As a teenager Matt Murdock was struck in the eyes by material from a radioactive cannister while saving an old man from being hit by a truck. Blinded by the incident, Murdock found that his senses had been magnified to superhuman levels and that he had acquired a "radar" sense that gave him a 360 degree three-dimensional view of his surroundings. His father, an aging boxer, made Matt promise to do well in school so that he wouldn't have to live by his fists. Matt was an excellent student, both before and after the accident that blinded him. He eventually became one of the best lawyers in the country.

Daredevil has a profound love of justice and the justice system, and works hard at making it work better rather than just scrapping it. However, as the vigilante Daredevil, he often has to work outside the law which has created some conflicts for Matt. The only weapon he regularly uses is his billy club which also has a cable allowing him to swing from building to building in Hell's Kitchen (the lower east side of Manhattan) where he's appointed himself protector.

Probably the most impressive skill seen in his fighting is the amount of control he uses. While he is an impressive athlete and acrobat, and very skilled at unarmed combat, he always uses just enough force to subdue rather than maim or kill his opponents. This has put him at odds in the past with other heroes like the Punisher and Wolverine. Well-respected by the other heroes, and even some of his enemies, Daredevil remains a loner. His senses are less overwhelmed in one on one situations and except for the occasional team-ups with the likes of the Black Widow, Spider-Man and the Black Panther, DD has refused membership in the various super hero groups.

Becky Blake approached Matt Murdock during a job interview in DD #155. She sort of just "dropped out" of the DD storyline after Nelson & Murdock went bankrupt in issue #225 and then closed in #226. I don't know if she's appeared anywhere else in the Marvel Universe since that time. Becky Blake joined Nelson & Murdock at a turbulent time while Foggy & Matt were running the free clinic. While their initial meeting was more of a confrontation (Becky accused an overtired Matt of not wanting to hire her because she was handicapped), they became friends & later it became apparent that Becky had feelings for Matt. She never told Matt though as she felt she couldn't compete with Heather Glenn, the Black Widow, and all the other women that seemed to come in & out of Matt's life.

Even though Becky was there throughout the whole epic Miller/Janson storyline, her part was never very large. She only had one story of any importance (issue #173) in which we meet a Gladiator look-alike who it turns out is the man who crippled her. She just sort of seemed to drop off the face of the Earth after Nelson & Murdock went bankrupt when Miller came back on the comic with Mazzucchelli. In my opinion, she's a loose end noone ever bothered to tie up, and a potential story as well.

Foggy is Matt's best friend and has been his law partner a number of times. They were roommates in college at Columbia and in law school at Harvard. While often viewed as Matt's pudgy sidekick, Foggy has quite a history of his own. After teaming up with Matt for a short while as Nelson and Murdock, Foggy was elected DA (iss #48). In a short story arc by Tony Isabella (#120-123), congress and Nick Fury attempt to get Foggy to be a member of the governing board of SHIELD. When Foggy lost a reelection bid to Blake Tower (iss #129, 130), he and Matt opened up the Storefront Legal Clinic to be able to help the poor and disadvantaged. Foggy married Deborah Harris (iss #165, 166), an old-time schoolmate who's been in and out of his life (and the DD comic) for many issues.

People often underestimate Foggy or just think of him as a pudgy clown, however, Foggy has shown his mettle any number of times. While Matt Murdock is often boasted as being one of the best lawyers in the country, there are a number of cases that Foggy has won for Nelson and Murdock that Matt couldn't win, and on at least one occasion, Foggy had the unique privilege of being one of the few legal opponents to win a case against his partner in the court of law. Foggy's prowess and courage is not limited to the courtroom either. On any number of occasions, he has helped or even saved Daredevil from some of his foes, usually getting trashed in the process (showing his courage even more!).

The strangest fact about Foggy though, is that he didn't learn about Daredevil's secret identity until the comic was over 30 years old. I can't be certain, but I doubt such a major supporting character has been in the dark that long as to the lead character's identity in any other book.

Karen Page first appeared on the scene in Daredevil #1 in 1964. She was hired by Foggy Nelson to be the first secretary for Nelson & Murdock. From the beginning she was enamored of Matt, but Matt at first thought she just pitied his blindness and later wanted to keep her from the dangers of being involved with a superhero. Foggy had a crush on her at the beginning of the series, but went on to fall in love with Debbie Harris a short time later.

After Karen's father was killed in a battle with Daredevil, Matt revealed his identity to her. Karen wanted Matt to give up the dangers of being Daredevil, but Matt couldn't do it. A short time later, Karen left Matt to pursue an acting career out in California. While she had a part in a daytime drama for a while, she soon got pulled into a world of drugs and pornography. At one point, desperate for a fix, she betrayed Matt and sold his identity to her drug dealer. This lead to the Kingpin learning Matt's identity and taking Matt's world apart. Ironically, Karen also went back to Matt at that point, he helped her overcome her addiction, and they got back together.

After mistaking Typhoid Mary's relationship with Matt, the two broke up again, only to get back together when Matt had a bit of a breakdown & identity crisis. Rosalind Sharpe helped Karen get a job with the radio station as "Paige Angel", late night radio host. Matt then defended Karen after she was framed for murder by Mr. Fear. With the "restart" of DD in Vol.2, Karen leaves Matt yet again, but then returns with the startling? revelation that she has AIDS. Finally, in issue #5 she dies in Matt's arms after screening him from his own billy club thrown by Bullseye.

Ivan is the prototypical huge tough guy who's a marshmallow underneath. He's the Black Widow's protector/father figure (as if she needed one) providing her with a much needed sense of family as anything else. While he was a little leery of Daredevil at first, they soon became friends during the time that Daredevil & Black Widow partnered in San Francisco. I haven't seen him much since that time, so I'm not sure what his current status is.

Ivan LOVES old movies. He was often seen with a hanky watching an old rerun of a Bogey movie. He's also a VERY tough fighter who can hold his own. One scene at an airport had DD & the Widow leaving Ivan to fight 4 or 5 terrorists by himself with the two of them cringing as they heard the "sounds" of Ivan beating the unfortunate criminals up. Ivan's also an ace mechanic & engineer. Among other things, he's designed and built one of DD's billy clubs. I believe I even remember reading the Black Widow telling DD or someone that while he's not great in English, in Russian he'd give Reed Richards a run for his money.