BIOGRAPHY -- Page 11
Daredevil and Black Widow had an encounter with Stilt-Man, as Wilbur Day kidnapped the daughter of his old boss, Klaxton, to force him to repair the molecular condenser. They worked together to track down the super-villain’s hideout, but Matt’s over-protective nature continued to rub Natasha the wrong way. [Daredevil (1st series) #102] While entertaining an interview from 
the Daily Bugle’s Peter Parker, Daredevil and the Widow were attacked at the mansion by a new villain, Ramrod. He had been hired to murder the two and recover the papers regarding Rolling Stone’s upcoming expose on the city’s biggest crime boss, which Daredevil had been keeping safe since the attempted robbery. Coincidentally, Spider-Man was also in the city, and he stopped by to help the duo defeat Ramrod and recover the investigative papers. [Daredevil (1st series) #103]
[Note: Daredevil’s ability to identify Spider-Man was inconsistent in the early years. Obviously, a costume wouldn’t fool Matt Murdock, who typically identified people by heartbeat and other non-visual methods. In Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #73 and #140, he was in the presence of Peter Parker and identified him as Spider-Man thanks to his super-senses. Matt even made a point of NOT learning Peter’s name in those encounters in order to avoid infringing on Spider-Man’s privacy. In Daredevil (1st series) #103 and #135, though, he directly interacted with Peter Parker of the Daily Bugle, and made no sign that he recognized him. Eventually, Matt both heard Peter’s name AND identified his bio-rhythms as Spider-Man’s at the same time in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107.]
As Matt and Natasha worked out, he debated with her the merits of staying firm against Kerwin Broderick and not pleading guilty for his clients, whom he had come to believe were innocent of the university robbery. Despite seeing them with his own “eyes” as Daredevil, Matt used his senses to determine they weren’t lying when they claimed they didn’t remember committing the robbery. As they discussed the issue, an invitation came for a cocktail party at Broderick’s mansion, a chance to meet his senior partner for the first time in person. Matt and Natasha made the scene at Kerwin’s party, but they were being stalked by Kraven the Hunter. After a quick change, Daredevil and Black Widow began trading blows with the villain. Kraven gained the advantage after drugging the Widow with a dart and seizing Daredevil to throw him over the mansion’s coast-side cliff.
Daredevil miraculously survived the fall, for he was teleported away at the last second before striking the rocks. Inside an alien structure, Daredevil wandered until he found his hostess, the Priestess of Titan known as Moondragon. The beautiful psychic claimed Daredevil as a prisoner, 
believing him to be a thrall of the Mad Titan, Thanos, her eternal enemy. Moondragon had used her alien technology to bestow power to Dark Messiah, Ramrod and Angar the Screamer to eliminate Daredevil, and was now convinced all of San Francisco was under Thanos’ thrall. She brought Daredevil to her chambers to get him out of the way while her trio of creations cleansed the city of evil.
Daredevil was stunned by the sheer arrogance of the woman and shook her for her foolishness. To prove her suspicions, Moondragon scanned Daredevil mind with her telepathic powers, only to realize how wrong she had been. It turned out Moondragon had been spurned on in her misconceptions by her human ally, Kerwin J. Broderick. She initially sought him out in San Francisco because of his sterling reputation, but Broderick was actually the crime boss at the core 
of the city. Kerwin’s secret control of San Francisco had been shaken by Daredevil’s arrival, and he longed to get rid of him. When Moondragon presented herself, Kerwin easily manipulated the naïve priestess into empowering figures on his behalf to attack Daredevil. For good measure, he also hired Kraven and engineered the various robberies Daredevil had foiled since arriving in the city.
Kerwin Broderick’s dreams of power only grew with access to Moondragon’s technology, and he now planned to become king of San Francisco, to rule it like an empire. He intercepted Moondragon and Daredevil in her chambers, critically wounding her with a Titan blaster. Next, he activated Terrex, an anti-Thanos doomsday device from Titan that raised the earth itself into a life-draining avatar, which continually increased in power. Kerwin left to join his creation and 
Moondragon guided Daredevil to the regenesis device in her lab which could save her life. As she tried to direct his manipulation of the complex machinery to activate the device, Daredevil was forced to confess he was blind and couldn’t follow her commands. Using her mental gifts, Moondragon therefore restored Matt Murdock’s sight, allowing him to complete her healing process.
Matt was disbelieving and thoroughly grateful to Moondragon for giving him back his vision, but they had little time for pleasantries. Moondragon teleported them back to Black Widow and Paul Carson, who had seen Terrex come to life and begin marching on the city. Broderick had also summoned Dark Messiah, Ramrod and Angar back to his service to aid Terrex in his conquest of all he desired. Daredevil was ready for action but stumbled over and over against his old foes. As Moondragon reversed the Dark Messiah’s transformation to save DD, he realized that his radar sense had left him when his vision was restored, and his traditional depth perception had little experience to draw from. Recognizing he was operating at a disadvantage when the world was on the line, Daredevil reluctantly asked Moondragon to make him blind again, even though she warned that she likely could not restore his sight a second time.
Terrex entered his melding phase, and Kerwin Broderick physically merged with his creation to begin conquering his new kingdom personally. Fortunately, the defenders of San Francisco were soon joined by Captain Marvel, Kree hero and ally of Titan. After dispatching Ramrod, Mar-Vell 
shared his knowledge of Terrex, and believed the human consciousness of Kerwin was the key to defeating the potent avatar. Terrex had killed Angar’s girlfriend Janis, and so the Screamer joined the others against Broderick. His mind-storm scream caused the mad Kerwin to sink even deeper into insanity. As Matt and Mar-Vell kept Terrex busy, Moondragon harnessed Angar’s power to create a particular hallucination in Kerwin, shocking him out of his meld with Terrex and leading to the madman’s death. [Daredevil (1st series) #104-107]
San Francisco returned to normal, but tensions remained. Moondragon lived at the North Shore mansion with Daredevil and Black Widow for weeks, and the attraction between her and Matt made Natasha particularly jealous. Her temper flared out of control when they confronted a group of purse-snatchers, and Natasha nearly beat one of them to death for assaulting an old woman. Daredevil physically struck Black Widow to make her back down, which would prove to be a 
breaking point in their relationship. Matt and Natasha were in the midst of yet another argument at home when the news reported that Foggy Nelson had been shot by criminals back in New York. Matt immediately began preparing to return to New York and see to his old friend, but Natasha coldly refused. She still held a grudge against Nelson for prosecuting her in the murder trial and would not go to his aid. Matt and Natasha quietly recognized that this was the end of their relationship, and he walked out of her life to go back to New York. To go home.
Moondragon had a Titan starcraft that got Daredevil to New York quickly, but she went no further with him. The priestess of Titan had known of Daredevil’s feeling towards her ever since she entered his mind, but she coldly assessed their different lives and determined their mutual feelings were not worth pursuing. After that brusque dismissal, Matt Murdock returned to New York alone and found Foggy’s family waiting in the hospital. Matt was familiar with Debbie Harris, Foggy’s fiancé, and Mr. and Mrs. Nelson, who funded the original Nelson & Murdock offices, but he was surprised to learn Foggy had a grown sister named Candace whom he had never mentioned.
Matt spent time at Foggy’s bedside catching up. In one of their last conversations before parting, Matt had convinced Foggy to remain D.A. despite Kline’s blackmail, but now Foggy was targeted by a dissident group of terrorists called Black Spectre. Matt Murdock stepped into the role as D.A.’s assistant in the office while Foggy recovered from surgery after the gunshot, and Daredevil 
took to the streets to stop Black Spectre. He fought both Beetle and Black Spectre attempting to steal government printing plates, and Spectre later used the plates to produce and scatter real “counterfeit” money. Much of Black Spectre’s attacks were designed to cast doubt on American institutions, like defacing landmarks and monuments. There was also the separate thread of Commissioner “Ironguts” O’Hara investigating the murder of his brother in South Africa, and his niece Dr. Shanna “the She-Devil” O’Hara believing Black Spectre responsible for that as well.
Daredevil soon learned that Black Spectre’s obscuring jumpsuits hid the fact that the entire army was made of women, chemically controlled agents of Shanna’s old foes the Mandrill and Nekra. Daredevil and the Thing fought their way into a Black Spectre jet-ship disguised as a dirigible, only to discover Black Spectre had also visited San Francisco and captured Black Widow, subjecting her to Mandrill’s chemical control as well. Mandrill knew Daredevil’s identity thanks to Natasha, and he explained his origins, as he and Nekra grew up suffering persecution as a result of being mutants. Black Spectre intended to overthrow the U.S. government, but Daredevil remained dedicated to stopping them. Daredevil and Shanna fought again Black Spectre and their new agent, the Silver Samurai, but Shanna was captured by Mandrill’s forces.
Black Spectre demolished television towers throughout the nation, jamming communications in the country before making their move on Washington. Daredevil was captured trying to rescue Shanna aboard the Black Spectre dirigible, but the over-confident Mandrill left his slave the Black Widow to guard them. Matt managed to shock Natasha out of her pheromone-induced trance, and 
she showed him and the She-Devil what she had learned to damage the jet-craft. In the Oval Office itself, Daredevil attacked Mandrill to force him and Black Spectre from the occupied building. The dirigible fell, Black Widow and Shanna defeated Nekra, and Daredevil beat the Mandrill in single combat atop the White House. [Daredevil (1st series) #108-112, Marvel Two-In-One #3]