Jack Murdock (comics)

Jack Murdock is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the father of Matt Murdock known as the superhero Daredevil and the ex-husband of Maggie Murdock.

Publication history

Jack Murdock first appeared in Daredevil #1 and was created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett

Fictional character biography

Born Jonathan Murdock, he went by Jack for short, and lived an average life in New York. He eventually met and fell in love with a woman named Maggie Grace, which led to the birth of a son, Matt. Although their life was good together, Maggie eventually divorced him, and went on to join a convent, becoming a nun.

Jack didn't want Matt growing up hating his mother for leaving them and decided to tell him she died when he was little. From then on Jack raised Matt as a single parent by becoming a boxer and doing the best he could to support him.^[1][2][3][4]

As time went by Jack found it hard to support his son on boxing alone and ended up going to a local mobster named Roscoe Sweeney, known as the "Fixer" because he fixed boxing matches to make money off of them. Jack made an agreement with him: Jack would be one of his enforcers, and in return Sweeney would fix his fights so that Jack would win and make more money.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

When Matt saw his father roughing up someone for money to give to the Fixer, he fled from the scene in shock and got into a car accident, when he saved an old blind man from getting hit by a truck carrying radioactive chemicals. Blinded by the chemicals, Matt developed superhuman senses. Heartbroken by what he put his son through, Jack vowed to never work for the Fixer again and helped Matt adjust to his blindness, unaware of his powers.

Matt soon entered college and law school, studying to become a lawyer, while Jack continued to be a boxer. Unfortunately Jack soon became involved with Roscoe Sweeney again when he returned into town; Sweeney revealed that Jack actually still worked for him, by showing him that all the fights he won over the years were the result of Sweeney fixing his matches so that Jack would win and he could make more money off him in return.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]}

But this time, Sweeney paid Jack to lose the match. Jack reluctantly accepted the deal, but as the fight started he saw Matt in the crowd cheering him on. Knowing he couldn't disappoint his son, Jack rebelled against the Fixer's orders and won the fight with all his might in Matt's honor.^[18][19] In retaliation, Sweeney had Slade and the rest of his men ambush and kill Jack as he left the gym.

Thereafter Matt Murdock put his powers and training to use as the crime-fighter Daredevil and brought his father's killers to justice.^[20][21][22]

Since then Jack Murdock has appeared in flashbacks throughout Matt's life as Daredevil.

Alternate Versions

Ultimate

Jack Murdock maintains the same role in the Ultimate Comics as he does in the 616 continuity.

Powers and abilities

Jack Murdock had no superhuman abilities, but he was a trained athlete and professional boxer with good stamina which he continued to maintain even as he grew older.

In other media

Television

Animation

• Jack Murdock appeared in a flashback on the Spider-Man TV series episode "Framed." While staying at Matt Murdock's apartment, Peter Parker listens as Murdock tells him that his father was a boxer who tried his best to support them both, while Matt was growing up. During that time he fell in with the Kingpin who forced him to be one of his thugs roughing people up for money through intimidation and fear, Matt saw this by accident and ran away accidentally getting hit by radioactive chemicals being transported illegally through the city by the Kingpin in secret. Matt became blinded, but his other senses became superhuman because of it. Jack was stricken with grief and vowed to make things right by bringing the Kingpin in to justice. He tried uncovering his illegal activities and bringing the information to the police. Kingpin's men found out, caught him and killed him on the Kingpin's orders offscreen. After that, Matt was found by Stick who trained him to control his powers and fight in the martial arts while using acrobatics, which lead Matt to become Daredevil.

Live-Action

• Jack Murdock appears in flashbacks in season 1 of Daredevil, where he is played by John Patrick Hayden. Like the comics, Jack is a struggling boxer who keeps trying to raise his son right and encourage him to study and get good grades. Working for Roscoe Sweeney (The Fixer), he is paid to take dives in fights, and Matt takes time to patch him up after them. After Matt is blinded in a car accident, Jack spends most of his time helping Matt cope with his situation of being blinded and learning how to adjust to it. As Jack and Matt learn to deal with Matt's new condition, Jack is approached by Sweeney and his partner Silke, who want him to take a dive in the fifth round during a match against Carl "The Crusher" Creel; they're betting against Jack and hoping to get a bigger payday, offering to give a share to Jack knowing it could help him and Matt with financial problems. Jack reluctantly agrees to do it, thinking he doesn't have any other choice. Jack later receives a new boxing robe for him to wear when he steps into the ring. After some words of encouragement from Matt, Jack decides to not listen to Sweeney's instructions, and win the fight for Matt and show him that he isn't weak. Before the fight, Jack calls his bookie from the gym's payphone and tells him to put all bets on him and to transfer the money to an account in Matt's name when he wins. He also calls his ex-wife, and tells her to take Matt in and take care of him too. After fighting Creel to a standstill, Jack hurries to his locker room at the back of the arena in secret and tries his best to run away in panic. Sweeney sends assassins who gun down Jack in an alleyway. Matt finds the body shortly after the police find it. Matt uses the money earned through the bets that Jack made before the match to go through law school and become a successful lawyer while also training with Stick and eventually becoming the superhero Daredevil.

Film

• Jack Murdock appeared in the Daredevil movie 2003 portrayed by actor David Keith. In the film he was an aging boxer just like in the comics and was always trying support his son Matt as best he can by encouraging him to stay out of fights and focus on his studies. He was a good and honest man, but made wrong choices when trying to make more money, working for a local mobster named Falon who fixed boxing matches who reluctantly becomes an enforcer attacking people for money through intimidation. One day Matt sees this by accident on a shortcut home from school, shocked' Matt runs away and gets struck by radioactive waste from an accident at a nearby construction site. After that Jack apologizes and promises Matt to never get in trouble again and helps Matt adjust to his condition, but soon after, Jack gets caught up with the mobster again who tries to make him take a dive in his next fight after revealing he was fixing Jack's matches all along. Jack agrees at first but then rebels and wins the fight as soon as he sees Matt in the crowd cheering him on to win. In retaliation the mobster has him killed outside the arena at the back entrance by some of his men.

References

External links

• "Jack Murdock - Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki - Wikia". marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com. Retrieved 2015-12-25. 
• "Jonathan Murdock (Earth-616) - Marvel Database - Wikia". marvel.wikia.com. Retrieved 2015-12-25. 
• "Battlin' Jack Murdock (Character) - Comic Vine". comicvine.com. Retrieved 2015-12-25. 
• "Jack Murdock (Earth-701306) - Marvel Movies - Wikia". marvel-movies.wikia.com. Retrieved 2015-12-25. 
• "Daredevil: The Man Without Fear - Characters". manwithoutfear.com. Retrieved 2015-12-25.