Matt Murdock

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

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

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

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

Devastated by his father’s death, Matt was enraged when the legal system failed to bring the Fixer to justice. Murdock graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Law School as class valedictorian, but also decided to go after the Fixer on his own. Creating a costume that hid his real identity, Matt used the childhood nickname that was meant to mock him as the basis for his new alter ego. As the vigilante Daredevil, Matt hunted down the members of the Fixer’s gang, then pursued the mastermind himself. The terrified criminal died of a heart attack—and Matt realized he had found his second purpose in life.

Co-founding a law firm, Matt was determined to serve the legal system as best he could as an attorney—but those the law could not reach would have to face him as Daredevil.

Daredevil’s life has been filled with dramatic twists and turns that would break most people, but he is nothing if not resilient. In college, Matt dated fellow student Elektra Natchios. They were deeply in love, but the romance ended when Elektra’s father, a Greek ambassador, was killed after being taken hostage by terrorists. Unable to cope with her father’s death, Elektra fled the country, leaving Matt heartbroken.

After forming Nelson & Murdock, Foggy hired Karen Page to be their secretary. Both Matt and Foggy were instantly smitten with the beautiful young woman. Karen and Matt fell in love, but his secret life as Daredevil always came between them.

Daredevil has faced the exposure of his secret life many times, causing him to take drastic measures. Early on, he established a false identity as Mike Murdock, whom he claimed was his twin brother and Daredevil’s true self. The Man Without Fear then faked his death—and thus the death of Mike Murdock. When he next appeared, Daredevil pretended to be a new hero replacing his dead predecessor.

Another time, Matt staged his own apparent demise in an airplane explosion. When the threat of exposure was no longer a concern, Daredevil visited the grieving Karen and revealed his true identity to her. Murdock then publicly revealed his survival. He proposed to Karen, and she agreed to marry him—if he would retire as Daredevil. But Matt realized that he simply could not stand by when innocents were threatened. Karen left him, moving to Los Angeles to pursue a film career.

As Daredevil’s feud with the Kingpin was just beginning, Matt encountered Elektra, now a ninja assassin working for the crime boss. When rival mercenary Bullseye murdered Elektra, Daredevil sought revenge and left his lethal foe crippled after a brutal encounter. Elektra was resurrected in a ceremony begun by the Hand. Matt unknowingly purified her spirit and the resurrection process was completed by Stone, a member of Stick’s order, the Chaste. Daredevil would not learn that Elektra was alive until much later.

Eventually, Karen became a drug addict and sold Daredevil’s secret identity for a fix. This information made its way to the Kingpin, who used it to ruin Murdock. In response, Matt attacked Wilson Fisk, who savagely beat him and then tried to have him killed. Narrowly escaping, Matt was discovered by a nun, Sister Maggie, who proved to be his long-lost mother and took care of him. Eventually recovering, Matt made his peace with the rehabilitated Karen and slowly rebuilt his life.

When his identity was outed by a tabloid, Matt faked his death again, assumed the identity of Jack Batlin (an homage to his father), and also pretended to be a new Daredevil, clothed in a new red-and-gray outfit. Eventually, DD emerged from his self-imposed exile and returned to his familiar red uniform. The tabloid accusations were discredited, and Matt joined with Foggy and Rosalind Sharpe, Foggy’s mother, to form a new law firm.

Soon after, the criminal special effects master Mysterio (Quentin Beck) learned he was dying of cancer and wanted to go out with a bang. Purchasing Daredevil’s secret identity from the Kingpin, the illusionist falsified a test showing that Karen had contracted HIV, framed Foggy for murder, and drugged Daredevil to help convince him that a small infant was the Antichrist. The Black Widow stopped her former flame from killing the child, after which he came to his senses. But Matt was unable to stop Mysterio’s agent Bullseye from killing Karen. Daredevil ultimately defeated Mysterio and saved the baby, whom he named Karen.

But a short time later, Daredevil’s secret identity was exposed again, this time by an FBI agent who sold the information to the Daily Globe. Matt publicly and vehemently denied the report. Meanwhile, he began dating a young blind woman named Milla Donovan. After a whirlwind romance, Matt married Milla, but his double life placed a great strain on their relationship. Daredevil’s allies tried to protect him from the FBI, but as the situation worsened, Murdock surrendered to prevent further violence. He was sent to Ryker’s Island prison, where he found himself among his enemies, including the Kingpin, the Owl, and Hammerhead. The killer vigilante known as the Punisher (Frank Castle) was imprisoned there as well, and eventually, he and Murdock escaped together. Matt was eventually cleared of all charges, with help from the Kingpin’s dying wife, Vanessa Fisk.

Around this time, Milla was driven insane and killed an innocent man after being subjected to Mr. Fear’s psychedelic drug. Her parents forced Matt to sign annulment papers while Milla was in a mental hospital, and the marriage was dissolved.

In the aftermath, Matt found himself assuming leadership of the Hand, to prevent the Kingpin from taking over the group, and he intended to transform it into a force for good. He built a fortress headquarters in Hell’s Kitchen called Shadowland, which served both as a temple for the Hand and a prison for criminals captured under Daredevil’s leadership.

But Matt became possessed and corrupted by the Beast, a demon worshipped by the Hand for centuries. The Beast transformed Daredevil into a literal devil, giving him supernatural strength and making him virtually unkillable. Iron Fist managed to stop Murdock with a mystical punch of his chi that drove the Beast from Matt’s soul.

Matt then entered a romantic relationship with fellow attorney Kirsten McDuffie, with whom he moved to San Francisco. There, he decided to publicly out himself as Daredevil, but eventually came to regret the decision. After DD defeated the Purple Man and liberated the criminal’s Purple Children, they returned the favor by using their father's technology to hypnotically alter the memories of everyone in the world, erasing the knowledge that Daredevil and Matt Murdock were the same person. Foggy Nelson became Matt's only confidant after re-learning his secret identity.

For Kirsten's own safety, Matt broke up with her without telling her the truth, and he returned to Hell's Kitchen, where the removal of the knowledge of his secret identity allowed Matt to be reinstated as a New York attorney. Living there again, Matt worked as an assistant district attorney, serving as a prosecuting attorney instead of a defense attorney. He also started mentoring a young inexperienced vigilante named Blindspot.

Matt decided to take advantage of his identity's secrecy having returned, and set out to use his abilities and powers to find a way to integrate vigilantes and superheroes into the legal system. To this end, Matt first helped foil a plan of a group of terrorists named the Munition Militia, and then managed to testify in court as Daredevil without revealing his identity. This victory set a precedent to pave the way for legitimizing superheroes' involvement in the legal process. Wilson Fisk attempted to stop Murdock, pulling the strings behind expert lawyer Legal to issue an appeal. The legal battle took Matt to the Supreme Court of the United States, where he won the case, which effectively made legal the participation of superheroes with secret identities in the courtroom. In a turn of events, Wilson Fisk was elected mayor of New York not long afterwards, and began to work on reverting Murdock's progress in legitimizing superheroes. Fisk additionally offered Matt to be his deputy mayor in an effort to subvert him. Matt accepted in hopes of using Fisk's play to his own advantage.

Shortly afterwards, the city fell victim to an assault from The Hand in revenge for Blindspot having rejected the Beast. In the first minutes of the siege, Fisk was injured by ninja and fell into a critical condition, leading to Matt's appointment as mayor. Matt used his resources as mayor and as Daredevil to fight off the invasion, and was eventually successful in ending The Hand's siege with help from both the local superheroes as well as the Ordo Draconum, a secret order of Catholic knights. Fisk recovered shortly afterwards, and Matt quit his job as deputy mayor, preferring to fight Fisk from the outside.

Matt's life was shaken up following a near-death experience after being hit by a truck while saving an unsuspecting pedestrian. The years of accumulated injuries left him crippled, and the psychological toll caused him to swear off being Daredevil. After becoming consumed by fear and giving up on recovery, Matt managed to fight his personal demons and overcome the trauma. However, when he next went back into action as Daredevil, Matt's weakened state caused him to overcompensate, resulting in him accidentally killing a minor street thug when he unintentionally caused the man serious brain damage