Chapter 8 | Heat and Touch

Emissivity explained

From Daredevil #1 (1964), by Stan Lee and Bill Everett

Matt, to himself: ”I can’t break that promise I made! And yet, with my agility, my extra-sharp senses, there is so much I could do! I can’t let all my powers go to waste! Wait! I have it!

I’ll see to it that Matt Murdock never does resort to force… But somebody else will…! Somebody totally different from Matt Murdock… All I need are some old shirts which I can stitch together! I’m no Betsy Ross, but I should be able to handle this! Lucky my touch is so sensitive! I can even blend the colors, for each colored fabric has a different feel to me!”

From Daredevil #60 (1964), by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan

Matt: ”This one’s finished, too! But, my hyper-sensitive fingers tell me that his facial structure’s a lot like mine! And doesn’t that just turn on the little light-bulb in my brain! I hope you don’t catch a cold, buddy… But ol’ DD’s going to a party… as one Shades McGraw! Only, when midnight rolls around… I’ll be the guy who puts on his mask!

Maybe I can only feel color… not see it… But a few hip-pocket chemicals will darken my hair-color to match his! Bow the final touch… the specs…”

From Daredevil #106 (1964), by Steve Gerber and Don Heck

Daredevil: ”Moon Dragon… There’s no way I could grasp this –”

Moon Dragon: ”Please… Just… do exactly as… I say… Begin… with the… yel… yellow… dial… Turn to… Dare…devil… What is… wrong? Begin…”

Daredevil: ”I – I can’t!! Moon Dragon… I – I’m blind! I can ’see’ colors with my fingertips – gauge the heat they absorb – but that takes time! And if I make one wrong guess–!”

Moon Dragon: ”Say… no more… Come… to me… come closer… This… will… require most… of the strength… left… within me… yet…!”

Daredevil: ”I’m sorry – I feel so helpless –!”

Moon Dragon: ”It is… my fault… I should have… known…”

From Daredevil #339 (1964), by D.G. Chichester and Alex Jubran

Ben Urich: ”Tell me about this picture.”

Captions: ”Ben Urich has played this bluff before, to prove Matt Murdock and Daredevil were one and the same. Make a blind man describe a photograph. It worked then. Murdock can’t afford to let it work again.”

Daredevil: ”Sure… okay. Bring it over here in the light where I can see…”

Captions: ”Light and dark areas absorb degrees of heat from the lamp above. Enough difference to paint a crude picture for hypersensitive fingertips. Some deductive guess-work on the photos a man might carry in his wallet. All adding up to enough for a stab in the dark.”

Daredevil: ”That’s you… and she’s your wife?”

From Daredevil #131 (1964), by Marv Wolfman and Bob Brown

Daredevil: ”All right, I’ll make it short. That hole in the window was made by this note. Seemingly, it’s just a piece of paper… only it’s not ordinary paper. Notice the foldmarks? Refold the paper according to them. And you have yourself a paper plane. Voilá!”

Police officer: ”Strange as it make seem, clown, I already knew that! We cops ain’t as dumb as you big-shot hero-clowns may think.”

Daredevil: ”I never said you were, lieutenant. I was just helping, one last item – don’t bother checking for fingerprints. The murderer wore gloves.” To himself: ”The absence of heat-residue on the pen is proof of that.”

Police officer: ”Okay, clown – you’ve had your fun, now – scram!”

Daredevil: ”I was just about to, Lieutenant Rose.”

Police officer: ”One minute, Daredevil.”

From Daredevil #180 (1964), by Frank Miller

Ben Urich: ”I wasn’t saying anyth…”

Daredevil: ”Movement – around this pipe. We’re being watched.”

Ben: ”Lots of rats, down this deep…”

Daredevil: ”Rats don’t have human heartbeats, Ben.”

Ben: ”Okay, okay. Hey, look at th… Check this out, Matt. Pipe goes straight down, maybe a hundred feet. And it’s lit.”

Daredevil: ”Warm, too”

Ben: ”Really? Feels cold to me.”

Daredevil: ”I’m going down there. You’re going home.”

From Daredevil #4 (1964), by Stan Lee and Joe Orlando

Caption: ”Meanwhile, what of the man whom Killgrave was referring to?? Back at the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, we find him rapidly scanning his braille law books, even though his super-sensitive finger could ’read’ ordinary print if he wished, merely by feeling the impression of the ink on the page!”

Matt, to himself: ”It’s just as I thought! Killgrave actually seems to have broken no law! I can find no law which prohibits a man from asking for things! And if people choose to obey him, that’s their privilege! I can prove no use of undue force on Killgrave’s part!”

From Dark Reign – The List: Daredevil (2009), by Andy Diggle and Billy Tan

Corporate Hand guy: ”I see. We can provide braille copies if you require.”

Matt: ”That won’t be necessary.”

Corporate Hand guy: ”It would seem that already I underestimate you. For this I apologize.”

From Daredevil #93 (1998), by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark

Matt thinking to himself: ”I’m thinking about that two days later when the Bugle prints her obituary. Thinking about what she once was, and regretting what she became. But then, I’m caught up in my own life for the next few weeks…”

From Daredevil #227 (1964), by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

Matt thinking to himself: ”I read the envelopes with my fingers. The embossed ones are easy. Going by the scant impression of the ink on the others is a pain, this early in the day. Nothing with the masthead of a law firm… Word must not have gotten out yet that the hottest attorney since F. Lee Bailey is up for grabs. Amazing how long it takes for the news to circulate when you want it to. No, no offers, three bills, something from the March of Dimes – the plastic rectangle of a cassette tape from my girlfriend – can’t be good since she lives in town – letter from my bank, saying they haven’t received my last two mortgage payments – trust them to screw up every chance they get – and a notice from Internal Revenue that my tax files are being audited and that every penny I have is frozen until the audit is complete. All this before coffee.”

From Daredevil #298 (1964), by D.G. Chichester and Lee Weeks

Matt in the captions: ”Middle fingers find the raised ridges of the home keys, the rest falling easily into place. …Typing out words I send on a microchips quest. ‘Kingpin,’ ‘Murdock,’ ‘Fisk.’ A dozen more deep within S.H.I.E.L.D.’s computers, one of them triggers a hard drive cycles… [sic] A magnetic thrumming raising the hairs on the back of my hands. An electronic key opening a high-tech Pandora’s box. Characters crawl across the screen, warm phosphors under my fingers writing out an indictment.”

From Daredevil #303 (1964), by D.G. Chichester and M.C. Wyman

Matt in the captions: ”I’m not sure what’s more soothing… the soft warmth of the headphone cushions against my hypersensitive ears… or the trilling rhythm of my partner Foggy’s snores as the make their way across what’s rapidly becoming our law offices. The machine drone of the speaking lags behind what my fingertips could ’read’ in the hot-cold phosphor letterforms on screen – but the headphones remain a necessary concession to appearance and hidden dual identity. Mr. Nelson’s exhaustion is real enough, however.”

From Daredevil #306 (1964), by D.G. Chichester and Scott McDaniel

Matt in the captions: ”– deadening, disorienting in its wake. Lost in my own haze, can’t focus past to get bearings – sensory or radar – or where I am in the sudden maze of the world financial center. Information kios touch screen – warm phosphors under my hand. Colorful graphics to people with eyes that work… meaningless swirls to me. I grope in my darkness, tapping hard against every corner of the glass, hoping for the whirring hiss of a printer I’m finally rewarded with. Hardcopy map of the center’s layout, handy convenience for the tourist trade in search of restrooms… and vigilantes looking to bring down mad doctors.”