Daredevil How has Daredevil, and Hell's Kitchen, evolved over time?

[cp385]

Having only recently become interested in this character through the Netflix TV show I was wondering whether anyone could give me some insight into the way in which both the character, and Hell's Kitchen, which he is trying to protect have evolved over the course of the many strands of comic and film that have come before?

 

[Mike Murdock]

That's a complicated question with a complicated answer.

Daredevil started as a character they didn't know what to do with. I think the elements that later came to the forefront were there, but they were buried with a lot of other things. He came across as a weaker Spider-Man who fought weaker enemies. Even Hell's Kitchen wasn't all that important. Daredevil fought all over New York (he even moved to San Francisco for some time). Over time, especially with Frank Miller, he became a character who was more aggressive and violent. He also was someone with a bit of mental instability where, in times of great adversity, he could lose it and become even more violent. It was during these times that he was tested the most. Later writers have run with that so, at times, people have thought of him as a hyper-moody, hyper-violent character. But, in each of those cases, the idea was he was only acting that way because his life was a living hell. Lately, Mark Waid's run put him back in a stable position where could be happy again. He lives in a tough world, but it's only in times of great strife that he acts differently.

Hell's Kitchen is a real place in New York. During Frank Miller's run, it wasn't that great of a neighborhood (nor was it historically). Miller drew from that 70s/80s New York that existed at the time where Time's Square was more known for adult video stores than cosmopolitan retail shops. New York itself has cleaned up incredibly since then. Bendis focused on Daredevil as a protector of Hell's Kitchen, even at the expense of the rest of New York. However, perhaps as an acknowledgement of the change in quality of life there, it seems to be less of a focus now. Mark Waid didn't really feature it much, iirc, and Charles Soule has Daredevil in Chinatown these days.