Daredevil powers and weaknesses in Marvel Comics and MCU explained

Daredevil is a Man Without Fear, but you’d probably be less scared, too, if you could see everything around you in a 360-degree radar. Here’s a look at his incredible powers in Marvel Comics and the MCU. 

The return of Daredevil to the MCU has been one of the hottest commodities for the last several years. After a surprise cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home and a big return for Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the Man Without Fear is finally making his way back. 

Daredevil: Born Again will mark the next Daredevil-centric MCU story, and fans may want to dip their toes back into the comics. There are decades of stories to follow along with and plenty of tales that focus on Daredevil’s origins and incredible powers. 

Before his next MCU appearance, here’s a quick look at Daredevil’s powers in the comics and MCU. 

Daredevil powers in Marvel Comics & MCU

Radar sense

Perhaps Daredevil’s most prominent power is his incredible 360-degree radar sense. Daredevil’s radar sense gives him a keen awareness of everything around him. 

The MCU series has depicted this as more of a fuzzy way of seeing the world with its “world on fire” approach, but the comics have a much more definitive look, presenting it as a highly precise method of viewing the world. How Daredevil’s radar sense actually functions has several possible explanations, but it’s not tied in any way to echolocation, despite what the 2003 movie would have you believe. 

With the radar sense, Daredevil is able to essentially replace his lost eyesight. It’s a major contributing factor to how he’s able to be so acrobatic, coupled with abilities like his enhanced sense of touch and enhanced balance. It comes at a price, though, as stories where Daredevil’s vision is restored show him fighting at a disadvantage. 

Enhanced senses

In addition to his radar sense, Daredevil’s other senses are also enhanced. Just how much they’re enhanced depends on how long he’s had them (and, let’s be real, how strong the writer wants him to be). 

In Daredevil #1, his abilities were fairly mundane. He could tell if someone was in a room by hearing their heartbeat, identify someone by their smell, tell how many bullets were in a gun by its weight, and count the grains of salt on a pretzel with his tongue. 

Over the years, though, his powers have become truly remarkable. Daredevil is a living lie detector thanks to his ability to read heartbeats, while his sense of touch allows him to read temperature shifts when someone enters a room. 

Expert ninja training

It may not be a power, but it’s still worth highlighting Daredevil’s phenomenal fighting prowess. Daredevil is an honest-to-god ninja, after all. 

Daredevil trained as a fighter since childhood, having helped his father, “Battling” Jack Murdock prepare for boxing matches. After his accident gave him enhanced powers, Matt was trained by Stick, a grandmaster of the ninja cult known as The Chaste. 

Daredevil would only occasionally ally with The Chaste to battle The Hand, choosing instead to use his abilities to defend Hell’s Kitchen. 

Is Daredevil blind? 

Daredevil has been blind since childhood. A young Matt Murdock saved a blind man who was about to be hit by a truck but put himself in harm’s way instead. The truck spilled a radioactive isotope, which blinded Matt. 

That same radioactive isotope is responsible for Daredevil’s enhanced powers. Daredevil’s blindness has rarely been portrayed as a handicap, though stories where he loses his radar sense depict him as at a disadvantage when fighting. 

Numerous stories over the years have presented the idea that Matt Murdock could have surgery to restore his eyesight. Early issues had Karen Page pleading with Matt to have an experimental procedure that could restore them, while characters like Moon Dragon, Beyonder, and Iron Man have found methods to restore his eyesight. Daredevil has refused these, though, as the cost of losing his eyesight versus the benefit of his enhanced abilities compromised his beliefs. 

Daredevil weaknesses in Marvel Comics & MCU

Enhanced Senses

In much the same way that they’re a boon, Daredevil’s enhanced senses are a weakness. Anyone who can successfully overwhelm just one of his senses may put him at a disadvantage if not outright harming him. 

Stories have dealt with this taken to the extreme, like a stint in the ‘80s where his senses were driven into overdrive, resulting in him needing an isolation chamber. Other stories have established ways to confuse or overload his senses, such as two men telling conflicting stories in the same room, leading to their heartbeats being too similar for Daredevil to tell them apart. 

A fun caveat of this is Daredevil’s struggle in the modern age. His radar sense can’t see through water, so someone can use fire suppression sprinklers to dull his vision. Even more troublesome, his enhanced senses are absolutely useless when presented with a modern smartphone screen, leading to several moments where an iPhone nearly ruined Daredevil’s greatest secret.

Non-superhuman

Daredevil is still a regular human and is susceptible to the same things a regular human would be. That includes not just your run-of-mill aging and illnesses but also the physical wear and tear of being a superhero. 

The isotope which enhanced his abilities did not offer him any type of enhanced durability. Gunshots, knife wounds, and broken bones all stop him in his tracks. 

He’s also just plain tough as hell. He can numb himself to pain, but a lot of it is attributed to his upbringing at the hands of a boxer and a ninja cult, as well as his devout Catholic faith. The result is a hero with an incredible tolerance for pain and a never-say-die attitude. 

That’s all for now on Daredevil’s powers but stick with Dexerto for more Daredevil and MCU news.