Daredevil Who?

In celebration of the release of Daredevil #500 (and inspired by the great retrospective at The Weekly Crisis) I figured it was about time we talked about the scarlet swashbuckler himself. Namely, the five different alter egos of Daredevil.

1- Matt Murdock : The OG


Lawyer. Blind. Lots of dead girlfriends. You know the drill.

Moving on.

2- Mike Murdock : The Surprise Twin


Back in the swinging sixties, ol' hornhead decided that he needed to throw his co-workers off the scent of who he might be so he created Mike here. Mike was supposed to be the showboating, flirtatious, totally awesome, totally not blind twin brother of Matt, who decided to throw on the union suit to inject some much needed excitement in his life. If memory serves, Mike was so dreamy he ended up in a love triangle with Karen Page and his other self, Matt. Smart move there, buddy.

Not to worry, Mike was 'killed' in the line of duty not long after he showed up, leaving only a secure secret identity in it's wake. Oh, and the shattered psyche of a woman who had serious feelings for him, but it's not like that could lead to drugs, prostitution, or anything destructive in the future. Right?

3- Hellspawn : The Doppleganger


Are you ready for some convoluted Marvel continuity? Awesome, check this out:

Back in 1992 Marvel released a sequel to the totally amazingly awesome Infinity Gauntlet miniseries: The Infinity War. In it, evil doubles of all the Marvel heroes were created and sent out to fight they're respective inspiration. A couple of these dopplegangers stuck around after the crossover, Spider-Man's and Daredevil's.

Now, after a series of events that I don't want to remember, Matt was in trouble with the law and needed to do something drastic. So instead of just hitching it to a different country, or spending all his time in the backwaters of Alabama, he finds the body of his doppleganger and tosses it in a rail yard to be discovered by the cops.

Thankfully they kinda gloss over how Matt was able to convince the world years later that the corpse that was identified and verified as him wasn't him.

4- Jack Batlin : The Street Hustler


With Matt Murdock technically dead, he needed a new identity, so say hello to Jack Batlin. With a name derived from his father's fighting days, Jack became a totally not blind and totally edgy street hustler. Although technically he was supposed to be impersonating a new Daredevil, that if you're keeping track would have been the third in a series. Just goes to show that you can't keep a good devil down.

Later Matt goes clinically insane and ends up fighting his imaginary twin brother which leads to killing Jack Batlin forever. I guess girlfriends aren't the only thing that Matt buries.

5- Iron Fist : The Replacement


Finally we have good ol' Danny Rand, The Iron Fist, who took over the role as a favor to Matt (though Matt didn't know it) while he was on trial, accused of being Daredevil. He did a great job for the few months that he was on the job, finally relinquishing the role after some such activity that I can't find online and honestly haven't read yet. Most of my DD knowledge is from his first series.

All I know is that Iron Fist is the first replacement to not end up dead... for now.