ayrt: i am absolutely with you, especially your point about jack trying his hardest not to be his dad. jack's misguided (having your nine year old drink before he stitches up your face definitely disqualifies him as father of the year) sure, but i don't believe he was the absolute worst. although certain aspects of their relationship were unideal, jack clearly had nothing but love and respect for matt.

i also don't think jack abused matt frequently or even infrequently, i see it maybe being a defining event, something that happened once (i'm not excusing it at all, just to be clear) and that after it happened jack (who would never forgive himself for it) had a very frank discussion with matt about the murdock men and their devil. maybe that's when matt learns about his father's abuse and why his father is so desperate for matt to use his brain, to not be like him. the history of abuse in his family could also be cemented by the fact that matt (in tv canon, i've not read the comics enough to know) has been shown to be very protective of children.

yeah, i'd like to believe that if matt ever did have children he'd completely break the cycle.