Does Daredevil Kill? 20 Times He Did It In The Comics (& TV Series)

Matt Murdock is one of the few superheroes with a strict no-kill policy – even against the most notorious villains who might just deserve it. Daredevil’s religious upbringing, strict moral code, and trust in the law system prevent him from killing. However, nobody is perfect, and despite his beliefs, Daredevil has some blood on his hands. So, does Daredevil kill?

Daredevil normally doesn’t kill, but he did kill others numerous times in the comics. Sometimes, it was unintentional, and sometimes, he was forced into it, but there were storylines where Daredevil purposely killed.

It usually leads to a world of guilt and remorse, but it all depends on the storyline in question. Believe it or not, the Man Without Fear killed at least 20 times throughout his comic book and TV series career. Here’s a full list of every kill he ever committed, in no particular order.

1. The Fixer (Roscoe Sweeney)

Although Daredevil is known as a vigilante who never kills, you might be surprised to hear that he killed someone in his first appearance ever.

In Daredevil #1 in 1964, Jack Murdock was a boxer who taught his son, Matt, to have a strict moral code and always fight for the little guy, along with bringing him up religiously. After Jack refused to rig one of his matches to show his son that he should always do the right thing, Roscoe Sweeney, known as The Fixer, had Jack Murdock beat and shot to death.

Matt tracked the criminal down and chased him through New York City. Sweeney’s old heart couldn’t run anymore, and combined with the incredible fright he felt while Murdock chased him, the Fixer suffered a major heart attack and died right on the spot.

While Murdock didn’t kill him on purpose, the death came from his doing, which haunted Matt for a while despite Roscoe being his father’s killer.

2. Empath

Empath was a mutant who could cast his feelings and emotions on others simply by touching them. In The Age of Apocalypse crossover event (namely, the X-Universe #2), Apocalypse’s evil scientist and colossus’ brother, Mikhail Rasputin, had Empath strapped and connected to his ship, amplifying his powers to control the entire Eurasian population.

When Daredevil found Empath, he could feel the excruciating pain and agony the machine was causing, so he used his billy club to bludgeon Empath to death out of mercy. He felt remorse but ultimately knew it was the right thing to do.

3. Typhoid Mary

One of the Daredevil’s killings that haunted Matt Murdock for years later turned out not to be killing at all. In the Daredevil: The Man Without Fear storyline from 1993, Daredevil invades a brothel and attacks the pimp.

The sex workers in the brothel were scared they would lose their jobs if the pimp were apprehended, so they jumped on Daredevil with full force. In retaliation, he pushes them off, and one of them falls through the window and into her death.

Only years later, we find out that she hadn’t died – instead, it became an origin story of a villain known as Typhoid Mary, who later worked for the Kingpin and battled Daredevil numerous times.

4. Tiepin

In 1983, Alan Moore wrote a parody on Frank Miller’s “Grit!” Daredevil series. In The Daredevils #8, we meet Dourdevil, a guy who got a hit to the head with a radioactive Ray Charles record, heightening his senses and making him an amazing singer.

The blind Dourdevil stumbles upon Tiepin (obvious Kingpin parody) and thinks he’s Dean Martin, so he asks for an autograph. As he points a pen towards Tiepin to give the autograph, Dourdevil accidentally stabs him through the chest, leaving him with a deadly wound.

5. Nuke’s Helicopter Pilot

Nuke was a villainous mercenary hired by Wilson Fisk in Daredevil #232 in 1986 to assassinate Daredevil. He was as cold-blooded as they get, bringing all-out warfare to Hell’s Kitchen, including guns, helicopters, and other heavy artillery.

As Nuke battled Daredevil on a rooftop, Murdock tosses him off the building. Nuke survived, but his helicopter pilot wasn’t that lucky. Daredevil used Nuke’s minigun with a kill counter on it to shoot down the helicopter with the pilot still inside. The counter shows a new number after the helicopter is down, indicating the pilot is indeed dead and gone.

6. Richard Fisk

Richard Fisk was Wilson Fisk’s son. However, the fight between him and Daredevil went completely different than you might think. In What If #73: What If Kingpin Owned Daredevil? the sides are changed completely – Murdock is on Wilson’s side, while Richard went rogue, going after his father.

The What If? story sees Wilson take the orphaned Matt Murdock under his wing and raise him as a son after Jack Murdock’s death. After a while, Matt even convinced Wilson to turn good and leave the life of crime behind him.

Well, Richard was having none of it and didn’t want to lose the family crime business, so he killed his father to claim the throne. Unfortunately for him, Murdock was out for revenge, killing Richard Fisk in the process. Sure, it was a What If? Storyline, but it still counts as a Daredevil kill.

7. The Fist

The Hand is an ancient Japanese ninja gang that Daredevil battles constantly in Hell’s Kitchen. In Daredevil #4 from 2016, the Hand started creating monsters they called Fists, sacrificing their members before resurrecting them, giving them an awful physical appearance but also incredible powers.

However, when one of the monsters collided with Daredevil, he wasted no time laying waste to the Fist. I’m not sure if you can count that as a kill for Matt Murdock, seeing the individual was already dead and then resurrected, but hey, a kill is a kill, right?

8. Bullseye

Bullseye is one of Daredevil’s most frequent enemies. The two mercenaries fought countless times, and Murdock had a chance to kill Bullseye numerous times – until he finally did in the 2010 storyline called Shadowland.

In this particular storyline, Bullseye had already killed Elektra, Daredevil’s lover, by stabbing her through the heart. When a crazed Murdock came for revenge, he did the same to Bullseye – stabbing him in the chest and leaving to death. As it turned out, it wasn’t Matt himself – he was possessed by a demon, which forced his hand to kill the notorious mercenary.

Be that as it may, it wasn’t the only time Daredevil killed Bullseye, and in other storylines, there was no demon possession. In What If?: Daredevil Died Saving Elektra, Murdock, and Bullseye kill each other. He also killed his nemesis in Marvel Knights Millennial Visions #1, and again, stabbed him through the heart in Daredevil: Reborn.

It seems that Daredevil’s hatred towards Bullseye is sometimes simply stronger than his no-kill moral code.

9. Spiderman

Yes, you’ve read that right – Daredevil even killed your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. Well, at least in one particular storyline.

In Daredevil: Reborn from 2011, Murdock reminisces and grieves about what he’d done in the Shadowland storyline, where a demon-possessed him. Through his grief, a drug dealer named Calavera induced visions inside Daredevil’s mind where he sees other characters fallen by his hand, including Bullseye, Wolverine – and even Spiderman.

At first, we think they are all just visions, but as we learn, those killings actually happened in another reality, on Earth-11053.

10. Larks

Not much is known about Larks – that’s actually the only name he’s known for. He was one of the Kingpin’s assassins that Wilson Fisk trained since childhood to have him emotionless and brutal – a perfect assassin.

In Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #4, he encounters Matt Murdock and fires a gun at him. Daredevil uses his senses to block the bullet with his forearm armor, but it, unfortunately, ricochets right between Larks’ eyes, dropping him on the spot.

It wasn’t a deliberate kill, but it would prove to be a justifiable one moments later. Well, as justifiable as murder can be.

11. Two Kingpin’s Men

In the same issue (Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #4), Matt encounters two unnamed Kingpin’s men after dealing with Larks. As it turns out, they were guarding Kingpin’s warehouse that was chock-full – of children! It wasn’t explained why Kingpin abducted the kids and kept them locked there, but knowing his horrifying criminal history, we can only assume the worst.

Whatever it was, it enraged Murdock so badly that he fought the two men and quickly tossed one into the water from a nearby dock. The guy was pretty overweight, and his weight started pulling him down while Matt watched and let him drown.

The other guy attacked Daredevil with a knife, and the vigilante used the same knife to stab him and throw him in the water as well, leaving two lifeless bodies floating behind him as he left.

12. Liquor Store Robber

Daredevil has had some unfortunate situations happen throughout his vigilante career. When he tried preventing a robber from robbing a local liquor store, the criminal accidentally got killed, and Daredevil was put on trial.

The Kingpin was no longer in the picture, and an even worse criminal organization, the Stromwyns, was just about to buy Hell’s Kitchen, with plans on destroying it completely. Matt knew he had to stop it somehow, and he couldn’t do it in jail, so he wanted to lawyer his way out of a sentence. 

He even convinced Tony Stark to buy Hell’s Kitchen and prevent the Stromwyns from buying it. However, In 2019’s Daredevil #24, the time has come for the verdict – and Tony was outbid in the last moment by an unknown bidder.

Murdock thought it was the Stromwyns, but in the courtroom, Elektra silently whispered (so no one but Matt could hear her) that she was the unknown bidder. She bought Hell’s Kitchen with the money she stole from the Stromwyns earlier – leaving Murdock to let go of the burden of his conscience and do the right thing.

Relieved that he knows Hell’s Kitchen won’t go under in Elektra’s hands, he pleads guilty for manslaughter and winds up in jail.

13. Kingpin

Believe it or not, despite the countless times that Matt Murdock left the Kingpin live, there were storylines where he ended up killing his arch-nemesis.

Daredevil: End Of Days was supposed to be the last Daredevil storyline ever written, happening somewhere in the future. Long story short, Kingpin spent years in exile before returning to the US after striking a deal with the federal government.

Murdock runs into him in a restaurant and, filled with rage, beats him to death in front of all the people dining there, claiming he had no choice. Eventually, he battles Bullseye, who kills him, marking the end of Daredevil.

There was another storyline where Murdock killed Kingpin. In 1989’s What If? #3, he straight-up shoots Kingpin in the head. However, that has far worse repercussions than letting the criminal live. After Kingpin’s death, New York falls into awful gang wars. Driven mad from remorse and guilt over his actions, Murdock begged the Punisher to kill him.

14. Felicia Hardy

Another fan-favorite character perished at the hands of the Man Without Fear. In one of the most popular Marvel’s Mangaverse storylines, Spider-Man: Legend of the Spider Clan, Daredevil is known as Devil Hunter, while Felicia Hardy is a mercenary hired by the Kingpin, posing as a high-school student, trying to steal a powerful amulet from Norman Osborn.

Little did she know, the Devil Hunter wanted the amulet himself, and when they met, he cold-bloodedly cuts Felicia in half, taking off with the amulet.

We thought it was the end of Hardy right there, but somehow, the Kingpin managed to keep her alive by giving her mechanical limbs, turning her into a cyborg version of the Black Cat.

15. Nick Fury

I hated this storyline, but it was only a What If? scenario, so I’m okay with it. In 2009’s What If?: Daredevil Vs. Elektra #1, Daredevil fought Elektra and died, only to be resurrected as a pure evil counterpart of himself.

He attacked Elektra once again, but the worst part was that he cold-bloodedly cut off Nick Fury’s head and tossed it like trash. It was a horrifying act that made it clear to Elektra she had to do something about him, which leads us to the next Daredevil kill on the list.

16. Stick

In the following issue, Elektra sought help from Stick, a grand-master who trained Daredevil in the past. He trains Elektra, too, and even gives her contacts to call other heroes who can aid her against Daredevil, such as Luke Cage.

They tried raiding Matt Murdock’s house when they felt prepared but didn’t find him there. However, Elektra finds something much worse – her teacher Stick’s head hanging from a wall. It was heartbreaking and yet again showed that this thing she was battling wasn’t the Daredevil we knew and loved.

17. Three Subway Muggers

Matt Murdock got a huge turn for the worse in the Daredevil: Born Again series. He seemingly abandoned his morals and became much more violent, which led to the unfortunate fate of three muggers who tried robbing Murdock on the subway.

Matt beats him severely, and while we never see them actually getting killed or dying, the amount of beating they received paired with narration that heavily implied they were gone; it seems like there’s no way the three muggers survived the encounter.

It’s not a canonical storyline, but still, it was Matt Murdock’s Daredevil, beating three guys to death – we’ve seen him let much worse people live, so it was kind of a shocker.

18. Mysterio

Another unnerving storyline revolving around Matt Murdock happened in the Guardian Devil storyline, where Daredevil met Mysterio. Mysterio had terminal cancer and couldn’t get to Spider-Man anymore, so instead, he turned to torment the Man Without Fear.

He causes hallucinations and hypnotizes Murdock into thinking a baby is the Anti-Christ, almost forcing Matt to throw the baby off a building.

After breaking free of the hypnosis, an enraged Daredevil kills Mysterio – with words. Murdock convinces Mysterio that he’s a worthless piece of trash and that he should just kill himself – which he eventually does. It wasn’t a kill, per se, but still, talking someone into committing suicide should count as a kill, too.

19. Vladimir Ranskahov

Finally, the last two “kills” on this list weren’t actually kills, as the criminals were revived, but still, Murdock almost caused their death – and it was hardly an accident.

First, in Season 1 of the Daredevil Netflix series, in the episode Condemned, Daredevil fights Vladimir Ranskahov in a building. As Daredevil tackles him, they fall together through multiple stories of the building, after which Ranskahov died.

Ultimately, Daredevil revived him, but still, there was a minute where the criminal was dead by the hand of the vigilante.

20. Nobu Yoshioka

Like Ranskahov, Nobu Yoshioka also perished in an encounter with Daredevil in Season One of the show, in the episode Speak of the Devil. While the two fought, Daredevil hit a light above Yoshioka, and the sparks fell onto Nobu, lit him on fire, and burned him alive. He was later revived – until Daredevil killed him again.

In the Season 2 episode A Cold Day in Hell’s Kitchen, Yoshioka and Daredevil fight again, and Murdock throws him off a roof, breaking every bone in his body and killing him. Again, Daredevil was lucky not to break his no-kill policy, as Nobu was revived once again, only to get decapitated by Stick a bit later. Yes, the guy died three times in the same show.

As you can see, Daredevil’s no-kill policy had its flaws throughout the years. Sometimes, Matt’s hand was forced. Sometimes, he was possessed, while sometimes, we witnessed an alternate universe. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Daredevil killed people, regardless of what form or fashion.