#spider-band

[daresplaining]

Mattea Murdock, the Daredevil Drummer of Philly

In celebration of the forthcoming new Spider-Punk: Arms Race series (not to mention Hobie stealing scenes in "Across the Spider-Verse" last year), I wanted to finally write up my long-overdue overview post on Mattea Murdock! If you haven't read her introductory run yet, check it out here.

Mattea truly stands on her own in the wide canon of alternate universe DDs. She is a female Daredevil, she is Latina, and she somehow managed to escape Marvel's NYC gravity and base herself in Philadelphia, where she defends its citizens from violence and exploitation. Hobie and his self-styled Spider-Band encounter her in Spider-Punk (2022) #3, when they make a detour to fix the busted Spider-Van. They are all immediately-- and correctly-- impressed.

Mattea: "Yo, Kam!" Hobie: "Wait, you know each other?!" Kamala: "Duh! You think I wouldn't know the Daredevil Drummer of Philly?" Hobie: "You're a drummer too?" Mattea: "Best in town." Hobie: "Oh man, my friend Gwen is a pretty dope drummer too. I think y'all would definitely get along." Mattea: "Hope they're ready to get outplayed by a pretty, blind girl." Spider-Punk vol. 1 #3 by Cody Ziglar, Justin Mason, Jim Charalampidis, and Travis Lanham

I talked a little about her killer character/costume design when she was first introduced (I was a fool; of course she's blind), and my love for her look has only grown. It's badass, distinctive, and it slots her beautifully into Hobie's punk rock world while still evoking that trademark Daredevil image (red, sticks, pointy bits...). Her irises are red, which is a visual choice I enjoy in more heightened, fantastical DD stories/art styles, and I think it works for Mattea. Heck, I could even imagine them being colored contact lenses she's chosen to wear for the aesthetic. Also, one detail that wasn't in the previews is the fun little laughing devil face on the back of her jacket (I'm not punk rock enough to get the reference if it is one, but it reminds me of Darkdevil):

Of course, always a big priority for me is Daredevil's power-set, and Mattea provides a quick primer on her unique perspective, mostly focused on hearing and the radar sense:

Mattea: "What? You think just 'cause I'm a blind girl, I can't see? Echolocation, my abuelas used to call it. But it's more intimate. Instinctual. Can hear a kick drum from ten blocks away. Can see it too. If I think hard enough, I can even see what the garage it's being played in looks like." Hobie: "Yo, are you doing it right now?" Riri: "She's definitely doing it right now."

This is not my favorite description of Daredevil's powers, nor-- to be honest-- a particularly informative one. She can gather spatial information through walls...from ten blocks away? I also never love an overuse of visual language in any explanation of these powers, especially as it's implied that Mattea, like Matt, is completely blind. Surprisingly, no direct mention is made here of the hypersenses as a whole, beyond the reference to hearing a kick drum from ten blocks away. Even her hearing doesn't receive that much attention in the story overall, which feels like a missed opportunity for such a musical character. Her blindness, too, is pretty much irrelevant to the story, and never comes up again. But I do LOVE that she uses the term "echolocation", though is still very clearly the radar sense, in all its vague, undefined, semi-magic glory.

And visually? This is great. I'm always a fan of the cross-hatching visual, especially against a black background, and artist Justin Mason doesn't go too overboard on the detail, which is another preference of mine. And thematically, I love the ways in which Mattea's drummer identity is tied into her superheroics-- not just for laying a beatdown on bad guys, but also for channelling and enhancing her echolocation/radar sense. One of my favorite scenes in the comic is when she plays a drum solo on a roof edge to scope out the Kingpin's lair. I'm willing, in that moment, to ignore any gripes about radar sense irregularities out of respect for the coolness and thematic heft of the concept. I mean, this rocks:

Mattea: "Come on, show me the good stuff."

At the end of the day, though, this is not a Daredevil comic and Mattea is not the main character. Plus, it's only five issues long, and introduces a bunch of other new characters as well. There was only ever going to be room for the creative team to offer a cursory introduction, hopefully generating enough interest to prompt these characters to appear again in other comics. In that, I think they fully succeeded with Mattea; we get a cursory sense of her powers (or at least, enough to show that they're the normal DD set), her personality (delightfully cocky, playful, tough, fearless), a few hints of her backstory, and some truly kickass fight scenes. There's a bit of suspension of disbelief required to believe she can use drumsticks as a stand-in for billy clubs (unless her drumsticks are made of something really hefty-- and hey, maybe they are), but this is Spider-Punk. Hobie killed Norman Osborn with a guitar--twice. It's not about realism, it's about style.

Mattea: "Been waiting for this for a long time, Fisk. Real long time." Fisk: "I'm going to break you, li'l girl--AWGGH!" Mattea: "Big, strong man who sends out his band of wackos to push over people too weak to fight back." Fisk: "Wouldn't get too cocky, girlie...you're not the only one who's fast! I'm gonna hurt ya. A lot. Then I'm gonna kill ya. And I'm gonna love every second of it. You know, this is the same look you had when I had your old band clapped a few years back. I like it. Brings out your eyes--GAAAH!" Mattea: "There's something you need to understand about me, papi. I'm not the kinda girl who goes down without a fight."

I can't wait to see more of Mattea and learn more about her, her world, her friends, and her enemies. In particular, she seems to have a history (possibly romantic?) with this world's Kamala Khan, and I would love to see more of that relationship. While Mattea Murdock clearly has a lot in common with Matt Murdock, she also seems happy to be a team player, unlike Matt, and I really enjoy that. Though I guess it's not that surprising a distinction. After all, every drummer needs a band.

[theautisticcentre]

My Spider-Band hcs!

Found family realness, with the romances being Miles x Hobie, Mathew x Jasmine and Gwen x Elise (the character below)!

Monsters in battle and music.

These guys and gals once had an album release the same time as a Taylor Swift one, and the Spider-Band outsold easily.

Gaymers galore!

Memelords.

Love watching horror films and playing horror games.

They are the ultimate Miguel bullies. Like, they give Bully Maguires a run for his money.

Mathew is also bullied for being British. (Affectionately, ofc)

@jasontoddssuper

(Picrew by @allimocha!)

[gremlinisjay]

She keeps me on track a bit, which I appreciate, y'know. As a procrastinator

[Image ID: a traditional colourless drawing with pencils of Mattea Murdock from Spider-punk comics. She stands in profile with only one arm in view. Her head is raised up. She has muscular arms. She has a drummstick in her hand. She has her sleevless jacket and black shirt with short sleeves, that has "DD" written on it. She has fingerless gloves. She has mohawk, with shaved sides of her head. Her eyes are blank, without pupils. She is smiling, she looks confident/.End ID]

[lildoodlenoodle]

Ugh love her

[hellrobin]

so obviously hobie is guitar and gwen drums but what instruments do you think pavitr and miles play?

[panzerdrako]

Spider-Punk

Battle of the Banned

05

[thischristianguy]

Spider-Punk is great and you should be reading it

[torturedspoetsdepartment]

spiderband + the squinty™

bonus:

[polararts]

OOops wooops woops oopksdfj Get em here

[tikklil]

Bagel date 🥯

[callie-rex]

consider

[the-strawberryfarmer]

the fantastic four 😀❤️

[gremlinisjay]

She. Is. So. Overlooked. And. I. Hate. It.

[Image ID: colourless traditional drawing of Mattea Murdock from Spider-punk comics. She stands with her arms to the sides, holding drumsticks. She has a mohawk, with strands of her on both sides of her face. She's dressed only in her shirt with “DD” on it, that reaches only half her stomach and her trousers. She smiles, she looks mischievous and confident. There's devil garnament on her face around the eyes with horns. She has piercing in her right eyebrow and ears. She's muscular, her abs are showing. There's sound waves coming from her ear, indicate that she hears something. Her head is turned slightly to the side/.End ID]

[themetalhiro]

EEK! SPIDERS!

[kookies2000]

Is it just me, or did all the companies just pull out their big guns against Disney on their 100th anniversary?

The Last Wish and Bad Guys by Dreamworks destroyed it! Mario by Illumination came out. Spider-Verse 2 is self-explanatory. Little Mermaid 2023 fell into their shadow. Barbie by Mattel destroyed the summer, unfortunate for Huanted Mansion. FNAF by Blum House is gonna dominate both October and November. And then we have Trolls 3 by Dreamworks with an all-star cast singing 90 and 2000s classics. AND pulled out an NSYNC song/reunion after 22 years.

I'm convinced the companies were in cahoots this year.

Edit: Forgot Nimona by Blue Sky's, basically calling out Disney's homophobia.

[audhd-nightwing]

spiderband !!

i already posted hobie and miles but i wanted to post all four together so technically i’m reposting them shh