#The Magical Twins: Real Boy Mike and Fake Boy Matt.

[daresplaining]

Matt: "In recent weeks, the streets have spread the news that the original Daredevil has returned. But Matt Murdock, Esq., is still dead. Youth home director Father Matthew has taken his place. It's not a hoax or a dream. My master's degree in Divinity is hanging up at home. And I have memories, however fuzzy, of attending seminary." Daredevil vol. 8 #5 by Saladin Ahmed, Farid Karami, Jesus Aburtov, and Clayton Cowles

After taking a little break, I am now fully caught up on the current run, which means it's time for some posts.

For everyone keeping track at home: Mike Murdock was killed while pretending to be Matt, and Matt used that as an opportunity to fake his own death. Then he went off to fight the Hand and died for real. Now he's back, but most people still think he's dead-- the people who originally thought he was dead, and the people who knew about the faked death but don't know that the real one didn't stick. But maybe...he is still dead after all? (Man, I love comics.)

I've made some comments to the effect that the Matt Murdock who has been headlining Daredevil for the past few years is essentially a new character, but I was not expecting confirmation in the new run that this is literally true: we're now following a different version of Matt, whose original memories have been almost, but not quite, overwritten by entirely different memories of a past that didn't actually happen (Mike parallels, anyone?). What does it mean for the original Matt to be "still dead"? Who, or what, is this new guy? Will the original Matt return? Will Divinity Degree Matt take over for good? Will they meld into some kind of Matt-shaped amalgam creature? As much as all of the religion in this run turns me off, and as disinterested as I am in the concept of Father Matthew, I'm intrigued by this strange, mysterious Fake Boy Matt situation.

[froggynelson]

hihihiiii so i love daredevil and recently started reading the comics but my knowledge pretty much caps at the netflix show

so i was wondering: who’s mike murdock?? i’m assuming he’s either from a comic (alternate universe?) or a fan concept, but i’ve been trying to figure it out but bc most of the fandom is in hibernation leaving very few comic enjoyers to elaborate, i couldn’t find anything

mike is a real boy and we love him

ok so he started out as a lie matt made up in daredevil #25 back in the 1960s, as an excuse as to why he is not daredevil to the inquiring karen and foggy. no i am not daredevil, my twin brother none of you knew of is :). and he went on to character act good ol' mikey, until all the fake twin business got too complicated, resulting in matt killing off the mike persona.

now fast forward to 2018. up to now, mike was just a silly little thing that happened in the silver age that got referenced every now and then. but one day the daredevil writer charles soule changed this. by making use of the character the reader, an inhuman with reality warping powers that can make anything he reads into a real construct, brought mike to life as he fell asleep reading through daredevil's files. now mike is a real boy, and the silly little guy we knew evolved into someone painfully aware of his existence as someone who wasn't real to begin with. the silly guy is a tragic figure now.

he ends up stealing the norn stones, magical asgardian artifacts, from a criminal he was collaborating with at the time, because he felt tired and depressed of existing as a non-person, and with its power he makes himself into existence as if he had been real all along. now he is a Real real boy, but if the silly guy wasn't enough of a tragic figure, his desire to fill the gaps in his memories and to become a real person backfired with the pain of his father's death, his broken relationship with matt, and the guilt he carries knowing he wasn't real to begin with. and it gets worse because we as readers also have the tragedy of his potential not being fully realized in a lackluster comic run

can you feel him