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Quote1 Lot of decisions I'd give anything to go back and change. But I can't. None of us can. It's like I told Foggy; all we can do is... Move forward. Together. Quote2
Matt Murdock[src]

History

Early Life[]

Matt Murdock lived with his father, the washed-up boxer Jack Murdock. Jack consistently urged his young son to study hard and make something of himself, so Matt wouldn't end up like him.[4] As a hobby, Matt would listen to the sirens of the police cars and ambulances and imagine a story behind them.[10]

When he was nine years old, Matt suffered an accident involving a Rand Enterprises truck which carried radioactive waste when he pushed a man out of the truck's way and saved his life. Matt's eyes were exposed to the radioactive waste, and he became permanently blinded.[4] When he was hospitalized, Matt discovered that the spill of radioactive waste caused his other senses to be amplified to superhuman degrees.[6] Matt's expanding senses allowed him to hear the city better, and he realized there were more sirens that he used to listen to, and that there was more suffering in Hell's Kitchen than he knew. This turn of events motivated him to want to change the city for the better.[10]

Jack was killed after refusing to lose a fixed fight, being inspired to have a clean fight by Matt's words. Subsequently, Matt was also placed in Saint Agnes Orphanage. Matt's senses started enhancing, causing the young boy to suffer from the sensory overload. Due to his condition, one of the nuns called for the help of Stick, who trained Matt in controlling his gifts and in martial arts. Stick ended up leaving Matt after the boy showed affection for his mentor, when he gifted him a bracelet.[11]

Becoming a Lawyer and Vigilante[]

When he was a young adult, Matt studied law at Columbia University. The first day of college he met Foggy Nelson, who would become his best friend.[10]

During his time as a student, Matt met and briefly dated Elektra Natchios, the daughter of a Greek Ambassador. Eventually, Matt told Elektra about his abilities and about the death of his father. Elektra took it upon herself to track down Matt's father's killer, Roscoe Sweeney, and tricked Matt into breaking into his house. Elektra ambushed Sweeney and forced Matt to beat him to death. Matt refused to kill him and opted instead to alert the police of Sweeney's location. Disappointed, Elektra left Matt there, ending their relationship.[12]

In the end, Matt graduated summa cum laude, and Foggy cum laude. Matt and Foggy returned to Hell's Kitchen and subsequently worked as interns for the prestigious law firm Landman and Zack. However, Matt disapproved of their ideology, defending big powerful companies, and convinced Foggy to leave just before they were offered a position. Instead, Matt and Foggy set out to have their own law firm, Nelson and Murdock.

One night at his apartment, he used his abilities to discover a neighbor of his molested his daughter while his wife was at work. Matt called Child Services, but in vain, as the wife didn't believe the situation that was happening at her home. Angered, Matt used a disguise to assault the man one night at his job, swearing him to get him again if he didn't stop his behavior. Matt felt right for making him pay when the law wasn't able to, and shortly after became a masked vigilante, wearing a black outfit made from things bought online.[10]

Into the Ring[]

Soon enough, Nelson and Murdock was finally established in an office Matt and Foggy had recently acquired. While Foggy believed it was necessary to take any case they could, Matt stuck to his principle of representing only those that were in fact truly innocent. Meanwhile, Matt continued with his secret alter-ego of the masked vigilante. One of the criminal groups whose plans Matt thwarted most frequently was the Russian Mafia and their human trafficking operations.

Nelson and Murdock's first client was Karen Page, a secretary at Union Allied Construction, who had been framed for murder. Matt decided to take her case because he detected she was telling the truth about her innocence with the use of his amplified senses to listen to her heartbeat.

After Page was almost killed in her cell and because no charges had been presented after 24 hours of her arrest, Matt had her freed from custody. Matt interrogated her further, and found out she had discovered Union Allied money laundering records, and that was the reason she had been targeted. However, Murdock wasn't sure why wasn't she killed in the first place. Matt concluded that they had tried to discredit and scare her, and the only reason to do that was because she had something they wanted: a copy of the files. While Karen was staying at his apartment, Matt approached Karen with that theory, she lied to him stating she hadn't made a copy and the original files were deleted.

Marvel's Daredevil poster 001 Textless

In the middle of the night, when Karen sneakily left the apartment to return to hers, Matt decided to follow her disguised as his vigilante alter-ego. After she had recovered a USB stick with a copy of the files left in her bathroom, Karen was attacked by a hitman who was hiding at her apartment. Matt arrived in time to save her, and, after subduing the hitman, decided to take the USB stick to the New York Bulletin, for United Allied's illicit actions to be made public, so Karen would no longer be a target. In the end, Karen was proved innocent, and, to show her gratitude, she offered her help to Nelson and Murdock.[4]

The Russians[]

Two nights later, after falling into a trap by the Russian Mafia when he was following the trail of a kidnapped boy, Matt was heavily injured and barely escaped alive from his attacks. He ended up in a dumpster where he was found and recovered by a nurse named Claire Temple. After recovering and subduing a member of the Mafia who was looking for him in Temple's building, Matt interrogated him and got the location of the boy, and from then on, he could count on Claire for aid when he'd be wounded. He successfully raided the building and rescued the boy.[6]

The next day, Nelson and Murdock were hired by a man to defend a hitman named John Healy who had murdered Mr. Prohaszka in a way it appeared to have been in self-defense. Sensing something felt wrong when their employer wouldn't give his name nor his boss' name, Matt took the case in order to get closer and find out more. After successfully defending Healy, Murdock used his vigilante alter-ego to interrogate him and discover the name of who had hired him to kill Prohashka. Healy revealed the name of Wilson Fisk, and killed himself immediately after, knowing what the consequences of saying "his name" would have been.[13]

Matt started visiting Claire frequently, in order to help him cure the injuries he sustained in battle. The Russians found Claire and kidnapped her to find more about the masked man. Matt managed to track her down and rescue her.[8]

Claire stayed at Matt's apartment until he could ensure her safety, and they developed feelings for each other. As he kept striking the Russian mafia, Matt discovered Fisk had framed him for the murder of one of the two Russian brothers, Anatoly Ranskahov.

Nelson and Murdock were later hired by Elena Cardenas with a case of her tenant, Armand Tully, trying to vacate their building. Matt took to the precinct to see if there were any complaints against Tully, and while there, he overheard one of the Russian mafia members in interrogation about to give up information on Wilson Fisk, but the interrogating officers shot him, revealing to Matt that most cops were under Fisk's employment.

After Matt tortured one of the dirty cops for information on Wilson Fisk, he found the various locations of Russian Mafia on the cop's burner phone. He went to Claire for her to read it, and after a small argument about how far Matt would go, the couple broke up. Matt was tracking Anatoly's brother, Vladimir, when Fisk executed a plan to get rid of the Russian Mafia, exploding numerous of their bases. Vladimir was escaping from one of the explosions when Murdock confronted him, however, the police arrived soon after and cornered Matt.[9]

Matt subdued the police officers, who were revealed to have been working for Fisk, but not before one of them shot Vladimir. Matt escaped with the wounded criminal to an abandoned warehouse, and contacted Claire to help take care of him. Using a flare found in the warehouse, Matt cauterized Vladimir's wound. However, the screams caused by Vladimir due to the application of the flare attracted the attention of a police officer who went to investigate. Even though Matt subdued the officer when he went to investigate, he failed to convince him not to call for backup.

As the NYPD established a perimeter around the warehouse, Matt tried to interrogate Vladimir and get information about Fisk. Unwilling to die in the situation he found himself, Vladimir attacked Matt. The attack caused both of them to fall through a couple of floors into the warehouse's basement. There, Fisk contacted Matt using the handheld transceiver of the officer Matt had subdued, in an attempt to demoralize him. Fisk admired the vigilante's conviction, and remarked their similarities, but claimed that they couldn't co-exist, and Matt swore to get Fisk and make him pay. Fisk bid farewell to Matt as the ESU raided the warehouse. With the help of Vladimir, who decided to help Matt still unwilling to die like that, Matt uncovered a manhole and escaped through the tunnels. A squad of ESU found Matt in the tunnels, but were quickly subdued. Vladimir started to collapse, and demanded for Matt to let him behind, armed with a gun taken from the ESU. Before Matt left, Vladimir told him that the only way to stop Fisk would be to kill him, then he revealed the name of Fisk's accountant, Leland Owlsley.

Matthew Murdock (Earth-199999) from Marvel's Daredevil poster 002

Matt became a wanted man after this, being dubbed by the press as "the Devil of Hell's Kitchen."[14]

The Devil of Hell's Kitchen[]

An attempt at interrogating Leland Owlsley turned out a failure when Matt was distracted by the appearance of Stick, and Fisk's accountant escaped. Stick had returned to America in order to strike against a Japanese threat, that was something more than the Yakuza. Murdock accepted to help Stick, only if he didn't kill anybody. On the docks, the Japanese were receiving a shipment, identified by Stick as the "Black Sky." Matt sneakily reduced their numbers with the help of a pair of batons Stick gave him. When the shipment arrived, it was revealed to be a young child. Matt detected how Stick was preparing to shot an arrow at the kid, and managed to deflect the arrow to prevent him from killing the boy. Matt took care of the remaining Japanese at the scene, and Stick disappeared.

Matt returned to his apartment, where Stick was waiting for him. Matt confronted Stick about the attempted murder, but he was corrected when Stick informed him he ended up killing the boy while Matt was distracted with the remaining enemies back in the docks. Enraged, Matt attacked Stick and the two proceeded to fight in Matt's apartment, until Stick is finally knocked out and subsequently left the apartment, leaving behind the two pair of batons. In the wreckage that was left of his furniture, Matt found the bracelet he had given to Stick when he was younger.[11]

The next day, Matt discovered that Karen and Foggy were trying to expose Union Allied beyond the corruption scandal for which Karen had been framed for murder, and he agreed to help but only if they did it within the confines of the law. Later that night, it was reported on the news that Detective Blake had regained consciousness after being shot. Matt went to him as the Man in the Mask, but he discovered Blake's partner had poisoned him, and with only moments to live, Blake was interrogated by Matt and told him everything he knew about Fisk. Matt contacted journalist Ben Urich, who was helping Karen and Foggy, to expose Wilson Fisk's identity to prevent him from staying in the shadows, while still not incriminating him as they didn't have enough proof. However, Fisk soon made himself public on his own, as nothing more than a benevolent philanthropist, turning the tide of the battle he was already winning even more on his favor.[15]

During this time, Matt wasn't as active as the vigilante as he was before, choosing to be more cautious of who he targets. He frequented visiting Father Paul Lantom, consulting him on his internal conflict of whether or not he should kill Fisk, whom he perceived to be the "Devil."

After Elena Cardenas was murdered, Matt went back into action, trying to find a trail and get to whoever had killed her. Murdock ended up in Pier 81 after interrogating the junkie that was hired to kill her, and found himself against Nobu, the leader of the Japanese criminals he and Stick had confronted. Nobu proved himself superior to Matt in combat, and heavily injured. During the fight, Nobu was thrown against a batch of barrels, and was partially soaked in oil. Subsequently, a ceiling lamp was broken during the continuous fight, causing a spark that ignited Nobu in fire. After Nobu's defeat, Murdock was confronted by Wilson Fisk, who had been an ally of Nobu. Matt promised to kill Fisk and tried to go hand-to-hand against him, with a disastrous result. After Fisk left his assistant finish Matt off, Murdock managed to barely escape alive by jumping out of the warehouse's window into the river.

Matt crashed into his apartment, at the same time Foggy was at his door. Foggy heard the noise caused by Matt's abrupt return and discovered the masked vigilante instead of his friend. After Matt collapsed due to the injuries, Foggy proceeded to unmask him and discover Matt's shocking secret.[16]

Recovery[]

Matt regained consciousness briefly before collapsing again and managed to convince Foggy not to take him to a hospital, and instead call Claire. After being patched up, Matt laid resting on his sofa. When he woke up, Foggy confronted him about his alter-ego. Matt revealed to him his super-human abilities, his history with Stick, his motives, and even told Foggy that he attempted to kill Fisk earlier. Foggy couldn't forgive Matt for what he had done and left him and Nelson and Murdock.[10]

During his recovery, Matt visited Father Lantom, confused by his feelings, feeling that his constant internal conflict could mean he had the Devil in him. Lantom reassured that if he believed so, God had created the Devil to become a symbol to be feared, to tread the path of the righteous. These words inspired Matt when he reached out for Melvin Potter, a designed who worked for Wilson Fisk in creating light-weight body armor, threatened by Fisk into working exclusively for him using a friend of his as a leverage. Matt promised Potter to get Fisk out of his life if he created a suit for him, a symbol.[17]

With the help of Ben Urich, Matt managed to locate the drug production warehouse of one of Fisk's associates, Madame Gao. He infiltrated the facility, in hopes the great loss of money in drugs would cause Fisk to slip. Matt, however, was greatly devastated when he found out that Gao blinded Chinese immigrants and used them for distribution of her product. After burning down Gao's facility, he returned to his office, where vented his sadness to Karen.[18]

Matthew Murdock (Earth-199999) from Marvel's Daredevil Red Costume reveal trailer

Daredevil[]

After the death of Ben Urich at the hands of Fisk, Foggy and Matt reconciled and decided to work together once again to put an end to him. As he and Foggy were having a conversation with Seargant Brett Mahoney, one of the few honest officers at the 15th precinct, Matt overheard a corrupt officer talking on the radio, as he and other officers in Fisk's payroll were sweeping the city looking for Carl Hoffman, another dirty cop who had disappeared, being kept in hiding by Leland Owlsley as a leverage to get away when he tried to abandon Fisk, who could blow Fisk's operations wide open.

Using numerous records of Landman and Zack provided by Marci Stahl regarding Fisk's companies, Matt, Foggy and Karen investigated to find any lead that could point where had Owlsley been holding Hoffman. After finding a direction, Matt rescued Hoffman from a squad of corrupt officers at the last second, and ordered him to turn himself in to Mahoney. With Hoffman's statement, the names of every single person in Fisk's payroll were revealed, and they were all soon arrested by the FBI, along with Fisk. Not only Fisk's schemes were thwarted, but also the masked vigilante cleared his name.

However, the FBI transport carrying Fisk was assaulted by more of Fisk's men, who managed to retrieve him. Before tracking down Fisk, Matt paid a visit to Melvin Potter and retrieved his new costume. After pinning down the location of Fisk's transport, Matt caused the truck to crash, forcing Fisk to get out from it and try to escape. Matt cornered Fisk in a alleyway, and after a furious battle, he subdued him. Mahoney happened to be the cop who heeded the call for the disturbances, and identified the masked vigilante despite his new appearance before cuffing Fisk. Matt subsequently left the scene.

The next day, the press dubbed "Daredevil" the vigilante that had brought to an end to Fisk's escape. Matt, Foggy, and Karen picked up from what was left to move forward, while Fisk was imprisoned at Ryker's to await trial.[19]

Later, Daredevil tracked down one of the convicts he put away, Turk Barrett, and beat on him for escaping prison and getting involved in trafficking, drugs, thievery, and attempted murders.[20]

The Punisher[]

Following Fisk's arrest and the dissolution of the Russian and Chinese mafias, and the Yakuza, many factions in Hell Kitchen began vying for control, including the Kitchen Irish and the Mexican cartel. Meanwhile, Matt continued keeping the order at his daily job at Nelson and Murdock and in his nightly operations as Daredevil.

Nelson and Murdock were soon approached by Grotto, a member of the Kitchen Irish, who informed them of the recent massacre that killed off most of the organization's leaders. Grotto sought their representation for when he visits the District Attorney's office to make a deal. Matt and Foggy agreed and then visited the site of the massacre to investigate, while Karen took Grotto to the hospital. Matt and Foggy learned from Mahoney at the crime scene that it's a paramilitary-type organization behind the massacre and that they attacked the Dogs of Hell the week prior. Matt and Foggy split up, with Foggy investigating the Dogs of Hell and Matt turning to interrogate newly-released felon Turk Barrett. Matt's questioning led him to the Mexican cartel. Matt discovered that the cartel had also been recently attacked and that their high-power weapons had been stolen by one man, not a group. Matt rushed to the hospital just in time to intercept this man from assassinating Grotto. They fought on the roof, before Matt was shot in the head at point blank range.[1]

The next day, Foggy found Matt unconscious on the roof and brought him back to his apartment. When Matt regained strength, he expressed his desire to get back out and put a stop to the gunman. However, Foggy insisted that Matt take time to recover, noting that his heightened senses were impaired and that the shooter wasn't an urgent matter. Karen later visited Matt at his apartment to inform him about their meeting with the DA about Grotto and the shooter (named "the Punisher") and also that she knows that Matt is keeping something from her. Matt immediately went to Melvin Potter to fix his mask. He then investigated the site of the massacre, which led him to a nearby apartment that the Punisher used as his hideout. Matt learned that the Punisher had been following District Attorney Samantha Reyes' drug bust operation involving Grotto, and rushed to intercept the Punisher. As Daredevil, Matt engaged the Punisher in combat once again, with the police shooting at them both. This time, the two fell through a glass roof, which knocked Matt unconscious.[2]

Matthew Murdock (Earth-199999) from Marvel's Daredevil Season 2 3 001

Chained to a wall on a rooftop, Daredevil awoke with a gun strapped to his hand. Daredevil learned that the Punisher's name is Frank and that he was part of the military. The two debated about each other's approach stopping criminals. Daredevil pleaded with Frank to stop killing, as he believed that goodness resided in everyone and that no one was beyond redemption. Frank insisted that his method was a necessary to putting an end to crime, as Daredevil's method was more of a half-measure. At the height of their debate, Frank brought out Grotto, and gave Daredevil the choice of either killing Grotto himself, killing Frank before he kills Grotto, or doing nothing and letting Frank kill Grotto. Daredevil opted instead to shoot the chain that restrained him, which gave Frank enough time to fatally shoot Grotto. With his last breath, Grotto asked Daredevil why he wasn't able to stop the Punisher. With Daredevil distracted, Frank blew up the nearby Dogs of Hell headquarters with a grenade launcher. Daredevil knocked Frank unconscious and fought through the many Dogs of Hell gang members to safety.[5]

Matt, Foggy, and Karen later attended Grotto's funeral. Seeking spiritual guidance, Matt talked to Father Lantom about his guilt. Back at Nelson and Murdock, Karen revealed that there might be a part of the Punisher story that the District Attorney is covering up. Matt then returned to Melvin Potter's workshop to retrieve his new mask. He later found out that the Kitchen Irish had apprehended the Punisher, and tracked them down to the Irish's hideout. As Daredevil, Matt helped Frank escape while preventing him from further killing anyone. The two stumbled to a graveyard, where Frank revealed to Daredevil everything about his family, who were unjustly murdered. Frank allowed himself to be arrested, while Daredevil was let go by arresting-officer Mahoney, in order for him and the police department as a whole to take the credit for the Punisher's arrest.

Matt, Foggy, and Karen celebrated at Josie's Bar afterwards. Karen walked Matt home, and the two kissed before parting ways. Matt went back upstairs to his apartment to discover his ex-girlfriend Elektra had broken into his house.[21]

Elektra[]

Matt confronted Elektra for breaking into his apartment. Elektra revealed her intentions of asking Matt for legal help with the Japanese division of the Roxxon Corporation. Matt refused, but Elektra deposited a sizable amount of money in his bank account anyway, prompting Matt to covertly follow her to the meeting. That night, Matt went out on a date with Karen, before going to Elektra's apartment to confront her about Roscoe Sweeney. Elektra told Matt that she believed that Matt had a "glorious darkness" within him, and to prove it, she revealed that she had his Daredevil costume and that the Yakuza were on the building to eliminate both of them.[12] The two swiftly defeated the Yakuza members. Elektra told Matt of her suspicions that the Yakuza are up to something in New York, and Matt agreed to help, on the condition that Elektra leaves the city afterwards.

Christopher Roth, the public defender in charge of the Punisher case, visited the Nelson and Murdock the next day and revealed that Reyes intended to pursue the death penalty for Frank, which caused Matt and Karen to convince Foggy that they should represent Frank themselves, for they both believed that there was more to Frank's story. The three visited Frank at the hospital to offer their services and Frank agreed. However, Matt is pulled out of the meeting by Elektra before he could properly talk to Frank. Matt and Elektra attended a Roxxon gala to steal a valuable Yakuza ledger. They escaped and Matt made it home, where Foggy informed him that Frank plead not guilty, setting a trial to begin the week after.[22]

Matt worked on the Frank Castle case, all while balancing his nightly escapades with Elektra. One night out with Elektra caused Matt to miss the first day of Castle's trial, which hurt Matt and Foggy's relationship. Matt advocated his views on Castle's killings to Karen, while working on their questions for the chief medical examiner who altered the Castle family death certificates under Reyes' command. However, he confessed in court the next day, for he was tortured the night before, making his testimony invalid. Matt quickly realized this was Elektra's attempt at helping him and revealed his partnership with her to Foggy, further hurting the relationship. Matt confronted Elektra about it, before the two investigate an abandoned building site the Yakuza ledger revealed.[23] They found a giant hole at the site and are subsequently attacked by ninjas. Stick unexpectedly arrived to save them.

Daredevil v. The Hand[]

Back at Matt's apartment, Stick revealed that Elektra had been working for him ever since she was a child, that Elektra had been sent to bring Matt back to Stick, for he was part of a group known as the Chaste. The Chaste had been locked in an ancient conflict with a separate group known as the Hand, the entity controlling the Yakuza and the Japanese branch of Roxxon. Matt offered to help Elektra defeat the Hand together, as long as she agrees not to do it Stick's way; she agreed. Karen walked in the three of them, which hurt their relationship as well. The next day, Frank took the stand at the trial and purposely sabotaged his own testimony. Foggy and Karen blamed Matt for losing the trial. Back at home, Matt and Elektra are attacked by a lone Hand ninja. Matt subdued him, and found out he was just a teenager. Elektra then slit his throat.[24]

After having passed out, Matt awoke to find that the body and blood of the teenager had been cleaned up by Elektra. Matt decided that he couldn't be involved with Elektra and her murderous ways and that the war needed to be fought by him alone. Later, Nelson and Murdock agreed to part ways, both as a firm and as friends. That night, Matt, as Daredevil, interrogated Stan Gibson and found out about a Hand facility called the Farm. There, he found children being used as human incubators for a mix of chemicals, before being confronted by a masked ninja. Daredevil fought the ninja before the ninja revealed himself to be Nobu, which shocked Daredevil for he believed that Nobu was dead.[25] Following this, Daredevil told Mahoney to bring the children to Claire Temple at Metro-General Hospital. Matt visited Claire later to offer his protection to her. Matt then overheard on a police radio that the Punisher had escaped prison.

The next day, Matt, Foggy, and Karen were called to the District Attorney's office, where Reyes came clean about her involvement in the death of Frank Castle's family, citing the cause as an undercover sting gone wrong. Reyes begged for their help as she believed her daughter was in danger, but before she could continue, she is gunned down by an unidentified shooter they believed to be the Punisher. Matt then visited Wilson Fisk in prison and confirmed his suspicions, that Fisk was running the prison and that he orchestrated the Punisher's escape. Matt contemplated all his enemies while standing watch over the hospital as Daredevil.[26] They are attacked by Hand ninjas that night and Daredevil is able to keep Claire safe, but the children voluntarily leave with the Hand. Claire argued with Matt that he's in over his head.

Matt expressed his concern for Karen, after having found out she'd been saved from another apparently Punisher attack. Matt then interrogated Assistant District Attorney Blake Tower, who told Daredevil to go to head to Chinatown to find a lead on the Blacksmith, the Punisher's next target. There, Daredevil located the Blacksmith's competitor, Madame Gao. Gao told Daredevil to go to the pier to find the Blacksmith. Daredevil intercepted the Punisher just as he was about to kill a man claiming to be the Blacksmith. Daredevil conceded and proposed that they condoned killing just this one time, but the Punisher said that killing a man was a line that cannot be uncrossed. The Blacksmith's men then attacked the boat that Daredevil and the Punisher were on, which caused the two to separately make their escape.

Matt went home, where a dying member of the Chaste suddenly arrived to inform him that Elektra was going to kill Stick.[27] Daredevil intercepted and prevented the two from killing each other, but the Hand suddenly appeared and kidnapped Stick. The next day, Daredevil tracked the Hand to the sewers. Daredevil found Stick and was shortly after joined by Elektra, who still intended on killing Stick. The three are confronted by Nobu and revealed that Elektra was murderous for she was the Black Sky, a mythical weapon worshiped by the Hand. Elektra momentarily considered joining with the Hand, but Daredevil persuaded her to choose her own destiny. She chose to help Daredevil and Stick escape.[28] The three held up in Matt's apartment. Daredevil and Elektra prepared to take on the Hand when they learned that they had taken hostages, which included Karen. Daredevil and Elektra freed the hostages and fought Nobu and the Hand. Elektra sacrificed herself to save Daredevil, which prompted him to retaliate harder. The Punisher surprisingly appeared to aid Daredevil. Daredevil threw Nobu off the roof, which caused the Hand to retreat.

Matt and Stick buried Elektra afterwards. Matt expressed his love for Elektra and said that Stick was wrong for emotionally blocking people off. Later, Matt met with Karen at the office and revealed to her that he was Daredevil.[29]

Retirement[]

Marvel's The Defenders Season 1 8 001

The Defenders

Over the next few months, Matt retired from his Daredevil persona. Occasionally fighting the impulse to turn to vigilantism, Matt focused on making the city a better place through taking up pro-bono cases. He drifted away from Karen, who wanted him to focus on figuring himself out first.[30]

One night, an apparent earthquake hit Hell's Kitchen, and chaos erupted on the streets. Matt was compelled to protect citizens from harm. He saved a couple juvenile, petty thieves from being gunned down by storeowners. A distraught Matt returned home the next day and contemplated over his actions. Later, Foggy called him for a drink at Josie's. Now working for Hogarth, Chao and Benowitz, Foggy initially wanted to catch up with Matt, but he revealed that he really called to offer Matt more pro-bono cases, in order to keep him busy from returning to the Daredevil persona. Matt accepted the gesture, which led him to take up the case of one Jessica Jones.[31]

Jessica declined Matt's offer to represent her, yet Matt felt that there was more to Jessica's case than she would say. Matt followed Jessica to the Midland Circle Financial Building, the site where The Hand's deep hole was originally located months prior. Realizing this, he tried to stop Jessica from investigating further, but upon hearing a gunshot in the penthouse, he sprung into action. Grabbing Jessica's scarf to protect his identity, Matt raced to the penthouse, where he reunited with Jessica, who took the elevator. There, the two ran into two other people fighting the Hand, Luke Cage and Danny Rand. The four quickly disposed of the Hand assailants. Matt engaged in combat with a female ninja, but soon realized it was Elektra. Elektra momentarily had the opportunity to kill Matt, but Danny was able to incapacitate her. When the floor was cleared, the four of them retreated out of the building and to the Royal Dragon Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown.

Here, Danny proposed that the group of four form a group to fight off the Hand. Matt, however, declines as he is unwilling to work with a group and would much rather risk only his own life than the lives of three others. Jessica also declines and leaves the restaurant. Stick soon reassembles the group, excluding Jessica, and explains that the Hand has been in existence ever since five elders of K'un-Lun were cast out for wanting to use the powers of qi for immortality. The five became the first fingers of the Hand and had defeated all who opposed them, excepting Stick himself and the Iron Fist. One of these members, Alexandra, arrived and offered to spare New York on the condition that Danny came with her as she needed the Iron Fist to complete her plan. Danny rejected the offer, however, and the three prepared for a fight as Jessica returned to help after realizing that a personally-connected family was still in danger.

As the Hand army converged on the restaurant, Matt helped to lure the Hand's weapon, the Black Sky, away from the fight. He referred to her as Elektra, which caused her to flee from the fight after preventing Murakami, another finger of the Hand, from killing him. Luke's friend Misty Knight, a detective in Harlem, suggested that they all stay under the watchful eye of the police department after a threat from Sowande, another Hand member, that their loved ones will be under siege next. Meanwhile, Matt decided to take up the Daredevil identity once more. The team realized that the Hand needed the Iron Fist as the key to their plan and voted to hide Danny away so the Hand couldn't reach him. Danny was angered by this, wanting to stay in the battle, and tried to fight back but was eventually incapacitated and subdued, then kept under watch by Stick and Luke while Matt and Jessica continued to investigate the missing persons case of John Raymond, which Jessica had been investigating prior to her run-in with Matt, Luke, and Danny.

Matt and Jessica uncovered a giant hole in the center of an underground space in the Midland Circle Building which Matt had previously found when dealing with the Hand. Matt and Jessica returned to where Luke and Stick had been watching over Danny, only to find Luke incapacitated and Stick preparing to murder Danny to prevent the Hand from getting to him. When Matt and Jessica began to fight Stick off, they were interrupted by Elektra, who arrived and knocked out Matt, Jessica, and Luke before killing Stick and kidnapping Danny, returning to the Hand.

Matt, along with Jessica and Luke, later woke up in the police station as suspects for the murder of Sowande and Stick. They informed Misty of the situation with the Hand and Elektra, but avoided going into specifics so as to keep her safe from the Hand. While this angered her superiors on the force, the three refused to disclose any more information. After some time, the three managed to escape from the precinct, arriving at Midland Circle, where Foggy brought Matt his Daredevil suit. The three descended into the underbelly of the building, where they battled Madame Gao, Bakuto (another Hand member), and Murakami, forcing them back. While the three battled the hand, Misty, Claire Temple, and Colleen Wing arrived with explosives from the John Raymond case. Misty agreed to stall the police while Matt, Jessica, and Luke searched for Danny.

Matt, Jessica, and Luke eventually found Danny in a cavern of dragon bones being harvested for a mystical substance. Upon realizing that Claire and Misty were placing explosives to destroy Midland Circle, Matt forced the other three to leave immediately, but stayed behind to search for Elektra. When he found her, he pleaded with her to remember who he was, which she eventually did as the building imploded around them, crashing down on top of them. Following this event, Matthew Murdock was seemingly dead and the police did everything in their power to cover up the events that took place at Midland Circle.[32]

Rebirth[]

Matt was eventually found bleeding out in a ditch by a random civilian. While still slightly conscious, Matt directed the man to contact Saint Agnes, the place he grew up. He was rescued and placed in the infirmary, where he was unconscious for an extended period of time due to several grievous injuries. When he finally did wake up, a nun tending to him called for Sister Maggie, the woman who raised him in the orphanage after the death of his father and the abandonment of his mother. As he recovered from his near death, Matt experienced a crisis of faith, believing that God had abandoned him just as everyone else in his life had. He informed Sister Maggie that after what he had experienced, he didn't think he could return to his normal life and would rather die as Daredevil than live as Matt Murdock.

Marvel's Daredevil poster 022 Textless

Once he was healed enough to do so, Matt began training in fighting again, a need catered to by the orphanage as it was his only outlet for stress and anger. He begins to take up vigilantism again, attempting to stop a kidnapping, only to be badly beaten and almost caught by the police, though succeeding at preventing the crime. Meanwhile, Karen and Foggy began to fear that after his extended disappearance and the building having dropped on him, he may be dead.[33]

After he heard about an attempted kidnapping of Wilson Fisk, who was being transferred to an FBI-occupied hotel after being shanked in prison, Matt tracked down the would-be kidnappers and beat them close to death. Meanwhile, Karen was assigned to the story of Neda Kazemi, the actress who had been assaulted and nearly kidnapped with her father before being rescued by a vigilante in black. This story led Karen to believe that Matt may have still been alive, albeit hiding in the shadows. She brought this idea to Foggy, who refused to believe, after several months of reconciling with Matt's alleged death, that he might still be alive somewhere.[34]

Matt later found out where Fisk was being transferred when the attempted kidnapping had taken place, which was a hotel purchased recently by Fisk's lawyers prior to its being seized by the FBI. Matt snuck into the hotel to investigate Fisk's whereabouts. Here, he found Donovan, Fisk's lawyer, and pressed him for information as to Fisk's situation and the deal with the FBI regarding Vanessa Mariana. Following this, he vowed to stop Fisk's plan, whatever it might be, and return him to prison where he belonged. He appeared to Foggy in Josie's Bar, revealing that he was alive but only to warn him and Karen to stay away from anything Fisk-related and to say goodbye.[35]

While with Foggy at the bar, Matt stole his wallet without Foggy knowing. He visited the prison and used Foggy's Bar Membership Card (which didn't have a photo of him on it, making it impossible to identify Matt as not being Foggy) to impersonate his friend and enter the prison to speak with an inmate. Here, he learned that Fisk paid off another inmate, Jasper Evans, who was serving a life sentence for murder, to stab him so that he could convince the FBI to move him to the hotel his lawyers had purchased, playing the FBI into his hands.

The inmate he was speaking with punched Matt to display his loyalty to the Albanians clan in an effort not to be killed by them. While Matt assured the guards that he was fine, he was still taken into the infirmary for a check-up. Here, he noticed after a short time that the security cameras had been turned off, as he couldn't hear their electrical current. He reacted quickly as the nurse tried to inject him with a sedative, fighting the nurse off before more inmates flooded the halls. Matt struggled to fight them off alone and managed to get the help of the Albanian clan by convincing them that they shared a common enemy in Wilson Fisk. The Albanians helped Matt escape the prison with his life, where he passed out in the taxi he had taken to get to the prison. When he awakened, however, he found that the taxi had been hijacked and the driver quickly jumped out of the car before the car drove off a pier and into the ocean.[7]

Matt escaped the taxi before he could drown in it, which angers Fisk, who had directed the sabotage in the first place. He pegged Matt as his "fixer" to the FBI, leading them to begin a hunt for him as a well as Karen and Foggy, as they were the only people close enough to him to be implicated in his supposed "crimes." The FBI broke into Matt's apartment to search for him, where they found his soaked clothing from the taxi escapade. It is later revealed that Matt escaped to the roof moments before their arrival.[36]

Following this, Matt visited Karen, revealing to her the fact that he was alive, but Foggy had already informed her of this and confirmed her prior suspicions. He asked for help from her in finding the criminal Jasper Evans, who had been allowed to walk free in return for stabbing Fisk, though all records would indicate that he was in solitary confinement. Matt ambushed a group of criminals in Jasper's establishment after Karen gained entry to it. Matt offered for Jasper to testify against Fisk and risk death or have Fisk kill him and his son (Fisk's leverage against Jasper) anyway. Jasper agreed to testify at the Bulletin sometime later. Matt in turn agreed to hand himself over to FBI custody, as they were searching for him as Fisk's supposed fixer, on the condition that FBI agent Ray Nadeem consider Jasper's testimony. During the interview, however, the Bulletin is attacked by another Daredevil wearing a replica of Matt's old suit. He brutally murdered four people and incapacitated the majority of the office after having cut power to it. Matt confronted him and tried to fight him, but barely managed to escape with his life due to this Daredevil's uncanny accuracy with throwing random objects. The dark Daredevil then broke into the office where Jasper was being held and incapacitated everyone but Karen and Jasper, the latter of whom he killed with Karen's gun, which she had been planning to use against the evil Daredevil. While Matt hid out underground in the printing area of the Bulletin, the dark Daredevil managed to escape the FBI.[37]

The Mysterio Case[]

Matthew Murdock (Earth-199999) from Spider-Man No Way Home 001

Matt helping Peter Parker

Several years after surviving the Snap,[38] Matt was assigned as the defense lawyer of Peter Parker, the young crimefighter known as Spider-Man, who was accused of murdering Mysterio. Matt met with Peter, Happy Hogan and May Parker at their residence to inform them that he successfully cleared him of all charges but advised Hogan that he would need a strong attorney in regard to his connection to missing Stark Industries technology as part of an ongoing FBI investigation. Matt also warned Peter that, though the charges against him had been dropped, public opinion would continue to escalate. When a demonstrator hurled a brick through their window, Matt was able to catch it. When a stunned Peter asked him how he did that, he joked that he was "a really good lawyer".

Matt's memories of Peter were erased like everyone else's due to Doctor Strange's spell.[39]

Patilio v. Jacobson[]

In 2025, Murdock resumed being Daredevil and commissioned Luke Jacobson to make new Daredevil costumes.[40] Later, after Jacobson was sued by fellow client Eugene Patilio, Murdock represented Jacobson in the ensuing court case. Murdock won the case after smelling that Patilio had used the wrong fuel in his Leapfrog suit. Afterwards, Murdock visited a bar to have a drink before returning to New York. While there, he had a conversation with Patilio's lawyer, Jennifer Walters, about being a lawyer and superhero. However, he soon got a phone call that Patilio had kidnapped Jacobson, so he quickly left.

As Daredevil, Murdock chased Patilio through the streets of Los Angeles, but was intercepted by Walters as She-Hulk at a parking garage. While Patilio fled the scene, Daredevil and She-Hulk had a quick brawl before she used her thunderclap to incapacitate him. Walters unmasked Daredevil and was astounded to find Murdock beneath the mask. He explained that Patilio had kidnapped Jacobson, and the two teamed up to stop Leapfrog. They tracked Patilio down to his Lily Pad, and Daredevil subdued Leapfrog's guards while She-Hulk rescued Jacobson. In the process, Daredevil nearly revealed his real identity to Patilio, who later broke his legs in an escape attempt. Murdock and Walters celebrated their victory by having sex at Walters's apartment. The next day, Murdock left for New York.[3]

Personality[]

Matt Murdock possesses a strong sense of morality and justice, which he carries with him in his work as a lawyer and a vigilante. While professional, Matt is not without a sense of humour, and is very easygoing with his friends.[4] Quips about his blindness don't bother him, and he even frequently jokes about it himself.[14] Despite this, when under stress, Matt pushes the people around him away, attempting to take all responsibility upon himself to fix Hell's Kitchen. Although he tries to be a pillar of strength and support for the people around him, Matt can only take so much pressure before he breaks down.

As Daredevil, Matt is vicious and merciless towards criminals.[4] Although he refuses to kill, Matt is not afraid to break bones or torture his targets to get what he is after,[6] even if his targets are not criminals themselves. Due to his extremely violent nature as a vigilante, Matt realizes that he has the potential to become the very thing he hates, and takes care to never cross that line.[9] He also struggles with his internal feelings of anger, causing some (Foggy, Father Lantom, and even Matt himself) to question whether he fights for the city or simply "wants an excuse to punch someone."

Attributes

Powers

Superhuman Sensory System: Originating from his exposure to a radioactive isotope, Murdock's heightened senses were actually latent "gifts" that the isotope unlocked. He was taught how to control and use these senses by Stick. Through Stick's training, Murdock learned from a young age to use his senses to accomplish superhuman feats.[6][9]

  • Superhuman Tactile Sense: Murdock's sense of touch is so acute that his finger can feel the faint impressions of ink on a printed page, allowing him to read by touch. The rest of his skin is equally sensitive, enabling him to feel minute temperature and pressure changes in the atmosphere around him. Even with his senses of smell and hearing blocked, he can feel the presence of a person standing five feet away from him simply by his or her body heat and disturbance of air. A side effect of his sense of touch is Murdock's ability to manipulate his muscles and internal organs. His control over his nervous system is both external and internal, giving him the ability to have total body control, increasing his strength and reflexes to peak human levels, increasing his agility to enhanced human levels, and also giving him the ability to partially numb himself to pain.[9]
  • Superhuman Smell: Murdock possesses an incredibly heightened sense of smell. He is able to pick up on a complete stranger's unique scent from at least three floors above him, and it is accurate enough to tell him what someone ate two days prior. He can even determine that a wound has reopened through the smell of copper in the air.[9]
  • Superhuman Hearing: Murdock's sense of hearing enables him to hear a person's heartbeat at a distance of over twenty feet, or people whispering on the other side of a standard soundproofed wall. Through practice, Murdock is able to control his hearing acuity, mentally blocking out specific sounds like his own breathing and heartbeat, all ambient sounds to a normal human level of perception, or all sounds but a particular sound he is concentrating upon. When concentrating, he can even determine how many broken bones a person has in their body, purely from the sounds of their bones shifting.[4]
    • Lie Detection: By listening, feeling and/or smelling, Murdock can tell whether a person is lying by sweat, changes in body temperature, and heartbeats.[4]
  • Superhuman Taste: Murdock's sense of taste enables him to determine every ingredient of a food or drink he tastes, as long as there are at least twenty milligrams of that substance present.
  • Superhuman Balance: Murdock's sense of balance is superhuman, giving him perfect equilibrium, greatly increasing his agility and refining his movements.
Marvel's Daredevil Season 1 5

Matt Murdock's view of Claire Temple

Radar Sense: Through a combination of all of his heightened senses, Murdock is able to perceive the world around him through a radar-like sense. This is not exactly true sight to him, as he cannot see details in the world around him, and everything looks orange and red as if "the world's on fire," but it enables him to "see" enough to compensate for his blindness.[9]

Abilities

Peak Human Strength: Murdock is very physically strong by human standards. On his first night of vigilantism, he beat a man so badly that he was hospitalized for a month.[10] When he rescued trafficking victims from Turk Barrett, he punched a man's leg hard enough to cause a compound fracture.[4] He smashed in John Healy's back windshield with a flying knee,[13] and kicked a man with enough force to send his head into a car's back windshield, cracking it.[9]

Peak Human Endurance: Due to his sense of touch, he's able to lessen his body sensitivity to painful inflictions. His resilience helps him endure getting pounded by multiple thugs, cut by knives, and even shot point blank in the head while in his suit.

Multilingual: Matt is fluent in both English, French, and Spanish.[8][9]

Martial Arts: Matt Murdock is a skilled, self-taught boxer. He was also trained in the ninja arts by Stick. Though Stick left Matt before the completion of the training process,[11] Matt still displays enough skill to single-handedly fight off several individuals at once,[6] as well as hold his own against a well-trained and well-armed martial artist like Nobu.[16] Matt's fighting style includes Boxing, Kali, Wing Chun, Jeet Kune Do, Pencak Silat, Taekwondo, Judo, Wushu, Muay Thai and Wrestling [41] as well as Aikido, Capoeira and Brazilian JiuJitsu [41].

Professional Attorney: Murdock is a skilled lawyer, specializing in criminal justice. His law practice is considered one of the sources of his emotional strength and success in crime-fighting.[4]

Expert Tracker: With the aid of his hyper-senses, Murdock can track objects and people from miles away with ease.[4][6]

Interrogation Expert: Murdock uses many different interrogation methods to extract information from criminals. His knowledge of criminology and torture is unerring and often overwhelming.[6]

Additional Attributes

Blindness: Daredevil is conventionally sight blind. While his senses help him overcome this, it becomes a problem for him to navigate and fight when his heightened senses are scrambled or can't detect anything.[9]

Anger: When provoked or under extreme stress, Daredevil can lose control of his inner rage, making him act recklessly and stop thinking clearly. Because of this, when angered, he is far more susceptible to falling into traps.[6]

Hyper Sensitivity: Matt's advanced senses can overload him with sensory information to cause discomfort of pain. He sleeps with silk sheets to overcome the discomfort of low thread count synthetic.[11]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • Daredevil's Suit: His crude costume was replaced by a resilient black and red suit that offers full body protection against moderate abrasions and impact trauma without trading away flexibility.[19]
  • Combat Fatigues: Matt Murdock initially put together a costume of form-fitting black garments, rounded out by a mask and sturdy gloves and boots.[4]
  • Blind Aids: Matt Murdock's blindness has him carrying around a braille display, a cane, and red tinted glasses in his normal life.[4] While the cane is effectively just an affectation, the braille display is an important communication tool for internet access.[15] Murdock's mobile phones and bedside alarm clock are also models incorporating voice prompts.[4][15]

Weapons

  • Billy Club: Daredevil briefly used a pair of plain wooden batons, given to him by Stick.[11] These were replaced by a more sophisticated pair that can be interlocked end-to-end to form a longer weapon.[19]

Notes

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Marvel's Daredevil S2E01
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Marvel's Daredevil S2E02
  3. 3.0 3.1 She-Hulk: Attorney at Law S1E08
  4. 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 Marvel's Daredevil S1E01
  5. 5.0 5.1 Marvel's Daredevil S2E03
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 Marvel's Daredevil S1E02
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Marvel's Daredevil S3E04
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Marvel's Daredevil S1E04
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 Marvel's Daredevil S1E05
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Marvel's Daredevil S1E10
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Marvel's Daredevil S1E07
  12. 12.0 12.1 Marvel's Daredevil S2E05
  13. 13.0 13.1 Marvel's Daredevil S1E03
  14. 14.0 14.1 Marvel's Daredevil S1E06
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Marvel's Daredevil S1E08
  16. 16.0 16.1 Marvel's Daredevil S1E09
  17. Marvel's Daredevil S1E11
  18. Marvel's Daredevil S1E12
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 Marvel's Daredevil S1E13
  20. Jessica Jones #1
  21. Marvel's Daredevil S2E04
  22. Marvel's Daredevil S2E06
  23. Marvel's Daredevil S2E07
  24. Marvel's Daredevil S2E08
  25. Marvel's Daredevil S2E09
  26. Marvel's Daredevil S2E10
  27. Marvel's Daredevil S2E11
  28. Marvel's Daredevil S2E12
  29. Marvel's Daredevil S2E13
  30. Marvel's The Defenders S1E01
  31. Marvel's The Defenders S1E02
  32. Marvel's The Defenders S1E08
  33. Marvel's Daredevil S3E01
  34. Marvel's Daredevil S3E02
  35. Marvel's Daredevil S3E03
  36. Marvel's Daredevil S3E05
  37. Marvel's Daredevil S3E06
  38. Echo S1E01
  39. Spider-Man: No Way Home
  40. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law S1E05
  41. 41.0 41.1 Reference Needed
  42. Chis Samnee - Tumblr
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