Mary Murdock
Alias: Daredevil
Name: Mary Murdock
Biography:
Mary Murdock is new to this whole vigilante thing. She was a very angry young woman after her father died, and a man claiming to be her friend used that anger to turn her into a weapon. But she didn't like the person she was becoming, and for a decade she tried to be better, tried to work within the system to help people. But the system wasn't perfect, and she could only turn a blind eye to those it failed for so long, especially since a disproportionate percentage of those people came from the neighborhood where she grew up, Hell's Kitchen. And so, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen was born.
Cover:
Hell's Kitchen is widely considered the most dangerous area on the American Continent, and Mary believes it. This little piece of Western Manhattan, stretching from W 34th Street to W 59th Street, is a maze of warehouses that had been perfect for bootleg distilleries when prohibition was passed. And though Mary doesn't know it, she is watching the birth of the organized crime syndicates that will dominate the East Coast for the next century.
But she doesn't much care about them. She cares about the people caught between a stupid law and those that would take advantage of that law for profit. Most of the people of Hell's Kitchen don't have the means to leave just because the neighborhood has started to get really bad, so she has stayed for them, to give them at least one ally in this dangerous place.
To do that she had opened Grace Investigations. But, of course, it wouldn't be that simple. What kind of private investigator was blind? How could she find anything if she couldn't see? So, she had needed help. Enter Karen Page. Karen was, and still is, a student of theater. And with Broadway sharing a border with Hell's Kitchen, it is not uncommon for struggling actors and actresses to live in the cheap tenements the neighborhoods offer. Karen needed work and an income while she studied and Mary needed someone that could pretend to be the boss when they had clients. It was a good fit. Of course, it didn't hurt that Karen seemed to genuinely care about the people they were helping.
So the two of them have formed a partnership. During the day Karen plays the role of owner of Grace Investigations and Mary is just another down-on-her-luck resident that Karen has helped by giving a job to. At night Karen returns to her studies and Mary hits the city, trying to right some of the wrongs that she can. Karen knows Mary is not all that she claims to be, but she doesn't press her boss to reveal her secrets.
History:
- 1906 - Mary Murdock is born to Jonathan and Maggie Murdock; Maggie dies during labor.
- 1918 - Mary becomes sick with the Spanish Flu. Complications arise and an experimental treatment is used to attempt to save her life. She survives, but loses her sight.
- 1919 - Jonathan Murdock is killed after failing to throw a boxing match. As an orphan under the care of the Catholic Church, Mary meets a blind man going by the name of Sticks that promises to teach her how to use her abilities and how to fight so that she can avenge her father.
- 1922 - Mary tracks and kills a man known as The Fixer, the man who killed her father. Disgusted by what she had done, Mary cut all ties with Sticks.
- 1924 - Mary is accepted into Columbia University's School of Law.
- 1927 - Mary graduates from Columbia with high honors.
- 1929 - Mary passes the Bar Exam and is recruited by the New York district attorney's office as a prosecutor specializing in violent crime against women (conviction rates increase with cooperation, and working with a female lawyer increases cooperation).
- 1932 - Angelos Sweeney is found not guilty for the sexual assault of an underage girl by the name of Mickey. Mary tracks Angelos to his home and assaults him, putting him into a coma. The next day Mary resigns from the New York district attorney's office.
- 1933 - Mary opens Grace Investigations, a PI firm located in the heart of Hell's Kitchen that is know for its pro-bono work if the need is great. The solvency of this venture is maintained by her not insignificant earnings as a prosecutor and her role as the preferred private investigator for the New York district attorney's office; in particular, former mentor and colleague Rosalind Sharpe.
Powers:
Superhuman Attributes
- Sensory System (excluding sight)
- Agility
- Reflexes
- Endurance
- Stamina
Peak Human Attributes
- Speed
- Strength
- Intellect
- Willpower
Master Level Training
- Attorney
- Detective
- Interrogator
- Tracker
- Acrobat
- Martial Artist
- Stick Fighter
- Marksman