WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Daredevil #28 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Marcio Menyz & VC’s Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
When Daredevil decided not to fight his case and agreed to go to prison for second-degree manslaughter, it shocked his friends and other heroes around his city. However, he said he believed he had no other choice. Since he went to prison, he has told anyone who will listen that he is not above the law and does not deserve special treatment. He has also learned the warden wants him dead, and other prisoners are facing hard times because they even spoke to him.
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And in Daredevil #28, Daredevil just heard from more than one person that he is committing self-flagellation from a place of privilege. He wouldn’t listen to anyone and maintained that he deserved this punishment. After a prisoner that Matt Murdock put behind bars as a prosecutor took his own life, Daredevil needs to realize that serving time in prison is his choice, and he is nothing like anyone else serving time with him. Daredevil isn’t actually in prison to learn anything. He is in there to act like a martyr and prove a point, but he won’t even admit to that.
Daredevil had two people sit him down and talk to him, and both believed that he was not in prison for the right reasons. The first was Matt Murdock’s former girlfriend, Kirsten McDuffie. She represented him in his manslaughter trial and showed up at the prison to speak to him. She believes that he would not have served any time if they continued to fight the case. She even said Foggy Nelson resigned himself to it because he is used to it. However, she slammed Daredevil and pointed out some facts to him. People in jail get out and commit crimes again. Despite being a former assistant district attorney, she now works to keep people out of jail because the system is broken and jails don’t work.
Yet, Daredevil is there because he wants to be there. He is the to take up a cell and use prison services to make himself feel better.
Next, he saw the prison psychologist, Doctor Hayes. Hayes told Daredevil that he should have seen a therapist before he ever came to prison. She said she is there to help people who had their freedom forcibly removed, people who only know inequality and need help. She reminded Daredevil that she is supposed to help them prepare to reenter the real world, but he is there because he wants to be there. She then called him an “inequality tourist under the cover that you want to be treated equally.” When he argued he was there because he broke the law, she let him know that he is only there because it suits him.
Daredevil told her that she is there for the same reason as him, to help people. That is when she had him check his privilege by reminding him that, unlike other prisoners, he could have afforded a good therapist on the outside. He then saw this first-hand when a tragedy struck the prison. Earlier in the issue, a murderer tried to sit with Daredevil, and Matt blew him off. That same prisoner took his life that night. When Daredevil spoke to Doc Hayes about it, she mentioned the young man had problems and reached the end of what he could take. Matt Murdock put this man in prison, and now that man is dead.
However, Daredevil is in prison because he chose to make that decision, and while he has been incredibly stubborn about this decision, he might be finally on the verge of learning that his idea of justice might not be real justice at all.
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