Think Daredevil is one of the good guys? The blind lawyer from Hell's Kitchen isn't always fighting the good fight. Sometimes he's downright evil. The Man Without Fear should be called The Man Who Incites Fear. He's like a blind Batman without the ears. Daredevil has horns because he's the devil with a loose moral code and a questionable day job.
Daredevil became a lawyer to fight for justice during the day while enacting justice at night as the self-proclaimed protector of Hell's Kitchen. Matt Murdock has good intentions. He is a tragic character who has had a lot of terrible things happen to him. Perhaps he shouldn't be blamed for his life of lies and violence, but despite good intentions, here are the 10 worst things Daredevil ever did.
10 Criminal Manipulation Of Minors
Daredevil has a nemesis called The Purple Man, a.k.a. Zebediah Killgrave, who has the power to mind control people with pheromones. Killgrave has never known unconditional love, so he decided that the best way to discover true love was to gather all his illegitimate children. The Purple Children, as they're called, were born of the women Killgrave had assaulted under mind control over the years.
United, the Purple Children turned on Killgrave, using their inherited mind-control powers to make Killgrave walk in front of a train. He survived, then re-kidnapped his kids to use as batteries for a machine that would allow Killgrave to use his powers on a global level. Daredevil saves the kids of course. He's the good guy, right? Well, not really, because he has the kids use Killgrave's machine to make the world forget his secret identity.
9 Chauvinist
Matt Murdock is a bit of a chauvinist. Daredevil's first appearance was in Daredevil #1, 1964. Male writers dominated the comic book industry back then, which led to some questionable behaviors by our fictional so-called heroes. In Daredevil #120, 1975, Daredevil and Black Widow were dating.
Being the strong woman Natasha is, she voiced her independence to Daredevil, arguing that since they started dating she feels increasingly less independent. Probably because, at this point in sexist history, men like Matt Murdock say ridiculous chauvinistic things, then slap women's behinds, telling them, "Move it, darling."
8 Accessory To Girlfriend Murder
Dating Daredevil can be a death sentence. An inordinate amount of his romantic partners have perished due to dating a man without fear. There was Elektra, who was stabbed by Bullseye with her own blade. She's died several times actually, but she'll usually come back because ninjas are magic. But what about the girlfriends without magic ninja powers?
There was Karen Page. Again, death by Bullseye. Bullseye is big on killing people with their own weapons. When he threw Daredevil's billy club at him, Karen stepped in the way. There was the suicide of Heather Glenn because Daredevil blew her off, ignoring her cry for help. Not to forget Milla Donovan, whom Daredevil actually married. Milla isn't dead but she might as well be. She's lost her mind, living in an insane asylum, from having known Daredevil.
7 Assault And Battery Of Kingpin
Kingpin deserves a beating from time to time. However, when he avoided yet another prison sentence, Daredevil had enough. Interrupting Kingpin's dinner, the devil of Hell's Kitchen beat the crime boss half to death before declaring himself the new Kingpin of New York.
Little did Matt Murdock know at the time, that Kingpin is a master at serving cold dishes of revenge. From behind bars, Kingpin dismantles Daredevil's life, starting with leaking his true identity to the press, then driving his wife Milla crazy, culminating with Matt Murdock going to prison himself. Justice served?
6 Became A Crime Boss Multiple Times
Daredevil likes to be the guy running the show, whether it's in a courtroom or on the streets. The vigilante will assume any role he has to in order to gain a tactical advantage over his adversaries. That's why he's attempted to control the criminal organizations of New York multiple times.
Naturally, it always backfires on Daredevil. When he tried to be the new Kingpin, everyone from the Yakuza to Bullseye came after him. He was even worse as the leader of The Hand. Daredevil had high hopes of turning The Hand to a ninja force of justice in the Shadowland saga. Instead, Daredevil gets possessed by the Beast of The Hand and starts killing his enemies.
5 Attempted Murder Of The Punisher
In Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's classic run on the Punisher MAX series, there is a scene that was also adapted to season 2 of the Daredevil Netflix series where Punisher forces Daredevil to examine what it means to be a vigilante. To demonstrate how flawed Matt Murdock's moral code is, Punisher chains Daredevil to a rooftop pole with a revolver taped to his hand.
Punisher explains how he's going to kill a group of thugs on the street and the only way for Daredevil to stop him is to kill him first. Murdock resists, then ultimately relents, pulling the trigger. The gun clicks. Punisher proves his point. Everyone is a killer under the right circumstances.
4 Attempted Murder Of Bullseye
Daredevil's thing is throwing bad guys off rooftops. In Frank Miller's Daredevil Vol. 1 #181, Daredevil and Bullseye are playing good guy and bad guy, as they do, and Daredevil ends up tossing Bullseye off the rooftop, rendering him a quadriplegic. This wasn't a good enough attempt at murdering his nemesis; so Daredevil pays Bullseye a visit at the hospital.
In issue #191, D.D. starts playing Russian roulette with a bedridden Bullseye. He tortures him with five clicks of the barrel before revealing the gun isn't loaded. It makes one wonder who is playing the good guy and who is playing the bad guy?
3 Attempted Murder Of A Baby
Okay, baby murder sounds bad, but to be fair, Daredevil was on drugs. In Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada's Daredevil: Guardian Devil, Matt Murdock is going through some things. Karen Page died. Foggy was being framed for murder, then the Antichrist decided to show up as a baby. The baby could have also been the messiah. It was a crisis of faith for Daredevil to decide.
The Man Without Fear also applies to 'not afraid to kill a baby' because Daredevil decides the baby is the Antichrist. Best method of baby murder? The usual rooftop toss. Luckily, Black Widow shows up to point out you can't kill babies. Daredevil doesn't listen to his ex though, giving her a swift kick to the head before jumping off the roof with the baby. On their way to meet concrete, Daredevil has a change of heart, preventing their deaths. Later, Daredevil learns he was being poisoned by Mysterio...but still.
2 Kills People All The Time
Daredevil likes to believe he has a moral code involving not killing people but he's definitely killed a few. In Frank Miller's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #4, he killed the Kingpin's best assassin Larks by deflecting a bullet into his head.
In the same issue, Murdock lets one Kingpin henchmen drown while stabbing another. Then there was the time he killed Bullseye while possessed by an evil ninja spirit. Blade through the heart just like Elektra. Finally, there's the villain who killed his Dad, the Fixer. He chased the Fixer down till the guy had a heart attack. Seems like Daredevil needs to adjust his idea of a moral code.
1 Became A Lawyer
Conflict of interest, anyone? How can you operate in the world of the law when you go around breaking the law every night? It just doesn't make sense, but it's also what makes Daredevil such a compelling character. He embodies the duality that every human experiences in their life. Listen to the angel on your shoulder or listen to the devil?
Matt Murdock tends to listen to the devil. Out of all the terrible things Daredevil has done, making a mockery of the law is the worst. He has no business manipulating the word of law while making up his own rule of law as a vigilante. For shame, Daredevil.