Matt Murdock
This page is about the Phase 2 incarnation of the character. For other uses, see Matt Murdock (disambiguation).
| Matt Murdock | |
|---|---|
 Portrayed by Charlie Cox | |
| Codename: | Daredevil |
| Affiliations: | eXcalibur |
| Birthdate: | May 10, 1986 |
| Journal: | New York State of Mind |
| Player: | Maureen |
The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure. - Sven Goran Eriksson
Lawyer at Xavier's Institute and member of the eXcalibur team.
Contents
Details
Character Journal: xp_daredevil
Real Name: Matthew Michael Murdock
Codename: Daredevil
Aliases: Matt, Matt Kimura
First Appearance: Jannuary 23, 2015
Date of Birth: May 10, 1986
Place of Birth: Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, NYC, NY
Citizenship: USA
Relatives: Clint Barton (adopted brother), Steve and Andre Kimura-Murdock (uncles), Jack Murdock (father, deceased), Grace Murdock (mother, deceased)
Education: graduated with honours from Columbia Preparatory School (2007), Pace University Manhattan, BS in Criminal Justice summa cum laude (2011), Juris Doctorate magna cum laude from Columbia Law School (2014)
Relationship Status: single
Occupation: lawyer
Team Affiliation: eXcalibur
Biography
Childhood
Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Some people…aren’t. Matt Murdock was one of those people. His father, Jack, was a high school dropout, alcoholic, and a professional boxer who never amounted to anything serious in the ring. His mother was a high school girl who thought she was in love with a boxer until she discovered that she was pregnant and realized she did not want to be married and have a child at 18. However, she was Catholic and did not believe in abortion either.
Nine months later, she left the baby with Jack. It had been that or putting the child up for adoption, an option she did not favor as she would have no way to check up on her child or know how he was doing. Her parents had insisted though, a closed adoption would be best. Yes, there were other options, she recognized that peripherally, but she was a good daughter, or at least she tried to be, and she was scared. In regards to her child, she did what she hoped was best.
Having a child did help Jack, to an extent. He still boxed, but he also got jobs working construction and sometimes for the local mob, and while his drinking continued it lessened and it was more likely to occur at home instead of at the bar. It was at least something. Over the next several years Jack worked a number of odd jobs in an attempt to put food on the table with varying degrees of success. He pushed his son in school to always do well, helping him as much as he could with very limited means. He enrolled him in after school tutoring programs, extended day programs, free Y camps for gymnastics and vacation bible school in the summers, anything he could that was free or Matt could get a scholarship to so that he would do well in school and stay out of trouble. Jack did not want his son to be the loser that he was.
Matt grew up getting taunted for how much studying he did, even at a young age, and it frequently meant that he was in fights with the other kids. His father forbade him from fighting, the only time that his father had ever hit him was the day he had come home with a black eye and crowing about how he had punched the other kid and how he had gone down, TKO!
Shocked and bewildered by his father hitting him, Matt ran, staying away for two days. He was on his way home, crossing a busy intersection in New York when he saw a blind man ahead of him about to be hit by a truck. He pushed the man out of the way and was hit by the truck instead. The truck belonged to Stark Industries and the driver had been running late, taking a shortcut and driving faster than he really should have been, especially with barrels of chemicals in the back.
Some of the barrels tipped and broke open, the entire situation was a mess from start to finish, and 9 year old Matt woke up in the hospital a few days later, his father by his side, blind. Permanently. Over the next few weeks, Matt began occupational therapy, learning to use a cane and read Braille. At the same time, he kept hearing things, getting pounding migraines and complaining that everything was too loud. The doctors thought that this was a side effect from the chemicals that blinded him or from Matt hitting his head and having some sort of traumatic brain injury. Despite all their tests all the doctors were able to do was prescribe Matt pain medication to help with the migraines.
Even with the generous settlement that Stark Industries gave to the Murdock’s to help cover Matt’s medical expenses and whatnot, Jack had to work hard to keep the family together. He stopped drinking entirely, training hard for boxing matches even though he was over 40 by this point and well over the hill for a boxer. Jack tried to make himself an example for Matt who was working hard to relearn the most basic tasks. Jack thought that if Matt could do it, rebuild his life, he could do it too. Simple enough.
As time passed, Matt’s migraines lessened and whether conscious of it or not, he began to learn control of his powers, blocking out extra noise. Nothing was ever that simple though. Jack’s games were being fixed by the local mob boss and he wasn’t winning out of ability, strategy or talent in the ring. After weeks of consistent wins, Jack was ordered to take a dive. To lose. Matt was in the audience like normal, cheering his father on from the front row. He never missed one of his dad’s matches. Jack couldn’t do it. He couldn’t intentionally lose with his son sitting right there, cheering him on. Matt was the reason he had stopped drinking, the reason he had gone back to boxing. No. He wouldn’t lose.
After that match, after he had showered in the locker room and gotten dressed to meet Matt so they could go home, he left through the back door and met two goons that worked for the mob boss. He wasn’t too surprised. He had expected to get worked over, maybe bust a rib or two. They beat him to a bloody pulp, then shot him, all within Matt’s hearing.
Death of Jack Murdock
Jack was unrecognizable to Matt when he was taken to the city medical examiner to identify his father’s body. He ran his fingers over Jack’s face slowly, trying to identify his features, but they were too disfigured. In the end, the priest of the church made the identification along with fingerprints. Matt didn’t know of any family to contact, but with the quiet suggestions of Sister Maggie, a friend of his father’s even if she was a nun, his social worker found an uncle of Matt’s that he hadn’t even known was in New York City.
Uncle Andre Murdock-Kimura and Steve Kimura lived in NYC with their adopted son, Clint Barton and they agreed to take Matt in as well. Clint and Matt quickly took to each other and Matt was enrolled in school with Clint and in martial arts. It didn’t matter that Clint was a couple grades and belts ahead of Matt, they did it together.
It was at the dojo that Matt met Stick, one of the owners of the dojo and blind himself. He took it upon himself to teach Matt personally and whether intentional or not, Matt’s control of his powers increased as well. Soon, he and Clint were climbing roofs and exploring places they shouldn’t, enjoying the unique view of the city that the rooftops provided.
The teens figured out that Matt was a mutant and with the growing hostility towards mutants, kept it from Andre and Steve. It wasn’t like Matt was a danger to anyone and his powers opened the world up to him in new ways, almost negating his blindness, therefore, what was the harm? They didn’t think Clint’s colourblindness or keen spatial awareness was anything but a genetic quirk and lots of practice.
In high school, Matt got involved with the swim team in addition to martial arts as well as joined a number of clubs in school. He found school to be a challenge, but one where he was no longer weird or strange for studying and doing well. College was the expectation, not the exception. He thrived in it.
College, Law school & Vigilantism
In college, Matt met Franklin “Foggy” Nelson his freshman year. They were paired together at freshman orientation at Pace University and shared a suite in the dorms. Matt didn’t have a roommate because of his disability and Foggy didn’t get on well with his own, so Foggy ended up in Matt’s room more often than not. They quickly became best friends, hanging out and often taking classes together. It made note-taking much easier on Matt.
It was in college that Matt began running the roofs at night and started responding to muggings. He hadn’t really intended to or thought about it specifically, but he also couldn’t ignore people needing help. It started simply enough, but he quickly realized that he needed to protect his identity and he added a mask, tying a black bandana around his upper face and hair.
It was during law school that he ran across Spiderman. They teamed up a few times to stop criminals, but mostly they ran in different parts of the city. Matt began using the name Daredevil to protect himself, taking it remembering his dad’s nickname as Jack “The Devil” Murdock. Plus, he was a daredevil. It was accurate.
In law school, Matt continued his rooftop adventures, though they were markedly less with his new time constraints. His final year of law school, he met the second, younger, Spiderman, that he nicknamed Little Bug both because of age and size.
After law school, Matt and Foggy wanted to start their own storefront shop, but without experience it wasn’t realistic. Thankfully, Foggy’s mother was a high-powered lawyer with a well-known firm and she agreed to help them with start-up capital to either buy out a storefront or start their own once they had a minimum of two years experience. If Matt and Foggy were being honest, they would have realized that Rosalind Sharpe never intended to give them the money.
Matt ended up working for Worthington Industries in Manhattan and had been there six months when everything changed.
Living At The X-Mansion
As Daredevil, Matt met another masked vigilante named Angel. It didn't take him long to realize that Angel was none other than Warren Worthington of Worthington Industries. His boss. Through Angel, Matt learned of Xavier's and he and Miles went to check it out, Peter opted not to go with them. It wasn't feasible for Matt to move to the school full time, but he was interested in it as a safe haven for mutants and learning more about his powers. He also introduced his brother, Clint, to the school. He lived at the school part-time, staying in the city for work and to continue his vigilante ways.
In July he helped the Spidermen investigate a series of break ins at Worthington industries, and was nearly killed by the Prowler. That didn't deter him, of course. In August he helped Clint with investigating an Atlantean artifact, which led to a short fight with some fish people when the artifact opened a portal.
When he wasn't getting into vigilante- or fish-related trouble, he was making friends around the mansion. He had several rather confusing encounters with Topaz, who didn't like him for some undetermined reason. When she returned in October she apologized for her behavior, and they made tentative steps toward becoming friends.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5'10"
General Build: Solid muscle without being a tank, he clearly works out.
Eyes: light brown
Hair: brown/red
Other Features: Matt’s eyes have a milky appearance thanks to the chemicals that blinded him as a child and he has nearly-invisible scars around his eyes
Powers
Matt has enhanced senses (hearing, touch, taste, and smell) though not eyesight for obvious reasons. He also can use his hearing as sonar like a bat to determine what is around him and get outlines of images as the sound waves bounce off. This being said – he gets outlines of objects; he doesn’t get detail, texture or colours. He also has a full 360° perception that extends 75 yards. If he wishes, he can focus on a more specific place farther away, but he loses the 360° perception and becomes blind on the opposite side. Because of his enhanced sense of touch, he has better than average balance as well, which aids him in martial arts and gymnastics/acrobatics.
In terms of sensitivity, he can hear a heartbeat and use it to determine if a person is lying or not as long as their heartbeat is not modified in any way, such as with a pacemaker. He can hear police sirens a couple blocks away in New York or feel the indentation of a ballpoint pen on the paper below the one that was written on if the person writing pressed down hard enough. He cannot see TV, movie or computer screens and while he can read a printed book, Braille is much easier. Anything printed on glossy paper like high end comic books or magazines he cannot read. He cannot see colours at all.
His biggest weakness is loud noises. The louder and more directed the noise, the more it hurts his ears. He does not do well in large groups or in loud places where he can be overwhelmed, though he has made significant strides on his own in dealing with these things as he lived in New York City for most of his life.
Because of the sheer volume of input that his brain receives from his other senses and that has to be processed for him to understand it, any psi that tries to read his mind will encounter a sort of "static" similar to white noise on a TV which makes his mind difficult to read at best. The psi would need to be able to understand the static and/or cut through it to read his mind. It CAN be read; however, it is incredibly painful for both psi and Matt and generally not worth the effort.
Equipment
billy club
Trivia
Instagram name: Avocado@Law
External Links
Plots
2015
Roadside Assistance - event
2016
Something Slender This Way Comes
Staff of Five - event
2017
2019
2021
X-Men Mission: Agents of SHIELD
2022
Reality 02: Clan Akkaba - Arrival
2023
Laved by the Gulf and Ocean Grand
2024
Meta
Player: Maureen
E-mail: darkladymo@gmail.com
Player Icon Base: Charlie Cox
Meta Trivia
Mo' also played the Phase 1 version of Matt, before killing him off and reapping him as an adult.
