by Michael DeLaney

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

“I did not ask for the life I was given. But it was given nonetheless.”                                                                 Mr. Eko, LOST

No one ever asked to be born – we emerge from the womb and are saddled with struggles specific to our circumstances. In Daredevil 608, Mike Murdock emerges from the ether/Matt Murdock’s imagination and has to deal with a world that doesn’t want to acknowledge his existence. Thus, he takes some aggressive measures to make them acknowledge it.

Though Mike is a creation of Matt’s, his actions prove that he is becoming his own man. Matt may be brash at times but it’s unlikely that he’d hold a friend at gunpoint to get someone’s attention. Nor would he shoot out a bad guy’s kneecaps, as Phil Noto depicts here:

Mike Murdock was created by the powers of the Inhuman known as “Reader.” Matt wants to get a hold of Mike and have Reader undo his accidental creation, but later has a change of heart.

Matt’s crisis reminds me of the relationship between creation and creator. Due to factors of success, longevity, and of course, money, a fictional creation often becomes bigger than the creator; it takes on a life of its own. This can apply to any number of superheroes: Batman, Superman, even Daredevil’s Elektra. As much as Frank Miller might protest, Elektra doesn’t belong to him – she belongs to all writers – including current Daredevil writer Charles Soule.

Matt’s specific circumstance also lends itself to the regret we associate with past mistakes. He tries to reason with Mike that he was a dumb mistake he made when way back when. But as much as we’d like to erase the past or bury our mistakes, that’s just not how life works. We acknowledge our past mistakes and try to make things right.

Mike Murdock is reckless and may ultimately be dangerous, but Matt can’t just erase him – he’s a living, breathing person now. Depending on what he gets into with Kingpin and The Hood however…that may change.

The conversation doesn’t stop there. What do you wanna talk about from this issue?