Even heroes aren't perfect

It's a wonder he isn't a villian

He's got every excuse. Born to poverty. A broken family. A childhood spent in a squalid slum. Hounded and taunted and beaten by schoolyard bullies. To top it all off he gets struck in the eyes by toxic waste and blinded for life.

Blinded, bullied, impoverished. Surrounded by calamity.

Role models? His mother, and enigma. Long gone by the time he could walk. His father, a well-meaning loser who paid for his greatest moment of courage when a bullet splattered his brains across a grimsy alleywall. His teacher, a gruff, foul-mouthed warrior who showed him the beauty in his dark world, then dismissed him as a wretched failure.

His love life? Nothing short of disastrous.

He's got all the makings of a villian. He's a natural born rascal, a mischeif-maker, a scrapper. He's a liar, who wears a mask to betray the solemn oath he made to his father a thousand times, he's a dangerous adept, gifted with a nearly superhuman talent for violence. He's a loner, a sinner, a lawyer who breaks the law.

And then there's that wicked temper of his.

He's got every excuse in the world, and within him are the makings.

But Matt Murdock is no villian, and no victim. There's something strong inside him, passed form unknown mother and doomed father to son. Something tested by tragedy. Tempered by conscience. Honed by discipline. Something that holds back the bloodthirsty beast within and forces it to serve the cause of justice.

Most of the time, anyway.

Of course his quest is a tortured one, fraught with failure and guilt and pain. It has to be that way. Nothing ever comes easy for Matt Murdock. But every ordeal is another step in his crooked path from naughty little street kid to improbable champion.

A tortured quest. One that leaves him far from perfect.

He may never join the holy that his teacher hinted at.

But he will do the best he can, this hero.

He'll fight the bullies till the day he dies.


Frank Miller
Los Angeles 1993

Just to continue the 'superhero' theme that this blog seems to have adopted I present to you the preface to... well actually I'll leave that up to you to find out, but needless to say it inspired me. I can't really tell how, but its just like anyone can be a Hero, no matter what their past is, no matter what their disability, just as long as they have the spirit to make it work and not let the bullies win.

Now I'm not saying that I've got that amount of spirit, but I am saying I'm getting more lately. I AM going to try and be a stronger person, I'm just afraid that I'm mucked things up beyond repair this time. It may be fun to 'live in the moment' but eventually that 'moment' WILL come to an end and you have to face the consequences of all the actions you thought were worth it at the time. You live, you learn, I guess. Lets just hope I've learnt my lesson and get my essays for Uni started sometime soon then! Nothing should get in the way of my future... just as soon as I figure out what I want my future to be, or at least the parts of it I control.

I'm not going to let the bullies win.


Impulse