Hey ya, I haven't written any DareDevil in a while and wanted to post something. Again i wanted to explore Matt and Frank's relationship. It's always fun to have two characters who play off of each other so well.
"Why do you still believe in God?" frank asks. It's a simply phrased question but so volatile in nature that it could never be simple.
Matt doesn't know how to answer and he doesn't know why it's being asked. It's a repulsive question too, for how can he be expected to answer? Why do you Still believe in God? It's not even why do you believe in God. It's so much worse than that. It's why and how do you believe in god when everything on earth tells you not to? It's a humiliating and cruel question and it says I used to but now I don't. And that's awful too. Because it seems so defeated.
Frank doesn't move. He doesn't speak. He doesn't say why he wants to know. He just waits, hunched over on a roof top, taking a midnight break. He waits patiently because he knows Matt will answer and in a petty way he's glad his question is causing so much turmoil. There's something violently satisfying about challenging someone's most closely held beliefs. Oh, he doesn't get off on destroying someone's faith or hurting them. He hates people who do but he can't stand a man who claims to believe wholeheartedly. He doesn't believe a man can be wholehearted about anything good anymore. He used to. Used to be he believed it when a man said he wanted to help another man but now he believes that the only thing a man can be wholehearted about it evil. Because it's so much easier to believe in evil than it is in good and it makes him angry when someone still believes in pure good. It makes him angry that he can't. So it makes him angry that Matt can still believe in God.
Matt wants to ask, Why shouldn't I? But he knows that's a stupid question. There are a billion reasons he shouldn't. He's felt pain and in pain faith isn't easy and sometimes it would be easier to believe in nothing but he looks at Frank and is almost disgusted. Frank is eternally angry and more honestly in pain. He doesn't want that and so he has to believe. Has to believe that for every man he can't punish God will and for every person he can't help God will. But how can he still believe in God after the life he's seen? A life that's gone on while the people he cares about are lost? In that moment he almost hits Frank. Wants to hit him for making him feel so dirty. He feels ashamed and guilty that he can't answer the question.
His long silence forces Frank to speak again. "Do you like it? Guilt, penance, Absolution?" No response. "I don't believe in that. A priest can't forgive my sins or anyone else's."
Matt looks up because there it is, plain as day. The difference between them. Frank doesn't believe in making up. Once you go bad it doesn't matter how many good things you do you can never make up for the bad ones. What a terrible way to live. No forgiveness, no redemption, no remorse. How ugly. And he wonders if life is ugly to Frank.
Frank's losing his patience, he's angry that he's not getting an answer. He wanted something from Matt. He wanted an answer because he can't see one but Matt's still riled from the question. Get over it. He thinks, willing him to answer before the break gets too long.
"I just do." Matt says at length. "I can't tell you why Frank but I do."
Frank sneers. That's not the answer he wants. "It's that simple?"
"No, it's not simple at all."
Frank nods and he's glad that it's not and some long ago part of him understands.
They're interrupted by a cry from a few streets over. Matt knows he has to beet Frank to the scene because if he doesn't it'll be a death on his hands.
They race. Frank doesn't care about Matt or his answer any more. He's got an itchy finger and an unsatisfied feeling in his gut. He marches on. Matt worries about Frank. He can't let him get there first. Not when he can prevent it. He jumps from rooftop to rooftop, going as fast as he possibly can. It's up to him.
When he gets there it's seconds before Frank. He meets a mugging in process. A couple out late is held at gun point by some washed up druggie. He makes them all stop. "Put the wallet on the ground and drop the purse." He says. The frightened addict does as he's told and Matt prays that he can defuse the situation before Frank gets there because to Frank all sins are the same and none of them can be made up for. He doesn't think Frank will spare some loser looking for drug cash.
The couple grab up their things and make a break for it and Matt clocks the junkie. Franks steps out from the shadows. He was there all along although Matt doesn't know if he got there first. Maybe that night he decided to spare the junkie after all.
"You don't make up for your sins in church Matt. You do it on the streets."
Matt gives him a side long look. Frank does believe penance exists. "Then why the Punisher?" He wants to know.
"Because most people don't even try and God doesn't punish them."
"Then who does?"
"I do." it's a chilling answer and a terrifying one coming from a man who's foregone forgiveness.
And then quite suddenly he's gone and Matt hates the answer. Neither one of them sleep that night. They've both been shaken. They both feel dissatisfied and angry.
Bones are broken as they try and work through their anger. They both go a little too hard on petty criminals. And in the morning Matt looks at his bruised and bloody fists and thinks of them as penance and Frank looks at his empty chamber and thinks of it as Absolution. The kind that begs forgiveness and the kind that doesn't forgive.
just wrote this on some personal thinkings, the line about making up for your sins on the street is from the 1973 Martin Scorsese film Mean streets. Personally i don't know if i agree with it but i certantly see the thought in it and i thought that the punisher was a character who might believe in it a little. i dunno. Anyway, only a few months until the new Daredevil tv show and i'm super excited! I hope it turns out well.