BIOGRAPHY -- Page 13
Although Matt was now looking for work on his own, he still made time for Foggy to hear about his upcoming re-election campaign for District Attorney. Foggy felt insecure going up against the good-looking and suave Blake Tower, and wanted to shore up his reputation as a fightin’ D.A. He was convinced Tower was behind an aggressive political ad which the networks aired mocking 
Foggy. In between bouts with Copperhead and Torpedo, Matt also met a flighty young woman named Heather Glenn. Matt’s brownstone used to belong to Heather’s ex-boyfriend, and she used her old spare key to let herself into his apartment, only to be surprised by the new tenant. Heather was an attractive and amusing distraction as first, as Matt tried to get over Natasha. Matt’s job search also made him a bit restless and reckless as Daredevil. His running fight with the misguided Torpedo consumed his attention so much he didn’t even realize they were destroying a family home until the owner screamed at them to stop when he nearly fell on her child. [Daredevil (1st series) #124-127]
Matt was down on himself after the incident with Torpedo, worrying that he had drifted away from his desire to help people. He was still unemployed as an attorney and now Daredevil seemed to be an excuse for kicks more than doing good. Daredevil remained active, fighting against Brother Zed and his voodoo cult, and the return of Death-Stalker. Matt ended up having a long talk with Heather, and she suggested he start up a legal aid clinic to offer advice as a lawyer for free, getting his skills directly into the hands of people who needed it. Her father, Maxwell Glenn of Glenn Industries, would subsidize the not-for-profit enterprise. The idea was a good one and Matt thanked Heather while mulling over the concept. After being assigned a pro bono case by the court, Matt found himself awkwardly facing off against Foggy in defense of the Man-Bull. Taurens had been in the midst of a bank robbery when the owner collapsed of stress. Six months later, the old man died and Man-Bull was charged with murder. Matt argued for intervening factors and a lack of premeditation, but Man-Bull was still convicted and faced a life sentence. Even though he was forced to fight Man-Bull as Daredevil after he escaped the courthouse, Matt felt he had defended justice by trying to reduce Taurens’ sentence.
The victory in court didn’t help Foggy’s re-election, though – the embarrassing and slapstick attack ads continued to drop him in the polls. Blake Tower also proved to be a stand-up guy who had nothing to do with the ads. In fact, more false reports started to hit the airwaves, including one 
incredulously claiming JFK and Bobbie Kennedy were still alive. On election night, a digitally-faked version of Foggy Nelson conceded the election on-air, declaring himself unworthy of being re-elected, sinking any chances he had before the polls closed. As a silver lining, Matt and Heather had just opened up “The Storefront” Legal Services. Foggy came by to beg for a job and Matt showed him he had already printed business cards with both of their names on them. Nelson & Murdock were partners once more. [Daredevil (1st series) #128-130]
Matt and Foggy were getting back to their roots with walk-ins from the street bringing legal cases to the Storefront, such as tenants looking for a class action suit against the owner of their slum tenement. Meanwhile, Daredevil was fortunate to find the new D.A. Blake Tower was willing to work with costumed vigilantes and was interested in having his assistance on future cases. Lieutenant Bert Rose of the NYPD only tolerated Daredevil’s interference, though, as he did at the murder scene of a businessman named Hunnicutt. Jacob Conover of the Daily Bugle was more forthcoming and gave Daredevil the rundown on an assassin named Bullseye, who killed Hunnicutt to kick off an extortion racket against other high-profile and rich potential targets.
Bullseye’s need to publicize his skills led him to seek out Daredevil, using a grenade to throw the crime-fighter off-balance before daring him to follow. Bullseye drew Daredevil into the center ring of a packed circus, hoping to build his reputation by killing the Man Without Fear in front of thousands of witnesses. Bullseye’s near-infallible accuracy allowed him to turn any object he could get his hands on into a lethal projectile, and only Daredevil’s radar sense kept him ahead of Bullseye’s aim. As they proved too evenly matched, Bullseye departed, confident the spectacle 
would reach his next targets and make them too afraid the refuse his demands for payment. After recovering from the grenade and Bullseye’s other attacks, though, Matt was able to detect the unique sound of Bullseye’s cartridge gun the next time it fired, tracking him to his next targets. Rested and prepared, Daredevil got within Bullseye’s range to prevent and more throwing attacks and beat the assassin senseless in direct, unarmed combat. [Daredevil (1st series) #131-132]
Daredevil next defeated Mind-Wave and his ESPer-Ts during a daring attack on Wall Street and teamed up with the reformed Torpedo to capture the Chameleon. Other matters closer to home had begun to escalate, however. The “slum lord” from the tenement class action was actually Glenn Industries, meaning Heather’s father and the Storefront’s backer was the potential target of their suit. Matt found he genuinely cared about Heather as more than a distraction and tried to help her through their investigation into her father. Her mental health wasn’t helped by the false news reports, which were only intensifying around New York City since the election. Now the airwaves were filled with stories that the war in Vietnam was faked by the CIA to cover for secret invasions in Saudi Arabia and Peru. Another report showed Daredevil gun down three policemen in broad daylight. The newspapers contradicted the TV news, as did the news reporters themselves who tried to do damage control renouncing the digitally altered broadcasts of their false reports, but the public was losing faith in reality and didn’t know what to believe from one day to the next. Daredevil found himself being attacked in the streets as a cop-killer, despite Tower and Rose’s attempts to quell the false reports. [Daredevil (1st series) #133-134]
The truth finally started to come to light when the Jester got involved in the fake news fiasco. Jonathon Powers jumped on the bandwagon and claimed Daredevil faked his arrest, riding the wave of anti-Daredevil sentiment from the news reports to cast doubt on his crimes. Matt realized the doctored reports were similar to Powers’ faking his death at Daredevil’s hands years before. Jester had even interfered with Foggy’s first campaign for D.A., explaining the fake news targeting Nelson. Indeed, the next digitally faked broadcast had the Jester exonerated and promising 
righteous revenge on Daredevil for framing him. Daredevil tried tracing the false TV signal, only to find the Jester dead in his hideout, and Lieutenant Rose suspected DD of the murder. Daredevil allowed himself to be arrested, plotting in secret with D.A. Tower to see how far the Jester would take his plot. Indeed, Jester next broadcast Daredevil trying to escape from prison with a helicopter of goons, only to be recapture by the alive and heroic Jester.
This last video helped convince the prison of Daredevil’s innocence, as they knew there was no escape attempt. With the Jester’s corpse suddenly reducing itself to ash, there was no more cause to hold Daredevil. Although Daredevil, the D.A., the police and the mayor were now of one mind about the situation, none of them were prepared for Jester’s next broadcast. Jester had the President of the United States announce on television that the NYPD and super-heroes of New York had gone insane, and he authorized normal gun-carrying citizens to take to the streets and kill any police or heroes they saw until the National Guard arrived. With the police too frightened to appear in public in uniform, Jester planned to lead a crime wave through New York. Daredevil 
tried to stop a bank robbery, only for Jester and his goons to rally the innocent civilians in a lynching for the “insane vigilante.” Daredevil only escaped with the help of D.A. Tower and his plain-clothed officers. At Jester’s next heist, Daredevil tracked the clown of crime back to his lair, bested his Murder Maze and finally captured his foe. Afterwards, Daredevil did his best to inform the public of what had happened and restore faith in the accuracy of the news. [Daredevil (1st series) #135-137]
As Jester’s threat ended, though, a real news story aired reporting the kidnapping of actress Karen Page out in California. Traveling out west, Daredevil discovered Karen had been kidnapped by a being posing as Death’s Head, the identity her father assumed shortly before his death. He fought with Death’s Head’s super-strong minion Smasher before being captured and trapped in a room with automated machine guns. Daredevil managed to escape the room and teamed up with 
Ghost Rider against Death’s Head, as John Blaze was also looking for Karen as her friend and co-worker from Stunt-Master’s show. Death’s Head was revealed as Death-Stalker in disguise, looking for any notes Karen might have from her father’s research on cobalt radiation and time-displacement technology. Death-Stalker’s search was for naught and, after his identity was revealed, he made a token fight against Daredevil and Ghost Rider before leaving to continue his scheming elsewhere. Matt and Karen briefly reunited, but the fires of their romance had cooled and Matthew could only think about returning to New York to reconnect with Heather. [Daredevil (1st series) #138, Ghost Rider (2nd series) #20]
Back in New York, Daredevil faced a number of threats in short order. He dealt with a mad bomber, battled a tag-team of the Gladiator and Beetle, and got involved in a conflict with the mob, Black Panther and Namor the Sub-Mariner. [Daredevil (1st series) #139-140, Annual #4] The case of Glenn Industries had taken a serious turn in his absence, though. Assailants kidnapped Debbie Harris in order to warn Foggy off of his investigation, and someone even took a shot at him under the guise of collecting a ransom. At a second rendezvous, Daredevil worked together with Foggy and drew out the sniper, Mr. Stone, Maxwell Glenn’s personal assistant. 
Although Stone claimed responsibility for the tenement business and the kidnapping, he refused to disclose Debbie’s location. The man then threw himself out a window to his death while trying to grab Daredevil, preventing any further interrogation. Maxwell Glenn seemed innocently perplexed by all this business. He readily allowed Nelson and Murdock access to his business and personnel files, now that Stone was no longer blocking them from meeting with the man. Heather was relieved her father was innocent, but Matt remained slightly suspicious and Foggy was still worried over his missing fiancé. Something about the whole affair didn't seem to add up.
Nelson & Murdock’s problems were clearly not over when an assassin with a machine gun opened fire on the Storefront. Matt sensed the attack and tackled Foggy to the ground before pursuing the getaway vehicle. Daredevil discovered Bullseye disposing of his car in the river and learned he had been paid one million dollars for the hit on the lawyers. Daredevil knocked Bullseye into the river but lost track of him in the water before emerging. Bullseye got the drop on Daredevil with a paper plane aimed for a vulnerable nerve center (yes, really) and staged a flashy execution for his arch-foe. Daredevil awoke to find himself tied to a giant crossbow bolt and launched out to sea. He managed to get his arms free after hitting the water but got back to land thanks to a passing new hero, Nova the Human Rocket. Matt survived, but Bullseye escaped and he had no proof of who hired the assassin.
Before he could follow up on Bullseye, Daredevil found Cobra and Mr. Hyde back in action and stealing from a jewel emporium. They escaped, but he tracked them again to the rooftop gardens 
of the eccentric Bill Rotsler and his rare book collection. It seemed that Hyde was looking for the means of improving his serum to become even more powerful. Once he achieved the formulas of Cagliostro, Hyde thought he would be unstoppable. Daredevil found him and Cobra using the equipment at Manhattan labs and stopped Hyde from imbibing on his new super-serum. As that matter was wrapping up, Matt heard from Heather that the police had fully cleared her father of any involvement in Stone’s doings with his business. Foggy was still suspicious, though, and another visit to Maxwell Glenn didn’t help him in Matt’s eyes. Daredevil’s super-sensitive hearing could detect changes in Glenn’s heartbeat, which indicated he was lying about his innocence. [Daredevil (1st series) #141-143]