The Man Without Fear

I was getting off the train at Union when I saw my first one: a red Power Ranger.

The colour was right, anyway.

By the time I got to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre I saw plenty of other costumed heroes parading around. There were Spider-Mans and Batmans and some chubby dude wearing a cape, briefs and little else (commence mental cleansing); there were Dr. Whos, various Star Trek stars, Supergirls (better) and a whole cast of characters from ... well, I had no idea where they were from.

But Daredevil – the Man Without Fear – was nowhere to be found. More’s the pity.

Daredevil, Marvel’s blind, tortured superhero is the reason I read comics; the reason I used to walk down to Moffat & Gardiner Pharmacy in Crang Plaza – twelve cents clutched in my skinny 10 year-old hands – to buy the latest issue.  There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then and I’ve turned away from comics on many occasions, but when I returned, I always returned to Daredevil.

The man is blind, yet has superhuman senses that enable him to ‘see’ far better than normal humans can. He is a devout Catholic (his mother is a nun) who dresses up in a red devil suit and plays vigilante by night, while donning ten-thousand dollar suits and defending the (mostly) innocent as a Manhattan lawyer by day. 

The son of a prize fighter who was killed by the mob for refusing to throw a fight, he’s a super ninja who defends his Hell’s Kitchen turf from super baddies, crime bosses and everyday muggers and thugs.

His success with the women of Marvel is legendary. Regrettably, many of his loves meet tragic ends, adding to the guilt he carries with him as a daily penance.

What’s not to love?

Daredevil has had his success, to be sure. The Frank Miller run of the 1980s made him a star for a while and the writing has been mostly first rate in the years since. (End of Days, a Daredevil mini-series on the shelves now, is the best comic series I’ve read in many years.) But the character has always operated on the fringes of the big stars, like Spider-Man, the X-Men and most of the Avengers. A so-so movie starring Ben Affleck didn’t help his case either.

So I guess I wasn’t too surprised with the absence of red devils at Toronto ComicCon. Maybe there will be some love for Daredevil at the much bigger FanExpo show in August, though I fear the Man Without Fear may be a no-show.

No doubt there will be a Power Ranger or two. Just so long as there won’t be a chubby dude wearing a cape, briefs and little else. I’m all out of mental cleanser.