The Heroes Reborn universe has flipped the Marvel comic book universe on its head. It shows us a world where the Avengers no longer exist. In their place, the villainous and brutal Squadron Supreme – Marvel’s pastiche of DC’s Justice League, have taken over. So instead of Captain America, Thor, Doctor Strange, the Hulk, and Ant-Man, we have heroes like Hyperion, Doctor Spectrum, and Nighthawk. But that is not to say Marvel has not kept some original heroes from the mainstream universe in this new reality. Daredevil exists. But Matt Murdock is not who you remembered him as.
The Matt Murdock of the Heroes Reborn reality is an evil, religious zealot and a relentless psychopathic serial killer on loose.
The Heroes Reborn reality came into existence after Mephisto flipped the script. After changing the very fabric of reality, Mephisto is now the pseudo-equivalent of God in this new universe. And in Mephisto’s world, things have changed for the worse.
Police Commissioner Luke Cage is now the Jim Gordon to Nighthawk, Marvel’s answer to the Batman. Together, the unlikely duo are investigating a series of murders committed by a vigilante known simply as ‘The Saint’. The Saint aka Matt Murdock has been frequently targeting criminals, beating them viciously and always ending up killing them.
Unable to catch the Saint, Luke Cage visits a church where he meets local cleric Matt Murdock. Murdock is now a devout follower of Mephisto’s faith. Murdock says that many local criminals visit the church and confess their crimes to him, hoping to gain redemption and be absolved of their faults.
Officer Jessica Jones and Misty Knight later catch Matt Murdock in the act, while he is trying to kill the villain Tombstone who is still in the ICU. Murdock calls the act “administering to the sick”. Cage soon confronts Matt and realizes the truth. Matt never wanted to be the Saint. The S on his chest represents a serpent, the form Mephisto took when he came to Earth. Matt Murdock has been driven into the realms of insanity after listening to the criminals’ confessions for so long. The criminals believe that confessing to Matt somehow allows them to commit more crimes. They return to a life of murder and torture, all thanks to their confession to Matt Murdock.
Matt feels responsible for the crimes in his neighborhood. He reveals he became a vigilante to help ‘the sick and the damned’. He later dies in a hail of bullets, an abrupt end to a truly interesting character.
