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Jonathan "Jack" Murdock was a professional boxer and the husband of Maggie Murdock. Their son, Matt, would become the sightless crimefighter Daredevil. Jack's wife left him and Matt under the influence of postpartum depression and became a nun.[4]

Jack Murdock consistently urged his young son to study hard and make something of himself. He also warned Matt not to fight other kids in the neighborhood;[3] he wanted his son to make something of himself and be a better person than he was. On one occasion, when Jack had learned that Matt was fighting other neighborhood kids, Jack physically assaulted young Matt, immediately regretting this act and apologizing to his son for his mistake.

Despite being blinded in an accident, Matt kept his promise. Using Braille technology and studying diligently, Matt graduated college and became a law student at Columbia. At this time, Jack was an aging prize fighter having difficulty getting matches that paid money to support him and Matt.[3] He once entered a wrestling match as the masked "Red Devil" because of his dire financial situation. Afterwards, Jack felt that the endeavor was undignified and vowed never to do it again.

Shortly thereafter, with the help of the notorious promoter Roscoe Sweeney (aka "The Fixer"), Jack landed a big fight. Sweeney was a disreputable character who many boxers, previously including Jack, had steered clear of. Due to desperation from his lack of finances, Jack signed with Sweeney; much to his shock, the Fixer soon asked Jack to "take a dive" and lose this match on purpose. Perhaps remembering his shame of his performance as "Red Devil", Jack refused, and proceeded to fight and win the "fight of his career". As revenge, Sweeney had a thug called Slade shoot him in the back when he walked out of the building shortly after the match.[3]

Notes

  • Matt Murdock became Daredevil shortly after his father's death and quickly took revenge on the Fixer and his men. Since that time, he has often remembered, hallucinated, and dreamed of his father and their time together.
  • It was later revealed that Jack had witnessed a masked fighter defending him who, during the fight against Crusher Creel, he realised to be his son which gave him the strength to not throw the fight as he now knew Matt wasn't weak as he'd thought and could instead defend himself.[5]
  • Jack was left-handed, a trait he shares with his son.[6]
  • Many years following Jack's death, an entity known as Mike Murdock, a manifestation of a fictional twin brother that Matt once used as a cover accidentally brought back into existence by the reality-warping Inhuman Reader, used the Norn Stones to rewrite history so he truly was Matt's twin brother. In this new version of reality, Mike and Matt were raised together by Jack.[7]

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