How would you Ultimatize Daredevil?

[Wild Card13]

Joe Q has remarked that the reason there is no ongoing Ultimate Daredevil is because there's no way to fundamentally change the character and still keep the essence of who he is around. So, I pose the question to you all: if you could start it over again for Ultimate Daredevil, how would you go about it?

[Willowhugger]

Joe has a point there.

But for me, the way to Ultimatize Daredevil is to to do what was done with the other characters. You take an existing element of the character of Daredevil and you accent it while throwing in bits and pieces of it together. Darkdevil, for example, is an example of an Ultimate Daredevil because his supernatural powers don't change the nature of the character. He's still Daredevil despite the fact that he has the power of Ghost Rider.

If I were to do Matt Murdock as an Ultimate character, I'd try to bring out elements that are present in the current version of Daredevil but not too handled. I'd also look for an area in the Marvel Universe that the other heroes don't cover that much.

Here's my first try....

Mathew Murdock is a Pre-Law student who dates the beautiful Elektra Nachios and both are normal people for the most part with a life ahead of them. Matt was originally going to become a priest but failed because of his own terrible visions that he eventually started to believe was schizophrenia. Still, deeply religious, he's stunned and horrified when his father is murdered by the Hand before his eyes and they are cut out of his skull by one of the Ninja's katana. He finds out that his father was a murderer and gangster in the service of the Kingpin....and damned.

Confronted by a mysterious old man in Sticks, Mathew Murdock agrees to train under the man whom puts him through a ritual that transforms him into an avatar of a more than slightly sinister power. Sticks believes Matt was marked by a greater power for some other purpose than just being a lawyer. Gaining supernaturally accute senses and the ability to detect ghosts, demons, and angels in the process. Matt Murdock is still in training when his mission begins

The series would be Matt against vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness every bit as much as goons on the streets.

[The Master Meglomaniac]

Well there is one thing that can be changed, the villains. Perhaps UDD could have a revamped and improved rogues gallery. Here are some suggestions:

Ultimate Mr. Fear:

Alan Fagan's parents had always encourged him to be the best student in school, but he was always being bested by Matt Murdock. Instead of praising Alan for his accomplishments, they would always berate him for comming in second.

When Murdock was blinded, Alan was overjoyed, believing that he finally had the edge on his old rival. However when Matt still proved to be the superior student and became valedictorian of their high school, Alan was enraged. Again his parents berated him for coming in second place.

Both Matt and Alan enrolled in law courses at Columbia University. When Matt once got superior marks to Alan, Alan decided to even the odds. Alan decided to steal the answers to the term's final law exam. However Matt discovered Alan's attempted theft and reported to campus security.

The Dean of Columbia's law department, Jason Sloan berate Alan and had him exspelled. Alan's parents disowned him and he was forced to become a janitor.

Years later, Alan was working as a janitor in the lab of Dr. Samuel Starr, a famous chemist. One night Dr. Starr creates a fear serum by accident. Alan knocks Starr out, steals his notes and the sample of the serum. He then sets fire to the lab, making it look like an accident.

Studying Starr's notes Alan manages to recreate the fear serum. Alan creates a costume and begins a campaign of revenge, as Mr. Fear. Mr. fear murders his parents and Dean Sloan by exposing them to his fear gas and giving them heart attacks. Now Mr. Fear is ready to gain revenge on the person he hates the most, Matt Murdock.

Ultimate Man-Bull:

A sad and pathetic creature, Man-Bull is one of a newer generation of Animal Evolutionary. Created by the cruel Dr. Kline at Roxxon's secret genetic lab, the creature was tortured, treated as a lab rat and given the name "Man-Bull" as sign of Kline's contempt of the creature. One night the "Man-Bull" creature escapes from Dr. Kline's lab. Dr. Kline assembles a team of mercenaries to track down and recapture the creature.

Daredevil discovers battle between Man-Bull and Dr. Kline's team and assumes that "Man-Bull" is the threat. The creature escapes and Kline tells DD that creature is dangerous and must be recaptured. When DD discovers the Man-Bull creature again he finds it is quite harmless and discovers evidence of torture. DD quickly discovers that Dr. Kline is the true monster, not Man-Bull.

Ultimate Ringmaster:

Maynard Tiboldt did not have a happy childhood, his druken father would beat him everyday. One day the police came and took Maynard Tiboldt's father away and Maynard has sent to several different foster homes, where he suffers similar abuses. When Maynard becomes 18 he joins a circus as a clown. Over his career as a clown, he sees happy families and is filled with rage, seeing happy families reminds him of his own stolen childhood.

One day he secretly kidnaps and murders one of the children visiting the circus. When he finds out about the family's sorrow on the news, he is killed with sadistic joy. Maynard quickly takes over the circus, filling it with criminals and freaks. Maynard's circus goes around killing children in small towns, framing some local pattsy for the crime. Soon Maynard's circus is comming to NYC.

Ultimate Death-Stalker:

Phillip Wallace Sterling had more money than a man could spend in a life time, but he was bored. Comming from a rich and powerful family, Sterling was able to bribe a scientist at SHIELD into giving him a copy of plans for a new weapon, a device that creates a enegry field around a person that allows them to phase through soild matter and kill living things merely by touching them.

Having a copy of the device built, Sterling put on a ski mask, a trench coat and a fedora to disguise his identity. Sterling went around killing the "dregs of society" like hookers and homeless people, finding it was a lot of fun. The Daily Bugle soon named this new serial killer the Death-Stalker.

Ultimate Wild Boys:

The Wild Boys are a street gang that operate in Hell's Kitchen. They act as low level enforcers for the Kingpin, selling his drugs, stealing cars and dropping them off to the Kingpin's chop shops. The Wild boys are run by two thugish brothers that go by the nick names Jet and Spit.
Daredevil busts up the Wild Boys after Mickey o'Connor tries to join them.


Ultimate Micah Synn

The man known as Micah Synn is the leader of a cult known as "The Universal Church of Truth". Synn believes he is the last prophet of God, sent here to clease the world of unbelievers who do not accept him as God's last prophet. He has total command over hundreds of followers who will do anything he commands and has been ordering ritual killings all over Hell's Kitchen. Only Daredevil can stop this madman.

Ultimate Gael

Patrick "The Gael" O'Hanlon was a IRA terrorist, but his disgust with the peace accord process made him leave the IRA and become an explosive expert for hire. The Owl decided to hire the Gael to help him with his war against the Kingpin. Owl is paying the Gael to blow up Fisk's buildings across the city. Considering all the property Fisk owns in Hell's Kitchen, Daredevil quickly realizes how important it is to bring the Gael in.

Ultimate Eric Slaughter

Young Eric grew up in Depression era Hell's Kitchen (1930s), although his family was loving they were always poor. Young Eric was a psychopath and decided that he would make money any way he could.

Eric joined a gang and quickly discovered he had a talent for killing people. He first killed when he was just 13 years old. The NYC's mafia bosses quickly heard about Eric and they all wanted him to work for them. He began to study under the top hitmen in NYC and was quickly becoming a dangerous professional killer.

Eric became the major provider for the family. At first his parents were pleased with Eric, but when they discovered how Eric was making his money they were horrified. They demanded Eric either stop killing or they would call the police. Eric chose a third option and killed his parents. Eric then abandoned his true last name and took new one, Slaughter.

Over the decades, age made Eric Slaughter a less effective hitman and eventually he was forced to retire. However in his youth, Eric had spent his money recklessly and now had to find another way to pay the bills. Eric then came up with a brillant idea, using what was left of his funds, Eric Slaughter set up a freelance assassins for hire business. Eric Slaughter now acts as an assassination agent, getting outside hitmen jobs with NYC's local crime bosses. Eric Slaughter also takes in less than effective thugs and transforms them into deadly professional killers. When ever someone needs to hire some hitmen, Eric Slaughter is the guy they often turn to.

Ultimate Bushwacker:

The man who would become Bushwacker was a deep cover operative of the CIA, his former civilian identity had been wiped away and he exists outside the system doing black ops work, he is also very religious man. The CIA decided they were tired of SHEILD getting all the super soldier resources, so they create some super soldiers of their own. Bushwacker was given extensive training and had one of his arm replaced with a gun. Bushwacker goes insane and kills his bosses. Bushwacker insane mind quickly decided the Daredevil is the anti Christ and God has tasked him the job of destroying Daredevil.

Ultimate Cobra:

Klaus Voorhees is a twisted killer and poisons expert, who goes by the name Cobra. Voorhees has doctorate in chemistry, though he was always interested in the effects poison can have on the human body. When he was high school student, he was able to poison the food at the school cafeteria killing 12 students and framed a dupe (the janitor) for the crime. Voorhees considers himself a scientist who must push limits to further research into poison.

Voorhees often kidnaps people off the street and exposes them to his poisons to study their effects. Voorhees has made a lot of money selling designer poisons on the black market poisons that odorless, flavorless, invisible to the eye, but he wishes to conduct a grand and epic experiment. He goes to NYC with plans to poison large number of people. Can DD stop this maniac?

Cobra carries pellets that contain poisonous gas with him and has a knife where the blade is covered with poison.


Funny:

Ultimate Matador:

Manuel Eloganto is a member of a Lantino gang and he is not very bright. The gang disrespcts him, so he decides to take over the gang by killing Daredevil and gaining a rep. Deciding super criminals are the next big "thing" he makes a home made costume and calls himself the Matador. At the begining of an issue, Matador runs to DD, looking for a fight, DD knocks him out with one punch. Eloganto is kicked out of the gang for being such a loser.

[Brian "Vash" Ashby]

Everything is darker in the ultimate univesrse. Thats their one move

So they need to run counter to this.

Lighten Daredevil up or something

Have him go up against corporate crime or something.

[Willowhugger]

Cause the Punisher is just for giggles in the Ultimate universe.

:-)

JK.

[stealthwise]

Yeah, I would lighten him up for sure and make him a more swashbuckling character.

The first thing I would do is change the mileau, and remove him from not only Hell's Kitchen, but New York City entirely. Maybe a change of pace to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia or something, a more working class kind of city. From there he could still deal with urban crime, but not in the grim and gritty vein that we're so used to seeing.

[tony2074]

have him be a lawyer for the ultimates and shield. imagine him dealing with all those cases of damage and colateral injuries etc.

find a way to keep his identity secret from fury for a while, annoying the crap out of fury as to who this daredevil is.

bring back jack murdock (you can kill him off later if need be)

tweak matts character slightly, in bendis' run he was at times written like a bot of an asshole, make him, i odn't know, more emotional.

foggy is fine as he is, but theres gotta be a way to tweak him a bit...hmmm

different origin, supersoldier experiment one wrong, forced experiments, cloud it in mystery give matt a purpose, who made me blind? when he does find out, it'll make for a blockbuster arc and drives the whole story somewhere.

or you could tie matt directly in with kingpin, make him one of kingpins lawyers, he could cause the collapse of his organisation from the inside.



basically in the ultimate universe there are a million and one possibilities.

all those above are copyrighted by me, if i see them turn up in a comic i will be serverley angered :D (sorry if i repeated some ideas from other people, didn't have time to read the posts, am very, very tired and am only here while my washer finishes.)

[Jonathan]

I would've made Ultimate Daredevil a team. A fairly small, very tight team of prosecutors, defense attorneys, cops, officials, judges, and reporters, all orchestrated by (a blind but non-superpowered) Matt Murdock. Team Daredevil's purpose: to use their positions as a sword to break the law in order to make sure that justice is carried out on supervillians that the legal system (which wasn't designed to deal with supervillains) fails to properly deal with; and to use their positions as a shield in order to cover each other's butts and not get busted.

If an actual "Daredevil" character's absolutely required, I'd make it an imaginary superhuman vigilante created and hyped up by Team Daredevil's members (mainly their Daily Bugle agents) to help cover Team Daredevil's tracks.

If done properly, I think it could be a very interesting study of how a real-world legal system would have to play dirty behind the scenes in order to cope with people who can't properly be constrained or punished by a real-world legal system. :)

[P33KAJ3W]

Malcolm Mcdowell in A Clockwork Orange when in the suit.

nuff' said

[Willowhugger]

Malcolm Mcdowell in A Clockwork Orange when in the suit.

nuff' said

Wouldn't that be Ultimate Bullseye?

[P33KAJ3W]

Wouldn't that be Ultimate Bullseye? Yes, but bullseye has no hero complex.

[Gargus]

I kind of like to see him the daredevil 2099. In there he was the kingpin and daredevil at once, it was kind of cool actually. I just wished the story was better written.

But on the whole none of the people really deserve to be a ultimate. They are the same damn thing only slightly twisted around. Spiderman is still spiderman, all his villians are still the exact same villians.

I like the ultimate minis though like ultimates. But still it seems odd that all the best ultimate stories are written by mark millar. Ultimates = great. UFF when millar wrote it = great. UXM when millar wrote it = great. All the rest = boring crap that gets worse as it goes.

[Lanowar]

Well Joe Q has a point DD's thing is that he's a Lawyer who takes the law into his own hands when he fails to achive justice through normal means. I tried to think of a good way but it falls apart because his origin is a very ultimate style origin story (though in keeping with ALL Ultimate cliches it has to be an attempt at recreating the super soldier serum that hits his eyes)

[mattx110]

i'd keep him college age.
kinda like a more mature, less rambunctious ultimate spiderman.
have him slip up and act unblind and make people suspicious, don't just skip his origin and have him already pass the BAR and be a lawyer and have his whole life set up.

take 100 issues to do that.
stick can be a crazy old man that we don't entirely trust.
but all the stuff that was a 2 panel flashback in miller/janson's run, expand on it.
a conflicted kid who is happy to be going to school and overworking himself to accomplish his dead father's wishes has boughts with depression until he meets crazy old stick and finds a new direction in his life. the crazy old guy wants him to give up college to be a ninja and live vicariously through him, keeping the whole duality that is matt murdock.
but once you have a daredevil that is essentially the same as the regular marvel one... you need to get him involved in shield and the ultimates or there won't be a point to his existence.
anyway, didn't we do this thread a year ago?
and i think bendis is keeping with his ultimate daredevil as being the same as regular murdock only more violent.


and bullseye has a backwords hero complex, he sees himself as the arbiter of reality that brings "heroes" down to size because life is so random and horrible. that and he's an opportunist who likes killing. sometimes he isn't really capable of deep thought.

[Karl H]

Say, Jack dies much later in Matt's life and Matt has to pay off his debts to the mob by getting them off law cases. This leaves him indebted to the mob and much greyer in terms of whether he's a hero or an anti-hero.

[dreyga2000]

How about making him a criminal...

Blind Matt Murdock secretly goes out as Daredevil to commit crimes and takedown rival gangs... He still be dark... Adds intersting twist to DD/Punisher rivalry... And is aomething different