Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Daredevil: Born AgainThe MCU’s Daredevil has some of the most impressive abilities in the MCU. Having received his powers as a boy at the cost of his vision, Matthew Murdock (Charlie Cox) spent years learning how to hone his remaining senses, as well as undertaking years of martial arts training and physical conditioning. This allowed him to become “The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen”, dispensing vigilante justice by night while fighting in the courtroom as a lawyer by day.
Daredevil’s MCU story first began with three seasons on Netflix and a crossover event series with other New York-based heroes known as The Defenders. Following 3 MCU appearances in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and in 2024’s Echo, Daredevil has now received his very own revival series seven years later with Daredevil: Born Again. To that end, here’s a refresher explaining how Matt Murdock got his powers, both in the MCU and how they compare to his abilities in the original Marvel Comics.
How Daredevil Got His Powers In The MCU
Chemical Spill In His Childhood
As seen in the first season of Netflix’s Daredevil, Matthew Murdock was nine years old when he saved an elderly man in the street. However, the consequence was a truck with chemicals spilling right into his eyes. Although he went permanently blind, Matt Murdock’s remaining senses were enhanced beyond normal human levels. Initially, this resulted in a constant sensory overload for the young boy, and it became incredibly hard for him to function when he could hear, touch, smell, and taste to such an extremely high degree.
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Following the murder of his father who refused to throw a boxing match, the orphaned Matt was approached by Stick, a blind martial arts master and member of The Chaste, an organization dedicated to stopping the operations of the ancient dark ninja clan known as The Hand. Thanks to Stick, Matt learned not only how to focus his senses to “see” more than anyone ever could with their eyes, but also how to fight using various forms of martial arts. He also learned ancient meditation techniques to help heal his body when wounded.
Daredevil’s MCU Powers and Equipment Fully Explained
Enhanced Senses Combined With Years Of Physical Training
Over time, Matt’s body essentially developed a second sight or “radar” sense, which is what allows him to fight crime as Daredevil. Using his enhanced senses, Murdock can register where objects and people are in relation to himself, feeling the changes in the air, heartbeats, smells, and so on. In Daredevil season 1, Murdock describes his second sight as seeing “fragments of an impressionistic painting” or “a world on fire”, and viewers are shown a depiction of what he essentially “sees”: shadows ringed with brief outlines of light, but very little detail.
Likewise, the sounds made by himself or others allow him to spatially map his environment, not unlike bats and echolocation. In the comics, Daredevil’s radar sense is also on par with Spider-Man’s spider-sense, a fact that’s proven in the MCU when Murdock catches the brick thrown into the Parkers’ apartment in Spider-Man: No Way Home. There’s also a really great moment in the premiere of Daredevil: Born Again where the aspect ratio of the screen changes and shifts as Murdock hones in with his senses during his battle with Bullseye, a clever immersive camera technique to cue viewers into how Matt uses his powers.
To that end, Daredevil’s heightened senses give him an array of impressive advantages. To name a notable few, Daredevil can fight completely in the dark, hear sounds and people talking from great distances, and he even knows whenever someone is lying based on how their heartbeat changes. He also has enhanced agility and perfect balance, and wields a billy club as Daredevil. The billy club can be split in two short sticks connected by a high tensile wire, allowing him to swing and grapple around the rooftops of New York as well as to grab and counter opponents during close-quarters combat.
How Marvel Changed Daredevil’s Powers From The Comics
They’re Pretty Similar
For the most part, Daredevil’s powers and abilities in the MCU are about the same as they are in the original Marvel Comics. That said, Daredevil’s second “sight” on the page is depicted much more like sonar as opposed to the “world on fire” in the MCU. Also, the chemicals that spilled on Matt’s face and gave him his powers in the MCU specifically originated from the Rand Corporation, the company owned by Danny Rand aka Iron Fist.
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Other than that, Daredevil’s MCU powers are pretty accurate to what’s been established in the comics. They’re both at about the same level of enhancement, and there isn’t one version that appears to be “better” than the other. At any rate, it’s going to be very exciting to see what new ways Daredevil might use his powers as Born Again continues.
New episodes of Daredevil: Born Again release Tuesday nights on Disney+.
Daredevil: Born Again
9/10
- Release Date
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March 4, 2025
- Showrunner
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Chris Ord
- Directors
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Michael Cuesta, Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, Jeffrey Nachmanoff
- Writers
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Chris Ord
Upcoming MCU Movies