Summary

• Daredevil embraces his public identity: After years of trying to keep his secret identity as Matt Murdock hidden, Daredevil gives up and begins openly acting as the superhero in public.
• Revealing his identity in court: To protect himself from blackmail, Matt has to prove in court that he is Daredevil, effectively removing any advantage his secret identity may have given him.
• Embracing the benefits: Moving to San Francisco, Daredevil fully embraces his exposed identity, enjoying the celebrity status it brings and using it to his advantage in defending his clients as a well-known superhero.

Just like most superheroes, Daredevil went through a lot of effort to keep his civilian identity a secret. But when it was leaked to the public over and over again, Matt Murdock eventually decided to just give up on the idea entirely. He instead began openly acting as Daredevil in public, even defending his clients under his superhero moniker.

Daredevil's complete rejection of his secret identity is first seen in 2015's Daredevil #14 by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Caramagna. Matt Murdock's identity was publicly exposed back during Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev's run of Daredevil comics. This revelation haunted Matt for years after. Eventually, Matt had to publicly it that he was Daredevil to avoid being blackmailed by a group of criminals.

With his identity being proven in a court of law, Daredevil moves to San Francisco and decides to stop hiding who he is. He abandons the concept of a secret identity entirely and begins operating as Daredevil without a mask or anything else.

Daredevil Stopped Hiding The Fact That He Was Matt Murdock

Matt Murdock's secret identity was a closely guarded secret for many, many years and even when it leaked, Matt continued acting like it had never happened. This approach of simply ignoring anyone who accused him of being Daredevil worked for a while. But eventually, Matt is pushed into a corner over his identity once again. When a white supremacist group tries to blackmail Matt into representing them in court, Matt has no choice but to prove he is Daredevil in a court of law to render the blackmail plan useless. While this gets rid of the threat of blackmail, it also completely removes his ability to have a secret identity.

After moving to San Francisco, Matt enjoys his new celebrity status and eventually decides to lean into it entirely. Matt gets a brand-new outfit and openly begins calling himself Daredevil, even dropping his iconic red shades. Matt fully decides to embrace the fact his identity has been revealed, especially since other people have already tried to blackmail him over it once. By simply embracing it instead of trying to ignore it, Matt is able to remove any advantage his identity may have given his enemies. This is especially true since it's been proven that Daredevil really doesn't need a secret identity due to how much the average criminal fears him.

Matt Murdock Defended His Client In Court As Daredevil

Daredevil is one of Marvel's greatest superheroes and part of that is because of his versatility. While secret identities are extremely important for certain heroes, not only is Matt able to weather his identity being exposed, he is able to flip it and turn it into a positive. Hiring a lawyer can be an extremely stressful and difficult thing to go through, especially when one may be facing major consequences for a crime they may be innocent of. It's normal to experience a huge amount of fear in such a situation, which is why it would be comforting for Daredevil's clients to hire a lawyer that everyone knows is literally the Man without Fear.

Daredevil #14 is available now from Marvel Comics!