Rated 5 out of 5
Cover art by Monique Müge.
Cover design by Phyllis Sa.
From the Introduction to “Being Matt Murdock
– One Fan’s Journey Into the Science of Daredevil”
“[It] is not a coincidence that I have chosen to give this book the title Being Matt Murdock. While Marvel has long excelled at featuring the people behind the masks as prominently as their costumed alter egos, I cannot help but feel that this is especially true for Matt Murdock. His civilian persona has been at the center of some of the most interesting Daredevil stories ever told, and his unique combination of sensory enhancements and deficits is guaranteed to affect every aspect of Matt Murdock’s life, whether he is in costume or not.
During my many years of blogging at The Other Murdock Papers, a blog devoted specifically to Daredevil that I launched in 2007, I have been fortunate enough to connect with other fans who share much of my appreciation for the character, as well as my occasional frustrations. When I gradually turned to writing more frequently on the topic of Daredevil’s senses and how they relate to real-world science, I was worried that it might turn some people off. Perhaps the subject would be too technical, or my takes too… well, “nit-picky” is a word that comes to mind. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my science posts consistently ranked among the most popular – and the most commented on.
I think this has been partly due to the lack of information on this topic elsewhere. Aside from the occasional mention in the popular science press, usually when a writer wants to make a culturally relevant point about echolocation, there has been little written about Daredevil from this perspective. I also like to think that my regular readers have enjoyed my science posts because they have conveyed at least some of the enjoyment of writing them. If I’m having fun, the odds are good that my readers are too. I have brought that same passion, and more than occasional irreverence, to the writing of this book.”
Book Content Overview
Part One – Foundations
Chapter 1
The Literary Adventures
of the Super-Blind
Daredevil is not the only blind hero. He wasn’t even the first! Chapter 1 starts us off with a closer look at the myths and literary tropes that give rise to blind fictional characters with heightened senses. We also look at others (almost) like him, such as the Shroud and Dr. Mid-Nite, and ask ourselves why partially sighted characters – like Mole-Man – are so rare.
Chapter 2
Sense, Nonsense,
and the Stimulus
What is the difference between what Daredevil does, and the powers ascribed to someone like Darth Vader? Ideally, it is the presence of some kind of real, measurable stimulus out in the real world. We take a closer look at the matter and energy so vital to human sensation, and why so many sensory oddities in Daredevil are really “stimulus problems.”
Chapter 3
Body, Meet World
How do the matter and energy of sensation interact with out bodies? And, how do our sensory organs, and the cells and proteins they consist of, detect this stuff of sensation. How would you go about making the senses better, and what are their physical limits? We also look at the impossibility of using temperature to sense remote object, as seen on the Daredevil television show.
Chapter 4
Senses, Meet Brain
We cannot sense anything without a brain and nervous system, and that goes for Daredevil too! How are messages sent to the brain, and what does the brain do with them? Does the brain care about which sense sent the message, and what happens when the input from one sense is missing? How would the brain of someone like Matt Murdock rearrange itself?
Part Two – Super Senses
Chapter 5
Super Hearing
Can you hear heartbeats? Or whispers from blocks away? How much extra mileage would “super hearing” afford Marvel’s famous blind superhero, and how much comes down to limitations set by the laws of physics? This chapter takes a closer look at the functioning of the human ear, and the physics of sound, and what it all means for Daredevil.
Chapter 6
A Sense of Space
Eyesight is not the only sense that can support the perception of the shape and presence of solid objects. The ability of some blind people to “see” with sound long remained a mystery, and has only recently come under serious scientific scrutiny. This chapter takes an ambitious look at the science of human echolocation, and the extremes of human sensory achievement.
Chapter 7
The Forgotten Nose
Despite the fact that smell is one of Daredevil’s heightened senses, it has often been downplayed or forgotten in the comics and beyond. Is this the natural consequence of the role of this sense among humans generally? If modern science is now telling us that our noses are actually quite good, why does this sense remain so elusive? This chapter aims to demystify the sense of smell.
Chapter 8
Heat and Touch
What happened to Daredevil’s early ability to sense colors by touch, and did it ever make much sense? How do blind humans read by touch, and could you actually read print this way? And, why does Daredevil rarely use this sense for the manual exploration of objects? This chapter addresses these issues by looking at key concepts of thermodynamics, as well as the biology of touch.
Part Three – Radar Sense
Chapter 9
The Perplexing Origins
of the Radar Sense
We begin our deep dive into Daredevil’s radar sense by looking at where it all began. What did Stan Lee and the numerous artists he worked with have in mind? Was the early radar sense ever defined or explained? Are we actually dealing with a metaphor? This chapter represents a humorous journey back to the Silver Age and sets us up for the coming chapters.
Making Sense
of the Radar Sense
The Silver Age leaves us with a few different themes regarding the nature of the radar sense. Which became prominent, and how? And what did someone like Frank Miller have to say on this topic? Or the Daredevil movie and Netflix show (now on Disney+)? And, if we bring the science back into the picture, which understanding of the radar sense holds up best to scientific scrutiny?
Chapter 11
There Is Something It
Is Like to Radar Sense
Regardless of what we make of its nature, there have been common themes in how the experience of the radar sense has been written. This chapter also takes a closer look at what the artists have had to add to our understanding of what it is like to radar sense. Learn more about what the writer describes as “the conspicuously absent radar,” and what we might learn from psychological concepts like salience and crowding.
Chapter 12
The Missing Sense
The book’s final chapter takes a closer look at how Daredevi’s blindness has been depicted in the comics, and the television show. Why is it that so many fans and Daredevil creators alike seem to suggest that Matt Murdock is not meaningfully blind at all? This chapter asks whether part of the answer may lie in the way comics are written, and makes a case for a more complete understanding of this famous Daredevil trait.