Matt MurdockDaredevil

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

His Father’s Son

Matt Murdock grew up as the son of boxer “Battlin’ Jack” Murdock in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. Matt’s mother left them when he was quite young, and his father told him that she had died. As Jack aged, he was forced to take work from a local criminal known as the Fixer (Roscoe Sweeny), who eventually coerced the pugilist to work as his enforcer.

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

Matt’s life was changed forever when he saw an out-of-control truck speeding toward a blind old man crossing the street. Matt pushed the bystander out of the path of the vehicle, which had been carrying radioactive materials. A container fell off the vehicle and broke open, spilling a radioactive liquid into Matt’s eyes. The incident left the boy blind, but all his remaining senses were enhanced significantly. Soon after, he met Stick, a blind martial-arts master, under whose harsh tutelage Matt came to understand his newly developed senses and blossomed into a formidable fighter.

As a college student, Matt attended a boxing match in which his father would be fighting. The past his prime Jack Murdock had been ordered by the Fixer to throw the bout. Not wanting to lose in front of his son, Jack failed to take a dive and won the match. Later that night, a group of the Fixer’s underlings ambushed Jack in an alley and killed him.

Devastated by his father’s death, Matt was enraged when the legal system failed to bring the Fixer to justice. Murdock graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Law School as class valedictorian, but also decided to go after the Fixer on his own. Creating a costume that hid his real identity, Matt used the childhood nickname that was 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 was determined to serve the legal system as best he could 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 super human senses: tactile (touch); olfactory (smell); auditory (hearing); and gustatory (taste). His fingertips can feel the faint impressions of ink on a printed page, allowing him to read by touch. And he can remember and identify any person he has spent 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 heartbeat (though he can be fooled by a pacemaker or those able to control their own 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 there are at least 20 milligrams of that substance 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 super human 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, also known as the Kingpin, who has made 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 loved deeply.

One of these women, Matt’s college sweetheart Elektra Natchios, 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 the Owl (Leland Owlsley) and Micah Synn, the mind-controlling Zebediah Killgrave, also known as the Purple Man, the crazed Typhoid Mary, Mr. Fear, the Stilt-Man, Leap-Frog, the ninja order called the Hand, and the hate group the Sons of the Serpent.

Friends of the Devil

Matt Murdock’s allies are as loyal as his enemies are deadly. His best friend, attorney Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, has been at his side since college, and is 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 was 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 old 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 Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Luke Cage, Iron Fist (Danny Rand), private investigator Jessica Jones, the Black Panther (T’Challa), Captain America (Steve Rogers) and the deaf adventurer Echo (Maya Lopez). While he operates mostly on his own, he has worked with the Defenders and was briefly a member of an Avengers team led by 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 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, DD 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 Mysterio (Quentin Beck) 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 known as the Punisher (Frank Castle) 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 Mr. 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 worshipped 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 DD 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, Sam Chung, who calls himself Blindspot.