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In the Netflix series, Daredevil wears what looks like a wool mask which completely covers his eyes.

Towards the end, he goes for a costume mask which doesn't cover his eyes at all and you can clearly tell he's blind.

What I'm trying to point out here is that not once in the series do any of his enemies suspect he's blind and use this to connect him to Matt Murdock.

In the comics, do Kingpin and others know he's blind? Do they exploit this fact?

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  • 1
    The final costume does cover his eyes.
    – Boelabaal
    Apr 20, 2015 at 6:37
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    If I saw a person with their eyes covered in cloth leaping around, fighting expertly, and dodging projectiles, I would not think they're blind. However, I would think they're hiding one of the most identifiable features of their face.
    – user31178
    Apr 20, 2015 at 9:14
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    The red MCU costume has holes for his eyes - a little unclear if there is a visor or lenses over them, though.
    – phantom42
    Apr 20, 2015 at 12:09
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    “It's easy to guess that he can't see through the mask.” — It’s not quite so easy after he’s spent the last minute kicking seven shades of sh— out of you. Apr 20, 2015 at 13:10
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    @Kevin: 90% of people knew he was blind before the 1st second, and the rest of them knew within the first 5 minutes of the premiere! It's not a reveal to the audience! Just a fancy costume update.
    – Tushar Raj
    Apr 28, 2015 at 12:12

3 Answers 3

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A number of people, heroes, civilians, and villains know of Matt's identity and that he is blind. Of specific note, Kingpin, Crossbones, and Typhoid Mary all know.

Some villains, such as Mysterio, have intentionally exploited his senses per Wikipedia:

Since Daredevil's means of sight is based on what his radar sense and enhanced senses are able to detect, if anybody or anything around him does not exhibit any of these factors, then Daredevil would be unable to sense it. In one instance the hallucinogenic drug that Mysterio created was designed with no taste or smell so Daredevil could not tell he was drugged until he consulted Doctor Strange who was able to discover it from the small cross that Mysterio gave to Daredevil in disguise which contained the drug and Strange magically cured him

I've seen, and found instances of times where Daredevil has been affected by noise attacks (explosions, crashes, etc), which confuse or weaken him, but I can't find any evidence of a time where villains specifically set out with a plan to do so.


More specific to the MCU, while the mask may look like wool (I don't entirely agree, but that's neither here nor there), the real material is cotton. This interview with the costume designer explains:

We had to come up with ways to create this mask so that it wasn’t dangerous for him to wear it, but it looked like what we needed it to look like. That was really tricky. It’s made out of a cotton mesh. Layers and layers of it. It has to really conform to his head, but at the same time, he had to be able to see through it. It also had to, in Joe Quesada’s words, 'look really badass.'

There is no reason to believe that the in-universe costume would not be made out of cotton, the same as the out-of-universe costume.

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    Thanks for answering. Could you also specify if any villians deduce/learn he's blind without knowing his secret identity? What I'm getting at is did someone figure out he's blind and thus get to know he's Matt, (not the other way around)
    – Tushar Raj
    Apr 20, 2015 at 13:19
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    I'll see if I can dig something up later today.
    – phantom42
    Apr 20, 2015 at 13:25
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The Hand know that Daredevil is blind.

In the episode "The Light at the End of the Tunnel," the Hand ninjas stop/mask their heartbeats and don't use weapons in an attempt to exploit his blindness.

STICK: Listen very carefully. You've been tracking their weapons. So they dropped 'em. Tracking heartbeats is kids' stuff. Time to go deeper. Track their breath. Sooner or later, they gotta... (exhales deeply) exhale.

There is no indication that any of his other enemies know.

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It's easy to guess that he can't see through the mask.

When I was a kid, I had a Halloween costume similar to this one:

Reaper

While the mask looks completely opaque, you can actually see through it just fine when it's close to your face. Similar materials are used in face-masks for horses, to keep the flies out of their eyes. I'm not sure what they're made of, but clearly such materials actually exist, and are easy to come-by.

Also of note: the actual mask in the show was worn by the real-life actor(s), and I'm sure they weren't running around the set completely blind. So whatever material the mask is actually made of is probably also see-through.

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    Edited out my objections. This still doesn't answer my question, though.
    – Tushar Raj
    May 26, 2015 at 8:07

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