Autistic Matt Murdock

Autistic Matt Murdock

Ok look. This may just be my autistic ass projecting but Mr. Matthew Michael Murdock is 100% autistic and you can fight me on that. 

He is literally like /always/ stimming. You can see it in the show he fidgets with his hands or cane all the time, also that little hop jump thing he did in the college flashback. 

Also, I know he has super senses but they read to me a lot like autism/sensory processing disorder. I mean think, he’s not the only character with enhanced senses. Steve, Bucky, T’Challa and Peter all have them too (I’m sure there are other but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head) and other than Peter (who is also autistic and you can fight me on that) none of them have the same problems that Matt does. We see Matt having multiple sensory overloads throughout the show and honestly they are kind of similar to mine. Everything is too much and I get overwhelmed. Steve/Bucky/T’Challa don’t have that problem. Also “cotton feels like sandpaper on my skin” I mean come on.

*Season 2 spoilers for the next paragraph* When he looses his hearing after Frank shoots him in the head and he’s sitting on the floor screaming and smacking his hand on the wall? That is a meltdown. While I don’t scream during mine I do curl up in a ball and sometimes hurt myself. It’s a meltdown. 

His sense of Justice. Ok, so not every autistic person has a strong sense of right and wrong but a lot do. We can also see it in the fact that he would rather help people than make lots of money. I heard of a study done (Ok so this study is not without faults, it uses functioning labels and try to patholigize autism despite the results) where there were a group of autistic people and a group of neurotypical people. They were both given a choice, they could donate money to a good cause that would help people but would loose them money, or they could donate money to a not so good cause that would make them money in the long run. There were two tests run, one that was observed one that was not. The autistic group where much more likely to pick that good cause in both. Neurotypicals, on the other hand, were more likely to pick the good cause when they were being observed but the bad cause that would make them money when they were not. Matt literally chooses helping people over money every single time. Hell, he chooses to help people over his own safety every time.

His special interests! He has two big ones: law/justice and protecting Hell’s Kitchen. I mean he basically spends all of his time either working a case or on patrol. He maybe also has a smaller one on catholicism.

Scripting. I think he does a lot of that in the show. He describes his senses as a “world on fire” multiple times and uses “I’m blind” as an excuse for his injuries even when that excuse doesn't really fit said injury. He is also extremely eloquent in court when he can rehearse and know what he is going to say but often trips on his words in regular conversation.    

So ya, Autistic Matt Murdock y’all!

-Phoenix

Edit: OMG How could I have forgotten Matts giant special interest on Thurgood Marshall??? 

Steve Roger’s Age

Image Credit: Marvel

So I always wondered how old Steve actually was when he enlisted. From this screenshot we can see he was born in 1918 and in the bottom left hand corner we can see that “todays” date is in 1943. That means Steve would have enlisted when he was 25 but his birthday is in July and the date in the corner is June so he enlisted when he was 24. 

But the Battle of the Valkyrie took place in February of 1945 (MCU Wiki) so he went into ice when he was 26. Not only that but he’d been fighting for roughly two years already. 

Here is a list of how old every original Avenger (with known birthdates on a human timescale) were during the Battle of New York in age order. 

Bruce Banner - 42

Tony Stark - 41

Natasha Romanoff - 27

Steve Rogers - 26 

This means that not counting his years in ice Steve was one of the youngest, if not the youngest Avenger! 

-Phoenix

Happy Birthday Peter!

Happy Birthday Peter! Our spider boi turns 20 today! (Aug 10, 2001). 🕷 🎉 🎁 

Reposting a story I just published to AO3! This kind of Piggybacks on my last post where I said I liked the idea of Steve and Carol fighting together. I decided I liked the idea so much I would write what I think happened after Episode 3! Maria and Monica are in it as well as Steve and Carol. Also Monica may or may not gain powers and may or may not be one of the founding avengers! If your interested please go check it out!

-Phoenix

Aaron Fisher

CW: Spoilers for the first issue of The United States of Captain America

I just read the first comic in the mini series The United States of Captain America and I can not quantify how happy it made me. The story features 19 year old (the same age as me!) Aaron Fisher aka the Captain America of the Railways. He protects queer youth and the unhoused. 

I have known that this comic was going to come out for a while now but actually reading it made me happier than I imagined it would. Captain America is one of my favorite OG MCU Avengers (I mean I like all of them but he’s up there) so seeing a queer kid like me take up the mantle to protect our community is really powerful to me. Before I even finished the first page he was on I knew I need to make a cosplay of him. 

I also love the message of the issue. It starts off with Steve talking about the American dream and how it really is a lie. He talks about how our society brands people we see as different as bad but we are really at our strongest when we work together. Seeing the man who is America personified say that is just... wow. 

Huge kudos to Josh Trujillo (writer) and Jan Bazaldua (artist). Ya’ll did an amazing job and made this queer kid feel seen. 

-Phoenix

What If... Zombies

Spoilers for What If... Zombies

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Wow. So I just watched What If... Zombies and just wow. Marvel really is dead set on ripping my heart to shreds arn’t they. It’s really strange to see how carelessly they kill off characters in these episodes. In movies they hold on to characters till they can’t anymore but in this show... they can kill them off over and over and over again because it’s the multiverse. They can do whatever they want. 

Ok but what they did with Bucky and Steve. Bucky having to kill Steve to help save the world? Thats a strong echo of CA:TWS when he almost killed Steve to destroy the world. Also, Bucky is my favorite character so his death hit but as soon as Steve died I should have realized he was gonna go down too. Seeing them stand against each other, one unintentionally trying to destroy the world and the other having to fight his longest and best friend to save it? It was a painful subversion of the beginning of the helicarrier fight. They really be giving me all the feels. 

Also Peter? Holly sh*t marvel can you please give the boi a break? Seriously. Hearing him talk about all that he’s lost and how he needs to just keep smiling hit me pretty hard. I’ve been struggling with activist burnout recently and have had a really hard time being at all hopeful for the future. So his speech just hit a chord with me. Anyways sorry for the rant. 

-Phoenix