Daredevil (Matthew Murdock)

## Daredevil

### Alias

Matt Murdock, Jack Batlin,[2] Kingpin,[3] Kingpin of Crime,[1] Laurent LeVasseur,[4] Scarlet Swashbuckler,[citation needed] Nameless One,[5] Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen,[6] the Man Without Fear,[7] the Guardian Devil,[citation needed] DD,[1] Red Man,[3] Hornhead,[8] Red,[9] formerly Captain Universe,[10] Scarlet Avenger,[citation needed] Mike Murdock,[11] Michael "Mike" Murdock,[11] Death's Head,[12] Jester,[12] Thor,[12] Frog-Man,[12] Ikari,[13] Shades,[14] Salvatore "Side Pockets" Buchetto,[15] "the Devil"[16]

### relatives

Jonathan "Battling Jack" Murdock (father, deceased);Maggie Murdock (mother);Milla Donovan (ex-wife);

### Occupation

Adventurer, vigilante, Attorney at Law; former leader of the Hand, short order cook

### Base of Operations

Hell's Kitchen, New York City; formerly Matt Murdock's Apartment, Nelson and Murdock Law Office, New York, Shadowland, San Francisco, California

### Education

J.D. in law at Columbia University, Law School at Harvard; self-taught in mechanical engineering

## History

*We all want to live in a world where we can make a difference, Ms. McDuffie. That's why Spider-Man fights the good fight. Or Captain Marvel. Or me. Or... There are a lot of us. And we don't all wear masks these days. Iron Man went public. So did Captain America. Others. Probably because it's harder to keep secrets in an internet surveillance age. But I think some of it, too, is that the ethical paradox can wear you down. No one on the white-hat side has ever hidden his or her identity with less than noble intent: about something bigger than us. To represent a greater justice where the focus can be on right and wrong... and not on whether the bad guys will exact reprisal on those close to us. And sometimes you have to lie. Sometimes, someone guess--*"Aren't you really Spider-Man?"*-- and you look them dead in the eye and say* "Absolutely not" *because you can justify a lie if lives are riding on it. Even as you fight for, as the saying goes, truth and justice... even if you're a lawyer who has sworn to live by the truth... you willingly bear false witness. When the Globe came after me, I lied to shield my friends . That's the truth. It's not the kind of excuse I'm looking forward to giving St. Peter-- a sin is a sin-- but maybe he'll understand. I hope so. But where I took it too far was in **counterattacking** the Globe. That wasn't me shielding anyone or dismissing a perceived danger. That wasn't an act of integrity. That was me fighting to preserve a lie. Keep it alive. Give it **power**. That's different. That's not what we should be doing. My dad taught me better than that. I'm Daredevil. That's the truth.*
--****Matt Murdock****src
### Early Years

Daredevil's life is a mix of joy and tragedy. The story of Matt Murdock began with his father. Jonathan "Battling Jack" Murdock raised his son alone, claiming Matt's mother had died. Jack wanted his son to be more successful than him. He impressed upon Matt the need to constantly study instead of playing sports with other kids. Jack hoped that Matt would become a doctor or a lawyer instead of an "uneducated pug" like himself. This led the neighborhood kids to bully the "cowardly" Matt as "Daredevil." Matt took out his frustrations by secretly training in his father's gym.[7]

One day, Matt saw a blind man walking towards an oncoming truck. Matt pushed the man out of the way. The truck crashed and a radioactive isotope spilled out, striking Matt across the face and blinding him. While recovering in the hospital, Matt discovered his hearing, smell, taste, and touch were amplified to superhuman degrees. He also developed a "radar sense" that formed a mental picture of his surroundings.[7]

During his time in the hospital, Matt was visited by a nun wearing a gold cross. Long thought dead, Matt would one day find his mother, "Maggie," was living as a nun. Matt wouldn't know who this woman was for many years.

A few months later, Matt received training from the ninja master Stick. From Stick, Matt learned how to control his new abilities and honed his skills in acrobatics and martial arts.[18]

Meanwhile, Jack Murdock was desperate to fight. He reluctantly joined with a crooked fight promoter known as the "Fixer." The Fixer set up Jack to be a heavyweight contender, just to have him take a dive. Jack refused and won his fight. Later that night, Jack Murdock was shot dead by the Fixer and his men.[7]

The now orphaned Matt searched for his father's killers. He finally found the Fixer's gang and punished them severely. He chased down and confronted the Fixer, who pulled a gun on Matt. Before he could fire it, the Fixer suffered heart attack and died.[7] Matt tracked down Angelo, the last man remaining responsible for his father's death. He found him at a brothel. Matt confronted him but was attacked by the women who worked there. In the melee, Matt knocked one of the women out of the window and thought she was dead (she would return as Typhoid Mary). He ran away in horror over what he had done. He went searching for Stick, but Stick had abandoned him because of his actions.[19]

### Columbia University

Matt continued to study and entered Columbia Law School . At Columbia, Matt met and fell in love with Elektra Natchios. It was a first love for both of them. When Elektra's father was accidentally killed by police, she retreated from the world and Matt.[20]

### Nelson and Murdock

Matt earned his law degree and landed a job at a major law firm. He returned to Hell's Kitchen and to his father's old gym. There he met a young girl staying there named Mickey. They got close to each other and he trained her. He also ran into Foggy Nelson while he was there. He helped him with some of his cases. Meanwhile, Mickey ended up being kidnapped by people working for the Kingpin. Matt tracked them down and rescued Mickey. Because of that he missed an appointment for work and was fired.

Matt opened a practice, Nelson and Murdock, with Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. Karen Page was hired by Foggy as their secretary. Karen was attracted to Matt, and found it a pity that such a wonderful, handsome man could be so handicapped. Matt made a yellow and black costume out of his father's old boxing robes and continued to fight crime as Daredevil.[7]

### Daredevil

Though some of his early enemies were considered laughable like (Matador,[21] Stilt Man[22] and Leap Frog),[11] Daredevil gathered an impressive and dangerous rogues gallery. Electrowas the first costumed villain Daredevil faced.[23] Also, in one of his first encounters, he clashed with his long-time nemesis the Owl.[24] In his first team-up with another superhero, he assisted Spider-Man in defeating the Circus of Crime.[25] His next opponent, the Purple Man was a spy for a foreign country. When he was accidentally doused with experimental chemicals, they turned his skin purple and gave him the power to control people's minds. His power wasn't very effective against Daredevil since it worked best when people could see him.[26] Mister Fear seemed like a natural enemy for a "Man Without Fear". He was a wax museum curator obsessed with bringing his statues to life. Instead, he discovered a gas that filled people with terror. He used this gas as Mister Fear to commit daring crimes.[27]

He also faced the Sub-Mariner during his early days as a hero. Even though he could not defeat the Atlantean, Daredevil refused to give up, which greatly impressed Namor.[28]

Karen told Matt about Dr. Van Eyck, a doctor from Boston who might be able to restore Matt's lost eyesight. But Matt refused, which angered her and she called him a coward.[22] A client Klaus Kruger who is the Duke of Lichtenbad told them about Van Eych's treatment for the blind, Klaus verifies the claims, and Matt asks to go along because he senses that Klaus is lying about something. Back in New York Karen received a memo from Matt explaining that the surgery wasn't done, leaving Foggy to jealously assume that Matt chickened out at the last moment.[29]

He battled such villains as the Organizer[30] and the Ani-Men.[31] He traveled to the Savage Land[32] and teamed up with Ka-Zar.[33] Together they battled the Plunderer.[34] He went up against villain such as Ox,[35] the Masked Marauder,[36][37]Gladiator,[38][39] Owl,[40] Tri-Man[41] and Plunderer returned.[42] He went up against Stilt-Man again.[43] He finally took down the Masked Marauder.[44] He went up against the Queega.[45]

Deciding to tell Karen that he was really Daredevil, Matt's plans got thrown out of whack when the Nelson & Murdock law office was attacked by the Masked Marauder's gang who beat up Foggy and kidnapped Karen to draw out Daredevil who they suspected to be Matt Murdock. Learning of Karen's kidnapping, Matt went to the location where Karen was being held hostage, and pretended to be a blind Matt pretending to be Daredevil coming to misguidedly save Karen. Getting captured as part of his plan, Daredevil freed himself when his captors were not looking and easily defeated them. After Karen was freed and Daredevil turned in the crooks, Matt decided not to tell Karen his true secret fearing the danger it may bring her someday.[46]

He went up against Cobra and Mister Hyde,[47] battling the duo throughout New York.[48]But finally defeats them.[49] His rogue gallery increased battling the Beetle[50] the Trapster,[51] which led to his confrontation with Doctor Doom.[52]

He fought the Exterminator[53] and the Unholy Three.[54]

### Jester

He fought the Jester who was more dangerous then he appeared.[55] Karen decided that she could not take working at Nelson and Murdock anymore and decided to leave since she and Matt could not reconcile how they felt for each other. Matt had an opportunity to make her stay but he pushed her away not wanting to risk her life because he's really Daredevil. Not wanting to take out his emotions on somebody else, Daredevil went on the trail of the Jester in hopes of capturing the criminal. However, while out on patrol, he overheard a radio report of a crook who stole a bag full of Radium. Finding the crook and stopping him, the Radium had a weird effect on Daredevil, causing him to go berserk. Traveling to Madison Square Gardens he found that Captain America was having a charity fight with people wanting to step in the ring with him. Daredevil, in a peaked frenzy then attacked the Star-Spangled Avenger, however during the fight the effect of the Radium wore off and Daredevil retreated quickly.[56] He found the Jester and finally took him down.[57] A new threat arose in Hell's Kitchen: Biggie Benson.[58]

As Foggy entered the final race for the District Attorney's office, Karen returned because she could not stay away from Matt and the two rekindled their romance. During the election race, Daredevil learned that Stilt-Man had been hired to make an attempt on Foggy's life, and so battled him as Daredevil. Although Stilt-Man managed to escape, Daredevil prevented him from bringing harm to Foggy. Soon afterwards, Foggy was elected D.A., leaving Matt to wonder what to do with his law career.[59]

Matt decided that he was sick of being Daredevil and decided to quit his costumed adventuring because it cost him his best friend and the girl that he loved. However, this was easier said than done as Daredevil was attacked by a robot created by Starr Saxon and hired out by Biggie Benson.[60] He battled Saxon many times, he later impersonated Mister Fear.[61]

In his civilian identity, Murdock was very successful as a lawyer. Amongst his more prominent clients were the Fantastic Four, whom he also aided as Daredevil in their fight against Doctor Doom when they temporarily lost their powers.[62] He was also present at the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm, both as Matt Murdock and Daredevil.[63]

Matt created an imaginary twin brother, Mike Murdock, to protect his secret identity.[11] He would often pretend to be "Mike" to act like the confident, cocky Daredevil for his friends. "Mike" would die in a fight, allowing Matt to appear as the "new" Daredevil, allegedly Mike Murdock's chosen successor.

### Black Widow

Murdock moved to San Francisco with Natasha Romanova, the Black Widow. Although their relationship later ended, they remained friends. But sometimes Natasha wished they were more. While living in San Francisco, Matt worked for another law firm. He left when he realized his bosses were more concerned with their careers than with their clients and returned to New York where he opened the "Storefront Legal Clinic" that provided legal services to poor people with Foggy Nelson who had lost his reelection as district attorney to Blake Tower.[64] The Storefront was financed by the father of Matt's girlfriend Heather Glenn, Maxwell Glenn,[65] who soon became a subject of investigation himself by Daredevil. He stopped a plot by the Jester who used fake tv transmissions to plunge New York into chaos[66] and teamed up with the Ghost Rider to rescue Karen Page who had been kidnapped by a new Death's Head.[67][68]

### Elektra

Matt was reunited with Elektra under the worst circumstances. After college, Elektra had become an assassin. She had trained with an evil ninja cult called the Hand. Although she left the Hand, she had become cold and violent. Elektra was killed by Bullseye, the world's deadliest assassin. Fortunately, ninja magic and Murdock's love brought her back to life and "cleansed her spirit". She moved to a remote mountain retreat to live with the Chaste, the Hand's heroic counterpart.[69]

After Elektra's death, Matt proposed to Heather. He then went to work proving Glenn Industries' board of directors were involved in illegal dealings. He found enough proof to ruin the company, and leave Heather with no choice but to marry him. Foggy saw that what Matt was doing was wrong. With the Black Widow's help, he broke up Matt and Heather. Years later, a drunken Heather called Matt for help. When he learned she was lying, he angrily left and ignored her. Days later, she hung herself.

Karen pursued an acting career in L.A., but ended up a porn star hooked on heroin. She sold out Daredevil's secret identity; information that eventually reached the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk. It was Fisk who systematically destroyed every piece of Matt Murdock's life; who was indirectly responsible for the deaths of Elektra and Jack Murdock; who knew Murdock is Daredevil, but never told anyone, just to play power games with the hero. Matt took Karen back and they built a life together.[71]

Typhoid Mary was the living embodiment of the Madonna/whore complex. Mary was a sweet but frightened woman who had been a successful actress. Typhoid was a trashy, cruel killer with telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers. The Kingpin hired her to make Matt Murdock fall in love with her, and then drive him crazy. Typhoid Mary succeeded in getting Matt to cheat on Karen Page and nearly beat him to death.[72]

Glorianna O'Breen was an Irish photojournalist who met Matt when he fought an IRA terrorist.[73] But Matt's descent into poverty and madness, brought about by the Kingpin, pushed her away. She later moved in with Foggy Nelson. Years later, Glorianna was killed by Victor "Kruel" Krueller, a madman trying to remember his past by beating witnesses to his attempted murder.[74]

Matt's secret identity was threatened by a New York tabloid. Though he protected himself, he still faked his death.[75]Even Foggy and Karen were fooled. Matt now lived as a street hustler named Jack Batlin. He kept fighting crime as Daredevil, this time with an armored costume and a meaner attitude. This led to an identity crisis, although he eventually overcame this and cleared up rumors of his identity,[76] subsequently beginning work at a law firm run by Nelson's estranged mother.[77]

### Guardian Devil, Identity revealed and eventual Breakdown

Mysterio was one of Spider-Man's most persistent enemies. But when he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, he conceived an elaborate "final performance". Although he initially planned to target Spider-Man, when he read reports about the new wall-crawler, he dismissed Spider-Man as a target, seeing no point in driving a 'clone' insane. Recalling a prior confrontation with Daredevil, he decided to turn his attention to Murdock after paying the Kingpin for information, seeing in Daredevil a kindred spirit as both were 'second stringers' with little reputation outside their homes. With Fisk's information, Mysterio devised an elaborate plot to pretend that the Second Coming was taking place, leaving Daredevil in the custody of an infant who had been reportedly identified as both the new Christ and the Antichrist, Daredevil also being tricked into coming in contact with an associate-suggestive toxin that would make him violent if anyone suggested that the child was innocent, the toxin being both odorless and tasteless so Daredevil could not tell he was drugged. At the same time, Foggy Nelson was framed for murder and Karen Page was tricked into believing that she had AIDS due to her old porn star career. Despite having been pushed to breaking point, with Dr. Strange's help, the toxin was removed from his system, with Strange helping to confirm that the tales of the child as the second coming were a trick. Although Matt was unable to save the child from being abducted by Bullseye, with his old foe also killing Karen in the process, he was able to track down his nemesis and learn of Mysterio's role in events. Although Mysterio taunted Matt with the possibility of killing him, Murdock overcame Mysterio's traps and illusions, bluntly informing the villain that his entire plot was nothing more than B-movie cliches and old tricks. With nothing left to live for, Beck committed suicide. Although still shaken by Karen's death, a conversation with Spider-Man helped Matt see that the baby he had saved represented something positive that had come from this whole mess, inspiring him to use Karen's life insurance- which she had left him in her will while asking him to use it on something that would benefit *him* rather than give it to charity- to restart Nelson & Murdock.

Maya Lopez was born deaf. She also had the gift to recreate any physical motion she sees. The Kingpin used her in another plot to destroy Matt Murdock. First, he arranged Matt to meet her, knowing Matt was lonely after the recent death of Karen Page. Then he tricked Maya into thinking Daredevil killed her father. Maya created the identity of Echo and fought Daredevil. She didn't know he was Matt and he didn't know why she now hated him. Matt soon explained himself and Maya attacked the Kingpin. She left him blinded for many months.[78]

Murdock was outed by the press as Daredevil. He publicly denied this and sued the paper.[79]

The latest woman in Matt's life was Milla Donovan. Like Matt, Donovan was blind. Matt saved her life and a year later they were married. Milla eventually learned their marriage may have be part of Matt's mental breakdown. She filed for an annulment.

Murdock continued to fight crime, ultimately defeating Wilson Fisk and claiming the title of "Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen", preventing any crime from being committed in the area, although Matt's own mental state was rapidly going downhill after the death of his true love, his lies to the public, and assuming the alias of his greatest enemy. During this time frame, Matt was briefly invited to join the New Avengers when he aided them in the latest attempted break-out from the Raft, but refused the offer because he didn't want to affect their reputations in the public eye,[80] although he did suggest Maya as a replacement member.[81]

Matt was eventually captured by the FBI and sent to prison for his actions. Foggy Nelson was believed to have been killed and a Daredevil impostor was sighted.

Matt learned that the Kingpin, Bullseye, and the Punisher were also serving time. An attempt at a breakout was made by Black Tarantula. Matt was able to stop Fisk and Bullseye and saved the warden. He and Punisher then escaped.

The impostor was confronted, revealing himself as Iron Fist and that he had been hired to do so. The two and Ben Urichsearched for information. The employer seemed to be an injured but very much alive Foggy Nelson.[*citation needed*]

Daredevil then set out to Europe to trace the figure who had had Foggy killed and employed a fake Daredevil. Much to his surprise, this was the Kingpin's wife Vanessa Fisk, who was dying after she killed her son and wanted revenge on Daredevil, who, along with Kingpin, she blamed for her situation. She offered to solve his secret identity problems once and for all if Matt would corrupt himself by fighting as a lawyer to free Kingpin from prison. Matt refused, but Vanessa had already set her plan in motion, having the FBI director who imprisoned Daredevil killed, leaving a suicide note saying he had framed Matt. Matt was able to return to his life in New York City, reunited with Foggy and Milla. Matt decided to honor Vanessa's last wish out of respect for the person she used to be before the Kingpin's influence corrupted her and had the charges against the Kingpin revoked, although he lost his U.S. citizenship and left the country. Vanessa died of her terminal illness, with Matt drawing out the trial so that Fisk couldn't attend the funeral as another act of revenge.

### Hell to Pay

With the charges against him for being Daredevil cleared, Matt decided to move his office to a new location due to constant threats from his enemies and resumed his life as a lawyer with Foggy and Becky Blake, their law firm no longer listed in the phone book and only taking referrals to help avoid being easily located. Matt also moved to a different apartment as well. Disaster struck when he went up against the new crime boss the Hood. Mister Fear, who was working with him at the time, poisoned Milla with a psychedelic drug which he did with the help of Lily Lucca, a young woman in love with Matt whom he met while in Europe. This put Milla into a mental institution with Matt accepting the fact that he ruined Milla's life when Mr. Fear told him there was no cure for her.

Out of grief for what happened, Murdock accidentally had sex with Dakota North while drunk and recently he went up against Lady Bullseye and the Hand, where in her civilian disguise as a Lawyer, Lady Bullseye showed the pictures of Matt and Dakota together to Milla's parents, resulting in them being granted full custody of their daughter Regretting that he had betrayed his wife. Matt decided to sign for divorce.

### The Devil's Hand

A drunken, blind and immortal sensei Master Izo targeted Murdock in his war against the Hand - and Murdock was forced to team up with his old enemy, the Kingpin, to take the Hand down. However, the price that was paid for this, is that this agreement combined with his ever-growing irrational behavior resulted in Foggy firing Matt from the firm when he found out about the arrangement. The Kingpin attempted to betray him, but Murdock beat him and his assassin, Lady Bullseye, and seized control of the Hand, with Izo's help on the condition that they are to never be involved with either Lady Bullseye or the Kingpin again.[82]

Lady Bullseye, sent by the Kingpin, killed two associates of Norman Osborn, H.A.M.M.E.R. director and leader of the superhuman community. Enraged, Osborn sent his assassin, Hawkeye (the original Bullseye), to kill Daredevil, whom he suspected was responsible for the kill. Bullseye lured Daredevil to a trap, detonating a bomb in an apartment building full of families that were holding out against an OsCorp development site.[83]

Pushed to the brink by Osborn and Bullseye's acts, Daredevil rallied his associates in the Hand to "send a message" - and take back the streets of New York from Osborn's corruption. He then traveled to Japan to unite the five warlords of the Hand while a splinter group worked to corrupt his soul. Murdock returned to New York City and built a large fortress over the spot where Bullseye destroyed the apartment building and called it Shadowland.

### Shadowland

When Daredevil erected his fortress, it began to unsettle some of the heroes, like the Avengers. Bullseye entered the fortress and challenged Murdock to a battle. Murdock arrived dressed in a new black Daredevil costume and ordered a group of ninjas to attack. Bullseye defeated all of these ninjas, but soon faced Murdock himself. Murdock brutally broke both his arms and then used a sai to stab Bullseye through the chest, effectively killing him. Although Daredevil was possessed by the Beast due to the actions of the Snakeroot, it is unclear whether Bullseye's murder was an action of Daredevil's own will. After the final battle- where he was cured of the Beast thanks to Iron Fist striking him with a 'chi punch' that healed the spiritual damage the Beast had caused to his soul-, Matt left New York on a journey to mentally re-train himself that would place him back on the right path by rediscovering himself, while Black Panther took over his role as the protector of Hell's Kitchen.[84]

### Daredevil: Reborn

Following the events of Shadowland, Matt wandered in New Mexico to escape his life as a hero, feeling that he had never accomplished anything of worth save for getting his friends hurt, but despite his best effort to stay out of heroics, he ended up getting involved in a corrupt police force operating in a small New Mexico town, saving its residents in the process and defeating a local drug lord named Calavera whom the cops were working for. Though Calavera possessed mysterious telepathic abilities which exploited Murdock's fears of his past mistakes, this ordeal left him reassured in himself, his abilities and his duties as Daredevil, allowing him to face his actions during the Shadowland and reaffirm his status as the 'Man Without Fear' as he defeated Calavera. Matt since then had made his way back to New York City to rebuild both his superhero and legal careers.

### Restarting his career

Moving his law office to Hamilton Heights, Matt Murdock officially made his returned as Daredevil by foiling the kidnapping of a young girl at a Mafia Wedding by the Spot. However in the first case since his return, Matt's presence compromised the case of defending a Muslim named Ahmed Jobrani who is the owner of a small electronics store in a case of police brutality, but it also turns into a media circus due to the past allegations of Matt being Daredevil.[85] Also, because of his pasts allegations of being Daredevil, Matt was forced to change Nelson and Murdock's business strategy, where he and Foggy would have to teach their clients how to represent themselves in court as consultants.[86]

In his next mission involving a wrongful termination case, Daredevil discovered that it had to do with several terrorist organizations whose data was stored electronically in a device called the Omegadrive that was created with the use of the Unstable Molecules in a piece of the Fantastic Four's costume that was recovered from one of their battles.[87] Despite having been beaten by the Bruiser earlier and in no position to fight, Daredevil talks his way out of it by stating to each group's representatives that one of them would have to kill each other to get the device and would end up starting a gang war, which wouldn't happen if Daredevil was allowed to leave and take all the blame for what happened and make himself a target instead.[88]

Later shortly after he officially joined the New Avengers,[89] Daredevil assisted Spider-Man when Black Cat was framed with the theft of a Wi-Fi Holographic Projector and recovered the device from the hands of Black Spectre's gang. In the end he received a passionate exchange from Felicia as a reward. Although this relationship was a plot by Black Spectre to use the Black Cat to get the Omega drive back, Felicia left Matt a note warning him about what was happening before going into hiding.[90] Using the Omegadrive, Daredevil was able to expose Black Spectre leading to their take down as a warning.[91]

Teaming with Spider-Man and Punisher, Daredevil took down the crime syndicates, and then with his friends in the New Avengers tricked them into thinking Black Spectre was still active and took the Omegadrive[92] only to be abducted by Latverian forces loyal to Doctor Doom. Upon escape, Foggy begun to questions Matt's sanity, ultimately leading to a fallout between the two. They reconciled once the truth was discovered, but Matt later learned that part of Foggy's stress had been due to the fact that he possibly had cancer, which was later confirmed.[93] Later as Daredevil, Matt was facing against individuals that were being given his powers, he discovered the one responsible for a number of these recent attacks against him was his old enemy Bullseye, who had survived Shadowland, but his injuries had cost him all of his senses except his eyesight.[94] Eventually after the following fight, the container that Bullseye was in was knocked into a vat of toxic waste, costing him his eyesight as well.

### Return to San Francisco

Later on, Nelson and Murdock collapsed after it was exposed for what it had done in the past, and Daredevil's identity was again made publicly known, though this time it was intentional. Now unable to practice law in New York State anymore, Daredevil reluctantly left Hell's Kitchen and moved back to San Francisco, but not before confessing his feelings to Kirsten McDuffie.[96] Before going, both he and Foggy were attacked by the Leapfrog. By making it look as if Foggy had died heroically by preventing an explosion from going on the streets, Foggy could now go under the radar.[97]

During his time in San Francisco, Matt decided to ditch the alter-ego of Daredevil, fully merging his two lives for the best. He also encountered Jubula Pride, the daughter of the Owl, in order to find the latter, who had surfaced in the city, but vanished somehow. The search for the Owl ended in Alcatraz, where he was found being inhumanly used by the vigilante the Shroud to power a surveillance super-computer to find his ex-girlfriend, Julia Carpenter.[98] Matt's interference prompted the Shroud to broadcast malefic footage of his personal and professional life.[99]

In an attempt to salvage his reputation, Matt turned to the Kingpin with an offer to protect Foggy and Kirsten for the price of his total liberty, and to become Kingpin's pawn.[100] However, Kingpin double-crossed Murdock, kidnapping Kirsten, Foggy and Julia Carpenter, and forcing Matt into a death match with the assassin Ikari. In the middle of the fight, which transpired away from Fisk, the Shroud intervened and killed Ikari.[101] Matt took Ikari's costume, and distracted Kingpin long enough to let the Shroud and Jubula trick the Owl into using the surveillance system to bring to light all of Fisk's operations, and ruin his criminal career. The arrival of the police to capture Fisk allowed Matt to rescue all of the three hostages and put an end to the villain. In the aftermath, Matt managed to clear his name, and become reconciled with the different aspects of his life.

### Back in Hell's Kitchen

Due to unspecified circumstances, Matt Murdock was somehow able to alter people's memories, erasing the knowledge that Daredevil and Matt Murdock were the same person from everyone in the world but Foggy,[102] allowing him to be reinstated as a New York attorney.[103] Living in Hell's Kitchen again, Matt presently worked as an assistant district attorney, serving as a prosecuting attorney instead of a defense attorney.[102] He also started mentoring a young inexperienced vigilante named Blindspot.[102]

## Personality

Daredevil is a morally righteous hero with a strong sense of law and justice. This has also influenced him into becoming a lawyer. Daredevil objects to total violence and prefers to keep his enemies alive and defeating them rather then slay them. However, Daredevil does have a dark side, and will not hesitate to badly hurt foes in certain circumstances, often when he is under a period of stress.

Matt suffers from severe clinical depression, which has led him to indulge himself in self-destructive tendencies.