When Matt Murdock was a child, he watched as a truck carrying dangerous chemicals barreled down the street toward a blind man. Instinctively, he rushed in to help the older man, saving him from being run over. Despite this, chemicals from the truck spilled onto him, blinding Matt and entering his bloodstream. While these toxins robbed him of his sight, they strengthened his other senses and giving him a radar-like sense to detect objects around him.
Matt Murdock trained to become physically fit and eventually donned a costume, becoming Daredevil, the Man Without Fear. As a street-level superhero, he is surprisingly effective, using his powers in unique ways. Here are ten surprising things most fans didn't know he could do with his powers:
10 Detect Cancer
Like a number of powers on this list, the first entry comes from Mark Waid and Chris Samney's run on Daredevil, which stood out in how it showcased all of the unique ways Matt Murdock experienced the world and how he used his superpowers. They also told an unforgettable, darkly personal story in which Matt's best friend and law partner, Foggy Nelson, battled cancer.
In their final issue, Kingpin held Foggy and Matt's girlfriend, Kirsten McDuffie as hostages. To get to them, Daredevil infiltrated the Kingpin's lair while disguised as the villain Ikari. He got so close to Foggy, he could actually smell the absence of Foggy's cancer, meaning that Foggy's long onerous treatment had been successful. Matt can literally smell the presence or absence of fcancer!
9 Learn Any Instrument
Being raised by a working-class single father in the projects of Hell's Kitchen, Matt Murdock did not exactly have the luxury of musical education. Sheet music in Braille was not something they could spend money on, nor were musical instruments exactly high on the priorities of things his father could buy when money was tight.
As an adult, Matt has made up for this with his powers, using his keen sense of hearing and fine motor skills to pick up an instrument and teach himself to play on the spot, as he demonstrated when using a violin for the first time in the New York subway.
8 Defensive Driving
Defensive driving is the art of driving to get somewhere quickly and safely no matter the conditions on the road. In real life, many people who work for government agencies are taught special defensive driving techniques which are probably a bit more offensive in nature, learning how to force their way through seemingly impassible bumper-to-bumper traffic and crowds of people.
Generally, blind people are not known for their ability to drive. Despite this, Matt managed to drive a convertible through rush hour traffic while pursuing a target on a motorcycle. Considering his target was a professional stunt driver, this is all the more impressive that he managed to put the brakes on his target's activities.
7 Mastery Archery
As a boy, Matt Murdock was trained to fight by the old crotchety martial artist Stick, who was also blind. Stick was trying to recruit Matt to join him as a child soldier who would grow up to fight against the ninja assassins of the Hand. One of the many skills that Stick taught him was the use of a bow and arrow.
Seeing a target tends to be a major focus of archery. However, Matt has a special radar sense that lets him pick out the shape and distance of objects. This allowed him to hit a bullseye with a bow and arrow, something most people with 20/20 vision would find difficult to pull off.
6 Win at Billiards
When Matt was out at a bar with his best friend Foggy and their associate Karen Paige, some guys at the nearby pool table started cracking Helen Keller jokes to mock Matt. Acting as though this did not bother him, Matt asked Foggy to rack the pool balls for him. The game was paying out $5 per ball.
Matt Murdock casually sidled up to the table, then proceeded to thrash the guys at pool, all while telling a series of horrifyingly off-color Helen Keller jokes. Afterward, they tried to jump him outside the bar, at which point he showed the group he's even better with his fists.
5 Lockpicking
As a superhero, Daredevil usually works to stop people who are trying to break into secure locations they aren't supposed to be. Burglars and bank robbers are easy fodder for him to stop, but also seem to be morally opposed to what he hopes to accomplish.
This is why it is so surprising that he is such a master at breaking and entering. Not only can he get past basic combinations locks, feeling each sensitive click of the inner mechanisms sliding into place, but he has also gotten past advanced high-tech security systems, working alongside the master cat burglar Black Cat.
4 Hear Pressure Points
When Daredevil fought the villain Bruiser, the Man Without Fear was soundly thrashed. Bruiser's power let the thug for hire hit someone with the full force of his body weight, as he can change the center of his mass on a whim. This puts pressure on his body, in particular, his bones and joints.
Daredevil could hear the shifting pressure and used it to strike at the exact point that would deal the most damage, crippling Bruiser by shattering the mercenary's bones. While it is easier to do on someone whose body weight exerts that kind of stress on their body, the same technique could be applied to others.
3 Crime Scene Forensics
Daredevil's heightened senses allow him to examine his surroundings. At a crime scene, he can smell chemicals in the air, the copper of spent bullet casings, or the metal in blood that was spilled. With his radar sense, he can detect a door that has been forced open or the presence of a hidden safe that thieves tried to gain access to.
More depressing and visceral details he also can scrutinize, though some require a sense of touch which could disturb a crime scene. Still, his senses are better than most untrained people could hope to pull off.
2 Identify A Gun
Different types of guns have different qualities. Someone with Daredevil's excellent hearing can easily tell the difference between a 9mm handgun and a single shot being fired from an M60 machine gun like the one Punisher favors. But he can do far better than that. He can hear the way a finger squeezes the trigger on a Glock or the unique rasp of the slide on a Beretta, telling these two 9mm handguns apart from one another.
For a crime fighter, this is an incredibly useful skill, as it helps him predict when an enemy will run out of ammo and what types of items he can use for cover to avoid getting shot himself.
1 Read by Touch:
One of his lesser-known abilities, Matt Murdock can actually read the writing on a piece of paper by running his fingers over it. The imprint left by a pen, typewriter, or even some printers leave enough of an indentation that he can read the writing by touch. He can even identify a person's distinctive handwriting using this technique.
In the age of screens and smartphones, this ability is perhaps a little less handy, but it is still quite impressive and has proven invaluable in his life, both as a civilian and as a superhero.