Friday Throwdown! Daredevil vs. Dwight Schrute!

In an effort to finish the week with a flourish, Pop Culture A.D.D. is proud to present our first installment of Friday Throwdown. This week, we’ll be pitting two formidable foes – and two geek icons – against each other.


Representing Marvel Comics, we have the blind lawyer vigilante from Hell’s Kitchen himself, Matthew Murdock, also known as Daredevil.


Representing The Office and Dunder Mifflin, we have the former Assistant to the Regional Manager in Scranton, Dwight Schrute, aka Rainn Wilson.


Let the throwdown begin!

First Appearances:

Daredevil first appeared in April, 1964’s Daredevil #1, sporting yellow and red tights (made from his father’s boxing robe) and beating the tar out of a group of four thugs.

Dwight Schrute first appeared in March, 2005’s premiere of the U.S. version of The Office, fighting over potential safety violations and Jell-o encased staplers with Jim Halpert.

Advantage: Daredevil.

Origins:

After saving an older blind man from an oncoming truck, young Matthew Murdock was exposed to radioactive chemicals that were thrown from the truck, rendering him blind and enhancing his other senses.

Dwight Schrute was originally a twin, but “resorbed” his twin while still in the womb, giving him the strength of a grown man and a baby.

Advantage: Dwight Schrute.

Outfits:

Ever since issue #7, Daredevil has (usually) rocked a red costume with an interlocking “DD” logo on his chest and little horns sticking out of his cowl. In his day job, Matthew Murdock wears the tailored suits that are de rigeur for the Marvel Universe’s most famous attorney.

Dwight Schrute is usually seen in a charming short-sleeve shirt and tie combo with a dark gray-brown suit, large glasses and Casio calculator watch. However, he has also sported the tuxedo his grandfather was buried in – and keeps an extra pair of Birkenstock sandals in his car for “special occasions”.

Advantage: Dwight Schrute.

Special Abilities:

Daredevil possesses the strength, speed, agility and endurance -- not to mention the acrobatic and gymnastic skills -- of an Olympic-level athlete. He is also a master of a unique martial art form, which is a hybridized form of American boxing and the Japanese arts of ninjutsu, judo and aiki-jujutsu. Beyond his heightened sense of taste, touch, smell and hearing, Daredevil also has a “radar” sense.

Dwight is trained in the art of surveillance and possesses a purple belt in goju-ryu karate. As a "hero", Dwight wakes up in the morning with mass quantities of anger and has trained himself in a wide array of weapons, including laser tag guns. Finally, Dwight Schrute is also able to raise and lower his cholesterol at will.

Advantage: Daredevil.

Weapons:

Daredevil carries a billy club that is disguised as a blind man’s cane when he is in his civilian guise. The billy club contains thirty feet of aircraft control cable attached to a hardened steel grapple. He is also adept in the use of all manner of weapons used by ninjas and often carries two fighting batons.

Apart from his skills with the previously mentioned laser tag guns, Dwight Schrute is also an expert marksman with paintball guns. Beyond that, he is skilled with a variety of weapons, including cross bows, bo staffs, samurai swords, nun-chucks, throwing stars, stun guns and, of course, pepper spray.

Advantage: Dwight Schrute.

Adversaries:

While his nemesis is Wilson Fisk, also known as the Kingpin, Daredevil's adversaries also include a veritable who’s who of murderers, psychopaths and all-around bad dudes – including Bullseye, The Owl, Stilt-Man, Gladiator, Jester and even Doctor Doom himself on rare occasions.

Dwight Schrute has a sometime adversarial relationship with his boss and mentor, Michael Scott. Run-ins with Michael Scott include a fire extinguisher “hazing” and a brutal battle in a dojo. However, his true nemesis is none other than Jim Halpert, who delights in hatching nefarious schemes to torment him.

Advantage: Daredevil.

Love lives:


Currently married to the blind-and-beautiful Milla Donovan, Daredevil’s love life has been nothing short of astounding... and heart-breaking. The love of his life, Karen Page, was murdered by Bullseye, while other women in his life – including Heather Glenn and Glorianna O’Brien – have met tragic fates of their own. Daredevil is nothing if not a ladies’ man and has shown his "billy club" to the likes of super-hotties Elektra and Black Widow.

Dwight Schrute is currently dating his co-worker, Angela Martin, an uptight, incredibly petite blonde who heads up Dunder Mifflin’s accounting department – although Dwight Schrute has stated that the fictitious anime character Konikotaka is his ideal woman.

Advantage: Daredevil.

Transportation:

Daredevil uses the grappling hook attachment of his billy club to traverse the rooftops of Hell’s Kitchen.

Dwight Schrute uses a maroon 1987 Pontiac Trans Am that gets eight miles per gallon to traverse the mean streets of Scranton, Ohio.

Advantage: Dwight Schrute.


Final Scorecard:

Daredevil: 4
Dwight Schrute: 4

Wow. We really didn’t see that one coming. To put an end to this battle of champions, we are going to have to go to a tie-breaker.

Origin of Name:


Daredevil's name comes from the fact that the bullies of Hell's Kitchen used to call him "daredevil" when he was a bookish, passive young boy.


According to the man himself, Dwight stands for Dedicated, Worker, Intense, Good Worker, Hard Worker, Terrific.


Advantage: Dwight Schrute.


Congratulations to the winner of Pop Culture A.D.D.’s first-ever Friday Throwdown:

Dwight Schrute!