BIOGRAPHY -- Page 15
Matt was unknowingly still suffering from a concussion and serious head injury after his earlier battle with Mister Hyde. The headaches were already pounding when he arrived at the Storefront to find a flurry of job candidates. With Heather no longer working in the legal clinic, Foggy had put out an ad for a secretary and Matt reluctantly had to deal with the prospective employees. His headache, injuries and general lack of sleep led Matt to be short with the last candidate, Becky Blake. Paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, Becky thought she was being dismissed for her disability, and passionately railed against Murdock. Once Matt realized what he had done, and 
Becky realized he was blind and hadn’t noticed her chair, they had a more relaxed discussion. Matt and Foggy agreed to hire Becky and welcomed her to the Storefront.
Daredevil’s head injury was even worse than it seemed. As he went to Avengers Mansion to visit Natasha, who was back in town, the pain overwhelmed him to the point that he actually attacked the Avengers in a haze. Matt fell into a coma as a result of his concussion, and only his fighting spirit helped him pull through. It was in this weakened state that Daredevil had to face Death-Stalker, who arrived at the hospital seeking his revenge. Fortunately, Natasha and the Avengers were nearby and drove the specter away. Matt’s crisis had renewed a spark of love in Natasha, and she began to talk about the good old days as he recovered at Avengers Mansion. Daredevil kept her at arm’s length, however, and reminded the Black Widow they had decided they were stronger apart.
Matt tried to reconnect with Heather, but she was having trouble forgiving Daredevil for how he contributed to her father’s death. He convinced her to meet him at the Storefront for a date after closing, but Natasha Romanoff was not a woman to give up easily. She ALSO arrived at the office looking to take Matt to the ballet. Before Murdock could negotiate this minefield, the office was attacked by the Unholy Three – Ape-Man, Bird-Man and Cat-Man. Black Widow’s presence was a 
boon as she brought down Bird-Man and got Heather, Foggy, Debbie and Becky to safety, but the other two Ani-Men made off with Matt Murdock. Matt was delivered to a local graveyard for Death-Stalker’s final revenge. The villain murdered his two associates and revealed he knew Daredevil’s secret identity, as well as his own shocking origins.
Death-Stalker was originally the Exterminator, the former boss of the Unholy Three who supposedly perished in the same explosion that “killed” Mike Murdock. In fact, the Exterminator’s time displacement ray technology sent him to a dimensional abeyance, from which he could only partially claw his way back. Stealing a cybernetic death-grip from A.I.M. with his new powers, he became Death-Stalker. His mission in life was to find a way to reverse the T-Ray’s effects to fully return to this dimension, and to kill Daredevil for his part in it all. Death-Stalker allowed Murdock to change into Daredevil for their final battle, where he planned to literally bury him. Death-Stalker 
could still become intangible and teleport at will, but Daredevil knew his death-grip only functioned when he was fully phased into this dimension, and Death-Stalker’s heartbeat told him when that was. Eventually, Death-Stalker lost his temper and tried to use his death-grip on Daredevil without checking his environment first. He phased into existence inside a massive gravestone, killing himself instantly. [Daredevil (1st series) #155-158]
Daredevil found himself in the most ironic of fiascos after Spider-Man was hurt tackling their old mutual foe, the Masked Marauder. The Marauder’s opti-blast left Spider-Man blind, and Daredevil came across the hapless hero injuring himself trying to make his way through the city rooftops. Matt got Spidey to an optometrist who confirmed the damage likely wasn’t permanent, but they still had to deal with the Marauder’s plan to blackmail the city using his Tri-Man android in its Bombdroid final form. Daredevil needed the blind Spider-Man to track the spider-tracer he placed on the Masked Marauder earlier, and they discovered the Marauder’s lair. Daredevil beat the 
Masked Marauder and his goons, destroying the Bombdroid’s controls, while an amazing Spider-Man disabled the warhead riding atop the Bombdroid over the city. The explosion was prevented and Spider-Man reconnected with Daredevil as his eyesight slowly returned, never realizing it had been a night of the blind leading the blind. [Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man (1st series) #26-28]
Daredevil remained active among the super-hero community of New York, as much as his hyper-sensitive senses allowed him to work with partners or groups. He and Captain America teamed up to stop Doctor Faustus and his homegrown Neo-Nazis, the National Force. [Captain America (1st series) #234-236] Matt Murdock was also tapped by Tony Stark to defend the Avengers in federal court before a Senate committee. Along with attorneys Emerson Bale of the Champions and Jeryn Hogarth of Heroes for Hire, Matt was an expert in superhuman law chosen to justify the Avengers federal clearances as the draconian Henry Peter Gyrich tried to put them under his thumb as their government liaison. As Daredevil, he also responded to the threat of the Grey Gargoyle which interrupted those hearings. [Avengers (1st series) #190-191]
Death-Stalker and the Unholy Three’s attack on the Storefront could hardly avoid making the papers, and Matt Murdock found his life uncomfortable under the spotlight. He had to deal with increased scrutiny from reporters, like the Daily Bugle’s Ben Urich, and extending his clients’ cases in court due to “extenuating circumstances,” like being kidnapped by a super-villain. Nelson & Murdock’s continued connection with Daredevil also led to hired goons threatening Matt and Foggy with a message for Daredevil – meet Eric Slaughter and his gang of assassins at Pier 42… or else. Daredevil arrived at the pier that night, and his hyper-senses detected more than a dozen 
armed men prepared to take him out in a crossfire once he made himself known. Instead, one-by-one, Daredevil made his way through the assassins, bringing down Turk, Smitty, Leach, Fiver, Grotto and the rest. He even managed to deflect a bullet with his billy club while facing the decoy on the pier. When he tried to interrogate the man, however, a passing boater snapped the man’s neck with a life preserver thrown from the sea. Matt was too far away to get a reading on the killer and was left with more questions than answers. [Daredevil (1st series) #159]
Matt tried to reconnect with Heather as they visited her father’s grave together. Heather was willing to forgive Daredevil’s involvement in her father’s suicide, but she was concerned by how Matt wasn’t there for her when she needed him because he was off playing Daredevil. When he refused to promise that Daredevil’s responsibilities wouldn’t take precedent over her in the future, Heather stormed off. Matt decided he needed to talk to someone who understood that side of his life, and he called upon the Black Widow as Daredevil. The shambles of Natasha’s apartment was shocking enough before he found the centerpiece of the wreckage… Natasha’s face, in the center of a bull’s-eye.
After confirming with Ben Urich that Bullseye had escaped from prison, Matt realized Slaughter’s set-up had been for Bullseye’s sake. He went down to Josie’s Bar and started loudly dropping Slaughter and Bullseye’s names to see what shook loose. Turk was still nursing a broken jaw from the pier, and he led some of Slaughter’s men in attacking Daredevil, only to be completely worked over. After throwing two of the thugs through Josie’s window, Daredevil let Turk run scared and followed him back to Slaughter’s hideout on Coney Island. DD beat up all the guys Slaughter sent 
his way, until Bullseye came over the loudspeaker and drew his attention to the damsel tied to the “train tracks” of the roller coaster. Bullseye challenged Daredevil to get to Natasha before the Coney Island Cyclone’s car ran her over. As he got closer, though, the lifelike doll failed to register a heartbeat on Daredevil’s super-hearing, and he veered off before Slaughter’s men could shoot him down.
Daredevil menaced Turk a little more to get a reading on where Bullseye was hiding, and he arrived just as the Black Widow was seeing to her own rescue. Natasha roughed up what remained of Slaughter’s men while Daredevil and Bullseye went toe-to-toe. Despite Bullseye’s talents, his impeccable aim wasn’t enough. Daredevil was relentless and could both give and take 
a punch better than the assassin. Up close, he overwhelmed his opponent and Bullseye lost his nerve. He pulled a gun, but Daredevil intimidated him to the point that he couldn’t even fire. Bullseye tried to order Eric Slaughter and his men to kill Daredevil, but the old assassin-master saw only one man he respected standing before him and it wasn’t Bullseye. Bullseye collapsed into a gibbering mess, utterly defeated, and Daredevil and Black Widow took him into custody. [Daredevil (1st series) #160-161]