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Background
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Pre History
The son of a small-time boxer, Matt Murdock was taught by his father that fighting was not the answer to life’s problems. As raised by his father, Matt was selflessly noble. This was never more apparent than when he pushed an elderly man out of the path of a runaway truck. Matt’s kindness was cruelly repaid by fate when radioactive waste from the vehicle’s payload splashed onto his eyes, blinding him. Devastated at first by his apparent handicap, Matt slowly came to realize that the accident had radically augmented his ability to perceive the world around him. His vision was gone, but the radioactivity had heightened his other senses to a superhuman degree.
Unable to adjust to his overdeveloped senses, the terrified Matt eventually came under the tutelage of the blind martial-arts master Stick. A stern, unrelenting taskmaster, Stick educated Matt in both the spiritual and physical aspects of the martial arts, refusing to let him think of himself as a helpless victim. Matt emerged as an Olympic-class gymnast and formidable hand-to-hand combatant.
Matt’s pain and guilt over the losses in his life have replaced his earlier motivations, fueling his battles as Daredevil long after any reasonable man would have quit the fight. In the wake of so many deaths, Matt’s suffering and grief are his only constant companions. Night after night, he struggles to safeguard Hell’s Kitchen—seeking absolution and forgiveness from those who have long since lost the ability to clear his conscience.
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