Daredevil

Origin

Matt Murdock was raised in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, by his father, boxer “Battlin” Jack Murdock. From a young age, Matt was pushed to work hard in school so he wouldn’t have to fight like his father. His father worked hard to provide for him so he would have a better life. As boxing work became scarce, Jack went to work for a local mobster, the Fixer, moonlighting as an enforcer in addition to taking fights. While his father was away, Matt secretly started training himself on his father’s equipment.

While walking down a street one day, Matt noticed a blind man was about to get hit by a truck. He ran in front of the truck, and pushed the blind man out of the way. However, the truck was carrying radioactive waste, and some spilled out directly onto Matt’s eyes causing him to go blind. With his vision gone, Matt’s remaining senses of hearing, touch, taste, and smell became heightened, and he was able to “see” using a form of “radar sense”, that showed outlines and shapes. The radiation also may have had an impact on his mind as well, allowing him to retain information quite easily.

Matt continued with both his studies and his secret training regime. His hard work paid off when he got into Columbia to study law. It was there that he met his roommate and future business partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. During this time, Jack Murdock was enjoying some success in the boxing ring, so Matt got tickets for himself and Franklin to go see a bout. However before the fight, Jack found out that all his matches were fixed and he was going to get killed if he didn’t fix the match. Jack didn’t want to lose his match in front of his son in the audience, so he went against his orders to fix the match and won. The Fixer did not take this well, and so he took matters into his own hands. Jack Murdock came out after the match and was on his way home. But, he was murdered minutes later that night.

Shortly after, Matt and Nelson graduated from Columbia and started their own law firm Nelson & Murdock right away. After graduation, Matt also devised a plan to avenge his father’s death. He made the Daredevil costume, and brought the Fixer and his second-in-command Slade to justice. Thus “the Man Without Fear” was born.

Creation

Daredevil was created by Stan Lee. His original skills, story, and persona are all products of Lee’s creation. Daredevil may have been based on the 1940’s creation of Lev Gleason Publications, also called “Daredevil.” The original Daredevil character was public domain at one point, but was adopted by Dynamite Entertainment and had his name changed to “Death-Defying Devil“.

Daredevil’s original yellow and red costume and style were designed by artist Bill Everett. Jack Kirby may have also had a hand in the original creation of Marvel’s Daredevil, but how much he contributed is unknown. In Daredevil #5 (Dec. 1964) Daredevil’s costume was updated by artist Wally Wood to show the iconic “DD” symbol on his chest, replacing the single “D” from his original costume. Two issues later in Daredevil #7 (Apr. 1965), Wood completely redesigned Daredevil’s costume to the red costume he has been synonymous with for most of his crime fighting career.

Character Evolution

Because of the lengthy time period in which Daredevil has existed, his writers have had to “fill-in the blanks” or proceed with retcons to explain or change things about Daredevil’s story for modern readers. For example, his full origin was slightly altered when Frank Miller wrote the miniseries Man Without Fear. Originally, Stan Lee portrayed Daredevil as the “Scarlet Swashbuckler” once he began wearing his red costume. The idea of a swashbuckler/adventurer may have also been based on the 1940’s Daredevil character. He began as an amazing gymnast who honed his boxing prowess at Fogwell’s Gym.

When Frank Miller took over writing duties, he decided the story needed to be revamped. Miller left the foundation of Daredevil’s history intact, but added the idea that he was trained in combat by someone like him, a blind master ninja named Stick. Stick had begun training Murdock at a young age and taught him many ninja techniques, further explaining his radar sense and his amazing martial arts prowess. In Miller’s run on Daredevil, it is suggested that Daredevil’s radar sense was not something that Daredevil gained as a result of his heightened senses, but something that was learned and honed. When Daredevil’s abilities become faded, Stick teaches Daredevil again how to use his radar sense.

Daredevil’s time wearing the yellow costume in the beginning of his career was also re-written by Jeph Loeb in a miniseries called “Daredevil Yellow“, which details major parts of Daredevil’s early career. Since Daredevil spent a very short time wearing the costume, Loeb was able to encompass that entire period in one miniseries.

Major Story Arcs

Daredevil: The Man Without Fear

When Frank Miller took over the book, he began to explore things about Matt Murdock and Daredevil that before had not been known or explained in great detail. His radar sense was shown and used before, but never explored. An arc where Daredevil loses his radar sense reveals that it was Stick who actually trained him to use it in the first place. Miller also explored the fact that Daredevil’s radar sense not only gave him a general sense of his surroundings, but also allowed him to understand anatomy, so he could strike weak spots in the human body in order to take down tougher opponents.

It was Miller who also used the Kingpin as the main crime boss to send danger in Daredevil’s way. Bullseye had been hired by the Kingpin to go after Daredevil. After being defeated, he tried a different approach. He dressed up as Daredevil and began killing people, which ultimately got him beaten to a pulp. Bullseye and Elektra, who became an assassin, teamed up against Daredevil but when Elektra found out that Matt was Daredevil, she switched sides.

The Kingpin had become tired of failure and on his first personal meeting with Daredevil, he defeated the hero in combat using his own abilities. In this arc, the Daredevil stories carried darker, more serious tone. He became a no tolerance street leveler where before he was a joking and easy going hero like Spider-Man. In Miller’s run, Bullseye established himself as a more than formidable opponent for Daredevil, ensuring more frequent appearances and intensifying their rivalry.

Daredevil: Yellow

Daredevil’s first appearances were as a playful trickster of a character. Without much fighting skill we see him usually using his acrobatic ability to thwart enemies. While taking out bad guys as Daredevil, Matt still studied hard in college along with his roommate, best friend and future district attorney, Foggy Nelson. He often had to lie and trick Foggy when he had been missing for long periods of time. Those lies and tricks had come easy since no one would suspect a blind man to be the Daredevil. Honoring his father’s wishes, Matt would graduate with a PhD in law at the top of his class, despite his dual life. Daredevil’s time spent at the gym helped him hone his boxing and wrestling skills, which became key for him, along with his acrobatic ability, against larger groups of thugs he had to engage. It was also at this time that Daredevil’s incredible accuracy was developed with the use of his signature weapon, the Billy Club. He is also shown using a tire as a sling shot with a car engine as ammo, which he used to stop a truck. His abilities to use acrobatics to dodge bullets and heightened reflexes to swat bullets were also apparent by this time.

After graduation, Matt and Foggy would start their own law firm “Nelson & Murdock” and hire a beautiful young, blond secretary named Karen Page, to whom both men were attracted to. Murdock’s first major contact with his fellow superheroes as a lawyer came when the Fantastic Four asked for his help. They had legal issues regarding their lease on the Baxter Building and wanted Matt to look it over. Matt never had a chance, as he spent most of the day preventing Electro from breaking into the Baxter Building and trying to steal some of Reed’s notes. Electro couldn’t understand the technobabble written on the notes, but figured he could still sell them to someone who could. By the time Matt got back to the office, the FF decided to find some other lawyer who would be more punctual.

At this point in his career, Daredevil moved away from common street thugs and began to develop conflicts with a rogue’s gallery of such villains as Purple Man, the Owl, Electro, the Fellowship of Fear & Matador. Daredevil #6 is the last time in continuity he appears in the yellow costume. Daredevil’s original design was reminiscent of a circus acrobat. His name seems to come from the fact that a circus acrobat appears “fearless” when performing potentially life threatening feats. Thus the title “Man Without Fear”. In this case, Matt takes his acrobatics to more risky heights.

Daredevil: The Scarlet Swashbuckler

In the arcs following “Daredevil Yellow”, Daredevil began wearing his famous red costume. The name Scarlet Swashbuckler comes from Stan Lee’s narration of his early books. The name appears to come from the level and style of the adventures he had become involved with at this point. Daredevil stepped away from the street-level a bit, and began to go on full-blown adventures. He even found himself in the Savage Land a few times. In the first red costume issue (Daredevil #7), he faces the Prince of Atlantis himself Namor. This is just one of many encounters he will have against Namor and other powerful characters like him. Daredevil’s character style seems to follow the circus performer trend in a later issue (Daredevil #9), when he makes his daring escape from Killer’s Castle. It would seem that Stan Lee was now working a Harry Houdini angle by pegging Daredevil as this amazing escape artist.

Daredevil soon meets one of his greatest allies, Spider-Man. Their first interaction started off as a misunderstanding – they had a light scuffle which led to Spider-Man trying to find who was under the mask. When his spider-sense led him to the law offices of NelsonMurdock he took out his frustrations on Foggy Nelson whom he believed to be Daredevil. He totally disregarded Matt because he was blind. That became Daredevil’s angle. For years he would go out as the Daredevil and nobody ever suspected him even when he would randomly disappear from the area when there is danger. Nobody ever suspected a blind lawyer. It would be some time before Spider-Man discovered that Matt Murdock was Daredevil or vice-versa, but they would team up for the first time against the Masked Marauder. The Masked Marauder became a big villain for Murdock when he frequently set Daredevil up to have run in’s with various villains that he had on his pay roll. This is where Daredevil’s character begins to play on another aspect; his detective side. Throughout Daredevil’s career and moving on into the present, Daredevil is depicted as an exceptional detective with his radar sense backing him. His ability to know how things work and where they are as far as his intellect and abilities go are depicted frequently throughout his existence but they seemed to start here.

In this era, Daredevil’s books were mostly villain based. Everything that would happen in the book seemed to be driven by the villain that would be appearing in the book that week. There was either a new incredible trap or plan set up by some mastermind or a new hardened villain or criminal popping up in every issue. New rouges like Gladiator, Frog-Man, Stunt-Master, Jester, The Ani-Men, Tri-Man, Stilt-Man, Mr.Hyde, and the Trapster were added to the gallery. This is where the idea of gangs headed by villains in Daredevil’s comics started. A modern reader may know that to be an aspect of what the Kingpin brought to the table as a Daredevil villain, but characters like The Owl, The Plunderer and the Masked Marauder were doing it in Daredevil’s comics early on. Daredevil also found himself in combat with such villainous gangs as the Emissaries of Evil, getting closer to the modern era, Matt’s problems had become personal. He was exposed as Daredevil by the Jester and later framed by the Jester for his death. Several times, Spider-Man and Black Panther had to dress up as Daredevil so that he can be seen in a place opposite Matt Murdock. He used this tactic once more in the Brubaker era when he was exposed. As Daredevil became bigger as a hero he began to encounter characters like Captain America and the Fantastic Four. He even worked a case for the F4 as a lawyer to help them work things out with the Baxter Building. It was revealed during this period that the Man Without Fear does fear one thing…and that one thing is having the people he loves hurt because he was Daredevil. He had to rescue Foggy Nelson and Karen Page quite frequently.

When it comes to Daredevil’s skills and how he takes care of a villain. He made a huge transition from a trickster to more of a melee brawler. There begins to be more focus on Daredevil’s skills as a boxer. In Daredevil #68 the main focus it that. There begins to be some explanation to why Daredevil is such a skilled fighter, but not until Frank Miller creates Stick will it make even more sense. There are some showings of wrestling prowess throughout his showings as well but not even in Frank Miller’s run is there anything concrete stated for his wrestling ability.

The Life & Death of Mike Murdock

At one point in Daredevil’s early career, his secret identity was inadvertently exposed as Matt Murdock by Spider-Man. Spidey had written a letter to Matt telling him he had figured out that Matt is Daredevil during their recent encounter. However as Matt was not in the office, Karen Page had opened the letter. After Matt returned, he was challenged by Karen and Foggy about the letter and bluffing on the spot tells them Spider-man must have him confused with his identical twin brother, Mike. Foggy is disbelieving about this, as Matt never mentioned he had a brother when the two were rooming together at college and demands that to meet Mike. Shortly afterwards Matt visits the offices of Nelson & Murdock after dressing up extravagantly and posing as Mike Murdock. Karen and Foggy are both astonished by the much louder and arrogant Murdock brother. Matt kept up this triple identity for over a year in continuation during which time his co-worker and future girlfriend Karen Page had become increasingly infatuated with Mike.

Over the next few months Karen eventually decided it was Matt she truly loved and grew disenchanted with Mike’s arrogance and bravado. Matt himself had grown tired of continuing this charade and when the opportunity arrived killed off Mike Murdock. In a fight against The Exterminator and his Unholy Three, Daredevil faked his own death in an explosion with Foggy a witness. Not long afterwards when Foggy was attacked by The Jester, Matt Murdock warned the villain that his brother Mike had trained someone else to take his place, thus explaining the continued existence of Daredevil after the death of Mike Murdock.

In this arc, it seems that Daredevil took more of a Superman-style persona. As Clark Kent is only Superman in a business suit and glasses, Mike Murdock is only Matt with disheveled hair and clothes unlike what Matt would wear. The nature of the comic really allows you to understand the time period in which it was created. The lack of attention to detail in this arc was reminiscent of a comic wide trend that didn’t just appear in Marvel Comics but in all comics. In light of that fact the comic was still able to maintain the balance between the hero and his alter ego as Karen became attracted to Mike despite her recognition of his childish attitude. This arc plays on yet another aspect of Matt Murdock’s character though. It shows his uncanny ability to manipulate people and disguise himself. This later becomes more dominant with his persona as a “ninja style” character but it seems to start here with Mike as he has everyone convinced that Mike is his twin.

Karen Page was attracted to Matt but she was really interested in Daredevil. When her father faked his own death to become the villain called ” Death’s Head“, Karen started an investigation and was followed by Daredevil. A fight ensued between Daredevil and Head who was about to kill Matt with molten cobalt but once he realized that Karen was endangered, he sacrificed himself to save them both. After Karen’s father’s death, Matt revealed his identity to Karen who was confused with the fact that both men she liked were actually the same person. Eventually, Matt and Karen fell in love and started dating. Despite that she was always worried about Matt’s safety, she knew that he would never stop his vigilantism. In the end, Karen couldn’t take it anymore and ended her relationship with Matt and left for California to pursue an acting career.

Daredevil & Black Widow

In the 70’s, Matt Murdock moved to San Francisco where he met the beautiful Russian mistress and future accomplice, Natasha Romanova, whom he would later come to know as the Black Widow. Matt’s womanizing habits start to come out around this time. He had already been romantically linked to Karen Page who would be his off and on girlfriend and and would continue on…a long list after Black Widow. Matt’s relationship with Natasha would see many wrong turns and problems, but most notable was a visit from Hawkeye (Natasha’s ex-boyfriend). Daredevil defeated Hawkeye in combat but Natasha had no intention of being with Hawkeye. The partnership of these two heroes would later be acknowledged by Marvel when the title of the book went from “Man Without Fear–Daredevil” to “Daredevil and the Black Widow”. The two defeated many foes together, the most formidable of which was the villain called the Dark Messiah but they parted ways when Matt moved back to Hell’s Kitchen and the comics’ name was changed back. Shortly after they became reacquainted, changing the comics title again.

In Daredevil #131, his greatest foe would appear in the form of the merciless assassin known as Bullseye. He would defeat Daredevil several times in combat before Daredevil returned the favor when Bullseye attacked Black Widow. After this defeat, Bullseye slowly developed an obsession with Daredevil. Throughout Daredevil’s history it will become more apparent that Bullseye has some type of symbiotic relationship with Daredevil when it becomes apparent he will do anything for the attention or Daredevil. Thus Bullseye becomes Daredevil’s Joker. It wasn’t until Frank Miller took over that Daredevil’s fighting prowess was really explored. Daredevil’s past bouts with foes had been based on his ability to out-think them rather than out-fight them. His combat was almost always a display of power. He was able to cause physical harm to just about anyone he attacked regardless of their physical standing. Daredevil once fought Death when he was severely injured and in that state he took his boxing chops to another level. Death in disguise as Daredevil Yellow was defeated by Matt Murdock.

Abattoir

In this one-shot, Daredevil, Black Widow and Nick Fury investigate the murders of several SHIELD agents. The investigation leads Black Widow to a ruthless murderer named Rose and her henchman, Charlie who capture her along with S.H.I.E.L.D agent Bancroft. Despite her efforts to break escape, Black Widow was mortally wounded by Rose. Daredevil works with Fury to try and find Natasha. It is later revealed that Rose has some sort of telepathic abilities and gives some incite to her crimes as she orders Agent Bancroft to kill himself by carving up his own chest, leaving Black Widow alone with her captors. However, Black Widow had a tracker in her bracelet allowing Daredevil to find Rose’s HQ where Natasha is being held. When he arrives, Matt is attacked by Charlie but the hero easily managed to beat him but was knocked out by Rose. When Daredevil is dragged into the cabin, Natasha escapes and a fight ensues with Black Widow stabbing Rose in the chest.

Death of Elektra

Next, Miller introduced ninjas into Daredevil’s storyline and began to explore his fighting skill more. The Hand was later introduced as a significant nemesis for Daredevil. He became more of a street-level hero, characters such as Spider-Man, Iron Fist, and Power Man (Luke Cage) began to make appearances and Daredevil took out more villains with his skills and not just with his intelligence.

Miller then brought into Daredevil’s world Elektra, Matt’s old college girlfriend whom he had dated for a year. She had become a freelance assassin (after she left him following her father’s death and thus getting disillusioned in the law and the future she had planned for herself) and came into conflict with Daredevil many times until she learned his secret identity. Matt tries to convince Elektra to change her ways and love him again, but Elektra merely rejects him. They would then become temporary allies and team-up to fight the Hand, a ninja group Elektra was associated with but had betrayed. They sought to kill her for her transgression.

Elektra would later become the Kingpin’s top assassin after Bullseye was taken out of the business by Daredevil. Enraged at Elektra for having taken his place, Bullseye escapes from jail and challenges Elektra in combat. It ends with Bullseye killing Elektra by stabbing her in the heart with her own Sai, after incapacitating her by cutting her neck with a playing card. As she is dying, she managed to gather enough strength to reach Matt’s home where she died in his arms. Matt’s love for Elektra caused him to lose his mind – he became overly aggressive against enemies and uneasily depressed when not in combat.

Eventually, Bullseye would escape from prison and discover Matt’s identity as Daredevil and attempts but fails to kill him in civilian clothes. He later attacks Matt in his home but Matt foresaw his attack and placed a dummy in his place, (fooling Bullseye that Murdock and Daredevil are not the same person). A vengeful Daredevil then ambushes Bullseye and the fight ends with the assassin falling many stories down to the streets, breaking his spinal cord thus paralyzing him. After the fight, Matt is doubtful whether Elektra is truly dead after the things he has seen a ninja could really do, such as staving off death and surviving mortal wounds. But when he later examines her grave, it is confirmed that she is indeed dead and a crying Matt is led away by his friend Foggy. Matt has trouble coming to terms with her death. He even tells himself that she is still alive for a while and believes it up until he digs up her grave and sees her body for himself.

Child’s Play & The Return of the Hand

One day while Matt Murdock was visiting a school a student starting acting strangely and collapsed. Matt changed into Daredevil and rushed her to the hospital, but unfortunately she did not make it. At the hospital it is revealed that the girl had overdosed on Angel Dust. The girl’s brother, Billy, is very upset about it. He reveals that the man responsible is called the Hogman and says he is going to do something about it.

Later after tracking down Hogman’s partner Joey, Daredevil encounter the Punisher, who recently broke out of Rykers prison. Punisher tries to kill Joey, but before he can someone else shoots the man. Daredevil runs up to a rooftop and finds Billy holding a gun. Billy says he aimed up, that he didn’t try to shoot him and Daredevil believes him. He successfully defends Billy in court as Matt Murdock, pinning the crime on Hogman himself. Afterwards Billy is acquitted of the charges Hogman screams he didn’t do it, and by listening to his heartbeat Matt could tell he was not lying.

Matt defends Hogman next because he thinks he is innocent. After he gets Hogman off on all charges, Hogman reveals to him that he did kill Joey. Turns out that he has a paste maker and that is why Matt couldn’t tell he was lying. Daredevil chases after him later, wanting to bring him to justice. He encounters the Punisher again and they manage to take out the Hogman and his allies. Afterwards Daredevil shoots the Punisher with one of the criminals guns so he can be sent back to prison. With newfound evidence the Hogman is imprisoned and justice is served.

Matt is later sought out by Stick to help him and the Chaste against the Hand who stole Elektra’s body, in an attempt to recover her as an assassin for the Hand. The Chaste again rejects Matt because they see him as a sloppy and undisciplined wild dog who could hurt them, but eventually they allow him to be one of them since Stick had faith in him. It was at this time that Daredevil was taught by Stick & Stone several different chi and lifeforce healing techniques. Daredevil and Black Widow would team-up with Stick and the last remaining members of the Chaste in the war against the Hand, whom they were able to defeat but at the cost of Stick’s and the remaining Chaste members’ lives (with the exception of Stone). During his time with the Chaste, Matt was taught how to heal himself and other human beings. He also learned to speak telepathically to people who have telepathic abilities themselves. Matt attempts to save Elektra by using the techniques he learned. And although he failed, Murdock somehow purifies Elektra which gives Stone the chance to save her afterwards.

The Return of the Daredevil

Daredevil later had a run in with whom would become Lady Deathstrike, which led to an altercation with Lord Dark Wind and other samurais whom he easily defeated with his sword skills. Little did he know that Lord Dark Wind would be the one who offered adamantium to Bullseye to fix his spinal cord after Daredevil paralyzed him in combat in revenge for Elektra. With Elektra gone, Black Widow came back into Daredevil’s life. She frequently appeared in his story arcs, but his interest in Karen Page remained on his mind.

Born Again

Karen had left for Hollywood to pursue an acting career but things didn’t go as planned and she ended up being addicted to drugs and becoming a porn star. In a desperate state, she sold Matt’s secret identity for a shot of heroin. The Kingpin eventually got his hands on this information and used it to make Matt’s life extremely unbearable. Using his vast connections, he had the IRS freeze Matt’s accounts and the bank foreclose on Matt’s house. He even manipulates police lieutenant Nicholas Manolis into accusing and testifying against Murdock for bribing witnesses, thus ruining his reputation as a lawyer. Despite managing to avoid imprisonment, Matt was barred from practicing law. At first, Matt thought that he was just unlucky, not knowing that the Kingpin is responsible for this until the crime-lord has Matt’s house destroyed and driving Matt into a mental breakdown. He becomes delusional and even thinks that his friends Foggy Nelson and Glorianna O’Breen were conspiring against him. Matt’s friend and Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich attempts to investigate his friend’s situation and tie it to the Kingpin. However, Kingpin discovers of Ben’s plight and hires a “nurse” to kill Ben’s source and violently intimidates Ben into keeping quiet.

Matt, now on his own, decides to attack the Kingpin and force him to restore his life. As he makes his way to Kingpin’s office, he brutally attacks a group of thugs and a police officer who tried to arrest him and takes the officer’s nightstick. He then invades Fisk’s office and confronts Fisk himself but because of his delusional state he was easily beaten and battered by the Kingpin. He is then brought and strapped to taxi whose owner was killed with the nightstick Matt stole earlier and the taxi is pushed off a pier and into a river. Thinking that Matt was killed, the Kingpin declares that he has killed the only decent man he ever knew. However, Matt managed to survive and escape the car before it was found. As he aimlessly wandered the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, he was stabbed by a thug and hit by a car. Bleeding and badly injured, he managed to make his way to a local church where he passed out in front of his mother, Sister Maggie who hasn’t seen him since she used to visit him in the hospital as a child. She was able to nurse him back to health and straighten his mind. Karen returned to New York and was being stalked by an abusive drug dealer. She was also being hunted by the Kingpin’s men, who were hired to kill anyone who knew of Matt’s secret identity. She searched for Matt but found refuge in Foggy, who offered her his place to stay at. Ben Urich had regained his courage and alerted his paper of Wilson Fisk’s involvement in this.

When Kingpin discovered Matt’s survival, he became obsessed with finding Murdock. He arranged for a violent inmate to leave a mental asylum and have him dressed up in a Daredevil costume to try to kill Nelson and Page. He also enlists the nurse, who killed Urich’s source, to kill Urich himself. With his strength back, Matt saves his friends from their stalkers and dons his Daredevil costume for the first time since his house was destroyed. The Kingpin, now more determined to bring down Daredevil, uses his connections in the military to release the super-soldier Nuke and have him go on a killing spree in New York. Daredevil fights and defeats Nuke despite the many casualties of the battle. As the Avengers appear and take Nuke into custody, Captain America is disgusted with the fact that Nuke was a volunteer of the new flawed Super-Soldier program. When he is criticized by the media, Nuke escapes from custody and attacks the Daily Bugle offices but is killed by the military. Daredevil uses the death of Nuke as proof of Kingpin’s influence on the military.

In the end, Matt reunites and settles down with Karen and reveals to her that he now enjoys the new path his life has taken despite losing many advantages from his past life as a successful lawyer.

The Coming of Typhoid Mary

While still dating Karen, Matt met and was seduced by a young and seemingly innocent woman named Mary Walker and started having an affair with her. When Karen discovered of this affair, she broke up with him. However, it is revealed that Mary is mentally ill and suffers from a split personality disorder. Her other personality, Typhoid was a violent assassin hired by the Kingpin to kill Matt Murdock. She proved to be a formidable foe, using her telepathic and pyrokinetic powers as well as her impressive hand-to-hand abilities. Even after these attacks, her ability to change her scent, voice, looks and personality were able to fool even Daredevil’s enhanced senses. Although Matt suffered from severe injuries and sickness after her attacks, he managed to survive long enough to participate in the Fall of the Mutants story arc, an X-Men crossover event in which the Homo Superior race was persecuted by the government with the “Mutant Registration Act”. Daredevil enters the story arc when Apocalypse attacks New York by sending his Horsemen. Hell’s Kitchen had become riddled with criminals, riots, and looters. With the help of Black Widow & Wolverine, Daredevil helped restore order.

Shortly thereafter, Typhoid Mary hired Shotgun, Bullet, Bushwacker, Ammo and the Wild Boys to go after Daredevil. All the right components fell into place, and ultimately in issue #260, Daredevil appeared to be killed and was thrown off a bridge by Typhoid Mary. Human Torch finds out that Daredevil is missing and goes to cover his jurisdiction. In the entirety of the next issue, Daredevil doesn’t move from the spot where he landed after being thrown off the bridge. There are some arguments as to what actually happens afterward but it appears that with the help of Stick’s astral energy, Daredevil used the healing techniques to save himself. When he appears later in the hospital, there are several clues that lead the reader to believe he actually died including a quote from Mephisto (whom he would later enter into combat with) where he mocks Daredevil for telling Stick that he didn’t want to save himself and wished to die. In Daredevil’s absence, the streets had become plagued with demons let loose by Mephisto; however along with Mephisto himself, Daredevil seemingly destroyed them all. He also tangled with his son Blackheart later on in a bout that he also won.

Modern Day Daredevil

Daredevil became more of an Avenger of the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, infiltrating the Underworld and going after villains like Calypso, Surgeon General, Tombstone, and the new additions to the Hand’s roster. He also had several run-ins with the Punisher whom he had to face in combat for his persistent attempts to murder villains. Matt’s boxing prowess is later re-explored when he gets amnesia, believing he is his father Jack Murdock. He then further becomes a champion of the streets. He becomes romantically involved with a woman he saved from thugs named Nyla Skin, and she accompanied him frequently when taking out bad guys.

It’s here that the Kingpin is now more recognizable at large as one of Daredevil’s most dominant foes but also in the “Savages” arc he is frequently on the receiving end of attacks from Micha Synn and his brutish henchmen the Kinjorge. Micah is a seemingly formidable for Daredevil in the beginning but at his final defeat he never appeared in a Daredevil comic again. Daredevil got back to the roots of his comics. Every issue either offered a hero to hero team up or a battle to the finish with a new villain. All of that would come to a close though when Daredevil got amnesia and started sporting the “Daredevil Armor”.

Fall From Grace: Jack Batlin is Daredevil

In this story arc, Daredevil gets beaten up badly by his villains and decides that he needs a new more protected costume. Using biometric materials and a small amount of adamantium, he makes a new Red & Black protective armored costume that becomes his regular costume for a time. When he is outed by the press as Daredevil, Matt fakes his death without telling his friends and assumes the identity of Jack Batlin (in honor of his father’s in ring name “Battlin’ Jack Murdock). With a new identity and costume, Daredevil continued his vigilante activities but his sanity was being somehow affected. It’s in the Fall from Grace arc that Elektra returns, recovered by Stone, the last of the Chaste. There was also an attempt to retcon Miller’s work. Pretty much everything that happens from here until issue #350 was overturned.

Karen Page’s past comes back to haunt her, and characters like Deathlok, Gambit and Captain America became both foe & ally. Karen became suspicious that Jack Battlin and the new Daredevil are somehow connected to Matt. She and Foggy go the Jack’s apartment where they find Matt in a Daredevil costume. This is where Foggy finally discovered Matt’s identity as Daredevil and despite being at first angered and hurt by this revelation, Matt and Foggy eventually reconciled and became law partners and friends again. Meanwhile Matt was still under the distress of being exposed as Daredevil but with the help of a double he convinced the world he was just a blind man. Later before returning to his red costume he makes a confession to his mother about killing that stripperhooker when he was younger. He wanted forgiveness. He doesn’t accept her forgiveness and attempts suicide but saved himself.

When Stick reappears to Daredevil he goes through an episode, apparently Stick is trying to get him to remember whom he really is and forgive him self for what he did to that prostitutestripper. This later leads to a bout with the Chaste that Daredevil wins single-handedly. However Stick gets through to him and he eventually becomes whole again. Before the whole Fall From Grace Matt’s comics take more of a supernatural turn. Most of his enemies; characters like Calypso and high ranking members of the Hand were more oriented in that style. The arc ” Dead Man’s Hand” was more of a supernatural approach on Daredevil as well.

Tree of Knowledge

Aside from Fall of Grace, this is one of Daredevil’s largest major story arcs since the writings of Frank Miller fully molded Daredevil. It begins with the supposed death of Matt Murdock and the resurrection of Hellspawn (Daredevil’s evil Doppelganger). On the streets, Matt plays it more aggressive than ever supposing a “New Daredevil”. At this point, Daredevil seeks the Knowbot. The Knowbot is a rogue piece of technology that has been hacking government computers. Daredevil and Captain America become reacquainted when they cross paths going after the Knowbot. When the Knowbot downloads the government files, his keeper Kilobyte who was protecting him, destroys its equipment so that Cap and Daredevil don’t discover the rogue tech’s client. A young hacker by the name of Sinclair Spectrum witnesses all of this and was able to slip away from the scene unnoticed. In the wake of all this, began the emergence of Baron Von Strucker and Hydra and the soon-to-be notorious internet crime syndicate, System Crash. Elektra also appears in this arc and is rejected by the Chaste because at her resurrection she was recognized as tainted for disrespect of the dark forces that brought her back.

The villain Bitmap from System Crash emerges later when he kills a hacker named Cobol that Daredevil has become acquainted with in his hunt for the Knowbot. In the midst of all Daredevil’s efforts and paths crossing with Captain America his ex-girlfriend Karen Page is approached with a new deal for pornography from her old producers. She brushes them off but this gives further insult to injury to her already tarnished relationship with Murdock. Elektra also tries to rekindle her relationship with Murdock but he refuses.

When Daredevil and Captain America come in contact with Sinclair Spectrum they try her for information. She refuses to give any to either. Daredevil leaves her alone, but Captain American and prosecutor Kathy Malper still try to pry information out of Spectrum. While visiting Foggy Nelson, Daredevil learns that the Empire State Building has been taken by these internet terrorists. Daredevil, Silver Sable and the Wild Pack are part of the effort to take them down. Daredevil goes after member of System Crash, Wirehead whom is parading around as a member of the Silicon Pirates. When Wirehead gets away Daredevil becomes aware that all of the tech-themed crimes are related.

Iron Fist first appears in the arc when a company owned by him (Danny Rand) becomes the war ground for Daredevil and Captain America against the System Crash syndicate. The villains, Steel Collar & Techno-Spike got away with the Knowbots stolen files. The only clue left for them to go on is a leaf from a rare Asian plant. Daredevil later learns that the Avengers and Fantastic Four are trying to create a governing body for crimes such as these. When Daredevil meets up with Gambit in another encounter with System Crash. Gambit then gives Daredevil a lead on a place where he can find hackers. Meanwhile Karen Page is reviewing a disk she is given by the her late producers. When she hits the computer in anger of them having the nerve to even ask her to be a part of this new deal she views something that appears to be a girl getting raped. After further review of the tape she cannot find the image again. Later it becomes apparent that the files the Knowbot had stolen were part of a more elaborate system that Strucker and Hydra would use to create an unbreakable code so they can distribute whatever they wanted over the internet without the government being able to shut it down. Hydra will be using this for terrorist like tactics. Things become real for Cap and Daredevil on their search for answers when they encounter System Crash and Hydra and are defeated. Cap is taken prisoner while Daredevil is left for dead. They were lead to the area of their demise by the leaf found in their last encounter. Sinclair gets herself in a bit of trouble with her hacking but when Captain America and Daredevil take down System Crash, Daredevil promises her criminal record will be wiped clean and she can live a normal life and he executed it. Daredevil then comes to the realization with help of Elektra that he is still important to Hell’s Kitchen’s safety.

Friendly Neighborhood Daredevil

Under the writing of Karl Kesel and Joe Kelly, Daredevil got back to his roots. The fun loving, sometimes wisecracking street level hero just went back to solving crimes, winning cases, and making a name for himself. After Matt had reunited with Foggy Nelson, he and Matt were hired at a law firm run by Foggy’s mother, Rosalind Sharpe. Before all of that though, Daredevil had frequent run-ins with the murderous criminal known as Bushwacker, a character whose villainy was more recently dominant in the Punisher’s comics. The story arc “Humanity’s Fathom” aided the return of the Kingpin as a dominant villain in Hell’s Kitchen. Like with the other resurrections of Daredevil’s character, he got back to frequently fighting new villains that he hadn’t before. Most memorable may be the bout that Daredevil had with Absorbing Man, where Daredevil displayed his uncanny ability to use his radar sense to find the weak spots in the unique anatomy of objects and anomalies. Here, Daredevil also has his first run-in with Mysterio, who would later become one of his deadliest foes in the Guardian Devil arc at the beginning of the second volume.

The Guardian Devil

In this arc, after Daredevil saves a young girl’s life from a group of thugs, the girl comes to Matt and reveals that she knows his secret identity. She also tells him that she had a vision that her baby is the world’s savior and leaves it with him in order to protect it and disappears shortly after. Not knowing what to do with the baby, Matt leaves the child in the care of the Black Widow while he goes to the office to investigate the baby’s true origins. There, he meets a man named Nicholas Macabres, who claims that the baby is the bringer of destruction and malice and leaves Matt a cross which he sees as a calling card. Not knowing what to think, Matt takes the baby from Black Widow and throws it out of a window but Natasha managed to save the child and take it with her. When he returns, a conflicted Matt is confronted by Karen Page who reveals that she has AIDS from her time as a porn star. He also discovers that Foggy is accused of rape and murder of a woman he has been having an affair with. When Rosaline Sharp, Foggy’s mother who runs their law firm, told Matt to stand down and not represent Foggy, a disgusted Matt decided to quit from the law firm. While clearing his head, he stops a mugging but it turns out to be a trap and he is knocked out. When he wakes up, he is confronted by a man with a monstrous appearance who starts telling him things that further confuse him. Not wanting to hear anymore, Daredevil runs off to the middle of the streets and is about to be hit by a truck but was saved by the Black Widow, who is still in possession of the baby. Still confused and thinking that the baby is evil, he attempts to kill it again but managed to stop himself.

He makes his way to a church and passes out. When he wakes up, he is greeted by his mother who deals with his current crisis and takes care of the baby for him. He is later confronted by Karen who tries to convince him to give her the baby. Matt never told Karen about the baby and realizes that Macabres has gotten to her. She was convinced by Macabres that misfortune follows the baby and it’s the reason she is suffering from AIDS. Matt tells her that her problems are not the baby’s fault; they are caused by her past mistakes. In order to clear his mind, he goes to see Doctor Strange who reveals that the cross Macabres gave him contained a drug that made him hostile and unable to be logically reasoned with. Strange then summons Mephisto and asks him if the baby is a bringer of either hope or misfortune. Mephisto reveals that the baby is neither and that the church Matt was at is being attacked.

When he arrives, he sees Bullseye who has murdered most of the nuns and injured Matt’s Mother, is about to kill the baby. As Daredevil and Bullseye fight, Karen, who realized that Matt needs her as much as she needs him, arrives and attempts to help Matt but is killed by Bullseye using Daredevil’s own Billy club. As Matt grieves over Karen’s death, Bullseye escapes with the baby. In her last words, she told Matt “Ill Miss you”. Overcome with grief, Matt briefly contemplates suicide but decides to continue on and find the one responsible for this. He tracks Macabres down to his headquarters where he is shocked to discover that Macabres is actually Spider-Man’s long time foe, Quentin Beck aka Mysterio. Beck revealed that he is dying because of a severe brain tumor and didn’t have much time to live so he wanted to die at the hands of a worthy foe.

Since the real Spider-Man was not currently available, he decided to have Daredevil, whom he sees as a second rate like him, as his target. After purchasing information about Daredevil from the Kingpin, Mysterio posed as Karen’s doctor and faked the HIV diagnosis, impregnated the girl with artificial insemination and faked her “vision”, drugged Foggy and fed the woman he was accused of killing with drugs to make it look like she was killed and raped and hired Bullseye to steal the baby and kill Karen, all in the attempt to have Daredevil kill him in a state of insanity. However, despite giving Mysterio a severe beating, he refused to kill him and instead verbally abused Mysterio and his plot calling him a “human Xerox”. Distraught, Mysterio kills himself. At Karen’s funeral, Matt is so distraught that he is unable to say anything to express his sorrow. He discovers that Karen had left him a large sum of money in her will in the condition that he will spend it on himself. After the funeral, Matt is confronted by Spider-Man at the George Washington Bridge where Spidey tries to comfort Matt with his own loses. When Daredevil questions if he should resume vigilantism, Peter reminds him that he saved a baby girl’s life. Matt immediately realizes that the baby symbolized something positive in his life. He gave the baby up for adoption and named her Karen and hoped that her parents would allow the occasional visit of her “Uncle Matt”. Matt also had Foggy released from custody and they decided to start a new law firm using the money Karen left for Matt.

Parts of a Whole & Playing to the Camera

The Kingpin has returned and attempts to once again ruin Matt’s life by manipulating a young woman named Maya Lopez into thinking that Daredevil killed her father. Knowing that Matt is lonely after Karen’s death, Kingpin arranges for Maya to meet Matt in order to determine his weaknesses. While not knowing of Matt’s alter ego, Maya falls in love with Matt, since they found common ground with the fact that Maya is deaf. However, while dating Matt, she came up with the moniker of Echo, and using her photographic reflexes and fighting prowess, she hunted down Daredevil and attempted to kill him many times. Eventually, Daredevil recognized Maya by her scent and revealed his own identity to her. Though at first confused, Echo was convinced that Matt couldn’t have killed her father because then he was still in elementary school.

He helped her discover that the Kingpin was the one who killed her father and she channeled her anger towards the crime-lord and attacked him, leaving him blind for some time. She then fled the country.

To revisit another past story line Ben Urich investigates the effects of Daredevil’s meddling on the son of the villain Leap-Frog. Ben Urich discovers that Leap Frog’s son, Timmy is quite an artist. He looked at some of his work and was drawn to the fights he drew between a made up hero named the Fury and Daredevil. When asked why the Fury was punching Daredevil, Timmy gave no answer, but it really has much to do with Leap-Frog.

Daredevil: Public Enemy

A rogue member of Kingpin’s organization enters the FBI’s witness protection program and reveals to the federal agents Matt Murdock’ secret identity. However, the agents ignored this revelation and vowed to keep it to themselves. All except one, who sold the information to the Daily Globe. Now Matt is outed as Daredevil and is being hounded by the press. At the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson orders his reporters to find everything they can about Murdock but he is interrupted by Ben Urich who tells him that it isn’t true and backed up by Peter Parker who tell Jameson that they know who Daredevil really is but refuse to tell despite being threatened of unemployment. Mr. Hyde attacks Murdock at his home but he manages to defeat him with the help of Spider-Man. When he arrives at his office, Matt is confronted by Nick Fury who offers him a place in S.H.I.E.L.D as a way out but Matt declines. He is also offered the Avengers’ political help by Captain America but he also refuses. Matt publicly denies that he’s Daredevil and eventually files a case against the press which he and Foggy later won. He would also meet a woman named Milla Donovan who was, like him, blind and would later become Mrs. Milla Murdock when he secretly marries her in the story.

The Kingpin returned and attempted to regain his empire but is stopped and badly beaten in a bar by Daredevil, who was sick and tired of fighting his old foe over and over again. Then Matt unmasks in the bar and declares himself the new Kingpin of the Kitchen. He threatened the people who saw him unmask that he will beat them up if they don’t keep his identity’s revelation to themselves. As the new Kingpin, Matt is confronted by Luke Cage, Reed Richards, Doctor Strange and Peter Parker, who tell him that they are not pleased with his new status quo and methods. However, he shrugs off their concerns and turns his back on them. He is also confronted by the Punisher, who claims that Daredevil “crossed the line” but Murdock easily knocked him out.

The Yakuza attempted to make their move and take control of the Kitchen by removing its current Kingpin from power. An army of Yakuza, hooked up on MGH ( Mutant Growth Hormone), attacked Murdock and badly injured him, forcing him into hiding in order to heal. Milla, worried for Matt’s safety, contacts Ben Urich who tracks Matt down and confronts him. He tells Matt that his recent actions in the story, marrying Milla in secret and becoming the new Kingpin, were all part of a mental breakdown he has because he still loves Karen and hasn’t gotten over her death. This confrontation straightened Matt’s mind and had him realize that he can’t defeat the Yakuza alone and he need his friends to help him. He calls Luke Cage and apologizes for turning his back on him like that and they decide to lead one last assault on the Yakuza to kick them out of town. Daredevil invades the Yakuza’s base along with the Marvel Knights, namely Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Iron Fist and together, they finally drive them away.

The former White Tiger, Hector Ayala, returned to vigilantism and was framed with murder. Despite Matt’s efforts to defend him, Ayala was convicted and killed when he tried to escape. Ayala’s niece, federal agent Angela Del Torro participated in the Daredevil/Murdock investigation. However, she revealed that the only reason she did this is because she had inherited her uncle’s Tiger Amulet and doesn’t know what to do with them. She considered becoming a super-hero but wanted to know “why would someone put on a costume and fight people?”. She promised that she will abandon her case if Murdock answers her question. He tells her to meet him on a rooftop where, as Daredevil, he challenges her in combat. Impressed by her skills, he leads her to a robbery where she managed to beat the criminals and, after receiving the gratitude of the people she saved, she decides to become the new White Tiger. She makes her mark as a new super-hero by saving Daredevil from ex-crime lord Alexander Bont and his reluctant henchman Gladiator.

Daredevil also has some admirable displays for his detective prowess and intellect as a lawyer. This miniseries begins when a young boy is found mutilated. The person who gets blamed for the crime is someone who embraces the goth culture and people begin to think that the young boy was killed in a satanic ritual headed by this person (Joel Flood). When the body of this child is discovered the police go right after Joel and his friends with extreme bias. Their distaste for the lifestyle is evident in their mockery of their music. Later Matt Murdock meets Emily Flood who wishes for him to take Joel’s case and prove him innocent. When she returns to her home it has been vandalized by the towns people in anger about the murder and shortly after that Amos Flood comes into the picture. Joel’s father is a vegetable and can’t move. He’s Joel’s alibi for the murders. Throughout his investigation, Matt learns of several father’s around the area who have been beating their sons. Davey and Bradley both became topics of interest for Daredevil. The intimidation pops up here when he let’s these father’s know he’s watching. them. This is where he meets Gideon who will further be a nuisance in this case. His girlfriend tells him that Murdock had come looking for him to talk about Bradley’s bruises and when she did he snapped on her and began to become abusive. Daredevil’s presence outside causes him to stop.

Father & Redemption

In this miniseries, Daredevil takes the time to reflect on his father and tries to come to terms with his death. He also reflects on all of the things his father taught him and applies them to his principles as Daredevil. A dangerous serial killer emerges and Daredevil took upon himself to take himself from the lawyer role to the detective role. The murderer known as Johnny Sockets, later turned out to be a woman with whom DD sought to help get out of an abusive situation. DD also comes in contact with a rival group known as the Santerians. In another miniseries, ” Daredevil Redemption“, Daredevil displays another thing he has in common with Batman. His powers of intimidation. Daredevil also has some admirable displays or his detective prowess and intellect as a lawyer.

This miniseries begins when a young boy is found mutilated. The person who gets blamed for the crime is someone who embraces the goth culture and the people being to thing that the young boy (Bradley) was killed as some sort of satanic ritual headed by this person (Joel Flood). When the body of the young boy is recovered by the police they go right after Joel and his friends with extreme bias. Their distaste for the lifestyle is evident in their mocker of their music. Later Matt Murdock meets Emily Flood, the mother of the accused who wishes for him to take Joel’s case as she is sure he didn’t kill Bradley. When she returns to her home it has been vandalized by towns people with anger over the case. Shortly Amos Flood comes into the picture. You at first are led to believe he is just a vegetable that has to be taken care of but later depictions suggest he got what he deserves by the state he is in because of his aggressive behavior toward his family. He is however Joel’s alibi as he was caring for Amos during this murder. Apparently a trend of abuse is dominant in this town as Murdock discovers one many beating his son Davey to tears. The beginning of Murdock’s investigation leads him to Howard Gideon, Bradley’s father. Apparently he also is abusive as Bradley had many bruises. His wife, Karla Faye was asked about the bruises and because Gideon thought she snitched on him, he was aggressive with her. His attempt to harm her was stopped by Daredevil’s presence outside. Gideon further becomes a problem when he begins to make every effort to make it appear as if Joel is guilty. It even appears that he himself is guilty of this crime when he is asked about the bite marks on Bradley and so that he wouldn’t have to give sample cast of his teeth, he ripped them out and blamed Daredevil effectively. Later he incites a crowd against Joel and Murdock and amidst that crowd is Karla Faye who further implicates Joel and his friends in her sons murder. Matt is unable to win the case thus Joel gets the death penalty. By listening to Gideon, Matt deduces that either he or Karla Faye killed Bradley. He finds out it’s Gideon himself when he catches him trying to kill Karla Faye. Also it’s revealed that he killed Bradley because he caught him shooting up drugs.

The Murdock Papers & Escape from Jail

In the story arc called ” The Murdock Papers“, the Kingpin, who was in jail, offers the FBI the Murdock Papers which as he claims, contain indisputable proof that Matt Murdock is Daredevil, in exchange for his freedom. This led heroes, villains and federal agents searching for these papers including Bullseye, Elektra, Black Widow, Spider-Man, the Hand and others. In his haste to find the papers, Bullseye engages both Daredevil and Elektra in a vicious and bloody battle in the streets where he is defeated and placed under arrest. However, the Murdock Papers do not exist and the Kingpin manipulated everyone in order to lead Daredevil to a trap where he is shot in the shoulder by Paladin who was working for the FBI. Knowing that the heroes will take Daredevil to the Night Nurse to heal him, Fisk confronts Ben Urich and forces him to reveal the Nurse’s location. While with the Night Nurse, who couldn’t do anything to help Matt, Elektra, who had become the leader of the Hand, insisted that her ninjas use their techniques to save him which they did despite Black Widow’s protests. The clinic was then raided by FBI agents and a fight ensued between the heroes, the Hand and the FBI operatives. In the end, Matt stops the fight and he is arrested. The Kingpin thought that he had won but the FBI betrayed him and placed Fisk in the same prison as Matt Murdock, hoping they would kill each other. Matt discovers that Bullseye, Punisher and Kingpin are also spending time in the same prison. When Foggy and private investigator Dakota North visit Matt, Foggy is brutally attacked by a group of inmates and Matt, unable to save his friend, is forced to listen to Foggy’s heartbeats fading away. When he is taken to the hospital, he is pronounced dead.

When a riot is started by Black Tarantula, Matt and Fisk were forced to team-up in order to survive. However, Matt betrays the Kingpin when he attempts to free Bullseye and a fight ensues and Bullseye accidentally shoots Fisk in the legs before Matt knocks him out. He then team-up with the Punisher and together they save the warden and escape.When Matt was in jail, the Civil War took place and a Daredevil impostor was spotted joining the Anti-Registration side. When Matt returned to the streets, he confronted the impostor who turned out to be Iron Fist, wearing Daredevil’s costume without his knowledge in order to persuade the public that Murdock and Daredevil are not the same person.

Matt later attends Foggy’s funeral and was subjected to Rosaline Sharp, Foggy’s mother’s verbal attacks, blaming him for her son’s death. Matt then travel to Europe to trail the person who ordered Foggy’s death. His investigation leads him to Vanessa Fisk, who reveals that she’s dying and that she blames all the misfortune she suffered from on the war between Daredevil and Kingpin. She offers Matt a deal to clear all charges against him if he became Wilson Fisk’s attorney but he refused and left. When he returned to New York, Matt discovered that Vanessa had kept her part of the deal and had an FBI agent killed, leaving a note saying that he framed Murdock and he is cleared of all the Daredevil charges. Matt would later discover that Foggy was alive and well, and he participated in a witness protection program. Honoring Vanessa’s wish out of respect to the person she used to be before she was corrupted by the Kingpin, Matt cleared all charges against the Kingpin but had him deported out of the country, losing his American citizenship.

Matt returned to his life in New York and reunited with Foggy and Milla and moved his law firm to a new location, joined by Becky Blake.

Both Sides of Justice

Gladiator was accused of murder in the mental institution he was being kept at. Blake wanted to represent him but Matt initially opposed the idea because he did not want villains’ cases interfere in their new law firm. However, when he confronted Potter, he discovered that he never killed anyone and decides to represent him until Gladiator commits several murders, escapes the institution, dons his costume and goes on a killing spree. When Gladiator attempts to kill Milla, Matt saves her and realizes that he is being mind-controlled. It is revealed that Mr. Fear had given Potter a special kind of drug that made him apparently fearless and drove him insane. In an attempt to ruin Matt’s life, Mr.Fear poisons Milla with the drug, having her placed in a mental institution. Daredevil tracks down Mr. Fear and easily defeats him since the drug doesn’t work on him and attempts to force him to give him the antidote but Fear reveals that there is no antidote, forcing Matt to accept the fact that he ruined Milla’s life while Fear, who surrendered and was placed in Ryker’s, builds an impressive reputation as a criminal in the underworld.

Lady Bullseye & Return of the King

Daredevil wasn’t really a part of the Secret Invasion storyline. His only attachment was The Hand & Elektra who was revealed to be a skrull earlier when she was killed by Echo. Without leadership, the Hand became rogue and fought amongst each other for leadership. Lady Bullseye at this time emerged and would later become the leader of the Hand. She was ordered to kill everyone in Matt Murdock’s life but she first framed Daredevil for murdering Dakota North whom he had been having an affair with. This later becomes a problem for him when pictures are produced by Lady Bullseye of the two together to Milla’s parents who were fighting Matt over custody of her. All of Matt’s accomplices except Master Izo and Iron Fist were killed and became members of the Hand when recovered, including White Tiger and Black Tarantula. It’s later revealed that all of Daredevil’s emotional connections were supposed to be destroyed by Lady Bullseye for the Hand so that he could become the new leader. When Lady Bullseye heads to Spain and kills Wilson’s Fisk’s girlfriend and her kids, he returns to New York to begin a war with the hand. Daredevil and the Kingpin join forces to take out the Hand and The Owl comes along. With Daredevil’s erratic behavior, Foggy becomes suspicious and discovers he is working with the Kingpin which leads to Foggy firing Matt from the Law firm.

A meeting ensues with the Kingpin, The Owl and Lady Bullseye to make a deal. (It is unknown what the deal was but in context it appears Fisk was trying to become leader of the Hand). When Fisk and The Owl confront and kill the current Hand leader, who ordered the hit on Fisk’s girlfriend, Master Izo and Daredevil show up which causes an altercation. Daredevil KO’s Lady Bullseye and paralyzes The Owl by stabbing him in the spine with a katana. Seeing that he cannot allow the Kingpin to become the Leader of the Hand, he takes the role himself as the ninja clan’s supreme leader in the hopes of transforming it into a force for justice.

Dark Reign: The List

Norman Osborn, now in charge of the world’s security and peace keeping task force, sees Daredevil as a threat and places him as one of the times on his list he needs to eliminate. When Lady Bullseye, following the orders of the Kingpin, dressed as a Hand ninja, kills Osborn’s associates, the former Green Goblin assigns his Dark Hawkeye, who is really Bullseye to eliminate his old foe. As the leader of the Hand, Matt is subjected to a series of torture trials to reveal his worth as leader and when he is asked to complete his final trail which is engaging and killing the Hand’s champion, a trial he refuses, Bullseye appears with a team of HAMMER agents and a battle ensues between H.A.M.M.E.R and the Hand in which Osborn’s agents are captured and put imprisoned what would soon become Shadowland. During the battle, Bullseye mocks Daredevil with the fact that he has banned killing but Daredevil responds that Bullseye is an exception. When the assassin attempts to escape, Daredevil gives chase and is led to the rooftop of a condemned building which contains many protesters. However, before Matt can finish their fight, Bullseye detonates the building while mocking Matt, who barely survived the explosion, with the fact that he could have saved all those people if he had killed him when he had the chance before. As Daredevil blames himself for the death of 107 innocent people, he realizes that the rules have changed and decides to send a message and places all the surviving H.A.M.M.E.R agents in the prison that later becomes Shadowland.

Shadowland

Daredevil rules his new found team with pride and honor. His two right hand men, Black Tarantula and White Tiger are always by their masters’ side. Daredevil has ordered Black Tarantula to take over his post in Hell’s Kitchen while he and White Tiger travel to Japan to unite the 5 Daimayos (the Hand’s continental leaders). As Master of the Hand, Daredevil will bring the world to peace or die trying.

After the destruction left by Bullseye, he decided to have the Hand become an army of protectors. He builds an impenetrable fortress over the remains of the building destroyed by Bullseye. When he returned from Japan, he returned a changed man. Despite attempting to change the Hand for a force for good, it seems that the Hand has changed him, having him push his limits to keep the peace. The sudden appearance of Shadowland has raised many heroes’ concerns, especially Luke Cage, but the Avengers and Iron Fist are confidant that Matt is doing his best to help people.

Knowing that Iron Fist and Luke Cage are Daredevil’s best friends, the Avengers send them to tell Matt that they have his back but warn him that they will become enemies if he refuses to bring Shadowland down when they ask him to. When Bullseye manages to escape custody, he heads for Shadowland and calls out Daredevil who appears to him.

As leader of the hand, the ninja clan will easily give their lives for their lord and master, before they see him fall. So Daredevil commands his team of Ninjas to take down Bullseye. Bullseye easily kills all of the Ninjas with a smile, and starts to head towards Daredevil. However, unknown to him Daredevil isn’t going to just let Bullseye walk away and go to jail. Daredevil dislocates both of Bullseye’s arms, and while he begs for mercy, Daredevil runs a sai through Bullseye’s heart. Payback for what he did to Electra many years ago.

A group of bikers arrange an illegal funeral for their “hero” Bullseye and force Ben Urich to attend it and write an article about it but the reporter managed to get the attention of Daredevil who, along with the Hand, hate this ideal. Daredevil and his ninjas, quickly beat the bikers and nearly Ben Ulrich to death! Daredevil leaves with an angry look at the near-to-death Ben Ulrich.

As Foggy and Dakota watch the footage of Bullseye’s murder, Foggy declares that Matt is lost and this was caused by the Kingpin. They decide to go talk to Matt. When they arrive, they are confronted by White Tiger and a group of ninjas, forbidding them to come any further. As they make their way back, they are attacked by a group of Hand Ninjas but they were saved by Luke Cage and Iron Fist who were on their way to talk with Matt. Meanwhile, at the fortress, Matt is seen suffering intense pain until he shows a wicked smile on his face and he screams “YES!”. He is later confronted by Typhoid Mary who offers her allegiance and assures him that she has full control of her personalities but Matt doesn’t believe her and has his ninjas imprison her. Then, the heroes Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Misty Knight, Shang Chi, Colleen Wing and Spider-Man arrive at Shadowland to discuss Matt’s recent actions. However, Matt refused to listen and declared martial law, despite Black Tarantula’s protests, and the heroes either join the Hand or become his enemies. Suddenly, an explosion caused by Ghost Rider occurs in the lower levels of Shadowland, making Matt think that the heroes were responsible for this and orders the Hands to capture them dead or alive.

Despite the heroes’ attempts to reason with him, Daredevil fights and defeats both Iron Fist and Shang Chi, showing un-seen super-human strength and speed. Typhoid Mary also joins the battle and defeats Spider-Man and before she could finish him off, the Punisher blasts through the Fortress with a machine gun, killing some ninjas and giving the heroes the chance to escape. Master Izo appears and tells them that Matt has become a vessel for the Beast the Hand serves and the heroes realize that this is not the Matt they knew with the Punisher remarking that Daredevil must be killed in order to be stopped. Later on, Daredevil is seen with Elektra, holding Bullseye’s corpse, intending to recover him as a soldier for the Hand. With a valiant effort by Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Power Man, Spider-man and others, the Beast was able to be contained long enough for Iron Fist to use his chi powers to drive the Beast fully out of Matt Murdock and in doing so put a final end to Shadowland. Hell’s Kitchen sadly saw Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime taking back control of the Hand and Hell’s Kitchen as a result. Leaving the Punisher, Iron Fist and the new Power Man to help maintain order. Murdock’s team left to return to their various areas of New York and Matt put the Black Panther in charge with protecting Hell’s Kitchen while he return to the road without his costume to finally rediscover what he had lost the last couple of years.

Following Shadowland

After Shadowland, Matt hits the road to discover what he had lost. While in New Mexico, Matt saves a small town from corruption. This helps Matt realize that he cannot deny the hero that he is, so he returns to Hell’s Kitchen as Daredevil. The events of Shadowland make it difficult for Mr. Murdock to practice law, so he comes up with a solution. Rather then defend his clients personally, he is training them to defend themselves. As his “self-help” cases build, Matt was approached by a young blind associate that was fired from his position without any notification and apparently under “racist” issues. However, when Matt took on the case, they were both soon targeted by trained assassins. Matt eventually learned that his client had overheard a Latverian consult that was part of a large criminal organization in the Midas Corporation between AIM, HYDRA, Zodiac, Black Spectre and the Secret Empire. The Midas Corp. had created a huge unhackable data drive with all five terrorist groups history, contacts, etc. that was stored on a former Fantastic Four logo piece. Daredevil was able to steal it and blackmail the group into figuring out who would go after him first, making him the “most dangerous man alive”.

Not long after, Matt became involved with the Black Cat who was hired by Black Spectre to steal back the Omega Drive, but instead the Black Cat warned Matt of the criminal organization following him on a regular basis. Before Matt could deal with Black Spectre, the Mole Man had his people steal several caskets from his father’s graveyard, including the casket of Matt’s father. Heading down into the underworld, Daredevil discovered that the Mole Man was seeking the body of a former lover of his that he wanted to have a few final moments with to tell her how he truly felt about her. Outraged, Daredevil beat the Mole Man and then took several diamonds from the crystal caves in his lair to atone for the disturbed graves that the Mole Man had destroyed.

During a short period, Daredevil is being imprisoned in Latveria because of crimes against the state. He was eventually rescued by the Avengers. Foggy Nelson then declares Matt crazy and excludes him from the company after finding the remains of Jack Murdock in his desk. Later on, Daredevil faces a foe calling himself Coyote. By using the Spot’s powers of teleportation, he smuggles weapons and humans. It is revealed that he was working for an unknown individual, the same person that has been messing with Daredevil from the start of the series.

Attacks from humans and dogs with similar powers as Daredevil has resulted in the first step of revealing who the mastermind is behind the psychological torture that Daredevil has had to put up with. At the same time, it’s revealed why Foggy has been acting weirdly during recent times, he’s been tested for cancer. Later Daredevil faces off against his equal, the deadly Ikari, who has been granted the same powers as himself. After a mostly evenly matched battle, Ikari decides not to kill Daredevil, instead he will torture him before killing him. Paranoia kicks in, but Matt is successful in surviving several attempts on murdering him. After visiting Foggy at the hospital, Ikari follows Matt to taunt him. Matt then injects several syringes into his heart with adrenaline to confuse him. When he’s in the clear, he locates the crippled Bullseye who is revealed to be alive. After discarding Lady Bullseye, he confronts Bullseye. Unbeknownst to Matt, Ikari was just behind him. After a fierce battle with Ikari and Lady Bullseye, the crippled Bullseye falls through the floor and is then flooded with the failed results of what was going to be the radioactive waste that created Daredevil. He is forever blinded. Soon after, Matt visits Foggy and he asks if Matt ever tried to save Bullseye. Matt replies that he did what was right. Around this time, Matt also briefly battles the Superior Spider-Man but is not immediately aware that the new “hero” isn’t Peter Parker.

Some time later, while Foggy is being treated with chemotherapy for his sarcoma, Matt’s old bully, Nate Hackett shows up at his office. He explains that he has been a member of the Sons of the Serpent, before they became too political. He also explains that he used to be a radio engineer and needs Matt’s help to sue the police office for false arrest. After a long time of thinking, Matt agrees to tutor him so that he can represent himself in court. Though Nate screws up he seemed to be winning. The trial is interrupted when the judge shoots Nate. It is revealed that everyone in the courtroom was in fact Sons of the Serpent members. No one would believe Matt when he says that the judge was the shooter, being their plan all along. One of the security guards takes Matt so that he can was off Nate’s blood from his shirt, after which he tackles the guard and questions him. He changes to his Daredevil costume and finds the bomb and a radio frequency jammer that disrupts the cellphones and walkie-talkies. Matt sends the male nurse he saved from the Serpents to run back to the courtroom, screaming that there’s a bomb, hoping that it will save enough people. Hoping he will survive himself he destroys the radio jammer and runs out, luckily no one is hurt. 24 hours later, Matt meets Nate at the hospital blaming him for blabbing about frequency jammers to a fellow Serpent brother. Matt says that he won’t help Nate sue the city since it wasn’t the police behind the arrest but the Sons of the Serpents. Matt promises that if the Serpents have infested other parts of the city he will make clean house. Back at the office Matt meets with Foggy’s new replacement.

After this, Matt relocates to San Francisco with Foggy and Kristen, where he sets off on a series of new adventures. He comes into contact with Purple Man again. It is revealed that Purple Man had fathered many children throughout San Francisco. Matt manages to defeat them, but his limits are tested. He meets the Shroud who is obsessed with his ex-wife Julia Carpenter. Shroud is a very trustworthy ally of Daredevil, who betrays him multiple times. He also comes into conflict with Tony Stark, who has become the Superior Iron Man after the events of AXIS. Tony starts selling a app that can make everyone appear beautiful. Daredevil discovers that Tony had actually been infecting people with a virus. When Matt confronts him Tony tries he is defeated by Iron Man who erases his memory of knowing anything about his plans.

Return to New York

After the events of Secret Wars we see Matt back in New York with his secret identity intact. We see Matt practicing law again and working with a new partner, a teenager who goes by Blindspot. Blindspot wants to take down a cult that has infected his neighborhood, ran by a man called Tenfingers. Matt finds a former member of the cult, a man named Mr. Li, and manages to get him to agree to testify against Tenfingers in court. However, before the trial comes up Tenfingers men gets to Mr. Li and persuades him to keep quit. Blindspot later convinces Daredevil to check out the cult where he discovers that Blindspot had stolen magic from the Hand. The Hand arrives to take back what was stolen from them but Daredevil and Blindspot manage to fight them off. Later Matt received a message from Blindspot that the church was being attacked by the Hand again. In the battle with the Hand, Tenfingers is murdered and the Hand retrieves what was stolen from them.

Defenders

With Diamondback (Willis Stryker) inexplicably back from the dead and with superpowers, he targets Daredevil and his friends: Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist. They decide to work together to flush Stryker out and defend their city. Unfortunately, that means clashing with The Punisher (gunning for Stryker), avoiding Black Cat’s gang (working with Stryker), and many trips to Night Nurse‘s clinic.

They are finally able to track him down when he shoots Black Cat causing a “crazy pants gang war” (Jessica Jones’ words). With their combined strengths, they are able to beat Stryker and get him arrested. Daredevil and his new team still have the gang war to contend with, mixing it up with Elektra, Deadpool, The Punisher (again), and Stryker (still). Luckily, with help from a bunch of allies, they take down an amped-up Stryker.

Guilty

Matt had just recuperated from being hit by a car while saving a pedestrian. He hadn’t patrolled as Daredevil in awhile, and in one of his first confrontations back, he negligently killed a street thug. He struggled with this life on his conscience including investigating whether or not he was set up. However, it quickly became clear that he was in fact guilty.

Matt wanted to be accountable, but he couldn’t leave Hell’s Kitchen without protection. That is when Elektra swooped in and took responsibility for it. She agreed to work as Daredevil with a “no kill” rule. With his neighborhood secure, Matt approached the prosecutor to make a deal. He would stand trial, plead guilty, and do jail time but be allowed to do so masked as Daredevil.

In prison, Murdock was almost killed twice, thanks to a distrustful warden giving preferential treatment to anyone who could accomplish it. The FBI took advantage of this opportunity and turned Matt into an informant. They believed prisoners were dying of unsanctioned prison labor.

Matt discovers that it is not unsanctioned prison labor but experimentation. The warden had been perfecting a drug called “re-cid,” which would cause contagious antisocial behavior and violence, so released prisoners would continue to commit crimes and pass that behavior on to their neighborhoods. Matt was also dosed with this. Aware of his forcibly growing anger, Matt used it to lead a riot and take over the prison so that he could talk to his contact on the police force, Cole.

The riot was used to expose the abuse in the prison, but when Daredevil learned that Bullseye had been on a killing spree while he was inside, he went on the hunt. Technically a fugitive, Daredevil found Bullseye fighting Elektra and took him out. When the police showed up, they were as interested in taking Daredevil back in as Bullseye, but the superheroes of New York defended Daredevil intimidating the police into standing down.

Powers & Abilities

Although blind, Daredevil’s remaining four senses function with high levels of superhuman accuracy and sensitivity, giving him abilities far beyond the limits of a sighted person.

• Radar Sense – Daredevil’s heightened senses allow him to “see” what’s around him. His radar sense is similar to echolocation.
• Super Hearing – Daredevil’s hearing functions so well he can hear a person’s heartbeat at a distance of over forty yards, or people whispering on the other side of a standard soundproof wall, at a distance of more than twenty yards. While standing on a rooftop, and focusing his concentration, Daredevil can hear all of the sounds that a city and it’s populace produces for a radius of 5 miles.
• Super Touch – Daredevil’s sense of touch is so acute that his fingers can feel the ink on a page allowing him to read by touch. He can also feel minute temperature and pressure changes, including body heat from people standing nearby.
• Super Smell – Daredevil’s sense of smell is so precise that he can focus on a person’s smell and follow it through a crowd of people at a distance of 50 feet or gunpowder from a sniper rifle almost 5 blocks away. He also has a great ability to remember smells, so he can identify people by smell alone.
• Lie Detection – Daredevil can tell whether a person is lying by listening to changes in their heartbeat or by smelling their sweat when they are under pressure.
• Agility – Due to the fact that Daredevil’s sensory organs have such a high level of development, his inner ear, which controls the equilibrium and motions of the body, is also highly developed, aiding him in acrobatic feats with his own trainings that may surpass even Olympic-level athletes.
• Tracking – Daredevil’s heightened senses make him particularly adept at tracking people. He uses his sense of smell to track their scent and his sense of hearing to discern vocal patterns, heartbeats and gait.
• Intellect – Thanks to his gifted-level intelligence Matt Murdock is a skilled lawyer and has encyclopedic knowledge of law and New York statutes. He has a Juris Doctor (doctorate of law) from Columbia University and also possesses the equivalent of a self-taught masters of applied sciences in mechanical engineering. He is an accomplished strategist, as well as an expert in interrogation, disguise, medicine, science and detective work.
• Martial Arts Master: Matt is easily one of the greatest and most skilled martial artists and combatants on earth. Thanks to Stick’s (a senior martial arts grandmaster) advanced and extensive trainings in ninja arts and his own self-taught practice in boxing and acrobatics later, Matt achieved the level of Master. Stick ranked Matt as tenth-dan Ninjutsu master. Matt have very well balanced and harmonized fighting style which is a mix of: American Boxing with Ninjutsu, Jui-jitsu, Aiki-Jujutsu, Savate, Kung Fu, Judo, Krav Maga, Silat, Karate, Capoeira, Eskrima, Aikido, and Greco-Roman Wrestling. Matt is highly educated and intelligent in human body function which enable him to use pressure points and nerve strikes on his enemies. Matt has stalemated opponents like Black Panther, Captain America, Deadpool, Iron Fist, Karnak, Sabertooth, Winter Soldier and Wolverine and even overpowering some of them.
• Master Acrobat: As an exceptional and marvelous athlete Matt is a superb acrobat, aerialist, gymnast and freerunner thanks to his years of training and rapid exercise under his own and then Stick’s tutelage. Matt is one of the greatest acrobats in Marvel universe and only peoples like: Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Fist, Shang-chi and Spider-man can rival him in acrobatics.

Change of powers

When Frank Miller took over the series, he brought greater focus to Daredevil’s physical abilities by adding ninjas into the Daredevil canon. A previously unseen character, Stick, who had been Matt’s sensei after his accident is introduced. Also blind, Stick taught Matt how to control his senses and also taught him martial arts.

Weaknesses

Daredevil’s superhuman senses render him extraordinarily vulnerable to excessive sound, odors, etc., which can temporarily weaken his radar sense. If he is bombarded by too much sound at once, Daredevil can easily be immobilized which causes him great pain and leaves him disoriented. Due to his blindness he is unable to discern pictures or video images, and he can only guess at colors based on the amount of heat they are absorbing or reflecting, but he has been able to make out images by feeling them out. Also, Daredevil is as susceptible to physical injury and disease as any normal human.

Character Appearances

• 1964-2012: Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #16, 18, 43, 181, 218, 219, 233, 237, 277, 286-288, 396, 429, 438, 530, 562, 565-568, 587, 600, 638
• 1964-1998: Daredevil Vol. 1 #1-380, -1
• 1965-1993: Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #39, 40,73, 116, 242, 243, 255, 281, 367, 368, 370, 373, 375-378
• 1969-1991: The Avengers Vol. 1 #60, 82, 111, 151, 159, 190, 191, 221, 251, 332, 333
• 1972-1995: The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #153, 153, 277-279, 293, 300, 346, 434
• 1972-1995: Captain America Vol. 1 #151. 234-236, 250, 368, 374-376, 439
• 1973-1982: The Defenders Vol. 1 #7, 24, 25, 32, 40, 88-91, 103, 104, 106-108
• 1973-1984: Marvel Team-Up Vol. 1 #12, 25, 51, 56, 73, 92, 98, 101, 107, 121, 123, 131, 140, 141
• 1974-1983: Marvel Two-In-One Vol. 1 #3, 37-40, 69, 76, 78, 96
• 1978-19883: What If? #8, 15, 19, 20, 26, 28, 29, 31, 34, 35, 38, 42
• 1979-1994: The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 #26, 32, 46, 63, 65, 67, 77, 83, 84, 107-110, 128, 134, 218, 219
• 1982-1992: Marvel Fanfare Vol. 1 #1, 7, 10, 15, 23, 27, 31, 43, 45, 60
• 1988-1993: What The–?! #1-6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 21, 22, 25
• 1988-1994: Marvel Comics Presents Vol. 1 #4, 5, 19, 49, 69-72, 75, 81, 91, 93, 113, 115, 136, 150, 151
• 1989-2011: What If…? Vol. 2 #1, 2, 13, 19, 20, 24-26, 29, 31, 44, 47, 48, 52, 55, 58, 61, 64, 79, 83, 89,102, 200
• 1996-1998: Elektra Vol. 1 #1, 3, 10-13, 19, -1
• 1998-2011: Daredevil Vol. 2 #1-119, 500-512, 1/2
• 2000-2001: Marvel Knights Vol. 1 #1-15
• 2003-2009: Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 #35, 106-110, 131, 132
• 2003-2007: Exiles Vol. 1 #21, 22, 43, 54, 56, 62, 66, 83, 96
• 2005-2010: The New Avengers Vol. 1 #1-3, 11, 36, 37, 42, 45, 47 59, 60
• 2010-2013: New Avengers Vol. 2 #1, 16, 19-24, 30-34
• 2011-2014: Daredevil Vol. 3 #1-36, 10.1
• 2014-2015″ Daredevil Vol. 4 #1-18, 0.1, 1.50, 15.1
• 2016-2018: Spider-Gwen Vol. 2 #0, 3, 5, 11, 12, 14-16, 19-21, 24, 25, 28-30, 32
• 2016-2019: Daredevil Vol. 5 #1-28, 595-612
• 2017-2018: The Defenders Vol. 5 #1-7, 9, 10
• 2019-2021: Daredevil Vol. 6 #1-25

Annuals

1967-1994: Daredevil Annual #1-10

Personal Data

Characteristics

• Height: 5’11″/1.80m
• Weight: 185lbs/84kg
• Eyes: Blue
• Hair: Redish-Brown
• Strength: Gold-Medal-Olympic Level / Peak Human (Has flipped a full limousine, bent steel, and broken bricks)
• Speed: Gold-Medal-Olympic Level / Peak Human
• Stamina: Enhanced to Peak Human
• Agility: Peak Human
• Fighting Skills: Master of multiple forms of martial arts and a large number of fighting techniques. Master of Ninjitsu, Aikido, Boxing, Wrestling, Judo, Jujutsu, Eskrima, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Hapkido and Aikijujutsu.
• Reflexes: Peak Human

Status

• Identity: Secret identity
• Citizenship: American
• Place of Birth: Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, New York
• Marital Status: Divorced
• Known Relatives: Battlin’ Jack Murdock (father, deceased); Sister Maggie Murdock (mother); Milla Donovan (ex-wife)
• Education: J.D. in law at Columbia University, Law School at Harvard; self-taught in mechanical engineering
• Occupation: Adventurer, vigilante, deputy mayor; former assistant district attorney, attorney-at-law; former leader of The Hand, short-order cook, Avenger
• Base of Operations: Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, New York; formerly Matt Murdock’s apartment, Nelson & Murdock Law Office; San Francisco, California; Shadowland

Weapons and Equipment

Billy Club

Daredevil carries a billy club, disguised as a cane in civilian garb. It is a versatile, multi-purpose weapon, stronger than any fist. It contains thirty feet of aircraft control cable, which is connected to a case-hardened steel grapnel. Internal mechanisms allow the cable to be neatly wound and unwound, while a powerful spring launches the grapnel. Daredevil usually carries two fighting batons.

Alternate Earths

Earth-1610 (Ultimate)

In this earth, Matt Murdock seems very similar to his Earth-616 version. We first see him in collage before he becomes Daredevil where he build a relationship with Elektra. We later see him aid Wolverine when he is being hunted in the Blockbuster story arc in Ultimate X-Men. When Spider-Man and the Punisher venture to Hell’s Kitchen, Daredevil lends them a hand. At one point, after Punisher kills Jean DeWolff, Daredevil reveals that she was a dirty cop working for the Kingpin. He later shows up at Spider-Man’s school, recognizing him from his sent and the sound of his voice. Daredevil recruits Spider-Man into a group called Ultimate Knights while working to take down the Kingpin. Spider-Man is told by the Kingpin that Matt is working for him, which causes Spider-Man to attack Daredevil. Matt has no idea what he is talking about and is shocked that Kingpin knows his true identity. During the conflict, he hears Shang-Chi’s heart-rate increase and realizes that he was the traitor. Matt attacks the traitor but Spider-Man stops him from hurting him. Daredevil later kidnaps the Kingpin’s wife but Spider-Man again talks him out of doing something he would regret. They take down the Kingpin and with him imprisoned Matt’s secret identity is safe. During the events of Ultimatum Spider-Man discovers Matt’s dead body with it being revealed that he died in the flood. Daredevil was one of the many heroes to die during Ultimatum. He is later replaced by another Daredevil named Raymond Conners.

Earth-90210 (Old Man Logan)

In a Apocalyptic future where the villains have formed a group together and taken over the world, Daredevil is one of the few surviving heroes. When Hawkeye’s daughter was kidnapped, Daredevil and Punisher go after her.

Earth-295 (Age of Apocalypse)

In this reality, Matt worked for Apocalypse dumping toxic wastes from age 8. Matt Murdock lost his sight also (due to toxic exposure) but Apocalypse´s horseman Mikhail supposedly gave him uncanny reflex, altered senses and infrared visor, during Upstart Program Matt was the first human enhanced with cybernetic grafts. Murdock believed that Mikhail gave his extraordinary abilities to him so he become loyal to Apocalypse.

He was left in the care of Empath, who was a mutant with the power to control people´s emotions and was imprisoned by Mikhail in his ship to amplified his powers and control human´s feelings in Europe. During this visit to Europe Keeper Murdock touched Empath, showing him the true pain of Empath realizing the atrocities made on him. Horrified by his feelings, he killed Empath and finished his suffering. He removed his visor and realized that his skills were due to toxic wastes effects.

He reappears after the destruction of the last human city. He serves as keeper of mutants whose try to enter to new Apocalypse city, he uses his sense to monitor the entrance to the city. Then, he fights with Prophet hand to hand but was defeated with a poison gas that allowed Prophet escape with the X-Terminators.

Earth-311 (1602)

As a child, Matthew was a fearless boy who would explore anywhere. One day, he found a deep cave on a beach. Inside, the walls were covered with a glowing green substance, which he tasted without a second thought before pushing deeper into the cave, where the green glow disappeared. When he eventually emerged from the cave, he believed that it was nighttime because he could not see. He later learned that he had been struck blind within the cave, when his mother found him feverish and muttering about darkness. Though he lost his sight, the rest of Matthew’s senses began to function with superhuman sharpness.

Matthew traveled as a blind beggar and poet, singing songs of heroes, and appearing weak and helpless. His true nature would be revealed when he was either on a job for a client or attacking. The Queen of England’s head spymaster, Nicholas Fury, had hired him to hunt down and protect Donal, the Templar keeper of Thor’s staff. On the way to meet Donal he encountered a woman named Natasha (aka the Black Widow), whom he referred to as the most dangerous woman in Europe. His analysis of Natasha proved to be very accurate when she betrayed him by smashing a bottle over his head and pushing Matthew off a bridge into a canyon below. But Murdoch survived, and appeared again in a dark cave just in time to save Donal from being attacked by Natasha’s men. Matthew attempted to save Donal from her by taking him as a way as he could. But Natasha had the cave entrance surrounded with a garrison of men, sent by Count Otto Von Doom of Latveria to capture the old man’s treasure, Donal, and Matthew Murdoch. Doom imprisoned him in one of the castle’s cells and worked to uncover the secrets of the golden bauble that Donal gave to him to distract him from the true treasure: the staff. Donal was also in contact with Doctor Strange, the former Queen’s court magician and physician, who informed them that a group of heroes were on their way to the castle. When the imprisoned Captain of the Fantastic Four railed against his stone prison, it shook the castle from its foundations and freed Murdoch and Donal. Murdoch used his abilities to carry the old man and leap from wall to wall to the courtyard many feet below. When Doom’s men cornered them, after Donal demanded to find his staff, the old man used it to transform himself into the thunder god, Thor. Thor used his immortal powers to stop Doom’s men and assist Carlos Javier’s Witchbreed in their attack on Doom’s castle, finally allowing Doom to use Thor’s electricity to explode the golden sphere that Donal had given him, scarring Doom and bringing him to the brink of death. Then, Donal (as Thor) joined the group aboard their ship, headed to the New World to fix the tear in their universe, Murdoch used his own means to leave Latvaria. Murdoch later appeared to King James, in the dark, threatening to cut his throat if he ever attacked the late Queen’s spymaster, Fury. He then disappeared through the window, promising to return again if James was untrue to his word. And with a final warning not to touch his homeland of Ireland.

Earth-91600

In this alternate reality, the Punisher kills Daredevil. On a rooftop, Daredevil interrupts the Punisher, who then shoots him with a tranquilizer dart which causes Daredevil to lose his footing and fall to his death. To avenge his friend, Foggy Nelson somehow is given information connecting several city councilmen to organized crime and alerts Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, whose story is then printed in newspapers the next day. Foggy Nelson and Ben Urich are then killed, prompting the mayor of New York to resign due to intense pressure and public backlash. Soon after, a new mayor is elected by the name of Theodore Mason. Coming to the realization that everything that had happened was all part of a larger plan, the Punisher confronts Mason and the Kingpin, who it turns out was the one who fed Foggy the information on the corrupt city councilmen to clear the way for Mason. Kingpin manages to overpower the Punisher and choke him to death, not realizing that the Punisher had a backup plan. Kingpin then discovers a bomb in the office which then explodes, killing him and mayoral-elect Mason.

Earth-8982

In an alternate reality version of “Born Again”, Daredevil kills Kingpin. After having his life destroyed by Kingpin, Murdock kills him. Realizing what he had done, Murdock tries to turn himself in. Due to his fragile state of mind, he begins to hallucinate and thinks everyone is an agent of Kingpin out to get him. Murdock flees from the authorities, and runs into the Punisher. Just then Spider-Man appears. Murdock, sensing he’s not going to get anywhere with either one, immobilizes them with their own weapons and escapes seeking the one person who could absolve him of his guilt: Kingpin’s son, Richard. Arriving at Richard’s place, Murdock throws himself at his mercy. Before Richard could decide what to do, the Hobgoblin bursts in with intentions of killing Richard. As the Hobgoblin prepares to use a pumpkin bomb, Murdock leaps to Richard’s defense. During the struggle, Hobgoblin loses control of the lit pumpkin bomb which then explodes, killing both him and Murdock. Richard, moved by Murdock’s sacrifice, gives him his forgiveness and carries on his legacy as the new Daredevil.

Earth-82100

In this alternate reality, Bullseye never had the chance to kill Elektra since he was killed by a prison guard during his attempted escape from prison. Events proceed accordingly, with Elektra allowing Foggy Nelson to escape with his life. Displeased with Elektra’s betrayal, the Kingpin hires Eric Slaughter‘s men to assassinate Elektra. With no hope of survival, Elektra goes to Matt Murdock for help. After an unsuccessful night of searching, Murdock returns home and finds Elektra waiting for him. He’s determined to bring her in, but she fears being sent to prison will only bring about her death. Murdock then attends to Elektra’s wounds. Many days later, Matt Murdock is nowhere to be found and a worried Foggy Nelson discovers Murdock’s home is for sale. Half a world away, Murdock and Elektra begin a new life and they are happy…for however long it may last.

Earth-65

On Earth-65, Matt Murdock is not a hero, and is instead the criminal lawyer of the Kingpin. His origin story is much the same, but with the twist that after Jack Murdock was killed by Silvermane‘s men, Matt’s training with Stick was interrupted when Stick was killed by the Hand. The Hand took Matt in and continued his training in Japan, eventually molding the boy into a deadly assassin. After returning to America and finishing law school, Matt began working for the Kingpin. At Fisk’s behest, Murdock murdered Walter Hardy after he and his daughter stole Fisk’s first dollar. After Fisk is arrested by George Stacy, Matt takes over his empire as the new Kingpin.

In the present, Matt clashes with Spider-Woman several times, and takes an interest in the young heroine. He attempts to sway her to his side, but his public battles with her and the Punisher eventually cause the Hand to chastise him for his recklessness. After the Hand send agents to kill him, Matt manages to fight them off, but is defeated by Spider-Woman (who was bonded with the Venom symbiote at the time).

Other Media (Appearances and mentions)

Television

Early Appearances

• Daredevil guest-starred in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode, “Attack of the Arachnoid,” voiced by Frank Welker. He was hired as Peter Parker’s attorney after Parker was framed by Zoltan Amadeus.
• Daredevil was planned to get his own animated series for ABC, which would have included a seeing eye dog called Lightning the Super-Dog. The project was dropped after a verbal altercation between an ABC executive and a Marvel employee.

Fantastic Four: The Animated Series

Daredevil guest-starred in the Fantastic Four: The Animated Series episode “And a Blind Man Shall Lead Them,” voiced by Bill Smitrovich. In the series, Matt Murdock is an old friend of Alicia Masters, who is dating Ben Grimm, a.k.a. The Thing. When the members of the Fantastic Four lose their powers after surviving an explosion planned by Doctor Doom, Alicia goes to Matt and asks him to assist the heroes. Arriving as Daredevil, he helps the Fantastic Four enter the Baxter Building after Doctor Doom takes control of it, and even briefly fights Doom himself.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series

Daredevil guest-starred in the Spider-Man: The Animated Series episodes “Framed” and “The Man Without Fear,” voiced by Edward Albert. His background was very similar to the comics, but with the change that Wilson Fisk was the one responsible for the radioactive waste accident that blinded Matt as a child, and subsequently killed Matt’s father Jack to prevent that information from being exposed. In the present, Matt was hired by J. Jonah Jameson to defend Peter Parker after the youth is framed for treason by Wilson’s son Richard Fisk. As Daredevil, he set out to find evidence to exonerate Parker, and ended up battling Spider-Man after mistakingly believing he was involved in the conspiracy. After realizing they were both on the same side, the two heroes teamed up to clear Parker’s name and bring down Richard. At the close of the storyline, Daredevil informed Spider-Man that he had to leave to help with a special case in Washington, but ensured Spidey that they were allies. These episodes were later incorporated into the Daredevil vs. Spider-Man animated film.

Live-Action

70’s Live-Action series

In 1975, Angela Bowie secured the rights for a potential Daredevil TV show. The series would have starred Bowie as Black Widow and Ben Carruthers as Daredevil. Promo photos were taken but the show never came to fruition.

Netflix’s Marvel series

Daredevil

A Daredevil series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was later launched for Netflix. The series is set after the events of The Avengers, and features Hell’s Kitchen struggling to rebuild after being destroyed by Loki and the Chitauri. Daredevil is portrayed by Charlie Cox.

The show follows Matt Murdock’s early days as a vigilante, and features the gradual evolution of his costume from the black “Man Without Fear” outfit to his iconic red suit. He clashes with the Kingpin through the series, as well as a number of gangsters.

Season 2 sees Matt struggling to defend the city from the Hand, while also dealing with the return of his own flame, Elektra, and the arrival of a violent new vigilante called the Punisher. Charlie Cox reprises his role in the Defenders limited series, where he teams up with Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist to battle the Hand. At the conclusion of the mini-series, Daredevil is apparently killed when the building is fighting in collapses.

The third season of Daredevil then picks up after the conclusion of The Defenders, dealing with Matt returning to the world of crime-fighting after recovering in a church. He is also forced to deal with the return of Wilson Fisk, as well as a the arrival of Bullseye.

Defenders

Charlie Cox reprises his role as Daredevil in this mash-up of superheroes who came together and call themselves The Defenders. This Netflix Marvel team consisted of Daredevil, Jessica Jone, The Immortal Iron Fist (aka Danny Rand), and Luke Cage. The start of the season has Foggy Nelson come in as Luke Cage’s attorney. As the season progresses, we see Matt Murdock as a semi successful lawyer as he wins a large case. Jessica Jones get caught up with the law and Matt Murdock comes in to be her lawyer. Later Jessica finds out that there is something that Matt has been hiding from her, after witnessing Matt running through the alley, flipping over dumpsters and climbing escape ladders. Eventually the four would come together with a common enemy to fight in the war that Stick had been training Matt for, and what Danny Rand had been trained for. Matt would later be fighting the “Black Sky” aka Elektra, then ultimately making the sacrifice to keep fighting Elektra underground at Midland Circle while the other three make an escape before the bomb explodes.

Film

Trial of the Incredible Hulk

Daredevil’s first film appearance was in the 1989 television movie, The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. When David Banner (played by Bill Bixby) gets arrested, Matt Murdock (played by Rex Smith) helps to prove Banner’s innocence. Daredevil tells his origins to Banner, which in this version involves Murdock being inspired by a police officer to become a hero. Later, with the help of Hulk, he battles Kingpin (John Rhys-Davies), called only Wilson Fisk here. While remaining fairly true to the source material of the Daredevil comic books, the largest change was that Daredevil’s traditional costume, including his horns, was replaced with a black ninja-like outfit.

Daredevil

In 2003, 20th Century Fox released the film, Daredevil, written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson. The film stars Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock, Jennifer Garner as his love interest Elektra Natchios, Colin Farrell as Bullseye and Michael Clark Duncan as Wilson Fisk (Kingpin), who in this film strays from the original version, making Wilson Fisk African-American instead of Caucasian. The film was met with mixed reviews and decent box office numbers, but was successful enough to lead to a 2005 spin-off film, Elektra, even though she was killed in this film. Daredevil does not appear in the original cut of Elektra, but he was later included in the Director’s Cut briefly in a dream sequence.

As recently as February 2010, 20th Century Fox has expressed an interest in making another Daredevil movie, in an attempt to stop the rights reverting back to Marvel Studios. However, Ben Affleck has no desire to return, stating:

“Playing a superhero in Daredevil, I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero… Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn’t want to do again soon.”

Reboot

In 2010 Fox Studios, who currently own the films rights to the Daredevil franchise, hired screenwriter David Scarpa (The Day the Earth Stood Still) to pen a treatment for a reboot. Approximately a year later in March of 2011 Fox hired David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night, Twilight: Eclipse) to direct the film. According to recent reports from various sources such as Variety and the Hollywood Reporter the current plan for a new film is one which “continues the Daredevil saga” but with an entirely new cast and direction. The reboot is said to be based on Frank Miller’s acclaimed Born Again storyline.

However Fox instead let the right return to Marvel who made a Netflix show which debuted in 2015.

Video Games

• Daredevil made his first video game appearance in a cameo in Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety released in 1995. The character had a more expansive role as an alternate playable character in Spider-Man: Web of Fire, released in 1996, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
• Daredevil appears in the 2000 Spider-Man video game voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
• Daredevil’s largest role was as the title character in the Game Boy Advance game based on the 2003 film.
• Daredevil later starred as a playable character in the 2005 Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects video game, voiced by David Kaye.
• Matt Murdock made a cameo in The Punisher voiced by Steven Blum. He only appears as Matt Murdock, the Punisher’s lawyer.
• Daredevil is a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, in his standard red outfit and his alternate classic yellow outfit. Brian Bloom reprises his role from Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.
• Daredevil is a playable character in the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance.
• Daredevil appeared as an unlockable character in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance voiced by Cam Clarke.
• Daredevil is a playable character in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 voiced by Brian Bloom
• Matt Murdock makes a cameo appearance in Chris Redfield’s ending for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, where he is shown acting as the prosecutor at the trial of Albert Wesker.
• Daredevil appears in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 in the background of the game’s Shadowland stage. He stoically observes the combatants fighting from his throne.
• Daredevil is also a playable character in Lego Marvel Superheroes.
• Daredevil is a playable character in Marvel Future Fight.
• Daredevil is a playable character in Marvel Heroes.
• Daredevil is a playable character in Marvel Contest of Champions.
• Daredevil is a playable character in Lego Marvel’s The Avengers.
• Daredevil appears as a playable character in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, voiced by Brian Bloom.
• In 2020, Daredevil was added to the Fortnite battle royale game.

Toys

• Daredevil is featured in the Marvel Legends (third series) toy line. The action figure was based on the film version Ben Affleck starred in. The Marvel Legends Showdown 1/18th scale line also featured Daredevil figures in both his red uniform and a chase version in his yellow-and-black uniform.
• The Spider-Man Classics toy line (which was a precursor to Marvel Legends) also included a Daredevil figure, clad in his traditional red costume. The action figure resembles Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada’s representation of Daredevil; it is derived from Quesada’s stint as an artist on Daredevil. Accessories to the figure include the two billy clubs that the character uses. Unlike the mainstream comics, the clubs are white (rather than red). An expensive variant of the character also included him in his original yellow and black garb, released in the same series.
• Daredevil is the 13th figurine in the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection.
• Daredevil was featured in wave one of the first series in the 3 3/4″ Marvel Universe line.
• Daredevil was featured twice before in Hasbro’s rendition of the Marvel Legends line, in the Nemesis and Hobgoblin Build-a-Figure waves, respectively.
• A 6 inch Daredevil figure (in his original costume) was released as part of the Marvel Legends line to promote the release of the live-action show. It was a Walgreens exclusive.
• Another Marvel Legends figure of Daredevil was featured as part of the Man-Thing Build-a-Figure wave from Hasbro.
• Daredevil was featured in Funko’s line of POP! bobbleheads.
• Hot Toys produced a figure of Daredevil from the TV series.
• Another Marvel Legends figure was released by Hasbro as part of the SP//dr Build-a-Figure wave.

Novels

Daredevil

Movie novelization. Written By: Greg Cox Publisher: Onyx (January, 2003) ISBN-10: 0451410807 ISBN-13: 978-0451410801

Daredevil: Predator’s Smile

As a lethal arsonist stalks the city, Daredevil is forced to join forces with his deadliest foe, the Kingpin of Crime, to stop a ruthless crime boss out to seize control of the New York underworld and his bloodthirsty assassin, Bullseye. Written By: Christopher Golden Publisher: Berkley (April, 1996) ISBN-10: 1572970103 ISBN-13: 978-1572970106

Daredevil: The Cutting Edge

A mysterious marauder called “The Cutter” is murdering innocent people in Hell’s Kitchen — Daredevil’s turf. But the man without fear may find that this is a foe he cannot face, for the Cutter has been enhanced by a revolutionary new procedure that makes him immune to Daredevil’s superhuman senses! Written By: Madeleine E. Robins Publisher: Berkley (June, 1999) ISBN-10: 0425169383 ISBN-13: 978-0425169384