Daredevil Word Cloud, A Place in the World

While enrolled in the Spring 2017 iteration of HNR 360 (Dis)abling Comic Books, I understood well that journal entries were one very important, required coursework component. For a particular set of readings covering the Marvel comic character, Daredevil (Alaniz, Donahue, Krueger, Kuppers), I took prolific notes on phrasing or words that resonated with me. I decided I wanted to do something different for a journal entry on the Daredevil unit, so as an alternative to a text-only entry containing a critical reflection, I endeavored to use a different medium to process the readings, and through this exercise, I created a Word Cloud.

First, I tried to create a Word Cloud based on keywords I selected myself from each article. However, the initial images that I created did not adequately demonstrate or portray my interpretation of the terms (whether they be symbolic or realistic) as they relate to the character. So I kept trying to find alternate types of Word Cloud generators. Then, with a bit of Google searching, I was successful and found an online program that allowed me to use any image as a Word Cloud background or shape. I decided to take my word lists for each article and condense them into one Word Cloud, using a specific image of Daredevil that has meaning (in fact, it was taken directly from his character profile on Marvel’s website as it appeared in March 2017). The resulting “Daredevil-shaped” Word Cloud retained the red of his costume, the line of him holding his arm next to his ear (to amplify sound), and the curved lines portraying a visual representation of his so-called “radar” or echolocation as he might use it in the middle of the city, a nondescript skyline of buildings somewhere in his neighborhood, Hell’s Kitchen around him. 

This offered a more intriguing and enriched experience than a simple essay or text-based missive might discuss or debate. The readings discussed issues of space and place, as well as cultural identifiers and passing, and I honed in on keywords around these issues since they specifically analyzed comics, with Kuppers’ work an exception, which reviewed the 2003 DVD/film. As another way to process or experience the Word Cloud, there is an option to view an animated version of the Word Cloud online whereby words are animated by using “mouse-over.”

The whole notion of creating something so visual for a character who is blind is an exercise that frankly deals with the root of the problem in almost any analysis of the character (and any discussion of a visual medium without using any pictures). No matter how much anyone might analyze him, adapt him, reboot him, and so on, he is a blind, disabled character, and he was initially designed/written/illustrated by sighted, able-bodied individuals.

This is the original image I used for the Daredevil Word Cloud, an illustration of the comic book character Daredevil in his red costume. He is standing between two tall buildings. His head is tilted and he is holding up his left hand close to his left ear. A telescoping series of lines radiates out from him, demonstrating how he navigates the world using his unique form of echolocation, or radar.
Interactive Word Cloud containing keywords chosen by me from specific readings on Daredevil. The same illustration of the comic book character Daredevil in his red costume. He is standing between two tall buildings. His head is tilted and he is holding up his left hand close to his left ear. A telescoping series of lines radiates out from him, demonstrating how he navigates the world using his unique form of echolocation, or radar. The majority of the image is filtered in a light pink, but most of Daredevil is formed from several words colored in red. Some lines of the radar and the buildings also include keywords.

Important Points:

  • This is just one example of experiential learning and inclusive pedagogy; creating imagery such as this Word Cloud helps readers comprehend concepts about a character or narrative as well as demonstrating alternate forms for learning and cognitive processing.
  • This also adds to an overall discussion of blindness and comics, particularly alt-text, image description, and multimodal/multimedia forms of “reading” comic books.
  • How might a character in any comic adequately portray blindness or explain the experiences of being blind, if not in a fantastical nature? Does the Daredevil comic “do” that, really?
  • This exercise was completed in 2017, two years after the Daredevil TV show premiered on Netflix in 2015.

Works Cited

Alaniz, J. (2014). “What can We Ever have to Fear from a Blind Man?!!”: Disability, Daredevil, and Passing. In Death, disability, and the superhero: The Silver Age and beyond. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14325/mississippi/9781628461176.003.0003.

Donahue, J. J. (2016).   Frank Miller’s Daredevil: Blindness, the urban environment, and the social model of disability.  In M. J. C. Cella (Ed.), Disability and the environment in American literature: Toward an ecosomatic paradigm [Ecocritical Theory and Practice Series] (pp. 79-96). London: Lexington Books.

Krueger, R. (2008). Abstraction, trauma, and the orphan in Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack’s Daredevil: Wake Up. ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, 4(2). Retrieved from: https://imagetextjournal.com/abstraction-trauma-and-the-orphan-in-brian-michael-bendis-and-david-macks-daredevil-wake-up/

Kuppers, P. (2006). Blindness and affect: Daredevil’s site/sight. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 23(2), 89-96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10509200590490592

Recommended Readings

Christopher, B. (2018). Rethinking comics and visuality, from the audio Daredevil to Philipp Meyer’s Life. In H. Thompson & V. Warne (Eds.), Blindness Arts [Feature Issue]. Disability Studies Quarterly, 38(3). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v38i3.6477.

Dantzler, P. (2020). Daredevil and disabilities. In Super skills, super reading: Literacy and television superheroes (pp. 136-150). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Ellis, K. (2015). Netflix closed captions offer an accessible model for the streaming video industry, but what about audio description? Communication, Politics & Culture, 47(3), 3-20.

Ellis, K. (2017). #socialconversations: Disability representation and audio description in Marvel’s Daredevil. In K. Elllis & M. Kent (Eds.), Disability and Social Media: Global Perspectives (pp. 147-160).  New York: Routledge.

Henry, E. S. (2015, May 1). Daredevil and disability politics. Her Story Arc [Blog]

Vernon, M., & Gustafson, D. (2020). A world on fire: Seeing beyond the discrimination paradigm in Marvel’s Daredevil. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 11(2), 144-166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2018.1535444.

Keywords Used for Daredevil Word Cloud (by Source)

[PLACE]

DONAHUE

  • blindness
  • embodiment
  • urban
  • built_environment
  • the_natural_world
  • impairment
  • passing_as_sighted
  • passing_as_blind
  • markers_of_blindness
  • city_with_agency
  • city_as_active_participant
  • movement
  • geography
  • topography
  • spatial_negotiation
  • masked_vigilante
  • non-normative
  • habitable_world
  • habitable_body
  • abled/disabled binary
  • social_model_of_disability

ALANIZ

  • passing_as_blind
  • hypermasculinity
  • superhero_passing_narratives
  • costume/mask
  • enheightened_senses
  • “radar”
  • making_sense_of_his_world
  • confused_identities
  • Silver_Age
  • pre-ADA
  • alter-alter_ego
  • double/triple_passing
  • stigma_and_spoiled_identities
  • cultural_expectations_of_blindness

KRUEGER

  • kaleidoscope
  • trauma
  • PTSD
  • orphans
  • visual_heroes
  • coping_strategies
  • unique
  • perception
  • adaptation
  • abstraction
  • solitude
  • alone
  • dual_identities
  • masks
  • cover_story
  • absence

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