Daredevil Psychology The Devil You Know

An in-depth analysis of the psychology behind the popular character Daredevil.

In the early 1960s, Stan Lee and company revitalized the comic book market by imbuing new characters and their stories with human, emotional depth lacking in other superheroes. Among those creations was the character Daredevil. Now this superhero is the subject of 20 essays that explore different facets of his psychology, including:

• The risk-taking behavior that earned Daredevil his name
• The pathology of stalking, obsession, and mental manipulation
• The process of “othering” in regards to disability
• The question of justice versus revenge—with asides related to the assassin Elektra

Travis Langley, PhD, is a psychology professor at Henderson State University, the author of Batman and Psychology (Wiley), and the volume editor of The Walking Dead Psychology, Star Wars Psychology, Game of Thrones Psychology, and the rest of the works contained in the Popular Culture Psychology series published by Sterling. He speaks regularly on media and heroism at universities, conferences, and popular-culture conventions including San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic Con, and others throughout the world. Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics and other films have featured him as an expert interviewee, and the documentary Legends of the Knight spotlighted how he uses fiction to teach real psychology. Psychology Today carries his blog “Beyond Heroes and Villains,” and he is one of the 10 most popular psychologists on Twitter with over 100,000 followers: @superherologist.