As I mentioned earlier, I’m revisiting Frank Miller’s run for a brief review of Matt’s mental state, but the sequence below, from Daredevil #170, just begged for its own mention. With Matt spending half his time fighting baddies, you’d think that Foggy would be around to pick up the slack, right? Well, apparently he never works late. Imagine that. These guys must have charged a whole lot of money to be able to afford rent for offices on Manhattan. Matt comes across as the more diligent partner here, but Foggy sure did have the patience of a saint back in the old days. And I think we’ll have to assume that he put in more work than Matt ever imagined.
I think that your last sentence nails it: Matt assumes that “Foggy’s never worked late”… But how can he tell for sure? he may have supersenses, but knowing what Foggy is doing when he’s not there implies an almighty-like type of all-knowing power!
I’ll say Matt’s the brilliantest lawyer of the two without doubt, but as who’s been coping with the daily grind at the firm, and paying the bills with non-famous cases, I’d go with Foggy! And, after all these years, what Franklin didn’t have originally has certainly gained through hard work and experience: by now he could perfectly afford flying solo, professionally speaking.
This is a great point, in my opinion. I’m not in the legal profession but I believe you do need to work a lot of hours to keep all the balls juggling, so to speak. In the early issues, Matt’s always taking afternoons off, despite being seen as a genius by others in the profession. But isn’t that the way with genii? The less talented guy grinds away, gets the boring paperwork done, then the charismatic partner steps in and takes the glory. That’s the way I’ve always pictured Matt and Foggy’s legal dealings operating.
Legal profession or not, running your own business is hard work and most people who are their own boss, so to speak, work much more than forty hours a week. It seems that Foggy has always handled most of the paperwork. Of course, there’s a lot of it Matt shouldn’t be able to do so I guess he had a good excuse before Foggy knew about his being Daredevil (heck, even with the heightened senses it would still be easier for Foggy). But Matt is definitely portrayed as the charismatic genius that saves the day. Though I like how Foggy is growing as a character and becoming every bit the professional we always knew he was, even back when he was the hapless victim of Matt’s erratic behavior.
Yeah, how would Matt even know? I mean, he’s always leaving early to go be DD.