History Characters / MarvelComicsMattMurdock

* GuileHero: Mark Waid seems determined to make this his superpower. Not that it's exactly out of character.

* RealMenLoveJesus / ReligiousBruiser: Matt is often presented as a devout Catholic; in fact, his faith and how he deals with it while being a vigilante is a main source of drama in his comics.

* CaneFu: He sometimes does this with his cane when trouble arises in his civilian identity as Matt Murdoch. Before he got his fancy combat staff, he fought with a cane as the Daredevil as well. And of course his billy clubs are his cane in his civilian life.

* SecretIdentity: Had one for a while, but it wasn't a particularly well kept secret. Eventually he was outed, and while he "proved" that he wasn't Daredevil in court, he himself commented "good luck getting that genie back in the bottle." Eventually, he outed himself in court.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler: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]]. Most of the negative reactions from others fall less into "how is that action morally justifiable" and are more concerned with how ''out of character'' the action was.

* PretendingToBeOnesOwnRelative: To throw people off the scent that he was the Daredevil, Matt engaged in a FakeTwinGambit and sometimes acted as his own twin brother named Mike, though he'd ultimately fake "Mike's" death. [[spoiler:That said, events in ''ComicBook/DaredevilCharlesSoule'' and ''ComicBook/DaredevilChipZdarsky'' resulted in a CosmicRetcon that made Mike Murdock an actual and still-living person.]]

** Turned on its head though any time his superior senses are overloaded, such as when in the [[Film/{{Daredevil}} movie]] Bullseye causes a raucous of noise and disorients Daredevil, thus making him "blind" to any attack Bullseye can impose on him.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Matt Murdock, Attorney At Lawhttps://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3592046_daredevil_36_cover1280.jpg[[/labelnote]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Matt Murdock, Attorney At Law]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3592046_daredevil_36_cover1280.jpg[[/labelnote]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Matt Murdock, Attorney At Law]]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3592046_daredevil_36_cover1280.jpg[[/labelnote]]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/913tn6nkgdl.jpg The [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Other]] Man Without Fear]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Matt Murdock, Attorney At Law]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3592046_daredevil_36_cover1280.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]

%%zce* HeroesWantRedheads: As his relationship with Black Widow proved. %%Proved what?

** Danny Rand/Iron Fist took his place briefly during the ComicBook/CivilWar.

** His athletic abilities are so close to superhuman that it makes no difference. In at least one instance, he overturned a freaking LIMO, with 4 people in it.

** In the ''[[ComicBook/DaredevilBornAgain Born Again]]'' storyline, [[ComicBook/TheKingpin Wilson Fisk]] does everything in his power to make Matt's life living hell, and destroy everything he had. When Matt is left homeless and penniless with barely any of his sanity left, Fisk thinks he has beaten him... Only to realise that he has created a man with nothing to lose, and thus a man without fear.
** This happens again in a later storyline when Mysterio tries to break Daredevil as his dying act, only for him to deliver a scathing TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and explain why that's not possible.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Well, the universe has a habit of seeing several of Matt's good deeds comes back to bite him, starting with a fact he was blinded by a truck carrying toxic waste while saving a guy from said truck. [[spoiler:The miniseries ''Father'' even added BackstoryHorror to this by revealing the old man was molesting his own daughter, who grew up to become a serial killer targeting people Matt saved as revenge.]]

* DisabilitySuperpower: He was hit in the face by a radioactive canister and went blind. His other senses [[SuperSenses became super-powerful]], and he acquired a "radar sense" that let him "see" objects, much like echolocation. (Creator/FrankMiller's influential run took him closer to this trope, partially explaining the radar sense as a CharlesAtlasSuperpower resulting from training with his enhanced senses.) His touch is so sensitive, he can read normal print by feeling the ''ink''. With ''gloves on''. His hearing is so sharp, he's bothered by the ''Les Miserables'' production across town. Often considered the UrExample of this trope, though Creator/{{DC|Comics}}'s ComicBook/DoctorMidNite precedes him by over 20 years. Even so, he's certainly the most iconic example - right down to the ''dis'' in his ability; loud noises seriously disorient him, and he has trouble handling currency because it's stamped too flat for him to feel the impressions -- the movie shows that he folds different denominations in different ways to distinguish them (TruthInTelevision, this is a standard technique of the blind for keeping their cash organized).

* [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys All Guys Want Bad Girls]]: He made a life out of having affairs with bad girls such as the Comicbook/BlackWidow (though she [[HeelFaceTurn wasn't a villain by this point]]), Elektra, or Typhoid Mary to the point he's been accused of LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces.

* AntiHero: [[KnightInSourArmor Doing what's right despite the crap he's put through.]] He starts to PayEvilUntoEvil to borderline NominalHero levels during the ''Comicbook/{{Shadowland}}'' event.

* TheCowl: He's basically Marvel's Batman. Well, [[Franchise/SpiderMan one]] [[ComicBook/MoonKnight of]] [[ComicBook/IronMan them]].

** Less literally, one of Daredevil's CMOA's was when he beat to death (with a stick) ''Ultron'', a killer robot who regularly causes [[Comicbook/TheAvengers much more powerful heroes]] to fudge their undies.
** An early CMOA had Daredevil go up against [[Comicbook/SubMariner Namor]] back when Namor was enough to take on either the whole of Comicbook/TheAvengers or the whole of the Comicbook/FantasticFour. Daredevil doesn't win the fight ''per se'', but Namor cancels his attack in respect to Daredevil's bravery and tenacity.

* FightsLikeANormal: Matt's has superhuman senses of hearing, smell, taste and touch compensate for his blindness. Other than that, he has not superpowers and by on with being a highly skilled martial artist and athlete. Given he has beaten the likes of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and Comicbook/ThePunisher in one-on-one fights, this more than enough for him.

* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: No, seriously. When Matt's enemies find out who he is, they make his life Hell. They don't destroy him, they ''make him destroy himself.'' This even extends to him turning down an invitation to join the ComicBook/NewAvengers on two separate occasions, as he didn't want to put the rest of the team at risk by associating with him -- he accepted the second invitation, however, when ComicBook/LukeCage & Comicbook/JessicaJones pointed out that he'd be an Avenger, so they'd have his back.

** Danny Rand/Iron Fist took his place briefly during the Comicbook/CivilWar.
** Comicbook/BlackPanther briefly took over as the defender of Hell's Kitchen after the events of ''Shadowland''.

* ReallyGetsAround: Fans generally agree that the title of supreme pimp of the Marvel Universe is a tossup between him and [[Comicbook/IronMan Tony Stark]]. A ''weighted'' tossup, as Stark tends to cheat by surrounding himself with expensive bombshell bait. Murdock just lays back and waits, knowing that any woman who thinks about it will realize that besides his sculpted physique, a blind man can [[PowerPerversionPotential give a woman the sensation of Braille being read.]]

* RoguesGalleryTransplant: It's often been pointed out that most of Daredevil's villains are someone else's "castoffs". While Electro earned his spurs fighting Franchise/SpiderMan, he was also the first supervillain Daredevil defeated, and returned to tangle with Matt on a semi-regular basis. Daredevil would also have one-off fights with other villains, such as Klaw (an enemy of the Comicbook/BlackPanther), the Absorbing Man (an enemy of Comicbook/TheMightyThor), the Blob and Pyro (enemies of the ComicBook/XMen), and Nitro (an enemy of ComicBook/{{Captain Marvel|MarvelComics}}).

** ComicBook/{{Mysterio}}, again a Spider-Man villain, had Daredevil as his "adopted" nemesis during an arc because Comicbook/TheCloneSaga deal kept Mysterio from knowing if Spider-Man was the real thing or just a clone.

* AccidentalMurder: A man who fights like Hell against overwhelming odds sometimes sends people there by accident, which hobbles his vigilante career in Frank Miller's ''Daredevil: The Man without Fear'' when he unintentionally kicks an attacker out of a window, and a similar mortal outcome is the inciting incident to Chip Zdarsky's run.
* [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys All Guys Want Bad Girls]]: He made a life out of having affairs with bad girls such as the Comicbook/BlackWidow, Elektra, or Typhoid Mary to the point he's been accused of LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces.

* AmoralAttorney: Averted. Matt refuses to represent anyone who is guilty and he can always tell.

* FightsLikeANormal: He has superhuman senses, but no SuperStrength or anything like that, so he gets by with being a highly skilled martial artist; enough to have beaten ''both'' ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and Comicbook/ThePunisher in one-on-one fights.

* ForgotTheDisability: Characters will frequently forget that Matt Murdock is blind, immediately apologizing afterwards for being insensitive. Though Matt always casually brushes it off while acting amused by the mistake.

* HeroesWantRedheads: As his relationship with Black Widow proved.

* HeterosexualLifePartners:
** Matt's relationship with his law partner Foggy Nelson.
** Also DD and Spider-Man, who know each other's secret identities. Until they don't (or, rather, [[ComicBook/OneMoreDay until no one knows Spidey's]]).
*** And now that's been reversed.

* HurtingHero:
** Matt probably the ''only'' super hero who has it ''even worse'' than ComicBook/SpiderMan. 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. Many issues have shown him as being so emotionally damaged that he is almost incapable of feeling happiness and he feels like he can do little more than brace himself for the next trauma or humiliation. Bendis and Brubaker's consecutive runs had him go though a mental breakdown over the death of his longtime girlfriend Karen Page, his secret identity being blown, getting sent to a high security prison (filled mostly with criminals he'd put away) for obstruction of justice, his wife being driven insane by a supervillain, getting committed to a mental hospital and his best friend seemingly killed.
** It got so bad that Creator/MarkWaid made his run ''much'' LighterAndSofter because he was sick of, in his words, "needing a stiff drink" every time he read an issue. Naturally, the next writer after Waid ''immediately'' undid everything Waid set up so Matt could go back to being [[StatusQuoIsGod as utterly miserable as possible]].

* KilledOffForReal: In the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, during ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}''.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/913tn6nkgdl.jpg The Man Without Fear]]

* ClarkKenting: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. His costume covers his whole body, and nobody suspects his SecretIdentity of a blind lawyer -- which does not stop ''loads'' of people from finding it out anyway, including some of his worst enemies. Spider-Man once jokingly said that Daredevil's true identity is "the worst-kept secret since Series/HannahMontana." This hit its nadir when his identity was discovered by a mid-level gangster and publicly exposed to the entire world in one of the most groundbreaking {{story arc}}s in superhero fiction. He eventually "proved" in court that he wasn't Daredevil, but for years all of his allies and enemies knew who he really was. Charles Soule's run had him finally put that particular genie back in the bottle with the help of machine and the mind-control powers of the Purple Man's offspring.

* HurtingHero: Matt is only second to ComicBook/IronMan on this. 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. Many issues have shown him as being so emotionally damaged that he is almost incapable of feeling happiness and he feels like he can do little more than brace himself for the next trauma or humiliation. The last couple of writers on Daredevil (Bendis and Brubaker) have seemingly competed to see just how much pain they can put Matt Murdock through. Just in the last two runs, he's gone though a mental breakdown over the death of his longtime girlfriend Karen Page, his secret identity was blown and he was sent to a high security prison (filled mostly with criminals he'd put away) for obstruction of justice, his wife was driven insane by a supervillain and committed to a mental hospital and his best friend was stabbed and assumed to be killed.

* AmbiguousDisorder: It is never acknowledged, but his symptoms match those of Sensory Processing Disorder, right down to the inconsistencies – except for the part where most of the time he has no trouble processing what his senses tell him, largely due to training.

* ClarkKenting: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. His costume covers his whole body, and nobody suspects his SecretIdentity of a blind lawyer -- which does not stop ''loads'' of people from finding it out anyway, including some of his worst enemies. Spider-Man once jokingly said that Daredevil's true identity is "the worst-kept secret since Series/HannahMontana." In this case, it's because -- in one of the most groundbreaking {{story arc}}s in superhero fiction during Bendis' run -- 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. Not to mention civilians.

* ClarkKenting: 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 Series/HannahMontana". The trope itself is an aversion since his SecretIdentity and costume in and of themselves are both very efficient. In this case, it's because -- in one of the most groundbreaking {{story arc}}s in superhero fiction during Bendis' run -- 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. Not to mention civilians.