okay foggy nelson time. i'm reading born again right now and it's good. it's a very good encapsulation of matthew michael murdock and the fact that he never quits. the man loses everything in the first issue of the story and does not get an inch for a good while. i don't think i've even gotten to the point where he catches a break yet and i'm like halfway through. that's who matt is and that's why he's my favorite. he always gets back up because there's a job to do and bad people to stop and he's the only one who can do it so by god he will.
the namesake tv show. made a decision.
they decided they wanted matt to not be daredevil for a bit. in a show about daredevil, truly i cannot fathom why. i just wrote a paragraph about how daredevil never quits and that's why i like him but okay we'll have him quit sure i hate it but okay. to their credit, i can kind of see how you could convince matt to make that decision. by murdering foggy nelson.
i mean he'd go straight for the person who let bullseye out of jail rather than hang up the mask but we're doing this
okay, fine. i can see the line from foggy's murder to the retirement of daredevil. you've made the one event that could lead to that happen so technically i get it.
i didn't like the dceu. it stopped me from liking dc characters for the longest time. they weren't personable, they weren't fun, they weren't heroes. batman killed people.
i've read some batman comics. daredevil's my #1 but honestly with the dc kick i've been on this past year (shout out mark waid) i think he's the superhero i've read the most comics for. batman has kind of a famous core rule. he doesn't kill. the whole conflict with red hood is about exactly that.
so when the dceu says "batman kills people here" i don't want anything to do with that interpretation. i don't recognize this character i like as the character i like. he behaves weird and not like batman and i don't want that. i want batman.
"but wait! he's like that because robin got murdered!" yeah he got scary after death in the family. hence one timothy drake. "but this wasn't jason todd who got offed!" no it was dick grayson.
oh boy. ooooh boy. there was a writer's revolt. when the editors said "kill dick grayson :) it'll wreck everyone :)" the writers responded "yeah and we won't be able to fix it we're not doing that" so i can clearly see the line from murdered-dick to killer-batman. within the narrative, again, you've made the choice that could logically lead to the outcome you want to run with.
for both foggy and dick, i fundamentally disagree with the choices to kill them. you shut yourself off from some great stories you could tell with these characters and you sacrifice two characters i care deeply about to make two more characters i care deeply about not act like themselves. it's an incredibly hard sell and i think it demonstrates a lack of understanding for all four characters involved to treat them like that. yeah matt and bruce are deeply messed up people with writers who out them through the wringer. but that's why characters like foggy and dick are so important, they provide a contrast for all of that and a lifeline so the characters we're here to see act like the characters we're here to see.