#MAIN | the man without fear

[existentialflirt]

"Wait!" Matt breathed as he dodged the impressive snap of her leg in a fierce roundhouse. He'd already caught her fist a couple times and her strength reminded him of Kingpin's. A terrifying and astonishing notion given she wasn't very tall and the power behind her strikes had very little to do with her physicality. Just what he needed. A super powered opponent that...well, he was pretty sure the woman thought he was actually a demon. It wasn't a first, but her certainty was almost casual. There was no heat of righteousness when she talked her shit or senseless, circular logic of delusion.

"Hang on," Matt spat as he caught her first and used her momentum to take her down. She was strong but thankfully predictable. "When you call me a demon, you mean it literally, don't you?"

@wickedlehane

[devilisln-moved]

@nightvow con't from here

Bruce doesn't know what to say when Matt bluntly calls out his behavior. He doesn't have an easy answer to tell him. He doesn't even know if he can say it out loud. It's the fear – the phobia – of letting anyone close to him, because those people have a habit of dying. You can tell him that it's silly, but it's embed deep in his mind. It's irrational, he knows, but he can't stop himself from doing it.

There's a grim look on his face. What a pair – the man without fear – and the man who inspires it but can't even do this much. "I'm not doing it on purpose. It's…hard to stop. I've grown used to doing it. It's nothing you're doing if that's what you want to know."

Matt frowned deeply at his response. He knew that he'd done nothing wrong. He could also relate, but he at least tried. Being miserable and alone may have kept the people he loved safe, but it drove him straight to the limit of his sanity. Maybe it was different for someone who could see. They could afford it because they could at least see people still existing and imagine themselves tangentially a part of society. When Matt cut himself off, he felt adrift in the cacophony only he could hear. He became the centre of his sad little universe.

"Maybe you should try," Matt replied, trying to sound neutral, biting his tongue on the more honest, smart ass response. 'Surely you can afford decent therapy if you can afford custom molded body armour and Tom Ford cologne.' Instead he shook his head. "Listen, I get not wanting to put certain people in harm's way by mere association, but it gets a little ridiculous when you include your peers, as well."

[existentialflirt]

@spartax-prince prompted: Send 🍺 to drag my muse to go out to a bar for a drink together!

"Do you even like Earth bars? You know we don't have any green humanoids dancing on the tables right?"

[devilisln-moved]

@eternalzenith asked: "care to lend your couch out to a friend in need?"

"I'm not opposed to the idea but I think you need to see that couch first...and the room it's in. Let's just say I think you need to consider that fact that my apartment is not exactly...Well, you'll see."

[koukaaa-descent]

this is the result of about 6 hours spent thinking about indigo wearing fancy clothes. only one of those hours was spent painting this. I feel pretty normal about my rotting corpse of a man if you can't tell

[shoot-i-messed-up]

Now that I'm a fanfic writer, I can't help but wonder what kinds of narrative themes I must've been missing all these years of reading fanfics because I sure as hell know I can't write a fic without somehow stumbling across a theme and running with it

[existentialflirt]

@c-louise said: "You don't exactly exude trustworthiness." (for Matt)

"I've been told that I look like a lawyer," Matt replied wryly. "Here, I thought they were telling me I seemed smart."

[devilisln-moved]

@hauntrcss​ said: ❝  your scars are nothing to be ashamed of.  ❞ 

     “I know that,” Matt replied as he zipped up his hoodie, enjoying the sensation of the soft inner fabric against his skin. “I’m not ashamed. They’re just uncomfortable sometimes. Usually when it gets cold.”

[archivedjuice]

stumbled on your blog as having been a netflix show watcher only (the horrors), but been interested in seeing how the Comics handle Murdock as clearly there's a huge divide. Any comic recs to start off?

As someone who would fight tooth and nail for one particular comics guy that got a movie interpretation recently (that got more interest in him, yippee! also looking back completely misinterpreted him. noir peter why did you get Nicolas Cage as your VA what are they doing to you), I sympathize with The Sufferings

honestly my only, or rather, top daredevil comic recommendation is to open readallcomics.com, scroll to the bottom of the daredevil title, start from v1 #1 and read from there, all the way into whatever you think satisfies what you believe to be a foundation for his character. <- this can be many things for many different people; personally, frank miller, (the man without fear #1-#5, v1 #165-166, #168-191, #219, and #226-233), ann nocenti (v1 #236, #238-245, #247-257, and #259-291), dg chichester (v1 #297-300), brian michael bendis (v2 #16-19, #26-50, and #56-81), and mark waid (v3 and 4) form the main foundation for how i perceive the daredevil title/most of its characters and an amalgamation of these interpretations pretty much spectate my own interpretations of both other canon/non-canon/fanon as well as my own meta interpretations.

a few stand out runs include: jeph loeb's yellow and david mack's parts of a hole (as well as the previously mentioned run he did with bendis, end of days). it's also important that you don't mix up frank miller's the man without fear 1993 with jed mackay's man without fear 2019.

this will also help: it's a very detailed daredevil reading list, with notes that i usually agree with and i recommend to everyone that wants a daredevil reading/rec list. the daredevil subreddit's reading list largely caters specifically towards fans of the mcu that are getting into the comics for the first time; this list gives you comparisons and inspirations for specific seasons of marvel's daredevil and provides fans who are only looking for the essentials with their own recommended reading order.

i didn't read daredevil chronologically—i started with what was most recent when i got into the comics in january 2022, meaning i started with zdarsky (v6 and devil's reign (or what was out for it at the time)), hopped all the way to waid's, read through soule's v5 and his renumbered run, jumped all the way back to miller and read my way up to waid (reading spin offs, events, annuals and other essentials in no particular order at the same time, after which i reread waid, soule and zdarsky), then i hyperfixated on sam chung -> mike murdock, read only the parts of v1 i had left to read that had to do with mike, read daredevil 1964 #1 - #16, and finally fixated on mike murdock for all of 2023 until basically now lol. so basically, don't worry if you don't get everything to slot into place perfectly, going back and forth won't ruin anything.

i have a mike murdock reading list if you're interested and other essential, non-daredevil and daredevil adjacent runs i recommend are jessica jones' alias, written by briam michael bendis and daredevil: noir.

personally, i think daredevil and his story is/is intended to be, by most writers before the nmcu show, culturally christian in the same way that northeastern and southwestern usamerican pop culture is—that is, that you simply cannot escape it and a lot of media either knowingly or unknowingly leans into the aesthetics of it to get their story (themes, metaphors, symbolism) across better (largely because of the sheer amount of people who exist that are culturally christian).

either way, good luck and feel free to send more questions if you need anything to be clarified, no matter how small or insignificant the detail may seem :)

[morgan-reads-comics]

Comic Karedevil Appreciation Post

[polyamoryprincess]

things I don’t give a shit about: a bunch of chucklefucks at the top who want money and power who think they’re the representative of an entire country

things I give a shit about: as many people as possible being able to live as safely, comfortably, and happily as is possible.

[existentialflirt]

"Of course I am," Matt grinned as he pulled his cowl back up now that the situation has been defused. "But I'll give you a hint. I have superpowers. Still blind, though."

At this point, he figured it wouldn't be too compromising to allude to his preternatural abilities. She'd seen his face, knew his name, after all. What was this one last thing?

He canted his head and considered the situation. It wasn't exactly unusual for the city's vigilantes to stop in to select (ie: friendly) late night eateries, but Faith was an outsider, so that probably wouldn't be a great plan. Curiosity could be a bitch. Otherwise he'd have wished her a nice night or outpaced her after inviting her to follow him home. Faith didn't seem like the type that would appreciate him keeping tabs on her later, so maybe it was a bit of kismet, forcing him to be social without the total use of fisticuffs and subterfuge.

"Hmm...how about I meet you somewhere," Matt suggested. He'd caught her scent enough to know it well enough to track it. That was a little weird though, wasn't it? Sometimes Matt had no ideal how to navigate social situations along with his hypersenses. For him, it was perfectly normal to recognize people by the way their hearts beat. He knew better not to tell anyone, of course. "Actually...there should be a bar a couple blocks up. Can't remember what it's called, but it's usually open pretty late. I'll go change and meet you in about an hour, give or take."

It wouldn't take that long for him to change, even if he went home. He wasn't the greatest when it came to temporal awareness, however, so he liked to give himself a little wiggle room. Anyway, if he ran into (more) trouble, it wasn't like he was going to ignore it.

Faith figured this guy had questions - but a 'hmm' of thought process was better than some other reactions she'd had to the whole Slayer thing before. It was a much easier excuse to offer than claiming to do a ton of Pilates to maintain her strength (even if it did get more girls on the prison yard minding their manners and their reps).

She smiled a little bit, amused by herself and by him as they tried to suss one another out. This guy definitely had something on his side he wasn't exactly sharing, and she still wasn't ruling out the possibility of that helmet being important.

"Yeah, my parents had a sense of humor, I guess. I think they were supposed to be religious, but you wouldn't know by how I was raised," she shrugged. Didn't need to get into the tragic backstory, but Faith wanted to clear the air just in case he got any ideas about her- even if she was on a more righteous, though rocky, path to redemption. "Nice to meet you, Matt. Sorry I called you a demon, even if you've got something you're not telling me."

Faith rolled her shoulders and willed her muscles to relax. All that hype and no release? Could drive a girl mad. "Cold? Man, I'm just warmed up. You've got all that armor on- I thought a guy calling himself a devil would run hot," she said. But she wasn't here to argue- clearly there was a lot of information she was missing. "I'm not from around here, if you couldn't guess. You got somewhere in mind to warm you up?"

[badolmen]

Soldiers kill sheep in the streets and I see bison skulls piled high, the bullets are made in the United States.

Trees are set ablaze by tanks and I see Moses kneeling in fear and reverence, God does not speak from these flames.

The people starve and I see seaweed gathered in baskets on Irish shores, Dutch tulip bulbs boiled with rabbit bones.

When they said ‘never again’ it was never for love of the hundreds of millions murdered, nor fear of the systems that allowed such evil to rise. They said ‘never again’ to shipping lane inconveniences, to stock market woes, and to being seen for cowards.

At least a coward would sit in quiet fear, content in inaction. Now they sign over billions, condemning millions to the total destruction. Where is the shame? Where is the apathy? At least in that I can call them mere cowards. What else am I to call them but the evil they so long taught me to revile?

God have mercy on their souls. God have mercy on ours. For the body is doomed - the bombs will still fall, the blood will still spill, the graves of thousands will fill.

(How long is the queue to the pearly gates? Is St. Peter agrieved to see so many young faces? Are wives rejoicing or grieving the reunion with their husbands? Does the brother laugh or cry when he finds his sister among the crowd?)

From Carthage to Auschwitz we were warned. From Roman roads to shipping lanes we watched the weapons trade hands. And when we cry out to the powers that be, they turn away - unseeing, unhearing, unfeeling. Machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts.

But the horror is in knowing they are not machines. This is not their nature. They are men. Born with a love for humanity in their hearts, a desire for community and companionship and art. How did they lose such a fundamental part of their being? Was it beaten out of them by bitter men before them or did they discard it themselves, as though it were a cancer to be excised? Does it matter when they so zealously jump knee deep in blood and bone among bomb shattered homes?

And while it is troubling to consider that, being human, we too can have our hearts hardened, it is far more uncomfortable to consider that, being human, they may one day revert to natural compassion. And what does one do when the machine becomes man again? When he proves it was a choice all along? A choice he refused and snubbed until the bodies cooled and the graves grew grassy with age?

God forgive what I cannot.

[phagodyke]

I was on the wikipedia page for phobias just for fun but just discovered theres an actual word for a fear of being touched.. 🥹

[existentialflirt]

@astremourante said: amelia is coming over to clean her boyfriend's place according to his every detail and preference.

Said boyfriend wonders why she hasn't realized that he has someone to come in every couple weeks to take care of the things he really can't really handle on his own. He also wonders if she's noticed something that he hadn't in respect to the quality of his housekeeper's work. Matt doesn't bother asking her because he knows she'll lie.

[devilisln-moved]

"I hope you know I'm not accusing you of anything. It's more a matter of the people you know." His tone was soft, smoothing the bristles of the accusation. "Somebody is trying very hard to set me up, and I think you might be able to tell me who or at least point me in the right direction."

❛  i  would  never  do  anything  to  hurt  you.  you  know  that.  ❜