#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]

"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?"

[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

[existentialflirt]

The other man's pulse went crazy. Matt hadn't a single solitary clue why. It was interesting and he filed it away to consider later. He'd noticed it because it was odd given they'd just gotten out of a fight. Batman had remarkable control over his body, right down to his heart rate. It had accelerated from exertion but not emotion. It was downright eerie, even more so to smell anxiety on his skin now.

He shrugged easily. Matt was actually rather impressed that he'd taken his rather wry remark seriously. He was used to getting a cheeky remark instead. They were all well trained after all. Well...aside from Spider-man. He just made everything up as he went along and somehow made it worked. (His particular brand of super powers helped no doubt).

"Not really," Matt shook his head. He knew a lot more about Batman than he should possibly know just from fighting by his side, but he didn't want to spook him even more. "You work well with another person, which, no offense, surprises me."

He had a reputation to be difficult. Matt was starting to think that was just a shitty way of saying he didn't talk much and had a lot on his mind.

His eyes widen, his lenses mirroring his actions. The cologne comment catches him off-guard completely. He opens his mouth to ask: How? But he decides not to do it. He doesn't want to worsen this by interrogating him.

He's not surprised that some of his mannerisms aren't completely erased when he puts the cowl on. His upbringing was just eight years with his parents and then the rest of with Alfred, it makes sense to him that somewhere in between he just couldn't shake the upper crust upbringing from himself. He thinks of the Riddler mocking him when he asked him how he figured out his identity, and he threw back the Gotham Gazette at his face, the pages from the social scene laid out for him. His picture taken after a fundraiser and Edward just putting a picture of Batman and Bruce side by side.

He didn't remember much about that conversation, quickly coming up with a way to stall the Riddler from telling everyone in Gotham who Batman was. Just pieces of: chiseled jawline, only person who could have the money to do it, makes sense that they're never at the same scene together...etc. etc.

So how does Daredevil know about the cologne? He didn't take a shower – just no time – did he get close to him at any point tonight? Bruce closes his eyes, wishing he hadn't said anything. He's going to think about this all night now.

" – I'll try not to." He finally responded, the usual glower on his face again. "About the fight – it went well. I didn't have to call to you much. You seemed to be able to read my body language well. A little unusual, but not rare. The only two times that's ever happened is with people that are heavily trained, so I'm not surprised you can do it, too. Any notes on me?"

[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 :)

[existentialflirt]

Oh, but he was terribly curious. She certainly wasn't the first one to accuse him of being shady. Usually this came down to people taking cheap shots due to his occupation. Matt would deflect with his own cheesy jokes, and that was the end of it. However, from a peer, especially such a contrite one, Matt's interest was piqued.

"No, please," Matt really did smile this time, intrigued despite himself. After all, it could be good to know how he put other people off. He did have a secret identity to uphold, after all. "Enlighten me. There must be a reason it came to mind." He made a vague gesture. "I have a bit of time before I go back and I'm extremely curious."

Her heart was a tranquil thing, guileless, perhaps to a fault. That was just speculation though. Matt did like to extrapolate. Other people fascinated him. Maybe that was why he'd gotten into his various lines of work. Lawyer and vigilante, both offered up the raw psyche of his fellow man.

Louise nodded in understanding upon hearing the lawyer's refusal. It certainly was not the best cup of black coffee she had ever tasted (far, far from it) but it would have to do. She needed to stay awake to finish the piles of paperwork in her office, after all. The prosecutor then saw the other's puzzled expression, taking notice of the slight tilt of his head toward where she was standing. He was actively trying to listen to her, it seemed.

"I'm not sure what you mean by that, Ms Huong. Do you know something about my client that I don't?"

Shaking her head to respond to his question, the prosecutor then took a sip of the bland liquid her hand was holding while her eyes glanced to to interrogation room, from which both of them had just emerged. It didn't take her more than one or two seconds of awkward silence to remember that the man she was talking to was blind.

"No." Gulping down the coffee in her mouth, Louise hastily replied as she realized her momentary ignorance. She was a passive woman of few words and would rather rely on behavioral gestures to convey what she meant, so it was easy to fall back into that habit. "sorry, I just shook my head. Accusing you of being untrustworthy was rude. I think it's the drowsiness that let my tongue and doubts get the better of me. A lawyer like you isn't a common sight to see."

[morgan-reads-comics]

Comic Karedevil Appreciation Post

[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]

@griim prompted: ⚠️: Your character notices mine in a dangerous situation and decides to step in and try to help them out.

He'd heard the scuffle several blocks away. The closer he got to the pair, the more he realized it was a struggle, even a fight. One man, one woman, in the most technical sense anyway. He'd have to be careful. These kinds of situations could be a little tricky and he tried not to be terribly judgemental unless there was an obvious power imbalance. Really, his aim was just to break it up for the time being.

It was a tricky thing to read, the movement of two bodies locked in a fight. The man was getting tired but the woman wasn't and that was interesting. Her body sounded like she'd been trained to fight. The way her heart rate rarely spiked with exertion. His mind raced even as he got closer to them. She didn't smell familiar, however, and he found that less that comforting. Not when she moved like a Widow.

It was curiosity that had him diving off the roof and dropping into the ally, momentum dragging the man along with him as much as the thrust of his body against his. Though he'd taken care not to slam him against hard brick of the building, he felt the man slump against him. He supposed it was better this way.

"I'm not sure what's happening here, and I really hate not knowing," Matt spoke to the woman behind him, and wasn't that the truth. At that moment he was glad he hadn't gone the domino mask route. He didn't think a furrowed brow would be terribly intimidating. "Seeing as how your friend here isn't very talkative, so i guess it's all up to you."

[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.

[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.