Fr. Z's Blog

A while back, at the urging of a friend, I watched the Netflix series Daredevil.  I didn’t have any expectations going into it, and so I wasn’t disappointed.  As the beatitude which didn’t make it into the list says, “Beati qui non expectant, quit non disappointabuntur.”  \

I don’t like spoilers, so I won’t post any.

As with any “comic book”, for that’s what this is, don’t expect depth.  However, there is one thing that we might find interesting.  The “hero” (perhaps “anti-hero”?) is Catholic.

I saw one review of the show online that has an interesting blurb.

At Intercollegiate Review I read:

Murdock, on the other hand, crosses himself at the memory of his father, in reverence of a man whose integrity he hopes one day to live up to by bringing justice to a system corrupted by diabolical and often unseen forces. And while we, the audience, know who the real bad guy is, there is always the possibility that Murdock will become everything he hates. And that’s where his Catholic faith comes in. Matt is a tortured Catholic who often seeks guidance from a wise priest.

Yes, a wise priest, Father Lantom (Peter McRobbie). Neither a self-righteous cartoon nor a liberalizing doubting Thomas, Lantom is a priest who believes in a real devil and who is trying to coax Matt into making a good confession by helping him discern his true motives in the choices he’s making. (At first it’s unclear whether the priest knows that Murdock is the “masked devil” of Hell’s Kitchen vilified in the press. Later we discover that the priest has his own insights into Matt’s many facets.)

At a funeral for a journalist, Father Lantom asks Matt how’s he’s holding up.

“Like a good Catholic boy.”

“That bad, eh?”

Catholicism is presented as both a serious bulwark against the moral graylands of late modernity and as a source of its own internal contradictions, inculcating guilt and self-doubt even as it offers forgiveness and moral assurance.

Read the rest there.

It is refreshing to see on the screen a priest who isn’t a complete dope.

Before I watched the show, I knew zero about this comic book character.  I understand that Daredevil is a Marvel figure.  I grew up reading DC rather than Marvel, and that wasn’t any time recent, for sure.  However, Marvel seems to be be taking over the world, so we had better get used to seeing their version of the universe… and its peculiar “ethic”.  They may wind up shaping the thought and moral compass of young people more than their illusive parents or feckless pastors.