Real Name: Matt Murdock
First Appearance: Daredevil #1 (1964)
Affiliation: Independent hero; Nelson and Murdock law practice
Powers: Heightened remaining senses and radar-like perception; skilled acrobat and fighter who uses a versatile billy club.
Matt Murdock lives two lives in the service of justice: a blind lawyer in his everyday work and the masked Daredevil in action. His first adventure in Daredevil #1 brings him face to face with the people responsible for his father’s death. That personal beginning develops into a wider career protecting people whose problems cannot always be settled in a courtroom.
Matt’s abilities allow him to navigate danger without ordinary sight, but they do not make him invulnerable. He relies on timing, agility, careful use of his surroundings, and his billy club rather than overwhelming strength. His unusual senses are an advantage he must also conceal from people who know only the lawyer.
His professional and personal world centers on his friend and law partner Foggy Nelson and their colleague Karen Page. Keeping Daredevil separate from Matt complicates those relationships, particularly when Karen becomes endangered. Daredevil #3 places that problem at the center of his clash with the Owl, whose criminal ambitions draw both Matt’s identities into the same conflict.
In Daredevil #7, Matt meets Namor as a would-be legal client before Daredevil faces the far stronger Sub-Mariner. His courage earns Namor’s respect, even though determination does not erase the difference in their power. The issue also introduces his red costume in place of the original yellow design.
The possibility of restored eyesight drives Daredevil #9. Karen helps arrange a visit to Doctor Van Eyck in Lichtenbad, but Matt encounters a dictator and a threat far beyond an ordinary criminal case. Van Eyck ultimately sacrifices himself to stop a catastrophe. Matt remains blind, and his concern that restored sight might cost him his powers remains part of the tension between the life he could have and the hero he has become.
Coverage: based on reviews published on Reviewing Comics as of October 23, 2026.
