Top 10 Fearless Daredevil Facts

He’s the Man Without Fear and is quickly becoming one of Marvel’s most popular heroes. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Daredevil Facts. For this list, we are focusing more on real world facts as opposed to looking at specific plot points that occurred in the films or comics.

Most avid comic book fans are aware that Daredevil and Spider-Man are good friends in the comics. One of the main factors behind their strong friendship is how similar the two characters are, especially since both of them are based in New York. In fact, when Daredevil was first introduced, he was considered a lame Spider-Man knock off. Daredevil even has his own form of “Spidy sense”, allowing him to locate villains and criminals despite being blind. The pair also tend to face similar villains, with character like The Kingpin being considered a major villain to both heroes.

Like most superheroes, Daredevil is instantly recognizable by his iconic costume, but what you may not know is that his original costume wasn’t actually red – it was yellow. More accurately, it was a combination of yellow, black, and red. Due to poor sales numbers, however, Marvel decided to make several changes to the character, which included changing his costume to the red version we know and love today. It was later revealed that Daredevil had made the original yellow costume from his dad’s boxing gear.

Ben Affleck’s portrayal of the Man Without Fear received a lot of criticism from fans of the comics, but would things have been different if he had been cast as Bullseye instead? Probably not, but that was the character whom Affleck initially auditioned for. In another weird twist, before the studio decided to cast Affleck as Daredevil, they considered casting Colin Farrell – the man who would eventually play Bullseye. Vin Diesel, Guy Pearce, and Matt Damon all turned down the role before it was eventually given to Affleck. Maybe casting the guy who wanted to play another character and was your 5thchoice wasn’t the best decision cuz um… damn.

You may find it hard to believe that Daredevil, who was created in the 1960s, served as a prototype for Batman, a character that had been around since the 1930s, but it’s actually true. The original Batman comics were very light-hearted and goofy. It wasn’t until Frank Miller took over that Batman adopted his Dark Knight persona. Before he began writing Batman comics, however, Miller worked on Daredevil, transforming him into one of Marvel’s most popular characters by incorporating darker themes and storylines. Essentially, Miller used his experience from writing for Daredevil to mould his version of The Dark Knight.

Like many of Marvel’s famous heroes, Daredevil was created by Stan Lee, with the help of Bill Everett and the one and only Jack Kirby. Lee was nervous about creating a blind character, however, as he feared that the series might offend the blind community by creating a character that could do things they couldn’t. He eventually decided to do it, but told Marvel executives that if there was any sort of backlash he would immediately scrap the character. Luckily, the character didn’t receive any criticism, but that hasn’t prevented writers from trying to distance Matt Murdock from ordinary blind people.

When Frank Miller took over the series in the early 1980s, he changed the tone of the series to dark and serious one we know and love today. One of the biggest changes he made was putting more of a focus on street crime. The reason for this change? While working on the series, Miller was mugged twice in New York City. Miller was quoted as saying “After I got mugged, I was really eager to see criminals shot on sight”. Thus, he gave us a superhero who wasn’t afraid to cripple street thugs.

Although Daredevil would turn down an invitation to join the Avengers on multiple occasions, the team may never have existed without him. Marvel was in full panic mode when they realized that “Daredevil” #1 wasn’t going be ready in time for print, even though the artists had been working on the comic for over six months. Desperate and facing a tight deadline, Stan Lee suggested that they group several existing Marvel characters together to create a team. This would allow the characters to jump right into a brand new series without needing an origin story. The rest, as they say, is history.

Created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were actually intended to be a homage of Daredevil, among several other comics. There are many direct allusions to the Daredevil series, most of which relate to the origins of the turtles. In fact, the origin story is essentially the same, as in both comics a canister full of radioactive material flies off the back of a truck and gives the characters their respective powers. Furthermore, Splinter, the Turtle’s mentor, is an homage to Stick, Daredevil’s sensei, and finally Daredevil's Ninja Villains, The Hand, inspired the Foot Clan.

Lev Gleason Publications beat Marvel to the punch when they introduced a character called Daredevil in September of 1940. Similar to Captain America, this version of Daredevil helped America fight Nazis during World War II. Although this character is a completely separate entity from Marvel’s Daredevil, it is interesting to note that both characters share a disability – instead of being blind, however, this character is deaf. Of course, The Man Without Fear has long overshadowed this version of Daredevil.

Before we unveil our number one pick, here are a few honourable mentions:

He’s Willing to Kill

He’s Repeatedly Been Publicly Outed

He Has Fast Reflexes

Stan Lee was one of the creators of Daredevil, but it isn’t the series he is best known for. In fact, the series wouldn’t really take off until Frank Miller took over in the 1980s. Despite this, Lee has stated that “Daredevil” #47 is his favourite comic book. The story begins with Daredevil visiting American troops in Vietnam. He ends up meeting a former cop who was unjustly discharged and then blinded while fighting. Feeling sympathetic to his cause, Matt Murdock takes the soldier’s case and clears his name. Perhaps not the most epic superhero story of all time, it is about as human and humble as they come.

Do you agree with our list? What is your favourite Daredevil fact? For more great Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.