With each new creative team that takes over the main Daredevil series they add their own take on the Man Without Fear. Though part of the magic of Marvel’s Daredevil is that every creative team has made sure to build on what previous creative teams have done with the character. That is what writer Saladin Ahmed and artists Aaron Kuder and Germán Peralta have done as they’ve picked up directly with where Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto ended their run. With that Ahmed, Kuder, and Peralta have introduced a possible game changing upgrade to Matt Murdock’s superhuman sensory abilities.
MATT MURDOCK NEW STATUS QUO
At the end of their run Zdarsky and Checchetto had Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios have one final face-off as each one wanted to sacrifice themselves to travel to Hell to face the Hand’s The Beast. After an epic battle Matt was successful in making Elektra give him a fatal blow. With that Matt’s soul went to Hell where he ended up not only facing The Beast but also the Fist’s own demon named The Wild. Matt took on both The Beast and Wild in order to set free Foggy Nelson, Stick, and others who had their souls taken to Hell by the Hand. Ultimately Matt stayed in Hell to fight the Beast and Wild, giving Foggy and the others a chance to get back to the physical plane Earth.
It appeared that this was where Matt’s story would end and Elektra would be the only Daredevil that’s left. But as we learned at the end of Zdarsky and Checchetto’s Daredevil #14 and Ahmed and Kuder’s Daredevil #1 fate had other plans for Matt Murdock. As both of those issues revealed that Matt was reborn with his memories rewritten and working as priest running a youth home for orphans.
While Matt seemingly forgot about his life as Daredevil he still showed signs of having all of his fight training and superhuman sensory abilities. That is confirmed when Elektra was possessed by a demon representing Sloth. This forced Matt to recover his memories and return to being Daredevil to save Elektra. Which brings us to the present were Matt is working on his own as Daredevil again, while Elektra also does her own thing as Daredevil, currently appearing in Spider-Man: Gang War.
DAREDEVIL SENSORY ABILITIES MYSTICAL UPGRADED
While Matt is back to being Daredevil things aren’t just back to normal. The big personal change is Matt is still working as priest running a youth home instead of returning to being a lawyer with Foggy. On the Daredevil side of things it appears there was more to Matt’s rebirth than his memories initially being altered. That comes from the fact Matt’s superhuman sensory abilities got an upgrade to know also be able to see when people are possessed by one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
We see hints of Matt’s new sensory abilities when he is able to see a physical representation of Sloth when it possessed Elektra in Daredevil #1. At first this appeared to be Sloth’s doing as it wanted Matt to see it physically manifested. But as is sometimes the case, there is more than meets the eye to why Matt saw Sloth in Daredevil #1.
That is shown in Daredevil #4 during Matt’s meeting with Ben Urich, who has suddenly been running hit pieces on Daredevil like when J. Jonah Jameson had a vendetta against Spider-Man. This was a distinct change for Ben, who was normally a journalist who is an ally to the superhero community. Right away when sitting down with Ben Matt saw that Ben appears to be controlled by a demon representing Envy just like Sloth possessed Elektra. With this Matt confirms he is able to somehow see devils, all so far who are part of the Seven Deadly Sins.
This development also plays into how we’ve seen Matt’s sensory abilities being showcased in the latest run. Artists will always have their own interpretation with how Matt’s superhuman senses are visualized to the reader. But from the first four issues Kuder and Peralta have shown that Matt may now be able to sense people on a spiritual level. That may just be the art style but would play into how Matt is now seeing devils controlling people close to him.
With this revelation Ahmed and company appear to be continuing the mystical connections Matt had during the back-half of Zdarsky and Checchetto’s run on Daredevil. Sure, Matt as Daredevil will be fighting his rogues gallery, currently he is searching for Bullseye. But now there is this whole bigger plotline as his rebirth could have ramifications of demons representing the Seven Deadly Sins escaping Hell with him. Whatever the case, Matt won’t just be going back to his normal Daredevil adventures.