Comic Book / Daredevil: Father

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Daredevil: Father is a Marvel Comics six-issue limited series published through their Marvel Knights imprint. The series is written and drawn by Joe Quesada, with Danny Miki as inker, Richard Isanove as colorist, Chris Eliopoulos as letterer, and Axel Alonso serving as the editor of the book.

Set during an intense heat wave, the story deals with Matt Murdock taking on a client named Maggie Farrell who has developed terminal cancer from contaminated water due to the New Jersey Power and Light Company illegally dumping chemicals in the local river. At the same time, a vicious serial killer named Johnny Sockets is terrorizing the streets of Hell's Kitchen. During all of this, Matt grapples with his complicated feelings regarding his father Jack.

The first issue was released April 28th, 2004 and the final issue was released November 15th, 2006.

Daredevil: Father contains the following tropes:

• Abusive Parents:
  • Jack is shown hitting Matt in a flashback.
  • Maggie Farrell was sexually abused by her father as a child. She hates Matt because he saved her father's life, allowing him to live long enough to destroy her childhood.
• Awful Wedded Life: Sean and Maggie's marriage is marred by frequent arguments and (false) accusations of infidelity.
• Backstory Horror: The thing most people remember this series for. Retconning that the old man that Matt was blinded trying to save was molesting his own daughter and would continue to do so for years.
• Broken Ace: Nestor Rodriguez, aka NeRo, has been helping his community since the age of 13 when he was working in soup kitchens and building housing for the homeless. He even formed his own neighborhood watch group called the Street Angels. After his father's death, Nestor went into seclusion for some time and re-emerged as a successful media mogul with a flourishing hip-hop label, restaurants and clothing line. He's also the leader of the superhero team known as the Santerians. However, Nestor is also hiding the dark secret that his father, known in life as a beloved and honest councilman, was also in the Kingpin's pocket.
• The Big Guy: Ogun of the Santerians is the largest member of the group and possesses Super-Strength.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Eleggua gives a not-so-subtle threat that he will expose Matt's secret identity as Daredevil if he doesn't help the Santerians.
• Chekhov's Gun: One of Nestor's business ventures is a special cologne that gives a whoever uses it their own unique scent. Matt discovers that Nestor is Eleggua by recognizing his scent from the cologne.
• Cut Himself Shaving:
  • Maggie gives the common "I walked into a door frame" excuse for her black eye. Matt initially believes she got it from her husband Sean but it was actually given to her from a victim who fought back.
  • When he interrogates her about her black eye again in issue #4, Maggie turns it around on Matt by pointing out his own injuries. When Matt insists that he "fell", Maggie says she believes him and asks how he would feel if she just jumped to the conclusion that someone in his life was abusing him.
• Dark Secret: Nestor's father Hector Rodriguez was known in life as an honest politician and Hispanic rights activist. However, the night his father was killed, Nestor discovered that his father was secretly in the pocket of Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin of Crime. When the crime lord ordered Hector to kill his own son to prove his loyalty, Hector refused and was killed. Nestor destroyed all evidence of his father's corruption and has since been trying to make up for it by becoming a vigilante for a neighborhood that lacks its own superheroes.
• Eye Scream: Johnny Sockets gets her name from the media due to her gouging out the eyes of her victims as her calling card.
• Heat Wave: The story takes place during what is claimed to be the deadliest heat wave New York has ever dealt with. A news report in issue #2 mentions that seven people have died in only the 20th day alone. The Police Commissioner also blames both the heat wave and Daredevil for the recent spikes in criminal activity.
• Indignant Slap: Matt gets one from Maggie when he asks her if she still loves her husband Sean after he hits her.
• Groin Attack: Matt defeat Ogun of the Santerians this way.
• Misplaced Retribution: Maggie Farrell, aka Johnny Sockets, murdered several people who were once clients of Matt Murdock, with the intent of later writing a tell-all book in which she attributed the murders to Matt and ruining his reputation. She did all of this because Matt saved the life of her father who had sexually abused her when she was a child, something Matt didn't even know until she told him. Maggie also blames Matt for her ovarian cancer and her husband cheating on her — the former was caused by a company contaminating the water supply through illegal dumping and the latter is not only unrelated to anything Matt did, but turns out to be untrue.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Both Sean and Maggie believed the other was having an affair. Sean believed Maggie was having an affair with Matt because she was so adamant on him representing her in her lawsuit, not knowing that this was part of her plan to destroy Matt's life. Maggie assumed Sean was having an affair because he was going out late at night; in truth, he was actually taking computer classes. He intended to surprise Maggie by telling her but eventually became too exhausted with their crumbling marriage to bother.
• My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: Matt is able to tell that Foggy is interested in Maggie through his super senses.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Matt understandably doesn't take it well when he learns that the old man that he saved in the accident that blinded him was molesting his own daughter and that Matt unwittingly caused it to continue by saving him — and that said daughter murdered a lot of the people he helped over the years as part of her revenge scheme.
• Mythology Gag: In issue #2 Matt ponders getting an isolation tank like the one seen in the movies.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: According to Matt, Jack would say this quite often. Matt wonders if he had a point considering he ended up blind from saving a man's life. The final issue reveals that the man Matt saved sexually abused his own daughter, for which blamed on Matt saving his life and allowing him to live long enough to destroy her innocence. She became the serial killer Johnny Sockets, targeting Matt's previous clients in an attempt to ruin his name.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Maggie shares her first name with Matt's mother.
• Parental Incest: Maggie Farrell was molested by her own father — the old man Matt was blinded while saving.
• Samus Is a Girl: Johnny Sockets is assumed to be a man. The final two issues reveal it's actually Maggie Farrell.
• Sleeps in the Nude: Matt sleeps naked during the heat wave. Using the air conditioner isn't an option for him due to how sensitive his hearing would be to the noise.
• Toxic Waste Can Do Anything: Harshly averted with Maggie Farrell. She developed ovarian cancer due to the New Jersey Power and Light Company dumping toxic waste into the local river.
• Wham Episode:
  • Issue #5 reveals two major twists.
    • All of the Johnny Sockets victims are former clients of Matt and Foggy's. Guida, one of the FBI agents working on the case, reveals this to Matt by showing him his address book which was found at one of the crime scenes.
    • Sean Farrell, Maggie's husband, is the son of the man Matt saw his father beating up in the alley. Sean has known this all along, and believed Maggie was having an affair with Matt. Sean isn't the killer as Matt has suspected; the reason he was going out at night is because he was taking computer science night classes.
  • Issue #6 gives us the twist that's mentioned "Backstory Horror": Maggie's father was the man that Matt saved in the accident that blinded him — and that he was molesting her, continuing to do so even after the accident.