Beware the Nice Ones: He's a very nice, noble guy most of the time but when he loses his temper, its best not to be a bad guy anywhere near NYC. Bullseye and Kingpin learned this the very hard way after trying to kill Milla.
Butt Monkey: Matt could seriously challenge Spider-Man's place as the "Most Unlucky Hero". If something good happens, You can bet it won't last and will be swiftly followed by an unexpected punch to the gut, spiritually speaking. "Born Again" is the most famous example but there are many, many others. So much so He's practically a deconstruction.
Clark Kenting: While his costume covers his body, most people figure out He is Daredevil anyway. Lampshaded by Spider-man who calls it "The worst kept secret identity since Hannah Montana".
In this case, its because- in one of the most groundbreaking story arcs in superhero fiction- his identity was discovered by a mid-level gangster and publicly exposed to the entire world. He eventually "proved" in court that he wasn't Daredevil, but the damage had been done and by the end of the ordeal nearly all of his allies and enemies knew who he really was, and still do. The trope itself is an aversion since his Secret Identity and costume in and of themselves are both very efficient.
Cool Shades: Almost always wears his sunglasses when not fighting crime.
The Cowl: He's basically Marvel's Batman. Well, one of them.
Crusading Lawyer: And he puts the rest to shame. Lots of fictional hero attorneys will bend the law or risk their lives for the sake of their innocent clients, but how many will kick the ass of crime lords, ninja zombies or superhuman assassins in the process?
Deadpan Snarker: He's usually very stoic and serious but when he wants to, Matt can easily outsnark the likes of his good friend Spider-man. He was always like this but it was seen more in his early years and showed up more in Mark Waid's run.
Matt: "You must be real proud of yourselves, gents... With a little luck, you may actually defeat a blind man... if you work together!"
Determinator: Doesn't even begin to describe him. Its practically a superpower.
Honor Before Reason: Matt often faces against enemies who are a lot more powerful and capable of incredible damage, physically and personally. He even refuses to defend guilty clients, which is why his law firm is usually broke.
Hypocritical Humor: He once told Moon Knight that his secret identity as Marc Specter is the worst kept secret in the hero community.
Iron Woobie: "And how!" doesn't even begin to cover it.
Kick the Son of a Bitch: His exceptionally violent and brutal murder of Bullseye was supposed to show he had gone off the deep end, but considering who Bullseye is, there isn't a person alive who can fault Matt for doing what he did.
Knight in Sour Armor: You could probably count the number of times Matt's been happy on one hand. He could be written as a villain and you'd still be sympathetic to him. Despite this, he keeps on going. This trope could probably be renamed "Knight in sour red leather".
Starting with Mark Waid's run he starts subverting this because he felt like his attitude was a self-fulfilling prophecy, outright telling Foggy "I didn't want to be that guy anymore."
Knight Templar: Became one briefly when he overthrew Fisk and took over Hell's Kitchen, brutally beating up anyone in his way and chastising other heroes who criticized him.
Living Lie Detector: He can determine if someone is lying by listening to their heartbeat.
Really Gets Around: It really wouldn't be surprising to learn Matt has slept with every attractive woman in the Marvel Universe. Or at least, New York City. Really, general concensus places Matt second only to Tony Stark for Marvel's biggest playboy.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: While it was a Silver Age rule, it fits very well with Matt's Catholic side and his father's moral advice. It's still abided by even as his stories get darker.
Upbringing Makes the Hero: His father Jack raised him on his own and taught Matt not to use violence and that he could be someone great one day. Fittingly Jack's murder is what convinced Matt to become Daredevil.
Allies
Franklin "Foggy" Nelson
Badass Bookworm: OK, he's not really a great physical fighter, but when it comes to standing up for Matt, nobody does it better than good old Foggy.
Fat and Proud: Not extremely fat, but definitely a bit chubby.
A recent running gag in Waid's run is Matt putting Foggy on a diet and exercise regimen, and Foggy's attempts to get out of it. He does it in part because Foggy is an EXTREMELY loud chewer and it disrupts Matt's senses.
Badass Normal: Not for his fighting skills (he doesn't have any) so much as his guts; be you Wilson Fisk or Norman Osborn, even if you put the fear of God into him, sooner or later this man will stand up to and expose you knowing he risks he takes with his life.
Cool Uncle: To his sometime superhero nephew Phil (at least, until Phil went Ax Crazy, did a Face Heel Turn and became the newest Hobgoblin).
Guns vs. Swords: Subverted. She is a master of both and will use either. She normally relies on bladed weapons, but that doesn't means she isn't going to pull out an Uzi.
Magic Knight: Has some minor Ki Attacks and magical abilities, most of which are used to enhance her battle prowess, as well as some low-level Psychic Powers. Most of these come from training with the mystical evil ninja sect The Hand.
Taking the Bullet: Bullseye was aiming for Daredevil's mom (he didn't know it was her, but didn't care either). For once, he isn't bothered that he missed.
Anti-Villain: Briefly. She was pitted against Daredevil by the Kingpin, but had no idea that she was working for a criminal (or at least, how bad a criminal he was) and mistakenly believed that Daredevil killed her father. A solid Type 4.
Dating Catwoman: Like Typhoid Mary, she dates Matt Murdock while trying to kill Daredevil. Unlike her, she only does so because she was tricked.
Pay Evil unto Evil / Laser-Guided Karma: Once she finds out what really happened to her father, she responds by putting a bullet between Kingpin's eyes. He survives, but was blinded, just like Matt, except without the super-senses.
Revenge by Proxy: On the receiving end of this after Matt Murdock was accused of being Daredevil, most notably when Bullseye broke into her room and nearly racked his list of "number of Daredevils girlfriends I've killed" up to 3.
Trauma Conga Line: Marrying a guy with a long list of crazy ex-girlfriends and psychopathic enemies right around the time his Secret Identity is exposed to the world was not the smartest move in the world.
Arch-Enemy: One of two with Bullseye, though between the two the war between Fisk and Murdock is a closer example of this trope.
Badass Normal: Can hold his own against actual superhumans, though how well is Depending on the Writer. Once outsmarted Iron Man, despite the latter being far more intelligent, by tricking him into taking out some of his rivals. While in prison.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Can veer into this at times, though it was more prominent when he was a Spidey villain.
The Chessmaster: He's always this, but in his prime in particular he controlled nearly all organized crime on the East Coast, and even had a general in his pocket.
Classic Villain: As Spider-man's nemesis. Who better to counteract a short, skinny teenager than a towering, middle-aged body builder?
Evil Gloating: His love of this is almost always what gets him.
Evil Is Petty: He seems to really have it in for costumed crimefighters and can never simply try and "kill" them; he has to utterly humiliate them and ruin their lives first. This goes about as well as you'd expect.
Hoist by His Own Petard: You think he'd have learned not to piss off people who can bench press cars by now.
It's Personal: Both Fisk and Murdock can go to pretty extreme lengths to get at each other. Both have went out of their way to ruin each others businesses, several times. Fisk has set Matt up with girlfriends who were secretly assassins after Daredevil; Matt made Fisk miss his own wifes funeral; Fisk has Matt's friends beaten up; Matt beats up Fisk...it goes on. On at least two occasions Kingpin was on the verge of getting his old empire back, and Matt stopped him by taking it for himself. Both were What the Hell, Hero? moments- he did it mainly just to screw Fisk over.
Necessarily Evil: He was once forced into retirement by his wife after she found out about his life of crime; he was then forced back out of retirement because of threats against him and his family, made by an underling who thought he was doing Fisk a favour. Which was a textbook case of Too Dumb to Live.
Revenge Before Reason: In Born Again his underlings kept calling him out on it- this was a mistake, but they were right and his revenge scheme blows his plans to move into legitimate business out of the water as they result in him being publicly exposed as a crime lord. In Civil War he has Spidermans' Aunt May shot, to goad Spidey into a fight so he could show all the goons in prison he was still in charge- Spiderman beats the hell out of him, and warns the crowd if he or anyone tries something that again he'll come back and kill them.
Revenge by Proxy: The Aunt May example, but he's went after Matt by attacking Foggy Nelson before, and through his girlfriends and other associates.
Rogues Gallery Transplant: Perhaps the most successful example of this trope. Started out as an A-list Spiderman villain, then was promoted to Daredevil's Arch-Enemy. Even Stan Lee noted that in retrospect he makes much more sense as a Daredevil villain. His rationale was that a villain whose facade is a businessman works better with a superhero who, as a day job, is a lawyer instead of a journalist.
Villainous Valor: Can be generally counted on to keep his word; genuinelly cares for his own family; sees his enemies in Worthy Opponent terms (sometimes) and will treat his underlings with respect so long as they don't fail or betray him.
Abusive Parents: One of the few constants to his Multiple-Choice Past is that one or both of his parents beat him when he was a kid. Another constant is that they stopped doing it because he murdered them.
Arch-Enemy: While Murdock and Fisk have drifted into Worthy Opponent territory at times, only pure hatred will ever exist between Murdock and Bullseye.
Asshole Victim: Hoo boy, did he have it coming from Matt. If there was one person in the MU who deserved such a violent death, it was Bullseye.
Ax Crazy: One of the single most psychotic characters in the MU.
Badass Normal: He is at the absolute peak of human physicality and possesses astonishing skill with weapons but has no real powers.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He had tremendous potential as an athlete and Baseball player due to his expert marksmanship but his psycopathic nature came out and he killed a player. He actually does make a lot of money as an assassin but he never spends any of it (He believes he may have more money than Norman Osborn from his jobs).
The Dragon: To Kingpin. note Bit of Popcultural Osmosis, though, as he had the post only (very) briefly during Miller's run (crippled in a fight with Daredevil, he's put out of commission and gets super pissed on finding out that Elektra has taken over—this ends not well for her).
Evil Counterpart: To Daredevil. He represents the path Matt could have gone down with similar circumstances and abilities.
Not to mention, Matt is blind with all his other senses at superhuman levels, while Bullseye's one of the best shots in the Marvel Universe.
For obvious reasons, Bullseye is occasionally considered an evil counterpart to Hawkeye as well. To the point where he took on the role of Hawkeye in Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers.
Faux Affably Evil: He loves acting friendly and humorous to taunt Matt, whom he knows won't kill him.
For the Evulz: Bullseye is a paid mercenary and earns a sizable fee for his murders.... But he recently revealed he barely ever spends it since he'd rather spend his time killing even more people. He even states that he's gotten so much cash over the years for his various jobs he's probably richer than Norman Osborn.
Freudian Excuse: His parents were abusive drunks. When Matt finds out, he uses it to taunt him in a fight and throw him off.
Genius Bruiser: He's fiendishly intelligent and an excellent planner. For example, he once fired on Daredevil with a revolver which he then discarded after one shot. When Karen Page thinks she has an advantage and tries to shoot him, he reveals that it intentionally only contained one round.
Improvised Weapon: Things that Bullseye has used as weapons include, but are by no means limited to, playing cards, paperclips, toothpicks, paper airplanes, golf balls, peanuts, and several of his own teeth.
Improbable Weapon User: Listing all the things he can kill you with would take up this entire page.
Kick the Dog: Where to even begin? In the interest of saving time, We'll only mention his murder of a church full of nuns and Karen Page in Bendis' first issue.
Know When to Fold 'Em: Bullseye may be crazy, but he's not stupid. He knows when it's time to retreat. He was also was the one to tell Osborn that his plan to invade Asgard was insane.
Knife Nut: He's an expert marksman and uses firearms on occasion but prefers to use blades and improvised weapons instead.
Multiple-Choice Past: Ask him for his backstory and he'll give a different story each time. The only thing that ever remains consistent any time he talks about his past is that he had Abusive Parents, that he kills his parents and that he was a baseball player before becoming a Killer for Hire.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He's been on the receiving ends of some absolutely devastating ones from Matt. Taken up to eleven in Bendis' run when he not only beats him nearly to death but carves a bullseye symbol into his head and gives him a vicious Reason You Suck Speech. This was when Bullseye tried to kill Milla and caught Matt at the end of his tether.
Psycho for Hire: At one point, he reveals that he has spent basically none of the money he has made from his assassinations over the years. Money is just a handy way to keep score.
Self-Made Orphan: Details about where and when vary, but he does often state how he murdered his parents.
Psychologist: And you say your father beat you? Bullseye: Yes, until I was fourteen. Psychologist: Hmmm. I see. And what happened then. Bullseye: (kills psychologist with a voice recorder) I killed him.
Squick: In the recently released Daredevil: End of Days, he's not only managed to murder the crap out of Murdock on public TV in broad daylight on a crowded street, but also dress up some random hooker in an Elektra costume, wave a gun around insanily and, oh just for good measure, shoot himself in the head.. Or did he?
Stuffed into the Fridge: He's done some stuffing in his time. Running tally of hero's girlfriends gruesomely murdered: Daredevil - 2 (Elektra and Karen Page) The Sentry - 1 (Lindy Reynolds)
Bigger Bad: The Beast, their evil master. He has only appeared in two stories, and most of the time he uses Demonic Possession rather than his true form (a large, green, ogre-like monster with a bit of a hunchback).
Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy: They have a long, complex history with HYDRA and the latter is more or less a breakaway group of the more politically minded members, though they still co-operate from time to time. They often ally with other evil groups, and a branch are controlled by the Kingpin.
Religion of Evil: They worship an ancient demon known only as The Beast. In the Wolverine story arc Enemy of the State, their Jounin, their highest ninja masters, are clearly not human and implied to be demons as well.
Anti-Villain: Is sympathetic when you consider she really is criminally insane and her Mary Walker persona is actually a good person who has to deal with two evil personas.
Dating Catwoman: Matt does this with a lot of his female villains
What Could Have Been: He was going to be the main villain of X Factor, and there were clues planted towards it, until Apocalypse was created for that role.
Disproportionate Retribution: Is willing to try to kill and torment Matt Murdock and his loved ones because Murdock used to make him feel inferior back in university.
Evilis Petty: Has a very petty grudge against Matt Murdock, hating him for being a better lawyer then him.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Invoked. He retired for a while in The Seventies, when he realized he didn't need to be a villain for the money when he could just make people give him what he wanted.
For the Evulz: That didn't stop him from doing really, really nasty things to people just because he could.
Healing Factor: Retconned to have one, Norman Osborn-style, when they decided to bring him back 10 years after his "death" in Emperor Doom.
The Hedonist: Since coming back from retirement, he is rarely seen without a mind-controlled woman (or a harem of them) on his arm.
Kick the Dog: He once stopped an entire restaurant from breathing so he could eat his eggs in peace.
Mind Rape: Lots of people, but what he did to his wife and Jessica Jones stands out.
Morality Pet: Subverted. Learning he has a daughter seems to have made him worse, since he thinks she'll love him if he can conquer the world.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: Writers have turned him from a camp, one note bad guy to a full-fledged monster.
Oh Crap: In the first New Avengers arc, Purple Man appears and intends to use his powers to make Luke Cage attack the other assembled heroes. He also makes obvious threats toward Jessica Jones and her and Cage's unborn child. Cage then informs the unaware villain that his food contained special drugs designed to negate his powers. Purple Man has a look of sheer terror before Cage moves in on him.
Psychic Assisted Suicide: Many times, most horrifically when he ordered thirty-odd innocent bystanders at a Denny's to stop breathing so he could enjoy his eggs in peace.
Well, overt villainy anyway. He has never stopped commiting crimes or being evil; he just stopped picking fights with superheroes or trying to Take Over the World. Temporarily. He still conned, brainwashed, robbed and murdered his merry way through life.
Took a Level in Badass: The year-long Daredevil storyline where he manipulated the father of Daredevil's girlfriend (who was the CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation) into letting him take over the company and bankrolling his anti-Daredevil efforts. The story ended with the father being Driven to Suicide, the girlfriend breaking up with Daredevil, and the Horned One being whaled on by four of his toughest foes at the same time.
Turn Out Like Her Father: One of several very good reasons why his ex-wife kept his daughter far away from him.
Of course in the new Alpha Flight book, she did a Face Heel Turn and now calls herself Purple Woman...So the apple didn't fall far...
Anti-Villain: Not so much evil, so much as a normally gentle man who forced to do evil things either due to mental illness or the manipulations of others.
Breakthe Cutie: Poor gentle Melvin suffers another mental break down after being manipulated by both Alexander Bont and Mr. Fear.
The Brute: When he was villain, he often work as muscle for other villains.
Clothes Make the Superman: A firm believer of this. In his first appearance he rants that all it takes to be a superhero or supervillain is a good costume, and became the Gladiator to prove this.
Gentle Giant: Right after being cured of his insanity, Melvin was psychologically unable to attack others, even if his own life was being threatened.
Heel Face Turn: After being treated for his insanity Melvin quit being a villain and became a tailor.
Redemption Failure: The ultimate result of Bont's and Mr. Fear's manipulations, Melvin's original Heel Face Turn is undone after Melvin is forced back into a life crime by Bont threatening his family and Mr. Fear driving him insane with his fear chemicals.
The Pawn: Used as a pawn against Daredevil by both Alexander Bont (Kingpin's predecessor) and Mr. Fear.
The Mentally Disturbed: Melvin used to have psychotic episodes where he thought he was a Roman Gladiator.
Combat Pragmatist: She has little patience for Hand ritual, and she will take advantage of enemies who expect her to fight like a typical Hand ninja and abide by that.
Fragile Speedster: Faster than either Bullseye or the Kingpin, though less powerful than either.
Guns vs. Swords: Like Elektra, she is proficient in both. She prefers swords and shuriken but will pull out firearms if the situation calls for it, such as when she shot Pepper Potts with a sniper rifle.
Legacy Character: An odd case; she is inspired by Bullseye (when he saved her from Yakuza sex slavers- that is, incidentally, not on purpose), but unlike other examples Bullseye was still very much active and didn't train her or anything.
Classically Trained Extra: Jester thinks of himself as this, having got a role in Cyrano de Bergerac which was panned by critics, after which he couldn't get any roles besides being a side kick on a kid's show. However its a bit of a Subversion in that Jester has no real talent as an actor and refused to take acting lessons.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: It seems like he may have been successful as an actor if he had just taken acting lessons in the first place, which would have negated his reason for becoming a super villain in the first place.
Killed Off for Real" And notable for being one of the very few Marvel super villains to actually stay dead!
Revenge Before Reason: Became obsessed with killing Daredevil after an accident left him "out of phase" with our dimension, giving him his powers, but cutting him off the rest from the rest of the world.
Rich Boredom: Originally became a super villain because he was rich and bored.
