Daredevil (Matt Murdock)

**Matthew Michael Murdock**, also known as **Matt** and **Daredevil**, is one of the major characters from the *Marvel* comics.

As a child, Matt Murdock was blinded by radioactive waste while trying to save an elderly stranger about to get hit by a truck carrying the dangerous material. In turn, his other senses were heightened to superhuman sharpness and he gained a form of "radar sense". By day, he is a successful trial lawyer; but by night, he guards Hell's Kitchen as Daredevil: the Man Without Fear.

In the AWA fics, Daredevil is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Matt is a tall man with a muscular physique and has a reddish-brown hair.

As Daredevil, Matt wears a red full bodysuit with two D's on his chest and a red utility belt wrapped around his waist, red boots, red gloves and his mask has two horns on top.

## **Personality**

Daredevil was a morally righteous individual with a strong sense of law and justice. This also influenced him to become a lawyer. Daredevil objected to total violence and preferred to keep his enemies alive and thus defeated them rather than killed them; however, Daredevil did have a dark side, and would not hesitate to badly injure foes under certain circumstances, often when he was under a period of stress.

As a young lad, Matthew was instilled with high morals by his father, Jack, who encouraged the boy to focus on his studies and not to play or fight with other kids. Matt took his father's lessons to heart and was thought to be an exemplary of good nature by figures of authority. Despite all this Matt did have a mischievous side and one occasion stole the baton of a police officer. Matt was incredibly selfless which led to him performing many heroic deeds in his life, such as saving a blind man from an oncoming truck, which lead to Matt's blindness. In the early stages of his disability Matt suffered increased frustration, feelings of helplessness, and self-loathing; however, due to training under Stick, Matt managed to conquer the struggles which boosted his confidence and he eventually developed a fearless attitude.

As Daredevil, he has displayed a heavy sense of humor and snarky remarks in various life-threatening situations, especially early in his career. Throughout his long tenure, however, his various trials have made Daredevil a grimmer and less light-hearted vigilante. Despite all his great virtues, Daredevil is not without his flaws, and has shown extreme ruthlessness especially when those close to him have been threatened or targeted by his enemies. An example of this would be willing to torture Ox for information on his boss that had targeted his wife. Matt also suffered from severe clinical depression, which has led him to indulge himself in self-destructive tendencies.

## **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.

## **Trivia**

* Matt had been contemplating retiring the Daredevil persona (assumed killed in a battle with Death-Stalker), as Foggy Nelson's running for district attorney provided a more conventional means to fight crime. One of Nelson's political rivals hired Jester to assassinate him (or at least harass him until he dropped out of the race), prompting Matt to suit up as Daredevil again to take him down.
* His fighting style is described by Danny Rand as "old-school jujutsu- - with a little New York Irish Boxer thrown in for good measure." Makes sense, considering his father was a professional boxer.
* In his original 60s run, Matt was very much an expy of Spider-Man in terms of powers and wise cracking. His name and costume also had no tie to his religion until Frank Miller revamped ol' horn head into the darker man of faith we know today.
* There was a superhero called "Daredevil" back in the golden age, but he's been largely forgotten since, falling into the public domain. Though Matt's *Mutant X* counterpart's costume pays homage to the Golden Age character.