Daredevil (Marvel Comics)

Character name	Daredevil
Caption	Promotional art for Daredevil vol. 2, #65 (Sept. 2004), by Greg Land.
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Debut	Daredevil #1 (April 1964)
Creators	Stan LeeBill Everett
Alter ego	Matthew Michael "Matt" Murdock
Species
Homeworld
Alliances	S.H.I.E.L.D.The ChasteDefenders"Marvel Knights"The Hand
Partners	Black Widow
Supports
Aliases
Powers	Superhuman senses; excellent athlete, gymnast, boxer, and a master martial artist and expert acrobat
Title	Daredevil
Cvr image	Daredevilv1issue1splashpage.png
Cvr caption	The first issue of Daredevil (April 1964) features the hero in his original costume. Splash-page art by Jack Kirby (penciler) and Bill Everett (inker). Daredevil's nickname is "the Man Without Fear".

Romita later elaborated that "Stan showed me Dick Ayers' splash page for a Daredevil. He asked me, "What would you do with this page?" I showed him on a tracing paper what I would do, and then he asked me to do a drawing of Daredevil the way I would do it. I did a big drawing of Daredevil ... just a big, tracing-paper drawing of Daredevil swinging. And Stan loved it".

When Romita left to take over The Amazing Spider-Man, Lee gave Daredevil to what would be the character's first signature artist, Gene Colan, who began with issue #20 (Sept. 1966). Colan pencilled all but three issues through #100 (June 1973), plus the 1967 annual, followed by ten issues sprinkled from 1974–1979. (He would return again, an established legend, for an eight-issue run in 1997). During this period, he meets Spider-Man, a character who would later be one of his greatest hero friends.

1970s

In 1970s comics, Daredevil moves to San Francisco for a time to live with the spy and superheroine the Black Widow and enters into a romantic relationship with her. The front cover of the comic is even retitled to Daredevil and the Black Widow, but she soon ends the relationship, fearing that playing "sidekick" to Daredevil is sublimating her identity. Murdock returns to Hell's Kitchen. During this time, the series' writers included Gerry Conway, Steve Gerber, and Chris Claremont. Artists included Bob Brown and Don Heck.

Comics artist legend Wally Wood, following kidney failure and the loss of vision in one eye, returned to the character he helped define, inking Miller's cover of Daredevil #164 (May 1980). It was one of Wood's final assignments before his death in 1981.

1980s

The modern definition of Daredevil began in May 1979 with Frank Miller's entrance on the title (he had previously drawn Daredevil in the February 1979 installment of Spectacular Spider-Man #27). Miller's first contributions were as an artist, where he imbued a new dynamism and a dramatically different visual style. The series' tone became that of noir with Hell's Kitchen itself playing a more prominent role.

With issue #168, Miller additionally became the series' writer, and the comic underwent a drastic metamorphosis. The most significant change was the introduction of Spider-Man villain Kingpin as Daredevil's new arch-nemesis. Until that point, Daredevil's enemies were primarily, though not exclusively, costumed villains. The Kingpin was a departure in that although he possessed extraordinary size, strength, and fighting ability, his villainy came from his ruthless brilliance in running a criminal empire rather than superpowers. The title still retained costumed antagonists — notably Bullseye and Elektra — but found its central theme to be one more grounded in reality: organized crime.

Miller also introduced ninjas into the Daredevil canon, bringing a greater focus on the martial arts aspect of Daredevil's fighting skills, and introducing previously unseen characters who had played a major part in his youth: Stick, leader of the ninja clan The Chaste, who had been Murdoch's sensei after he was blinded; a rival clan called The Hand; and Elektra, a former girlfriend turned lethal ninja assassin. This was a drastic change for a character once considered a swashbuckler. The focus of a ninja's control of the inner self served as a counterbalance to the emerging themes of anger and torment.

Daredevil encounters the assassin Bullseye for the first time, and the two battle each other. Eventually, Daredevil's secret identity is deduced by the reporter Ben Urich.

Daredevil encounters the Kingpin, who has hired his old flame Elektra and they fight it out. He returns to his former mentor Stick for aid. Bullseye then murders Elektra in a fight to determine the better killer. Taking revenge, Daredevil drops Bullseye from a clothesline high above a street, and then forms an alliance with the Punisher against drug pushers. Daredevil even battles the Hand, and Elektra is briefly resurrected.

Miller's noir take on the character continued, even after he left (in 1983, after issue #191). However, successor Dennis O'Neil did not find the commercial success of his predecessor. In late 1985, Miller returned to the series, co-writing #226 with O'Neil, then writing the acclaimed "" storyline in #227-233 (Feb.-Aug. 1986), with artist David Mazzucchelli. Karen Page eventually returns as a heroin-addicted star of adult films, who sells Daredevil's secret identity for drug money. The Kingpin uses this information to destroy Murdock piece by piece: blowing up his house, ruining his reputation as a lawyer, getting him disbarred, menacing his personal life, and nearly driving him insane. Matt suffers a nervous breakdown. Miller ends the story on a positive note, with Murdock reuniting with both Karen Page, as his sometime lover, and Maggie, the mother he thought dead, now a nun, and resuming a less complicated life in Hell's Kitchen.

A round-robin of creators contributed in the year that followed Born Again: writers Mark Gruenwald, Danny Fingeroth, Steve Englehart (under the pseudonym "John Harkness"), and Ann Nocenti, and pencilers Steve Ditko, Barry Windsor-Smith, Louis Williams, Sal Buscema, Todd McFarlane, Keith Pollard, and Chuck Patton. Nocenti, who'd written #236, became the regular writer for a four-and-a-quarter year run of all but two issues from #238-291 (Jan. 1987 - April 1991). John Romita, Jr. joined as penciller from #250-282 (Jan. 1988 - Jul. 1990), and was generally inked by Al Williamson. The team specifically addressed societal issues, with Murdock, now running a non-profit urban legal center, confronting sexism, racism, and nuclear proliferation while fighting supervillains. Nocenti introduced the popular antagonist Typhoid Mary in issue #254.

1990s

To celebrate the character's 30th Anniversary, the creative team of DG Chichester, Scott McDaniel, and Hector Collazo changed the book's status quo with the "Fall From Grace" storyline, which ran from issue #319-325 (Aug. 1993 - Feb. 1994). Daredevil is beaten up once again and decides to create a more protective costume from biometric materials. It is red and grey with white armor on the shoulders and knee pads. His billy clubs can be attached together to form nunchucks or a bo staff. His secret identity becomes public knowledge, leading to him faking his own death and assuming the new identity of "Jack". This new identity and costume lasts for several story arcs ("Tree of Knowledge", "Humanity's Fathom", and "Wages of Sin") before Daredevil returned to his traditional red costume, while Murdock finds a way to convince the world that he is not, in fact, secretly Daredevil (courtesy of a double).

Under writers Karl Kesel and later Joe Kelly, the book gained a lighter tone, with Daredevil returning to the lighthearted, wisecracking hero depicted by earlier writers. Matt and Foggy (who now knows of Matt's dual identities) join a law firm run by Foggy's mother, Rosalind Sharpe.

Frank Miller returned to the character and his origins with the 1993 five issue Daredevil: The Man Without Fear miniseries. With artist John Romita Jr, Miller expanded upon the character's beginnings and provided additional detail about the life and death of "Battling Jack" Murdock and Matt's first encounters with the Kingpin and Foggy Nelson. The role of Stick in the genesis of Daredevil was expanded, as was Murdock's doomed love affair with Elektra Natchios, the daughter of a Greek diplomat.

In 1998, Daredevil's numbering was rebooted, with the title "canceled" with issue #380 and revived a month later as part of the "Marvel Knights" imprint. Joe Quesada drew the new series, written by filmmaker Kevin Smith. Its first eight-issue story arc, "Guardian Devil", depicts Daredevil struggling to protect a child whom he is told could either be the Messiah or the Anti-Christ. Murdock experiences a crisis of faith exacerbated by the discovery that Karen Page has AIDS (later revealed to be a hoax), and her subsequent death at Bullseye's hands.

After "Guardian Devil", Smith was succeeded by writer-artist David Mack, who contributed the seven-issue "Parts of a Hole" (#9-15). The arc introduced Maya Lopez, also known as Echo, a deaf martial artist. Mack brought independent-comics colleague Brian Michael Bendis to Marvel to co-write the following arc, "Wake Up" (#16-19), which follows reporter Ben Urich as he investigates the aftereffects of a fight between Daredevil and an obscure old villain called Leap-Frog. Following Mack and Bendis were Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale and artists Phil Winslade and David Ross for the story "Playing to the Camera". Mack continued to contribute covers.

2000s

The 2001 Daredevil: Yellow miniseries presented another take on Daredevil's origins using letters written to Karen Page after her death as a narrative device. Here Page believes she is in love with both Daredevil and Murdock, and Nelson with Karen Page, resulting in a silent rivalry between the two men. The supervillains the Owl and the Purple Man are the antagonists. In this story, Daredevil credits Page with coining the phrase "The Man without Fear", and she also suggests to Daredevil he wear red instead of black and yellow.

Issue #26 (Dec. 2001) brought back Brian Michael Bendis, working this time with artist Alex Maleev, for a four-year-run that became one of the series' most acclaimed. Maleev's harsh and grainy look contrasted to Quesada's more cartoony lines. Developments in this run included the introduction of romantic interest and future wife Milla Donovan, the outing of Murdock's secret identity to the press, the reemergence of the Kingpin, and Daredevil's surrender to the FBI.

The impact of his exposure as Daredevil continued to be used as a plot point by both Bendis and writer Ed Brubaker and artist Michael Lark, who became the new creative team with Daredevil #82 (Feb. 2006), no longer under the "Marvel Knights" imprint.

.|frame]] Ed Brubaker's first story arc had a new character masquerading as Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen. Murdock later discovered the ersatz Daredevil is his friend Danny Rand, the superhero Iron Fist. Brubaker said,

Over the next couple of story arcs, Brubaker would make use of older characters such as Mister Fear and the Enforcers and newer ones such as the Hood and Lady Bullseye. During the Secret Invasion storyline, Daredevil takes part in the fight against the Skrulls in New York, ultimately surviving it into the Dark Reign event. The series returns to its original numbering in September with issue #500 after #119 in July 2009. #500 saw a major revision of the status quo under new writer Andy Diggle, with Daredevil assuming leadership of the Hand. Daredevil later appeared in Dark Reign: The List - Daredevil.

2010s

Following this came the crossover story arc Shadowland, in which Daredevil was possessed by a demon. Murdock then left New York, leaving his territory in the hands of the Black Panther. T'Challa, having recently abdicated his Wakandan throne, accepts the task of protecting Hell's Kitchen as a means to test himself without the aid of the technology, resources, or metahuman abilities that he has come to rely on. He successfully defeats Vlad Dinu, a super-powered Romanian crime boss looking to control the post-Daredevil Kitchen.

Meanwhile, Matt wanders the country to escape his costumed life in the miniseries . However, despite his best effort to stay uninvolved, he ends up foiling a corrupt police force operating in a small New Mexico town. The ordeal leaves him reassured in himself and his responsibilities, and he returns to New York to rebuild both his legal and vigilante careers.

In July 2011, Daredevil will relaunch at issue #1 with the creative team of Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Marcos Martín. Waid reports that in the new volume they are interested in "tweaking the adventure-to-depression ratio a bit and letting Matt win again," as well as emphasizing his powers and perception of the physical world.

Powers and abilities

Although blind, the character's remaining four senses function with high levels of superhuman accuracy and sensitivity, giving him abilities far beyond the limits of a sighted person. Daredevil developed a radar sense. This radar sense has a function similar to echolocation. According to Stan Lee, due to the fact that Murdock's sensory organs have a superhuman level of development, his inner ear, which controls the equilibrium and motions of the body, is also preternaturally developed, aiding him in acrobatic feats that may surpass even Olympic-level athletes.

When Frank Miller expanded most of Daredevil's abilities, he attempted to make them "extraordinary enough to be exciting, but not on par with Superman", noting Superman's distinctly unbelievable powers.

However, just as Daredevil's other senses are stronger, they are also sensitive; his main weakness is his vulnerability to powerful sounds or odors that can be used to temporarily weaken his radar sense. This weakness is often used to immobilize Daredevil if he were bombarded by too much sound, which will cause him great pain and disorient him. Additionally Daredevil needs to detect something with his radar to know it is there or it will remain invisible to him, which makes it possible to have something get past his radar if he is unable to detect it. In one instance the hallucinogenic drug that Mysterio created was designed with no taste or smell so Daredevil couldn't tell he was drugged until he consulted Doctor Strange who was able to discover it from the small cross that Mysterio gave to Daredevil in disguise which contained the drug and magically cured him.

Though he has no superhuman physical attributes beyond an enhanced sense of balance, Daredevil is a master of martial arts. Having been trained by Stick, Daredevil is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant. His typical moves are unique blends of the martial arts of Ninjutsu, Jujutsu, Judo, and stick fighting combined with American-style boxing while making full use of his gymnastics capabilities.

Daredevil's signature weapon is his specially-designed billy club, which he created. The Daredevil series has also received some acclaim over the years, including being ranked by IGN as the third best series from Marvel Comics in 2006. In 2011, IGN ranked Daredevil #10 on their list of IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.

Supporting characters

Throughout the core Daredevil series, many characters have had an influence in Matt Murdock's life. His father, "Battlin' Jack" Murdock instills in Matt the importance of education and nonviolence with the aim of seeing his son become a better man than himself. It is his father's murder that prompts the super-powered character to become a superhero, fighting gangsters.

Matt Murdock's greatest friend is Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, his college roommate, sidekick, and law partner. and subsequently revealed his. However, due to the events of the storyline, Murdock no longer knows Spider-Man's secret identity, and since then refused to relearn it due to the potential danger involved. Iron Fist would also later become one of his greatest friends, and at one point took on the role of Daredevil himself. Maya Lopez, a deaf woman and skilled martial artist, is also a friend of Daredevil after he fought her and convinced her that he didn't murder her father, because she was being manipulated by the Kingpin, who was responsible. Ben Urich, a reporter for the Daily Bugle had later discovered Daredevil's identity and eventually becomes his friend as well, though during his identity dispute Daredevil decided to end his "secret professional relationship" with Urich to avoid getting Urich mixed up in his problems and being used against him.

Daredevil is known to have a convoluted and often tortured love life. Throughout the series, his girlfriends are often women who are traumatized, maimed, or killed, a narrative aspect some media critics refer to as "Women in Refrigerators" syndrome. One of Daredevil's more notable love interests is Elektra, an assassin who would later be killed. In the 2000s, Murdock marries a woman named Milla Donovan, although one of Daredevil's enemies drives her to insanity.

Daredevil enemies

In his early years, Daredevil fought a number of costumed supervillains, the first of these being Electro, a prominent Spider-Man foe, in Daredevil #2. A number of recurring villains would be introduced over the years, such as the Owl, the Purple Man, Mister Fear, Stilt-Man, Gladiator, The Jester, The Man-Bull, Death-Stalker, and various others. The supervillain duo of the Cobra and Mr. Hyde have also frequently clashed with Daredevil, although Hyde has fought Daredevil alone on several occasions. One of his deadliest enemies, a psychotic assassin known as Bullseye, was introduced by Marv Wolfman in issue #131, and the two have battled each other many times over the years.

Beginning with Frank Miller's run on Daredevil, his traditional rogues gallery was used less often, and The Kingpin became Daredevil's arch-enemy. The Kingpin has long known Daredevil's secret identity, and used this information to try to destroy Murdock's life. Elektra made her debut as a bounty hunter for hire, leading to several confrontations with Daredevil. In Daredevil #254, Ann Nocenti introduced Typhoid Mary, an assassin for the Kingpin with an identity disorder, who also became a prominent Daredevil foe. The Punisher, vigilante Frank Castle, is one of Daredevil's most prolific antagonists and at times a reluctant ally.

Collected editions

In other media

Television

.]] Daredevil makes his first animated television appearance as Matt Murdock only in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode, "Attack of the Arachnoid" voiced by Frank Welker. In the 1980s, ABC had planned a Daredevil animated television series that would have featured a guide dog named "Lightning the Super-Dog". Television writer Mark Evanier said in 2008 that he was the last in a line of writers to have written a pilot and series bible, with his including Lightning as a guide dog without superpowers. He helps the powerless Fantastic Four get into the Baxter Building when Doctor Doom takes it over. Daredevil appears in the Spider-Man: The Animated Series double episode "Framed"/"The Man Without Fear", voiced by Edward Albert. While remaining fairly true to the source material of the Daredevil comic books, the largest change was that Daredevil's traditional costume, including his horns, was replaced with a black ninja-like outfit.

In 2003, 20th Century Fox released the film Daredevil, written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson. Actor Ben Affleck starred as the titular character. A deleted scene in the 2005 Elektra movie, later included in the Director's Cut, has Affleck briefly reprising the role in a dream sequence.

Video games

.]] Daredevil made his first video game appearance in a cameo in released in 1995. The character had a more expansive role as an alternate playable character in , released in 1996, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.

Daredevil appears in the 2000 Spider-Man video game voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.

Daredevil's largest role was as the title character in the Game Boy Advance game based on the 2003 film. Daredevil later starred as a playable character in the 2005 video game, voiced by David Kaye. Matt Murdock made a cameo in The Punisher voiced by Steven Blum. He appeared as the Punisher's lawyer. Daredevil appeared as an unlockable character in voiced by Cam Clarke.

Daredevil is a playable character in voiced by Brian Bloom

Matt Murdock makes a cameo appearance in Chris Redfield's ending for , where he is shown acting as the prosecutor at the trial of Albert Wesker. In addition, on the Daily Bugle stage, there is an advertisement billboard for "Nelson & Murdock - Attorneys at Law"

Toys

Daredevil is featured in the Marvel Legends (third series) toy line. The action figure was based on the film version Ben Affleck starred in. The Marvel Legends Showdown 1/18th scale line also featured Daredevil figures in both his red uniform and a chase version in his yellow-and-black uniform. The "Spider-Man Classics" toy line (which was a precursor to Marvel Legends) also included a Daredevil figure, clad in his traditional red costume. The action figure resembles Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada's representation of Daredevil; it is derived from Quesada's stint as an artist on Daredevil. as well as one of Wizard's "200 Greatest Comic Characters of All Time", and #10 on IGN.com's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes".

See also

Bibliography of Daredevil titles

Animal echolocation

Ben Underwood

References

External links

Daredevil at ManWithoutFear, a fan site

Daredevil at The Other Murdock Papers, a fan site

Wolk, Douglas. "Secrets, lies — and lawyers!". Salon.com. January 5, 2006.

Marvel Toonzone: Daredevil

Daredevil cover gallery

The Man Without Fear at FactBehindFiction.com

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