BIOGRAPHY -- Page 14
Matt and Heather were struggling to keep Storefront Legal Services under control, as Foggy had taken to drinking heavily over his concerns with Debbie’s kidnapping. At the same time, the Owl returned to New York and attempted to seize territory from the other gangs. He made a daring raid on Ryker’s Island to free the Man-Bull as his new enforcer, which Daredevil failed to stop. Owl’s special serum, which allowed him to fly, had turned against his metabolism, leaving him unable to walk. He wanted Man-Bull to kidnap a Professor Kerwin, an expert in animal serums, to search for a cure, but Man-Bull decided to abandon the Owl and make Kerwin search for a cure to his own condition. Daredevil tracked down the Owl’s new Aerie and rescued Kerwin, sending the Man-Bull back to prison. The Owl fled in his helicopter, but Daredevil learned his old enemy had lost the use of his legs. [Daredevil (1st series) #144]
The Owl sought out a Doctor Petrovic at Upstate Medical Center to operate on his damaged legs, forcing Daredevil to schlep it up to Poughkeepsie. Owlsley claimed there was a bomb in the hospital to keep the police at bay, but Daredevil snuck inside and learned it was a bluff. Owl had been outfitted with a new exoskeleton that restored the use of his legs, as well as a flying device 
attached to his spine. The rejuvenated Owl overpowered Daredevil and took to the air once more. However, Petrovic warned Daredevil that he had sabotaged the Owl’s flight system so it would fail soon after. Matt caught up with the Owl taking revenge on one of his rivals but failed to get the warning across to the gangster. Owlsley took off again, only to lose power in the open skies, plummeting into the river below and crashing through the ice before Daredevil could stop him. [Daredevil (1st series) #145]
While swinging through New York, Daredevil happened to detect Bullseye’s unique heartbeat and found the assassin walking the streets in plain clothes. Changing to Matt Murdock, he interceded to stop Bullseye from robbing a gun shop with a golf ball but couldn’t explain to the police how his senses knew what Bullseye was up to. He tried to follow after Bullseye, only to take a blow to the head with the same golf ball, causing his radar sense to fail. That encounter provoked Bullseye into taking a TV studio hostage, calling out Daredevil to meet him so he could redeem his reputation. Despite operating at a disadvantage without his radar sense, Matt made the 
appointment. Bowling pins, ashtrays, even potted plants… Bullseye attacked him with a flurry of missiles. Still, the fight carried over into a studio wrestling ring, and the son of Battlin’ Jack Murdock would not lose in the ring. Bullseye couldn’t stand that he was about to be defeated again, and he pulled his gun. Daredevil’s radar was returning, though, and he saved the hostages and beat Bullseye. But it was a hollow victory as Daredevil interrogated Bullseye about the shooting at the Storefront, and Bullseye confessed Maxwell Glenn had hired him. [Daredevil (1st series) #146]
Despite the bullet wound Bullseye gave him, Daredevil confronted Maxwell Glenn and got him to confess to the attempted murders, the kidnapping and the slum tenements. Sadly, satisfied that Heather’s father was telling the truth, Daredevil insisted Glenn turn himself over to the police. He compelled Glenn to reveal Debbie Harris’s location, and rescued Foggy’s fiancé from her captor as well. When he returned to Glenn Industries to find Maxwell being led away by the police, however, Daredevil overheard Glenn tell Heather that he didn’t remember why he committed his crimes. Just like his earlier confession, this statement also read as the truth to Matt’s advanced senses.
Suddenly unconvinced by how rapidly Glenn had confessed, Daredevil entered Glenn’s office and discovered a hidden door. He found that Killgrave the Purple Man was behind Glenn, literally. His control over Glenn and Stone led them to commit the crimes they were accused of, and the kidnapping of Debbie Harris was actually to get her father Bernard Harris in his clutches. As Killgrave bragged before his other pawns, Daredevil broke through the concealed door to capture 
the real culprit. Matt’s injured and exhausted state left him more vulnerable to Killgrave’s persuasion than usual, and he faltered before the Purple Man. Killgrave directed his innocent pawns to attack Daredevil and cover his escape. The Purple Man made a clean getaway and, as he had done with Maxwell Glenn, his pawns had been pre-programmed to forget his presence once he left, leaving Matt with no eyewitnesses to Killgrave’s culpability in Glenn’s crimes. [Daredevil (1st series) #147]
Daredevil became obsessed with the need to prove Heather’s father was innocent. However, he failed to convince D.A. Tower not to proceed with his prosecution of Glenn, absent any tangible evidence. Closer to home, Debbie Harris was experiencing PTSD after her abduction. She refused to see Foggy or even leave her father’s mansion to brave the outside world. This brought out a personal vendetta by Foggy against Maxwell Glenn, and he was in no mood to listen to Matt vaguely try to defend Glenn’s possibility of innocence, without explaining more. Daredevil scoured the city for signs of Purple Man and his activities, but instead accidentally uncovered Death-Stalker gathering henchmen for an upcoming theft. Daredevil foiled Death-Stalker’s plans and 
defeated his minion the new Smasher, but was no closer to finding Killgrave. As Matt Murdock, he had been neglecting Heather ever since her father was arrested, thinking he could prove Glenn’s innocence quickly as Daredevil. Alone and unsupported, Heather quit the Storefront rather than wait for Matt to get around to comforting her. When he finally came by, he could only offer false hope and no real leads about her father’s case. [Daredevil (1st series) #148-149]
As the search for the Purple Man continued, an unlikely ally or obstacle came into Daredevil’s path. The mercenary named Paladin had been hired by Debbie’s kidnapper Mort to find the man who hired him and left him to take the blame. Paladin got on Daredevil’s trail to find out what he knew about Purple Man, but neither of them had any leads better than the other. Back at Heather’s apartment, Matt was prepared to reveal his secret identity to her, so she would know 
why he was convinced of her father’s innocence but couldn’t prove it yet. Tragically, at the very moment Heather was returning home, an unmasked Matt answered her phone and took a call from Ryker’s Island. Maxwell Glenn had committed suicide in his cell. [Daredevil (1st series) #150]
Whatever Heather’s reaction to Matt’s identity might have been, it was swallowed up by the news of her father’s death. A furious and grieving Heather threw Matt out of her apartment. Matt understood the loss of a father and blamed himself for the tangled mess his life as Daredevil had made of everything. He was prepared to give up as Daredevil entirely, and it was only days later that Foggy found Matt in his trashed apartment, neglecting work and his health as he wallowed in self-pity. Wandering the city in a daze, Matt ignored reports of a hijacked bus full of hostages 
terrorizing the police on the streets until it was practically right on top of him. A small child ran out into the street in front of Matt and was struck down by the out-of-control bus. The similarities to his own accident finally shook him from his stupor, and Daredevil took to the rooftops to hunt down the bus and stop the criminals on board. Later at the hospital, the child survived and Daredevil vowed to continue his mission. [Daredevil (1st series) #151]
Maxwell Glenn’s funeral was a difficult ordeal. Heather didn’t appear for the funeral, and in fact went missing for several weeks. Tensions were still high between Matt and Foggy over Glenn and Debbie’s issues. Unable to accomplish anything else, Matt decided to invade the Harris mansion as Daredevil. He forced Debbie out of her isolation and got her and Foggy to reunite. Daredevil then crossed paths with Paladin, still seeking answers regarding Killgrave, but finding none. He 
received a call from Heather which lured him to her apartment, only to fall into the clutches of Cobra and Hyde. Mr. Hyde tackled Daredevil out of Heather’s high-rise apartment, leaving them to fall to the pavement below. Matt strained his arm arresting his descent, the same shoulder Bullseye shot earlier. Daredevil was beaten as Cobra destroyed his billy club and Mr. Hyde slammed his head against a granite wall, knocking him out. [Daredevil (1st series) #152-153]
Daredevil awoke to find himself on Ryker’s Island, surrounding by foes. The Purple Man had gone to the last place Daredevil would look, taking control of the prison as his personal fortress. In addition to the guards and inmates, he had Heather under his spell and a collection of Daredevil’s foes at his side, including Cobra, Hyde, Jester and Gladiator. Killgrave had even compelled Murdock’s secret identity from Heather. Injured and disarmed, Daredevil was forced to contend with the four super-villains sent to finish the job. He had a sudden reprieve when Paladin arrived hunting Killgrave, and the mercenary’s costume had air filters that protected him from the Purple Man’s control. The odds were almost even now as Daredevil and Paladin fought through 
Killgrave’s minions. Purple Man threatened to have Heather kill herself like her father, but Matt was mad enough to shoot the gun out of Heather’s hands with Paladin’s pistol. He pursued Killgrave to the top of Ryker’s Island and the Purple Man seemingly died as he lunged at Daredevil and fell into the rocky waters below. Heather was cleansed of Killgrave’s influence, and the former couple quietly reunited in the night. [Daredevil (1st series) #154]
[Note: Killgrave was openly calling Daredevil “Murdock” in front of the assembled inmates and super-villains. One small panel towards the end indicated that these mesmerized pawns of the Purple Man were also going to have amnesia as they came down from the effects of his pheromones, and therefore forget Matt’s secret identity.]
Matt Murdock found himself defending Ben Grimm when the Thing was charged with destruction of public property and creating a disturbance. The Thing had been set up by the Mad Thinker, whose calculations showed that, once Ben escaped, he would lead a psychic into the Thinker’s grasp. When Daredevil pursued Ben, the Thinker mistakenly assumed Daredevil was the psychic and not the unassuming boy named Eugene Everett who also arrived. This led to a convoluted plan to kidnap the Vision for the Thinker, but Daredevil, Thing, Vision and Yellowjacket used the 
Thinker’s blind spot for unpredictable elements to defeat him. [Marvel Two-In-One #37-40] On another occasion, Peter Parker was at the Storefront when Matt detected that the Owl flew again. Daredevil and Spider-Man ended up joining forces to storm the Owl’s new Aerie and rescued Professor Kerwin, whom the Owl kidnapped to save his life after he fell into the icy river months earlier. [Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #73]