Daredevil 602: Vocational Tightrope

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Mayor Murdock, Part 2

Creative Team:

Charles Soule - Writer, Mike Henderson - Artist, Matt Milla - Color Artist, VC's Clayton Cowles - Letterer, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story & Marte Garcia - Main Cover Artist, Annalise Bissa with Emily Newcomen - Assistant Editors, Jordan D. White & Devin Lewis - Editors, C.B Cebulski - Editor in Chief, Joe Quesada - Chief Creative Officer, Dan Buckley - President, Alan Fine - Executive Producer

Marvel Comics' Solicitation: 

"The fallout from the shocking conclusion of DAREDEVIL #600 continues as Matt Murdock and Daredevil both rally allies in the face of an overwhelming enemy. And how exactly does Wilson Fisk fit into things? Not the way you expect…"

Vocational Tightrope


Matt Murdock is in the midst of a vocational crisis ever since he was appointed Deputy Mayor under Fisk.  Now that he is mayor, the tension between his two roles is ratcheted to another level.  On one hand, he is Hell"s Kitchen's defender, but now he is also the standing Mayor of the entire city!  How would the people feel if they knew their mayor was jumping from rooftops taking out ninjas and putting his life on the line every night?  Does the office of mayor have enough power to stop this seemingly unstoppable force of assassins?  What at first glance would seem to be a huge conflict of interest is probably Murdock's greatest advantage, he can leverage both vocations to save his city!

As the Mayor, Matt Murdock has rolled back the ban on costumed vigilantes which Fisk had enacted.  This means that New York's heroes are not outlaws, and are unleashed to fight the supernatural threat of The Hand.  In this issue, he uses the Office to declare a State of Emergency and do his part to keep the people in the city from being exposed to the ninjas invading their city.  Throughout this issue, Matt uses his vocation as mayor to ensure the well-being of the people he serves.  He takes this responsibility seriously and it seems to be paying off.

However, their is only so much Murdock can do from the office chair.  He feels the need to suit up as Daredevil to take the fight directly to The Hand and try to get a sense of what their endgame is.  Because of his gifts and his familiarity with this group, Daredevil is uniquely qualified for this detail.  The other heroes can certainly hold their own (and we even see this within the book), but no one knows The Hand quite like Murdock.  As Daredevil, he is able to fight through the assassins and save some police officers from certain death.  Even though he was able to fight his way through, the struggle is far from over.  The last page of this book shows us that the building The Hand was congregating towards is hollowed out in the middle, which leaves that mystery until issue 603.

Matt Murdock has two main vocations, the leader of a major city as well as their warrior.  We all have multiple callings as well.  They may revolve around occupation, family, church, or community.  We are not to be defined by only one.  Rather, we should embrace all of our vocations.  They are gifts from God and we have responsibility to carry them out to the best of our ability (for further reading, check out Romans 12:4-8).  No matter where God has called us to serve, through faith in Christ we all arrive at the same destination. That is, eternal life with Him.  We all have purposes in God's plan, and they may all look a little different.  That is a blessing!  Even more so, those purposes all serve to build up the Body of Christ.  Praise be to God for our vocations in life.  With the aid of the Holy Spirit, may we serve boldly in these stations we have been granted.

What did you think of this issue?  I would love to talk about it with you.  You can comment below, or find me @behindthecapes on Twitter, or by liking the Behind the Capes Facebook page.  Also, something new, Behind the Capes has a group called Behind the Capes' Nerd Out Round Table, where we talk about a bunch of geeky stuff.  It is technically a closed group, but anyone can join if they agree to the simple rules laid out in the group.  I would love for this group to grow!  
   

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