Marvel’s Daredevil Debuts New White Costume

Marvel’s Daredevil is giving new meaning to “sins of the father.” Father Matt Murdock was born again as a Catholic priest after sacrificing his life to save the souls of his friends trapped in Hell by the Hand cult, mysteriously returning to life with little memory of his past as the horn-headed vigilante Daredevil. Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder’s Daredevil run then pit the hero of Hell’s Kitchen against the demonic entities of Hell: the Seven Deadly Sins. The demon Sloth possessed Matt’s ex-wife, the assassin Elektra; Envy corrupted his friend, newsman Ben Urich; and Gluttony consumed his ally, She-Hulk. Father Matt exorcised those demons… and now, the sorcerer Doctor Strange must help fight Daredevil’s demons.

This week’s Daredevil #6 begins with Father Matt praying for forgiveness. “I’ve been slothful in my duty. Envious of others’ happiness. Sought escape in gluttony. And I’ve sinned against God in ways I’ve yet to recognize,” he confesses. “I pray you’ll help me root out those sins and repent of them. I’ve failed miserably at doing so myself.” Father Javi gives Matt his penance: James 2:13.

“Mercy triumphs over judgement,” Matt recites. And then, his prayers answered, Stephen Strange tells Matt he’s come to remind him of his previous life as Daredevil. “You know exactly what trail these diabolical entities followed to get to Hell’s Kitchen,” Strange says, using his magic to show Matt that his demons followed him out of Hell. “And it seems they’re here to drag you back.”

Matt considers that he deserves to be damned, but the demons aren’t just punishing him: Elektra, Ben, and She-Hulk all suffered from Matt Murdock’s sins. “Why would God allow that?” he questions. Matt then questions why the Sorcerer Supreme can’t exorcise the demons with magic, and the answer is that they’re Matt’s devils. Matt holds the key. Strange can only show him the door.

Strange conjures a mystical door that will only open when Matt names the one who summoned his misery. With a prayer — “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” — Matt says, “The sinner these devils followed out of Hell to torment the Kitchen, the man responsible for all of this… is me.”

Matt unlocks his memories as Daredevil. The triumphs, the tragedies, the loves, the losses. Battlin’ Jack Murdock. Foggy Nelson. Elektra. Karen. Stick. Kingpin. Bullseye. The accident that blinded him. The radioactive liquid that enhanced his remaining senses to make him the crusader for blind justice: Daredevil. 

He’s entered a place that is “Hell’s Kitchen, but it’s not,” a realm that may be an illusion, or a vision, or a pocket dimension. In this hellish domain lorded over by a towering Devil, Matt is confronted by his tormentor: “FIRST CAST OUT THE BEAM OUT OF THINE OWN EYE. THEN SHALT THOU SEE CLEARLY,” the Devil says. “DELIVER SUCH AN ONE UNTO SATAN FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FLESH, THAT THE SPIRIT MAY BE SAVED.” 

Matt falls into an abyss and faces the worst version of himself: the one who fears. This demonic Daredevil drags Matt into the dark depths of his soul, telling him that God has banished him to darkness. But Matt remembers that mercy is greater than judgment and expels the demon with the words: “God is light!”

And then… let there be light. Matt is reborn again as a purified Daredevil clad in an all-white costume. (Daredevil’s newest white costume is a cleaner and sleeker version of the white suit he wore as “the hand of God” in Chip Zdarsky’s “Red Fist Saga,” which burned with flames of righteousness.) “In Him there is no darkness at all,” Daredevil exclaims. God saved him from Hell, but the rest of Matt Murdock’s mortal sins are still out there: Lust, Greed, Pride, and Wrath.

“Starting tonight, I’m driving the devils out of the Kitchen. Those born of Hell… and those born of Earth,” Daredevil says, leaping into action to combat The Heat gang that have been running Hell’s Kitchen during the city-wide Gang War. Daredevil tracks down The Heat’s lieutenant to The Bar With No Name, a place where Matt Murdock has indulged in his Wrath more than once. 

And so, too, has the next demonically-possessed sinner: a wrathful Wolverine, his unsheathed adamantium claws covered in blood.

Daredevil #6 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.