Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Daredevil |
DaredevilAdjective1. Presumptuously daring; "a daredevil test pilot having the right stuff". Noun1. A reckless impetuous irresponsible person. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "daredevil" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1869. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Daredevil is a fictional comic book superhero with his own comic series from Marvel Comics. He is a lawyer who was blinded by nuclear waste as a child but had his remaining senses raised to superhuman sharpness and a radar sense to compensate. He fights crime using both his senses and his extensive training in acrobatics and martial arts.The character was created in 1964 by Stan Lee and Bill Everett, who previously created Namor the Submariner. It was the last title character created during the opening rush of creativity in the beginning of Marvel Comics and one of the few early Marvel characters who premiered in his own title from the onset.
Origin
The title character, Matt Murdock, is a boy who grew up in inner city of New York, the son of Battling Jack Murdock, a fading boxer. He is insistent that his son take his schooling so he would not follow in his father's footsteps. Matt follows his father's wishes, but could not keep his natural athleticism down and worked out as vigorously as he studied. Not that it mattered to his schoolmates who taunted the apparent bookworm with the name, Daredevil.
Matt's life dramatically changes when he saves an old blind man who is crossing the street and about to be hit by an oncoming truck by pushing him out of way. The truck swerves and crashes and its cargo of a radioactive waste container is released and opened with a portion of the content striking Matt in the face, permanently blinding him.
After a difficult recovery, the blind boy soon learns to cope with his disability, only to secretly learn of the boons the radioactive exposure granted him. Namely, his remaining senses are raised to superhuman sharpness. He can hear any sound regardless of volume or pitch, his sense of smell is more sensitive than a bloodhound, his sense of taste allows him to identify individual ingredients of prepared foods, his sense of touch is so acute he can read regular print as if it is braille. Most important of all, Matt gains a radar sense which allows to detect physical objects' position and their general shape, giving him a valuable advantage, especially in the dark where the odds are in his favour.
As Matt excels in his education and is well on his way to become a lawyer, his father is still struggling to help his son. To that end, he approaches the one fight promoter willing to book him, a small time crook nicknamed The Fixer. The Fixer agrees and arranges a series of matches with opponents instructed to take dives in order to create the image of the aging boxer being a real contender. This all leads to one big fight in which Fixer instructs the fighter to take his own dive. At the fight, Jack realizes that his son is watching and does not have the heart to disappoint him. And so he fights with all his heart and wins by a knockout. After the fight, he is promptly murdered by the Fixer for welching on his bargain.
Distraught, Matt Murdock investigates the crime and learned of the Fixer's involvement. Hungry to bring the criminal to justice, but still mindful of his childhood promise not to resort to violence, Matt decides to don another identity as a loophole in it. Fashioning a yellow and black suit, he decides to use to the old school taunt name, Daredevil and adjusts the cowl to have two small hornlike points and puts a large letter D on the chest. Armed only with a billy club, he confronts the Fixer and his gang. With his superb physical skill, he sends them reeling. Panicked, the Fixer flees with Daredevil in close pursuit until he keeled over from a heart attack.
Although there is little logical reason to continue that identity after that episode, Matt Murdock continues his war of crime even as he runs his law firm with his partner, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson and their secretary, Karen Page. Along the way, he racks up his own rogue's gallery like the criminal mastermind, The Owl, the Stiltman and the Gladiator which he battles with his own superb acrobatic agility and lighthearted humour.
Character History
This character was an undistinguished second stringer character that came off as a Spider-Man knock off with a similar flair for acrobatics and swinging among the towers of New York. The title did benefit from noteworthy artists such as comics legend Wally Wood whose short run left the mark of not only among the best written early stories but also changing Daredevil's costume to the distinctive all red uniform. In addition, the series enjoyed a long run by artist Gene Colan whose talented artwork helped keep the title vital through much of the 1960s and '70s. However, the title's sales declined by the late seventies until it was speculated that they should fold the title into the Iron Man title.
That all changed when a new artist came on to the title, Frank Miller. His art brought a new dynamism to the comic and the title got even better when he took over the writing as well. What he did was change the whole tone of the title to a dark noir setting where evil seems all present, corruption is rife throughout the seats of power and the comic's hero is a tortured man dancing on the edge of sanity and his principles while dealing with the inner rage that proved to be the real reason for his role as Daredevil. Many of the regular antagonists were dropped as Miller set up the principles who have become definitive with the modern Daredevil. They would include the Kingpin, originally a run of the mill Spider-Man villain, becoming the truly king like lord of New York's crime community who would share a complex relationship with the hero who would become his greatest enemy. Bullseye, formerly a hit man with the gimmick that he can hit any target with anything he can throw or shoot, became a cold blooded pathological murderer who is our hero's physical nemesis on the street level. Daredevil gained a mentor, the mysterious Stick, a pool shark/sensei who trained the young Matt to control his senses and taught him the acrobatic martial arts that would make him so formidable. Finally, an old flame was revealed from Daredevil's past, Elektra Natchios. She is a college girlfriend and a daughter of a Greek ambassador with an amorally wild violent streak that led her down the path of becoming a deadly ninja assassin who comes into the employ of The Kingpin even as she is hunted by the ninja clan, The Hand.
Taken together, Frank Miller created a sensation that established a new take on superheroes with a dark tone that would influence the whole genre. Daredevil became a popular title and Frank Miller's influence would be felt ever since. Other notable writers would include Kevin Smith and Brian Michael Bendis who would make superb stories, but they would use the essential world that was Miller's creation. VITAL STATISTICS OF DAREDEVIL
Special Skills and Abilities: Daredevil is a master of martial arts and other fighting systems. As Matt Murdock, he is an accomplished lawyer who is feared by the criminal underworld. He is also very skilled in the area of private investigations. Daredevil has, perhaps, the most accutely developed alfactory sense of all the characters in the Marvel Universe. Though blind, he can see with the use of his super human hearing or "radar sense". This sense is superior to human sight and makes it impossible for villains to sneak up on Daredevil. Matt Murdock is a gifted athlete.
- Name: Matthew Murdock
- Occupation: Lawyer, Crimefighter
- Hieght: 6 ft.
- Wieght: 200 lbs.
- Eyes: Blue
- Hair: Red
- Intelligence Level: Gifted
- Strength Level- Athlete or Greater
- Agility Level- Peak Human
- Stamina- Peak Human
- Reflexes- Peak Human (possibly considered enhanced)
- Endurance Level- Peak Human
- Speed Level- Athlete
- Special Weapons: Daredevil carries a unique billy club with a myriad of special properties and offensive capabilities, which are variable. Some clubs house chemicals, others elongate into larger weapons or can become grappling hooks.
- Origin of Superhuman Powers: Accident with radio-active chemicals.
Other Media Adaptations
As for other media, Daredevil was the original late bloomer for Marvel with no major appearances until the 1980s. There was Trial of the Incredible Hulk, a TV movie that was essentially a pilot for Daredevil, played by Rex Mason. The character would also appear as a guest in the various Marvel superhero animated series from that time.
Finally, in 2003, a big budget feature film starring Ben Affleck in the title role was released and proved to be an moderate success. As expected to the character's fans, it is Frank Miller's take on the character that was the guide for the filmmakers.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Daredevil."
Synonyms: DaredevilSynonyms: brash (adj), temerarious (adj), harum-scarum (n), hothead (n), lunatic (n), madcap (n), swashbuckler (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Rashness | Desperado, rashling, madcap, daredevil, Hotspur, fire eater, bully, bravo, Hector, scapegrace, enfant perdu; Don Quixote, knight-errant, Icarus; adventurer; gambler, gamester; dynamitard; boomer. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Daredevil |
| English words defined with "daredevil": brash ♦ daredevilry, daredeviltry ♦ temerarious. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Daredevil (2003) The Daredevil (1972) Daredevil (1968) Don Daredevil Rides Again (1951) Daredevil Droopy (1951) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Fighting Filipino pilot. Manila. Captain Jesus Villamor, commanding officer of the 6th Pursuit Squadron, Philippine Army Air Corps, is pictured getting out of plane after returning from a flight to Batangas Field. The youth, who leads a daredevil squadron. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Harry Kahne, mental marvel and daredevil from Keiths Theatre, amuses the cross word puzzle fans as he works a puzzle backwards, while being hung from the top of one of Washington's tall office buildings. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "BS 03" by Lucien Aréstegüi Commentary: "BIO STUCTURE 03 Just wondering the streets after watching Daredevil (Disappointing). This was more entertaining than the movie to me." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Play | Caption |
 | Circus; drum roll; daredevil; trapeze; performer; acrobat. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Daredevil" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 76.92% of the time. "Daredevil" is used about 39 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 76.92% | 30 | 63,341 |
| Noun (proper) | 17.95% | 7 | 133,076 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 5.13% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 39 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "daredevil"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Arabic | متهور (audacious, blind, blindfold, blindfolded, brash, careless, daredevilry, desperate, devil may care, excessive, extravagant, foolhardy, harum scarum, hasty, headlong, heady, heedless, hot-headed, immaterial, impetuous, impish, imprudent, impulsive, inconsiderate, light-headed, madcap, precipitate, precipitous, rash, reckless, slapdash, temerarious, too hasty, unrestrained, unwary), المتهور, الجريء بتهور. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | смелчага (bulldog, desperado, hearty, spartan), безразсъден (desperate, devil may care, injudicious, irrational, rash, reasonless, reckless, temerarious, unreasonable, unreasoning). (various references) | |
Chinese | 冒失鬼. (various references) | |
Czech | troufalý (bold, daring, forward, fresh, pert, presumptuous), opovážlivec, opovážlivý (impudent), odvážlivec (dare devil). (various references) | |
Farsi | متهور 2, بی پروا (Adventurer, Audacious, Confident, Dashing, Harebrained, Headlong, Heady, Heedless, Impetuous, Inconsiderate, Rash, Reckless, Slapdash, Unadvised, Unscrupulous), بی باک (Audacious, Bold, Brazen, Dashing, Heroic, Intrepid, Stalwart, Venturer). (various references) | |
Finnish | uskalikko. (various references) | |
German | Wagehals, Draufgänger (dare devil, dare-devil, daredevils, go getter, wolf). (various references) | |
Hebrew | הרפתקן (adventurer), נועז (audacious, bold, brave, courageous, daring, desperate, enterprising, fearless, forward, venturesome). (various references) | |
Hungarian | vakmerõ ember, vakmerõ (audacious, daring, fearless, foolhardy, overbold, reckless, temerarious), fenegyerekeskedõ, fenegyerek (dare-devil, enfant terrible). (various references) | |
Indonesian | pemberani (courageous person, intrepid), berani mati. (various references) | |
Italian | temerario (rash, reckless, temerarious), scavezzacollo, audace (audacious, bold, daring, go ahead, lionhearted, rash, risque). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 荒武者 (rowdy), 猪武者 (foolhardy warrior, hotspur), 我武者羅 (reckless), 大胆不敵 (audacity), 命知らず (long-lasting, recklessness). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | がむしゃら (reckless), いのししむしゃ (foolhardy warrior, hotspur), いのちしらず (long-lasting, recklessness), あらむしゃ (rowdy), だいたんふてき (audacity). (various references) | |
Korean | 무모한 사람. (various references) | |
Manx | feer ghunnal (lion-hearted), feer ghaaney. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aredevilday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | temerário (chanceful, daring, devil-may-care, foolhardy, overbold, reckless, temerarious, venturesome, wanton). (various references) | |
Russian | смельчак (dare devil). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | hazarderski (dare devil), hazarder (dare devil, gambler). (various references) | |
Spanish | atrevido (audacious, bold, daring, foppish, forward, impudent, insolent, naughty, pert, presumptuous, venturesome). (various references) | |
Swedish | våghals (madcap). (various references) | |
Turkish | yiğit (brave, bulldog, courageous, dare devil, Doughty, gallant, game, hero, manful, manly, plucky, red blooded, redoubtable, spartan, spunky, stout, stouthearted, valiant, valorous), gözüpek kişi, cüretli kimse. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "daredevil": daredevilries, daredevilry, daredevils, daredeviltries, daredeviltry. (additional references) | |
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"Daredevil" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Adedeji, Mardeuil. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "daredevil" (pronounced de"rde'vul) |
| 3 | -v u l | anvil, approval, archival, arrival, arval, bedevil, bevel, carnival, civil, devil, disapproval, dishevel, drivel, evil, festival, gavel, gravel, grovel, hovel, survival, swivel, interval, larval, level, marvel, medieval, multilevel, naval, navel, novel, oval, primeval, Ravel, removal, retrieval, revel, revival, rival, servile, shovel, shrivel, travel, uncivil, unravel, upheaval, weevil. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-d-e-e-i-l-r-v" | |
-1 letter: deadlier, derailed, driveled, redialed. | |
-2 letters: deaired, deliver, derived, deviled, dreidel, leadier, leavier, raveled, readied, relived, reviled, rivaled, vealier. | |
-3 letters: aedile, aeried, ariled, deader, dealer, dearie, deaved, delead, delved, delver, derail, deride, derive, dialed, dialer, dirled, dreidl, drivel, elided, evaded, evader, eviler, ladder, laddie, laired, larded, laveer, leaded, leader, leaved, leaver, levied, levier, lieder. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-d-e-e-i-l-r-v" | |
+1 letter: daredevils. | |
+2 letters: daredevilry, overplaided, revalidated. | |
+3 letters: daredeviltry. | |
+4 letters: daredevilries, overidealized. | |
+5 letters: daredeviltries. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
