I’d ask for it, boy. Now, throw it here, Fury, toward my voice.”

Peter: “[...] What-- what manner of thing was that, sir?”

Fury: “A man, or so I believe. I have my own ideas about who and what he is, but I daresay they’re wrong. And I am merely grateful to the providence that led him to work for me, rather than for the Queen’s enemies.”

    All of this is pretty standard Matt Murdock-ness, and we unconditionally love all versions of him. But what makes this Matt extra fun is his lack of obvious baggage. There’s nothing wrong with baggage. Baggage is great. But it’s a delight to read about a Matt with this much cockiness, swagger, and joi de vivre. He’s just out there kicking butt and backflipping across seventeenth century Europe, and occasionally breaking into song. That, right there, is a winning formula. 

Donal: “Matthew? [...] How will we get down to the courtyard?”

Matt: “Well, the way I see it, we have two options. We could call a guard, talk him into opening the cell door, overpower him, go down through the castle-- hiding, fighting, all that... but it’s an awful lot of work. So let’s do it the easy way.”

Donal: “Which is?”

Matt: We wrap your chains around me... and you hold very tight... while I think about how much easier something like this is to do without chains or a passenger.”

    Plus, we’ll always love the fact that, though he doesn’t wear a devil costume in this time period (for obvious reasons), his hair sometimes sticks up in such a way that it resembles horns. 

King James: “Who's there?”

Matt: “Just a devil in the dark, Jimmy.”

    Matthew Murdoch has been woefully underused in the years since he was created-- despite the existence of several other 1602-verse comics. The only other place he’s appeared since his introduction was in Inhumans: Attilan Rising, a Secret Wars II tie-in from a few years ago. We recommend that series (and 1602, of course), while we eagerly await the day when more writers will realize/remember just how great this version of Matt is, and integrate him into more stories. 

Karnak: “Focus on survival, Murdoch, not theatrics!”

Matt: “Come now, Karnak. What is life... without theater?”

Inhumans: Attilan Rising #3 by Charles Soule, John Timms, and Frank D’Armata