Daredevil

"We don't live in a world that's fair. We live in this one. And I'm doing everything I can to make it a better place."

- Matt Murdock

Matthew "Matt" Murdock is a young man blinded as a boy but gifted with extraordinary senses, who dedicates his life to fight injustice in New York City as a lawyer by day, and by night as a vigilante known as Daredevil.

Biography
"I'm just trying to make my city a better place."

- Matt Murdock

Stitching his Father
When Murdock was a young man, his father Jack would return from boxing matches and allow Matt to stitch his injuries. During one of these sessions, Jack allowed Matthew to have a drink of scotch.

Blinded
"I can't see! I can't see!"

- Matt Murdock

At the age of 9, Murdock saved an elderly man from being hit by a truck, causing an accident. Hazardous chemicals from the flipped truck splashed on his face and as they were absorbed into his eyes, Murdock was blinded. The last sight he had was of his father trying to comfort him during the multiple car accident. He screamed in pain and fear when he realised he would never see again.

He woke up in the hospital where he found he could hear every sound in the near-by area, causing him pain, his father tried desperately to comfort him. He let his son touch his face so he could recognise that it was him, which seemed to calm him down.

Learning Braille
Over the next few months, Murdock learnt to read with Braille and began to control his heightened senses. His father continued to work as a boxer despite losing almost all his fights, one day he returned home while Murdock was reading in Braille with severe bruises on his face, he let Murdock touch his face and make him promise not to be a boxer like him. One day, while Murdock was reading in his father's gym, he overheard his father being offered money to lose his upcoming fight with Carl Creel.

Last Fight
Murdock listened to his father's fight with Carl Creel on the television and cheered when his father won the match. Murdock waited at home for his father's return but became worried when he did not arrive. Murdock ran to the Boxing Gym and found his father had been murdered, he cried over his father's lifeless body.

Saint Agnes Orphanage
When his mother failed to take care of him after his father's death, Murdock was moved to Saint Agnes Orphanage. While there he continued to suffer with his enhanced senses.

Training
While at the Orphanage, Murdock was visited by an old blind man named Stick. Stick knew that Murdock's other senses had been heightened and took him outside for ice-cream. While they sat together Stick asked Murdock what he could understand about near-by people just from listening to them. Stick promised to train Murdock to control and master his "gift". Murdock kept the wrapper from his ice-cream, planning on giving it to Stick as a present.

Stick began a harsh training regime with Murdock, often pushing an emotional response from him to teach him to control his anger. Over the next few months and years, Murdock became a powerful fighter with almost complete control of his blindness. During one of their training sessions, Murdock gave Stick the wrapper from his ice-cream, having made it into a bracelet. Stick crushed it in his hand and told him he could no longer train him. Stick left and Murdock would not see him again for many years.

Law School
In his early twenties, Murdock gained a place at Law School. He arrived in his room and introduced himself to his new roommate Foggy Nelson. Nelson had heard of Murdock, as he remembered what had happened to him as a child. Murdock and Nelson immediately made a strong relationship and Nelson often joked about his blindness while Murdock would tease Nelson about many of his poor life choices, such as he decision to join a course studying Punjabi simply to get close to a girl. They swore to work together for many years. Both Murdock and Foggy Nelson were able to work as interns at the large lawyer firm, Landman and Zack, during which time their found themselves being forced to defend large corporations against innocent people. Eventually they were both offered permeant jobs at the firm, but believing that working for such a soulless company was not the right direction for them to go in, Murdock managed to convince Nelson not to take the job offer and instead start up their own law firm.

No Sleep for the Devil
Sometime after lawschool, Murdock would have trouble sleeping because he kept hearing his next door neighbour's daughter crying at night as her father was abusing her. Murdock contacted the police to have him arrested, however the man was able to get away with the crime as his wife claimed he would never do the crime and his daughter would not reveal the truth. Seeing that the man would not face justice, Murdock doned the mask and went after him, beating him up and threatened that if he ever touched his daughter again, he would find him. He slept better ever since.

The Mask
Many years later, Murdock went to confession, claiming he was not there to seek forgiveness for what he had done, but instead he was asking forgiveness for what he was about to do. He would not tell the priest his intentions however. The same night, Murdock wore an entirely black outfit and tracked down a group of gangsters led by Turk Barrett. The gangsters were planning on transporting a group of young women to be used as prostitutes. Murdock attacked the gangsters and soon knocked them all unconscious and freed the women.

In the morning, Murdock met with Foggy Nelson to view their new offices for their law practise Nelson and Murdock. The pair teased the agent about which one of them would get the room with a view. Murdock made her an offer on the office which was accepted and they both moved in.

Karen Page
Shortly after moving into their new offices, Nelson received a call from a policeman that a young woman called Karen Page had been found in her apartment having seemingly murdered a workmate with a knife. Murdock and Nelson met Page and offered to represent her, when she asked how long the pair had been practising law, Murdock told her it had been seven hours. Murdock listened to her heartbeat while she told them what had occurred, knowing that her heartbeat was not changing, Murdock knew she was tell the truth and convinced Nelson that they should take on her case. They learnt that the same night Page was almost assassinated in her prison cell, so they managed to have her freed. Back in their offices they began to question Page about who would try to kill her and why, she revealed that she had discovered a money laundering scheme inside the company she worked for. As it was clear that she should not stay in her apartment so Murdock allowed her to stay in his apartment. Once there he gave her new clothes and asked her more questions. When he asked if she had a copy of the hard-drive, she lied and told him she did not. During the night Page sneaked out of Murdock's apartment, Murdock followed her and found her inside her home after collecting the hard-drive. He saved her when she was attacked by an assassin. After the fight, Murdock took the assassin to the police along with the hard-drive. This caused the company to be destroyed and Page to be set free. She was quickly hired to work as a secretary for Nelson and Murdock.

Claire Temple
Murdock heard a young boy had been kidnapped by Russian gangsters so went out to try and rescue him. However he soon discovered that it was a trap and he was attacked. Barely escaping with severe injuries, he hid inside a skip until he was found by Santino and Claire Temple. Temple took him upstairs into her apartment and treated his injuries, she quickly discovered that he was blind. Murdock woke up and tried to leave but Temple insisted that he had to stay as he wounds were too severe. As Murdock refused to give her his name she began calling him Mike. After a while, Murdock smelt a Russian mobster wearing strong aftershave coming up the stairs looking for him. Temple answered the door while Murdock hid and the man claimed to be an NYPD officer looking for the suspect of a robbery, Temple told the man that she hadn't seen anything. The mobster left but Murdock heard him on the phone and knew that he had not believed her, so he chased him down and dropped a fire extinguisher on his head, knocking him out. Murdock noticed that Santino had witnessed the attack and ran away. Together, Murdock and Temple dragged the unconscious mobster up to the roof. Once on the roof, Murdock began questioning the mobster on the location of the missing boy, telling him that he would hurt him every time he lied. Temple suggested that Murdock should stab him just above the eye, causing the man incredible pain. When that still didn't work, Murdock threatened to throw him off the roof, this made the mobster tell him exactly where the boy was. Murdock still threw him off the roof, letting him fall into the same dumpster he had been pulled out of earlier. When Temple asked if he was alive Murdock assured her he was. Murdock gave Temple a phone so they could contact each other and told her that it would be wise for her to relocate. Murdock then went to the place where the boy was being held hostage. He arrived and immediately began fighting the mobsters, after a prolonged fight during which many of the mobsters were thrown through doors, Murdock came out as the winner with all the mobsters lying unconscious on the floor or in too much pain to move. Murdock then removed his mask and freed the boy, telling him that he was now safe. Murdock carried him out of the house and later returned him to his family.

Confession
The next morning Murdock visited his church and spoke to Father Lantom. Lantom asked if Murdock was there for confession, but he said told him he was not, he then suggested that Murdock should join him for a cup of coffee but Murdock said they'll do it another time. Back at the office, Murdock and Nelson were visited by James Wesley, who asked them to represent his client John Healy, who had just brutally murdered a gangster called Prohashka. Although he showed initial uncertainty towards the case, Murdock decided to take the case in an attempt to learn who was behind the criminal activity in Hell's Kitchen. Murdock and Nelson cross examined Healy, who clearly was experienced in court proceedings. They began working out a strategy to get Healy off by claiming self defence. During the trail, Murdock noticed one of the women in the juries' heart begin to rase when Wesley entered, Murdock tracked down the man threatening her and forced him to leave her alone. Murdock later gave a speech during the trail claiming that there was not enough evidence to convict Healy. As the result was being read out, Murdock noticed that another juryman's heart raced as Wesley entered, the jury announced a hung jury, resulting to Healy's freedom.

Murdock later tracked down and confronted Healy. The pair began to fight, Healy using objects around him to attack Murdock, after an exhusting fight Murdock came out as the victor and began questioning Healy on who his employer was. Eventually Healy claimed it was Wilson Fisk. Healy told Murdock that now he had revealed Fisk's name, he, his family and his friends would all become targets. Seeing no alternative, Healy slammed his face into an iron spike, killing him instantly, Murdock could only watch in horror.

Russians
Murdock later attacked Russian Gangster, Anatoly Ranskahov and his men, although Ranskahov escaped with only minor injuries, Murdock was able to throw one of his men out of a window and onto his car. After escaping, Murdock went to Claire Temple to treat his injuries. Later, he recieved a phonecall from Temple just as she was being kidnapped by Russian mobsters. Murdock ran to her aid but was too late, he spoke to her neighbour Santino who was able to reveal that she had been taken away in a taxi driven by the Russians.

Murdock arrived at the taxi's firm where he found Temple being tortured by the Russians, Murdock switched off the lights in the room and managed to fight of the Russians in the dark and rescued Temple. He took her back to his apartment and tried to comfort her, Temple asked him to feel her heart and tell her how she was feeling, Murdock knew then that she was terribly afraid for her life.

Powers
"There are other ways to see."

- Matt Murdock


 * Enhanced Senses: Murdock possesses four senses (besides sight) beyond human level. He claims to constantly feel numerous things, including balance, direction, minuscule changes in air density, vibrations, and blankets of temperature variations. That, combined with his acute hearing and olfactory senses, allows Murdock to see what he describes as an "Impressionistic painting" of the world around him, which, according to him, looks like "the world on fire."
 * Enhanced Hearing: Murdock's hearing is so acute that he can clearly hear people converse at great distances away, hear people's heartbeats, and hear Claire's bones shifting as she breathed. Murdock can focus on what he hears; in a crowded courtroom with the judge speaking, Murdock heard a juror's heartbeat accelerate when James Wesley entered the room. Hearing the changes in people's heartbeats allows Murdock to predict how they feel and what actions they'll take such as attack or run.
 * Lie Detection: Murdock's hearing is so acute that he can tell whether people are lying or not, based on the rate of their heartbeat.
 * Enhanced Smell: His olfactory senses are so good that he can smell a man's scent of stale cigarettes and cheap cologne three floors above him and through walls. When he was a boy, his sense was already so acute he could smell an old man sitting at a bench across from him had cancer. By smelling an old cigarette, Murdock could tell that whoever smoked it previously had rotten teeth. He was able to smell that Foggy had onions in his lunch four days ago.
 * Enhanced Taste: Murdock was able to tell that Claire Temple had ripped open some of the stitches on her back, due to tasting copper in the air from the blood of her open wound. Stick taught him how to train this sense, allowing him to pick out every individual ingredient of the ice cream he was eating, including that the milk used came from three different dairy farms and that the man who served him used a certain type of soil in his garden.
 * Enhanced Touch: Murdock can feel the presence of those around him through vibrations, air currents and body temperature. He can dodge attacks and even bullets by feeling them cut through the air, creating ripples of currents only detectable by him. He locates enemies through walls and from different floors by feeling the vibrations they make from moving such as footsteps. Matt could feel the heat generated from the blood spilling from the gunshot wound on Vladimir Ranskahov.
 * Enhanced Balance: Murdock's sense of balance is enhanced giving him perfect equilibrium, greatly increasing his agility and refining his movements.

Abilities
"That sounds pretty bad, but I don't speak asshole."
 * Master Martial Artist: Despite being blind, Murdock was trained in martial arts by Stick at a young age and excelled in it. He continued training despite Stick giving up on him, and he eventually used his skills to fight criminals as Daredevil. By the time he meet Stick again, Murdock had surpassed his former mentor in skill, managing to defeat him in a one-on-one duel. Even Nobu acknowledged Daredevil as a worthy opponent, and was only able to gain the upper hand against the latter by repeatedly cutting him with his shoge hook.
 * Master Acrobat: Murdock incorporates gymnastics and acrobatics into his fighting style as he battles opponents.
 * Expert Marksman:

- Daredevil


 * Multilingualism: Murdock speaks very fluent Spanish, having studied the language at college. However, he cannot speak or understand Russian.
 * Master Lawyer: Murdock is a persuasive and trained lawyer, having graduated summa cum laude from.

Equipment
"Thing about red, they can't tell how much you're bleeding."

- Matt Murdock


 * Uniform:
 * Armored Suit
 * Billy Club

Family

 * Grandmother
 * Mother
 * Jack Murdock † - Father

Allies

 * Defenders - Teammates
 * Luke Cage
 * Jessica Jones
 * Iron Fist
 * Stick - Mentor
 * Nelson and Murdock
 * Foggy Nelson - Best Friend and Associate
 * Karen Page - Co-worker and Love Interest
 * Claire Temple - Friend and Love Interest
 * Father Lantom - Friend
 * Santino
 * Ben Urich †

Enemies

 * Wilson Fisk
 * Leland Owlsley †
 * John Healy †
 * Vladimir Ranskahov †
 * Anatoly Ranskahov †

Trivia

 * In the comics, Daredevil has a long and complicated relationship with Black Widow.
 * The black costume Matt Murdock wears takes inspiration from Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.'s 1993 limited series Daredevil: The Man Without Fear.