Portrayed by Joel Kinnaman
Full Name Matthew Murdock
Age 27
Height 6'0"
Build Athletic
Eyes Milky Blue
Hair Sandy Blonde
Factions N/A
Occupation Lawyer - Nelson & Murdock
Alignment Hero

Claim to Fame

The Man Without Fear


As a lawyer, Matt is well respected as an eloquent and graceful, yet tough as nails case attorney. As his alter-ego, Daredevil is party myth part horror story for those who frequent the neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen.


Matthew Michael Murdock was born at Roosevelt Hospital in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. He never built a relationship with his mother, Maggie, as she left the family when the boy was very young. She was dead, they told him, which was far easier to understand than a teenage mother abandoning her child. Matt threw his full adoration towards “Battlin’” Jack Murdock, his father and local boxer in the Manhattan circuit. Jack, like any loving father, wanted the son to have a better life than the father, and taught Matthew to value his education as a way to get out of the neighborhood. Matt succeeded in school through determination and intelligence, but was the object of hazing and teasing by the neighborhood boys. They’d mock his non-violence, calling him Daredevil. The idea that he was somehow a coward because he valued books over brawn burned away at Matt. After the teasing turned physical, Matt began training to defend himself and used the equipment hat his father kept in the house.

Though Jack would later come to regret the decision, the deterioration of boxing as an American sport meant there was less and less money and longer and longer between fights. He decided to begin taking small jobs for Roscoe Sweeney, a gangster who used crooked fight promotion and extortion of local businesses and people as his way to climb the ladder of organized crime.

Matt remained oblivious, but had his own new problems to deal with. As he strolled down the street, he witnessed a blind man, cane in hand, crossing the road. Clearly the blind man did not realize that the light the other way was green. The driver of the oncoming truck, whose cargo was radioactive waste, did not see the man in time and was clearly about to run him over. Acting lightning quick, Matt leaped into the road with no care for his own safety. He pushed the blind man clear to the other side of the road, and Matt himself was free of the pathway of the oncoming truck. But the driver, in his own attempt to miss the boy, turned hard and put the truck on its side. Radioactive waste was sprayed all over the street corner and hit Matthew directly in the face, blinding him almost immediately.

When he awoke in the hospital, Matt found that though his sight was gone, his other senses were enhanced to superhuman levels. He could hear the whispers and heart beats of people all over the hospital, he smell the perfume of a woman on the street, he could feel every groove in the apparently smooth metal bars that lined his hospital bed, and it would be months before he could eat anything with more taste than rice. At first, the change caused Matt to fall into depression, but as he became more and more accustomed to his newfound powers, he came to love them and see the accident as a blessing.

Not long afterwards, Matt was approached and befriended by a mysterious sensei named “Stick.” Stick, blind himself, took Matt under his wing and expanded the young man’s self-training. Matt learned how to use his senses and soon became extremely adept at martial arts and meditation. Despite the long hours of training, Matt kept up with his school work and attended Columbia University as a Pre-Law student. He breezed through school, taking extra classes during j-term and summer in order to graduate Columbia in two and a half years. He immediately was admitted to Columbia’s law school and began his studies, interning in the summers for Rowson, Rowson, and Reece. On a rare night out, Matt and his best friend Foggy Nelson attended one of his father’s fights on the elder Murdock’s comeback tour. Unbeknownst to Matt, Jack was ordered by Sweeney to take a dive. Seeing his son as he came out of the tunnel, Jack knew he could not do such a thing with Matt in attendance. Instead, old Battlin’ Murdock had one more fight left in him, and beat the living tar out of his opponent in what many boxing aficionados would call his greatest fight.

But Sweeney got the payback for the thousands of dollars he lost that night. His personal muscle, Slade, was dispatched to murder the elder Murdock, and did so effectively and painfully.

Distraught, Matt fashioned a costume from the robes of his father and went on a one man retribution mission to disable Sweeney’s organization and Sweeney, himself. The investigation was easy, and the violence was severe and relentless. Sweeney and Slade barely survived, but they did, and made a quick trip to Riker’s.

Matt’s sorrow gave way to anger and he decided he would use his abilities and intelligence to fight for justice, both by day and night. He called himself “Daredevil” as a mockery of those who used to mock him, and fashioned a new costume to better strike fear into those who deserved his punishment. Now, it’s no longer enough for Matt to try and better himself through education and flee the neighborhood. No, instead Matt graduated law school and opened up a law firm directly in Hell’s Kitchen. He’s not going anywhere. He’s not going to flee the Kitchen, he’s going to change it.

Character Details



Image Name Relation Notes
m4y3ujr Elektra Natchios Old Flame Matt loved her once. She died. She came back …
Lara-Main.jpg Lara Croft Client What began as a professional relationship escalated quickly. Matt realizes the danger both to her and himself, but that hasn't stopped him.


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Devil Has His Due
March 21, 2015: Jean Grey runs into Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen.
(log: 20150321-devilhashisdue | tags: daredevil nyc phoenix | posted: 21 Mar 2015 18:56)

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