DD

*'''Name:''' Daredevil, The Man Without Fear
*'''Real Name:''' Matt Murdock
*'''Gender:''' Male
*'''Age:''' Early to mid-thirties
*'''Appearance:''' [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121227140445/marveldatabase/images/d/d9/Matthew_Murdock_(Earth-TRN177).jpg Abide by the law]][[http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/daredevil-01.jpg - or face the Devil.]]
*'''Alignment:''' Good, with varying degrees of Anti-Heroism depending on which portrayal I decide to use.
*'''Personality:''' Blind attorney Matt Murdock has few people to rely on. His mother left him at a young age and took the veil. His father was brutally murdered for refusing to throw a rigged boxing match. Most of his lovers are either dead or insane. These things take their toll on a man. Matt is withdrawn and solemn, approaching both cases and life with the careful efficiency of a blind man. He never gets too close to someone - except when he does, which is a lot. The man is extremely susceptible to women. Despite his track record, he continues to be snared by them, perhaps in a vain attempt to fill the void left by his mother's absence. It never ends well. From a young age, Matt has had a burning desire for the justice that the law brings - he therefore views himself as judge and jury but not executioner. He will fight tirelessly for the downtrodden in court and street, but he will never kill. That, he insists, has never been his right and never will be. This attitude has brought him into conflict with many grimmer antiheroes in the past. He has always managed to hold his own. His father is his hero. Matt has been beaten down by life for years, but he will always abide by Battlin' Jack Murdock's words - to never give up. No matter how hard the fall is or how broken his mind is, Matt will never give up. That is why they call him the Man Without Fear.
**Or at least, that was how it used to be. After the most recent string of personal disasters (in which Matt was imprisoned, his wife went insane and his very identity came under threat), he decided that it was time for a change. Casting off his old practice and all his ties in New York City, he moved to the happier place known as Jump City with a new, happier face. Matt now looks on the bright side of life, trying to retain some of the gaiety of his early days as the Sightless Swashbuckler. Having grown as a person, he refuses to let depression get him down again, and is making moves to accept his past rather than running away from it. His new love, Jennifer Walters,

*'''Powers and Abilities:'''
**''Enhanced Smell, Taste, Touch, and Hearing:'' Matt Murdock is blind. However, the radioactive fluid that took his sight also unlocked the potential hidden inside every human - he can therefore hear, smell, taste, and touch better than anyone on Earth-616 (bah humbug Superman). His hearing is sharp enough to distinguish a single cough in a city of noise, and once he has heard a voice he can recognise it instantly. By listening to a person's heartbeat, he can always tell if they're lying or not - this is thrown off by pacemakers and the like, but otherwise infallibly accurate. His sense of smell is hundreds of times better than a dog's, allowing him to track anyone no matter how much they attempt to disguise their scent. After ten seconds or so, he can name every chemical in a mouthful of food. His fingertips are sensitive enough to let him read typed print by running his fingers over the page; however, banknotes and photographs are too smooth for him to make out. Normal computers are also off-limits. In a way, these senses are also his greatest weakness. Matt has to screen out an incredible amount of sensory input just to function. Unexpected loud noises (like a subway train) will disorientate him, as will particularly bad smells or chemical tastes. He is a lot better at blocking out pain, but then again he feels a lot more pain than your ordinary person. Overloading his senses is the easiest way to take him out.

**''Radar Sense:'' Matt's second sight. As well as enhancing four of his senses, the radioactive waste unlocked a sixth one that very few manage to get - what Matt terms his radar sense. In effect, he 'feels' everything around him in three dimensions, similar to running his fingers over everything at once. The resolution of this sense is not enough for him to determine facial features or specific textures, but it does give him an uncanny picture of the relative positions and shapes of everything around him. Better than sight, in fact. It is this that allows him to do what he does - he can deal with a ring of attackers, work out the best way to scale a nearby building and map his surroundings all at once. However, disabling it (through psychic attacks or inducing mental instability) leaves him truly blind.

**''Master Pugilist, Olympic-Level Gymnast/Acrobat:'' Trained by Stick, leader of the ninja clan known as the Chaste, Matt is a master of the hidden arts, making him a fearsome force in combat. He has a comprehensive knowledge of pressure points, can blend seamlessly into a group at any point, and can use multiple weapons with ease. However, he does not fight like a ninja. Instead, he uses a unique fusion of numerous styles, with emphasis on boxing and jujitsu. He has also trained his body to peak human levels, capable of going toe-to-toe with Captain America despite the latter being borderline superhuman. He uses his incredible gymnastics/acrobatics/ninja skills to move about the cityscape with fluid ease, and is strong enough to kick a car door clean off its hinges with both feet from a prone position and heft a 450-pound weight like a 50. He has been seen deflecting handgun rounds with a billy club - however, in that case the shooter was standing a few feet away and was pointing his gun straight at Matt allowing him ample time to anticipate the shots. The second bullet was sent back. Most of the time he is forced to dodge them. Incidentally, he is a crack shot himself.

*'''Weapons and Equipment:'''
**''Billy Club:'' Daredevil's signature weapon. Matt uses it as a blind man's cane in civilian guise. Designed by him, the cane contains thirty feet of aircraft control cable attached to a grapnel, which he can fire at a moment's notice. It splits into two halves, one a fighting baton, the other a curved hook. Each can be straightened out or bent as necessary. The club also telescopes out to form a bo staff. A perfectly balanced weapon, Matt can throw his club with astounding accuracy, rebounding it off multiple surfaces to hit his target. He can sling it hard enough to penetrate concrete. He is an expert fighter with the club in all its forms, making use of its versatility in a staggering number of ways.

*'''Origin:''' Hell's Kitchen. Matt Murdock's father, prizefighter Battlin' Jack Murdock, was a good man forced to drink and crime by a mobster known as the Fixer. In order that his son would have a better future, Jack forced Matt to study every spare hour of the day. It was this apparent bookishness that caused his young peers to label him with the mocking title 'Daredevil.' However, that all changed when Matt was ten. He saw a truck speeding down the road, about to hit a blind man. Pushing him out of the way, the young Matt was hit across the eyes by a falling canister of radioactive isotope. He was blinded instantly. Waking up in the hospital, Matt was instantly assaulted by an overwhelming battery of sensations, nearly driving him insane. The encouragement of an unknown nun (later revealed to be his mother) and an old man named Stick allowed him to master his new hypersenses. Matt became a master acrobat and fighter under Stick's tutelage, all while getting himself into Yale Law School with sheer determination.
**By then, Battlin' Jack was far past his prime. A series of rigged matches saw him facing a much younger man for the championship title. Beaten into the ground, he was told to throw the fight or suffer the consequences. But his son was in the audience. For the last time, Battlin' Jack Murdock refused to stay down and won the championship match. He was shot to death the same day. Feeling his father's broken corpse with his hands, Matt vowed revenge. He put on a yellow-brown devil costume and chased down the Fixer, only for the latter to die of a heart attack. Having experienced death twice that week, Matt vowed to make it so that no-one else would suffer his pain. Opening the firm of Nelson and Murdock in Manhattan with his best friend Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson, Matt soon switched his costume to red and became a respected and brilliant attorney, defending people on both sides of the law as the costumed crimefighter... Daredevil!

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Now, I'm not sure which incarnation of DD I'm actually going to use. I may decide to use the darker antiheroic version of Miller/Bendis/Brubaker, or I might go with Nocenti/Waid's LighterAndSofter version. Are you short of brooding antiheroes, by any chance? [tongue]