I wonder does matt actually see anything with the radar sense?
Because how ive been interpreting it was that matt doesn't actually see anything at all, he is entirely blind and never sees anything and the radar sense is not something he sees but something that he feels. Like he can feel how many people there are and where they are without touching it but cannot actually see anything. I know the tv dhow described that he sees "a world on fire" but generally i think its more interesting if its something he cant see only feel
Also on that note, how much detail does he feel? Im guessing this one is something that varies from writer to writer. Like does he feel everything down to the wrinkle in someone's face, or does he only feel vague shapes and blobs of a form? I know in a lot of comics its depicted as well, radar circles that form around a shape but i enjoy to interpret it on the lower detail, like he can tell someone is there but would have to learn who they are from their voice or some distinct identifying thing like a certain type of watch ticking that they wear all the time etc etc
Ooh yes, I love thinking about the specifics of the radar sense! Standard Daredevil disclaimer: If you're using "see" in the literal sense, then no, Matt has no light perception and so doesn't see anything. (Since you mentioned it, the whole "world on fire" thing in the show was pretty poorly conceived and misleading, and for this reason, I've never liked it.)
"Feeling" is a great choice of words for the radar sense. This same phrasing is used in the first issue of Daredevil volume 6, which I appreciate for how evocatively it places us in Matt's shoes and expresses what he's experiencing.
Daredevil vol. 6 #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Sunny Gho, and Clayton Cowles
I also love the textural difference depicted in the art between Matt literally feeling the countertop with his fingers and his figurative "feeling" of the room via the radar sense.
Here's another excellent, and more detailed, description from Matt as he tries to translate this extremely specific sensation into terms that a radar-less sighted person (in this case, Foggy) will understand. Again, he mentions a "tactile" aspect—"like walking through a room and touching everything at once":
Daredevil vol. 3 #1 by Mark Waid, Marcos Martín, Muntsa Vicente, and Joe Caramagna
Obviously, we know that the "touch" metaphor—just like when Matt mentions "seeing" things—isn't meant literally.
I love this particular scene for the way it emphasizes the radar sense's abstractness through the difficulty Matt has explaining it (there's another quote I adore by this same writer, from the Daredevil: Road Warrior miniseries, that conveys this same general idea). This abstractness extends into the real world, impacting how the radar sense is depicted by the comic's creative teams. As you mention, there has been a lot of inconsistency in terms of both how it's written and how it is visually translated by the artists. This comes from the fact that it verges more into the realm of fantasy than the rest of Matt's abilities, which are at least grounded in existing sensory concepts like, y'know, Smelling Things. Some writers have even approached the radar sense not as its own distinct power, but just as an amalgam of the information Matt receives from his other senses. I'm...fine with this concept, but it isn't my preferred interpretation, if only because the radar sense definitely seems to provide Matt with information that couldn't come from any of his other senses.
For me, it's easiest, taking all of the different interpretations into account, to think of it as essentially echolocation. Matt's brain sends out a signal of some kind that allows him to perceive the physical layout of a space on all sides of him, up to a certain distance. Sometimes the radar sense can penetrate walls/windows and sometimes (my preferred version) it can't. While the amount of detail it gives Matt also varies, I'm with you; my preference is for him to get as little information as possible from the radar sense, and there are certain claims that I feel comfortable making about its limits. To my memory, he's never been able to recognize facial features or other small, fiddly details (though the art doesn't always back this up). He cannot perceive flat images/text using the radar sense. And it has a distance limit...though what that limit is is, once again, inconsistent (sigh...).
I want to take this opportunity to highlight one of my personal favorite radar sense iterations, courtesy of D.G. Chichester and Scott McDaniel. Check this beauty out:
Daredevil vol. 1 #312 by D.G. Chichester, Scott McDaniel, Bud LaRosa, Bill Oakley, and Christie "Max" Scheele
I need Matt's narration to even understand what I'm looking at? Hell yeah; perfection.
With all of this said, I almost wish Marvel would create a radar sense guidebook for their creative teams in order to formalize a few of these key details, because it's annoying that, more than sixty years in, there's still so much inconsistency.
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