During a 1981 What If? title story set in an alternate timeline. It shows that Jack Murdock was still alive and well. At the same time, his son Matt was involved in an accident when he was still a kid by a truck carrying a radioactive isotope. Tony Stark, employer of the truck, put the unconscious Matt into his car that transformed into a plane and took off into the air boarding the newly-completed S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. Tony spoke with S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, who informed him that Matt's senses had become superhumanly acute thanks to the radiation. Once Matt had fully recovered, a man named Dr. Frost removed the bandages from his eyes. Much to Matt's surprise, he had been rendered blind but his new hyper senses made up for it. Nick Fury offered to help Matt deal with his blindness and newfound powers by joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and training with them. Years later, Jack was attacked and kidnapped in his apartment by a Life Model decoy created by Hydra and modeled after Matt and held prisoner in their base. Matt soon found out and tracked him down to the Hydra facility holding him and defeated several Hydra agents before finding Jack. After that, Hydra agents surrounded both Jack and Matt; but S.H.I.E.L.D. agents soon came to the rescue and began their attack on the Hydra base by gassing the room, while Matt handed his father a gas mask and they both made it to safety while being picked up by S.H.I.E.L.D.; Jack said that now that Matt was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Jack didn't have to sign up with the Fixer to support him, but also reminded Matt about the promise he made to his mother about becoming someone important in life. Matt responded he would; and that no one would know that Matt Murdock was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in disguise, they would only know him by his old nickname as a kid: Daredevil.
