Matt MurdockDaredevil

Blinded as a child in an accident that leaves his other senses enhanced to extraordinary levels, Matt Murdock fights relentlessly for the law and justice, both as a crusading attorney and as the hard-hitting costumed crimefighter called Daredevil.

His Father’s Son

Matt Murdock grows up as the son of boxer “Battlin’ Jack” Murdock in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. Matt's mother leaves them at a young age, and his father tells him she died. As Jack ages, he feels forced to take work from a local criminal Roscoe Sweeny, AKA Fixer, who eventually coerces the pugilist to work as his enforcer.

While Matt is a natural athlete, Jack seeks to keep him out of his world of violence, hoping that the boy can get an education and escape Hell’s Kitchen. Jack makes Matt promise to study hard and never use his fists. The young Murdock’s commitment to his studies makes him a target of bullies, who nickname him “Daredevil” when he wouldn’t fight back. Matt works out his frustrations at the gym.

Matt's life is changed forever when he sees an out-of-control truck speeding toward a blind older man crossing the street. Matt pushes the bystander out of the vehicle's path, which happened to be carrying radioactive materials. A container falls off the truck and breaks open, spilling a radioactive liquid into Matt's eyes. The incident leaves the boy blind, but all his remaining senses are enhanced significantly. Soon after, he meets Stick, a blind martial arts master, under whose harsh tutelage Matt comes to understand his newly developed senses and blossoms into a formidable fighter.

As a college student, Matt attends his father's boxing match. Past his prime, Jack Murdock receives orders from the Fixer to throw the bout. Not wanting to lose in front of his son, Jack fails to take a dive and wins the match. Later that night, a group of the Fixer's underlings ambush Jack in an alley and kill him.

Devastated by his father's death, Matt becomes enraged when the legal system fails to bring the Fixer to justice. Murdock graduates summa cum laude from Harvard Law School as class valedictorian but decides to go after the Fixer on his own. Creating a costume that hides his real identity, Matt uses the childhood nickname meant to mock him as the basis for his new alter ego. As the vigilante Daredevil, Matt hunted down the members of the Fixer's gang, then pursued the mastermind himself. The terrified criminal died of a heart attack—and Matt realized he had found his second purpose in life.

Co-founding a law firm, Matt becomes determined to serve the legal system as best he can as an attorney—but those the law could not reach would have to face him as Daredevil.

Beyond the Senses

Compensating for the loss of his sight, Daredevil has four superhuman senses: tactile (touch); olfactory (smell); auditory (hearing); and gustatory (taste). His fingertips can feel the faint ink impressions on a printed page, allowing him to read by touch. He can also remember and identify any person he spends at least five minutes with by scent alone, no matter how they attempt to mask the smell. Daredevil can also track an individual aroma through a crowd of people at a distance of roughly 50 feet.

He can hear a person's heartbeat from more than 20 feet away or people whispering on the other side of a standard soundproofed wall. Daredevil can also tell whether a person is lying by listening to changes in a heartbeat (though he can be fooled by a pacemaker or those able to control their heartbeat) and also identify people by the specific patterns of their heartbeats. 

Daredevil's ability to remember tastes enables him to determine every ingredient of a food or drink he samples, as long as at least 20 milligrams of that substance is present. Murdock also has a unique "radar sense" that allows him to perceive the proximity and arrangement of objects around him. He cannot, however, discern pictures or video images, and he can only guess at colors based on the amount of heat they are absorbing or reflecting.

His superhuman senses render him extraordinarily vulnerable to excessive sound, odors, etc., which can incapacitate him.

Having received partial training as a ninja, Daredevil can control his autonomic functions, such as breathing and blood flow, to a certain degree, giving him the ability to go without air for extended periods.

Daredevil is an Olympic-level athlete and gymnast with the acrobatic ability of a circus performer and the pugilistic skills of a heavyweight prizefighter, as well as phenomenal speed, endurance, and reflexes. His unique fighting style incorporates movements and blows from many disciplines, including boxing, ninjitsu, judo, and various other martial arts.

Daredevil carries a billy club. As Matt Murdock, he keeps it disguised as a blind man’s cane, but it is actually a two-part weapon. The lower section is a straightforward weighted fighting baton. The other section is a spring-loaded grappling hook with a long cable.

Fear No Evil

Daredevil has a seemingly endless list of enemies, but two stand above all the others.

Probably no one hurts Matt Murdock more than crime boss Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin, who makes an effective and extensive use of his knowledge of Daredevil’s secret identity, and the bloodthirsty assassin Bullseye, who murders two women that the Man Without Fear loves deeply.

One of these women, Matt’s college sweetheart Elektra Natchios, AKA Elektra, becomes an assassin herself—a deadly warrior who is conflicted by her lingering affection for her former lover. Having experienced death and resurrection, Elektra remains a formidable foe, but also an occasional ally.

Daredevil’s other opponents include crime lords like Leland Owlsley, AKA Owl, and Micah Synn, the mind-controlling Zebediah Killgrave, AKA Purple Man, the crazed Mary Alice Walker, AKA Typhoid Mary, Lawrence "Larry" Cranston, AKA Mister Fear, Wilbur Day, AKA Stilt-Man, Vincent Patilio, AKA Leap-Frog, the ninja order called the Hand, and the hate group the Sons of the Serpent.

Friends of the Devil

Murdock’s allies are as loyal as his enemies are deadly. His best friend since college, attorney Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, AKA Foggy Nelson, is also Matt’s partner through various incarnations of their law firm Nelson & Murdock. Foggy works with Matt for many years, before he even learns that Murdock and Daredevil are one and the same.

Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich becomes a close confidant to Daredevil after discovering his true identity, and goes to great lengths to protect Matt’s secret.

For a time, Matt engages in a romantic relationship with fellow costumed adventurer Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow. The two remain close friends.

Another romantic entanglement of Matt’s, his secretary Karen Page, also holds an important spot in his heart. She dives in front of an attack from Bullseye that fatally wounds her to protect Matt, and he deeply mourns her death.

Daredevil also counts among his closest confidantes Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Danny Rand, AKA Iron Fist, private investigator Jessica Jones, Wakanda's King T’Challa, AKA Black Panther, Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and the deaf adventurer Maya Lopez, AKA Echo. While he operates mostly on his own, he sometimes works with The Defenders and joins the Avengers team under Cage.

Hell’s Angel

Daredevil’s life has been filled with dramatic twists and turns that would break most people, but he is nothing if not resilient. In college, Matt dated fellow student Elektra Natchios. They were deeply in love, but the romance ended when Elektra’s father, a Greek ambassador, was killed after being taken hostage by terrorists. Unable to cope with her father’s death, Elektra fled the country, leaving Matt heartbroken.

After forming Nelson & Murdock, Foggy hired Karen Page to be their secretary. Both Matt and Foggy were instantly smitten with the beautiful young woman. Karen and Matt fell in love, but his secret life as Daredevil always came between them.

Daredevil has faced the exposure of his secret life many times, causing him to take drastic measures. Early on, he established a false identity as Mike Murdock, whom he claimed was his twin brother and Daredevil’s true self. The Man Without Fear then faked his death—and thus the death of Mike Murdock. When he next appeared, Daredevil pretended to be a new hero replacing his dead predecessor.

Another time, Matt staged his own apparent demise in an airplane explosion. When the threat of exposure was no longer a concern, Daredevil visited the grieving Karen and revealed his true identity to her. Murdock then publicly revealed his survival. He proposed to Karen, and she agreed to marry him—if he would retire as Daredevil. But Matt realized that he simply could not stand by when innocents were threatened. Karen left him, moving to Los Angeles to pursue a film career.

As Daredevil’s feud with the Kingpin was just beginning, Matt encountered Elektra, now a ninja assassin working for the crime boss. When rival mercenary Bullseye murdered Elektra, Daredevil sought revenge and left his lethal foe crippled after a brutal encounter. Elektra was resurrected in a ceremony begun by the Hand. Matt unknowingly purified her spirit and the resurrection process was completed by Stone, a member of Stick’s order, the Chaste. Daredevil would not learn that Elektra was alive until much later.

Eventually, Karen became a drug addict and sold Daredevil’s secret identity for a fix. This information made its way to the Kingpin, who used it to ruin Murdock. In response, Matt attacked Wilson Fisk, who savagely beat him and then tried to have him killed. Narrowly escaping, Matt was discovered by a nun, Sister Maggie, who proved to be his long-lost mother Margaret Murdock and took care of him. Eventually recovering, Matt made his peace with the rehabilitated Karen and slowly rebuilt his life.

When his identity was outed by a tabloid, Matt faked his death again, assumed the identity of Jack Batlin (an homage to his father), and also pretended to be a new Daredevil, clothed in a new red-and-gray outfit. Eventually, Daredevil emerged from his self-imposed exile and returned to his familiar red uniform. The tabloid accusations were discredited, and Matt joined with Foggy and Rosalind Sharpe, Foggy’s mother, to form a new law firm.

Soon after, the criminal special effects master Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio, learned he was dying of cancer and wanted to go out with a bang. Purchasing Daredevil’s secret identity from the Kingpin, the illusionist falsified a test showing that Karen had contracted HIV, framed Foggy for murder, and drugged Daredevil to help convince him that a small infant was the Antichrist. The Black Widow stopped her former flame from killing the child, after which he came to his senses. But Matt was unable to stop Mysterio’s agent Bullseye from killing Karen. Daredevil ultimately defeated Mysterio and saved the baby, whom he named Karen.

But a short time later, Daredevil’s secret identity was exposed again, this time by an FBI agent who sold the information to the Daily Globe. Matt publicly and vehemently denied the report. Meanwhile, he began dating a young blind woman named Milla Donovan. After a whirlwind romance, Matt married Milla, but his double life placed a great strain on their relationship. Daredevil’s allies tried to protect him from the FBI, but as the situation worsened, Murdock surrendered to prevent further violence. He was sent to Ryker’s Island prison, where he found himself among his enemies, including the Kingpin, the Owl, and Hammerhead. The killer vigilante Frank Castle, AKA The Punisher, was imprisoned there as well, and eventually, he and Murdock escaped together. Matt was eventually cleared of all charges, with help from the Kingpin’s dying wife, Vanessa Fisk.

Around this time, Milla was driven insane and killed an innocent man after being subjected to Mister Fear’s psychedelic drug. Her parents forced Matt to sign annulment papers while Milla was in a mental hospital, and the marriage was dissolved.

In the aftermath, Matt found himself assuming leadership of the Hand, to prevent the Kingpin from taking over the group, and he intended to transform it into a force for good. He built a fortress headquarters in Hell’s Kitchen called Shadowland, which served both as a temple for the Hand and a prison for criminals captured under Daredevil’s leadership.

But Matt became possessed and corrupted by the Beast, a demon worshiped by the Hand for centuries. The Beast transformed Daredevil into a literal devil, giving him supernatural strength and making him virtually unkillable. Iron Fist managed to stop Murdock with a mystical punch of his chi that drove the Beast from Matt’s soul.

Matt then entered a romantic relationship with fellow attorney Kirsten McDuffie, with whom he moved to San Francisco. There, he decided to publicly out himself as Daredevil, but eventually came to regret the decision. After Daredevil defeated the Purple Man and liberated the criminal’s Purple Children, they returned the favor by using their father's technology to hypnotically alter the memories of everyone in the world, erasing the knowledge that Daredevil and Matt Murdock were the same person. Foggy Nelson became Matt's only confidant after re-learning his secret identity.

More recently, having returned to New York and with his double life restored, Daredevil took on a pupil, Samuel "Sam" Chung, AKA Blindspot. He was readmitted to the Bar and convinced the state’s Supreme Court to allow Daredevil to testify as a witness without revealing his identity. Since it had the potential to set a precedent that could legitimize Super Heroes’ involvement in the legal process, Kingpin, unhappy with Daredevil’s agenda, began a strike against Matt. Fisk hired expert attorney “Legal” to fight Matt in court, and sicced Lonnie Lincoln, AKA Tombstone, on Matt in the streets. Though Matt won the case in the United States Supreme Court. He then accepted that he needed both of his identities, the warrior and the lawyer, to not only save the world, but also to fix it.

Though his win was in jeopardy after Fisk became mayor of New York and made Super Heroes illegal. Fisk claimed that Daredevil attacked him, and a manhunt followed. Daredevil narrowly avoided capture and the next day, to Matt’s surprise, Fisk invited him to become deputy mayor. Matt accepted hoping to use his new position to protect what he had established. But when Mayor Fisk suffered an injury in a siege on the city by The Hand, Matt became acting Mayor and used his new emergency powers and his Daredevil persona to beat back the invasion. Plus, with help from local heroes, Matt’s priest Father Jordan, and warrior priests known as the Ordo Draconum, Daredevil ended the siege. He then quit his day job as deputy mayor, realizing it was the only way to fight Fisk. 

It wasn’t long before Matt was confronted with his own mortality as he suffered severe injuries from being struck by a car while saving a teen from a distracted driver. After a difficult recovery, he returned as Daredevil more determined to prove Fisk rigged the election that won him the mayorship. Suspecting Daredevil’s investigation, Fisk sent trained killers after him. Though he struggled with an identity crisis, and made a fatal mistake when he accidentally killed a minor thug Leo Carraro. He even worked as a parole officer and dated a married woman named Mindy, a local bookstore owner. During this time, Elektra contacted Matt and offered to train him, since he had continued to struggle with being Daredevil post injuries. They worked on a case together which resulted in obtaining billions of dollars, a third of which Elektra kept. Matt’s better judgment kicked in and he stopped working with her.

Daredevil was eventually arrested for Leo’s murder. Preparing to take a deal that would result in jail time, and to protect his neighborhood, he called in a favor to Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man. He asked if Tony would bid in an auction to buy Hell’s Kitchen, an auction he lost. He reconsidered the deal until Elektra appeared in court shortly afterward, reassuring him that she had outbid Tony and would take up his reigns as the neighborhood’s protector. Knowing Hell’s Kitchen was safe, Daredevil plead guilty to the charge against him, second-degree manslaughter.

While carrying out his two-year sentence in jail and allowed to keep his mask on, he received visits from Elektra who encouraged him to escape, and her plan to restore The Fist, the opposing organization to the Hand. Considering that he didn’t trust her, he refused her invitation until she proved herself. Life in the clink proved dangerous since Daredevil had many enemies inside. The warden put out a hit on him since he held a grudge against the vigilante that put his son away, criminal Mason Hollis. Daredevil suffered several attacks, but still his nature got the better of him. He worked with the FBI to investigate the deaths of fellow inmates. What he found was a lab where they were manufacturing a mind-altering stimulant, which was let loose accidentally on the prison while Daredevil fought the guards protecting it. Though exposed to the chemical himself, he escaped the prison and gave the proof to the FBI. He subsequently returned to jail to finish his sentence.

When he served his tie, he rejoined Elektra who had taken up his namesake. Together, they protected the city from Fisk and fought to remove him from his seat of power. With help from the hero community, they defeated him, and the pair returned to focus on taking down the Hand once and for all.