BIOGRAPHY -- Page 24
In the bitterest of ironies, Daredevil would find himself on Kingpin’s side again before long. Fisk’s wife Vanessa recovered her health and left the country, abandoning him. [Daredevil: Love & War Graphic Novel] Kingpin pursued his wife to Europe, leaving a power vacuum as his man the Arranger tried to maintain control over hungry lieutenants and power grabs by the Rose, Hammerhead, Silvermane, Hobgoblin and many others. A gang war broke out in the streets and many innocents were being caught in the crossfire. Spider-Man earnestly got involved, but his antics often only exacerbated the situation. Daredevil actively tried to keep Spider-Man from the gang war, even setting up a fake meeting with him to divert his attention from diving in fist-first in a gangland peace meeting. Spider-Man was furious at Daredevil for treating him like a kid and for dropping by his Aunt May’s house to confront him as Matt Murdock.
Finally, the Kingpin arranged for a police escort to bring him back into the city, as Daredevil and the NYPD saw him as the lesser of two evils if he could quell the gang war. Daredevil and his allies actively worked to keep Spider-Man from bungling into the situation, creating a second false 
motorcade and a fake body suit to disguise Daredevil as the Kingpin. Daredevil was revealed and self-righteously lectured Spider-Man about the bigger picture and how he failed to grasp what was at stake. Spider-Man laid into him and their fighting only ended when a trigger-happy cop shot at Spidey during the fight, and DD deflected the bullet with his billy club. Daredevil made no apologies to Spider-Man and said he had actually been useful in making the false motorcade seem real long enough for Kingpin to get back into the city some other way.
One more time, Daredevil reached out to Spider-Man for help, as the Kingpin was reportedly going to kill all his lieutenants to clean house after the gang war. He talked Spidey into helping him save lives and nail the Kingpin for attempted murder. Once they got to the meet, however, Spider-Man was suspicious enough that he worked out what was really going on. Kingpin was sacrificing his lieutenants to a federal dragnet. His firing squad at the meet were only loaded with blanks, but his kill order and the efforts by Spider-Man and Daredevil’s crew to “save” them would convince the lieutenants they were in danger, compelling them to accept police custody and turn over testimonial evidence. Once again, Daredevil was using Spider-Man instead of trusting him. Spidey 
bailed on the farce and went after the Kingpin, who was once again alone as Vanessa left town. Spider-Man screamed at Kingpin and demolished his desk but, even without Daredevil’s chiding, he knew he was accomplishing nothing and left. Kingpin tried to bond with Murdock afterwards over how Spider-Man was a mere child who didn’t understand the way of the world like them, but Daredevil could only regret that he lost the trust of a good man by playing games with people like Fisk did. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #284-288]
[Note: Daredevil appeared unmasked during the Gang War story in front of several new people, including Sgt. Tork of the NYPD, Falcon, Black Cat, even Melvin Potter. This seems like a miscommunication about his status quo after the Born Again arc. While Daredevil gave up his life as “Matt Murdock, Attorney at Law” after Fisk’s attack, he still kept his face and identity secret otherwise.]
In Hell’s Kitchen, Matt left the law behind and focused entirely on becoming a local hero, defending the four-by-twenty blocks that constituted his neighborhood and his territory. He and Karen lived in a converted loft, working nearby at a diner as a cook and patrolling the streets as Daredevil. He tried to build a reputation as defender of Hell’s Kitchen, working with the locals on the streets, watching over the skateboarding kid gang the Fatboys, etc. Matt was hyper-conscious of his previous mental break and feared losing his sense of self again. Facing the likes of Madcap’s nihilism, Klaw’s fading madness, the instinctual ferocity of Sabretooth, or the dichotomy 
of Mr. Hyde’s personas kept him questioning himself and why he did what he did. He was upset with Natasha when she used him to hunt down an unstable but highly religious soldier, knowing his devil costume would set the man off. However, he also refused to join her in a public campaign of Super-Heroes Against Drugs, thinking they did their best work in the shadows. [Daredevil (1st series) #234-239]
Daredevil’s public image was not what he wanted it to be, either. His dreams of being a local hero failed as some people still blamed him for bringing the Nuke disaster to Hell’s Kitchen. The average citizen saw him as a frightening figure or a stuntman getting his kicks, not a “Guardian Devil.” The media coverage of Daredevil often painted him in the worst light, making even Karen grow hesitant and uncomfortable around him, knowing how often Matt was beating people bloody with the same hands touching her at night. Both Karen and an NYPD detective named Bucko Leary pressed Daredevil to bring in a drug dealer named Danny Guitar legally, by gathering evidence, rather than using violence to force him out of the neighborhood. While violence wasn’t his only method, Matt was hesitant to rely on the law again after all that was taken from him. [Daredevil (1st series) #239-244]
Daredevil and Black Widow teamed up on another assignment when Natasha learned 
S.H.I.E.L.D. psy-agents were being targeted by a serial killer. Matt helped her re-think the paradigm and they realized psy-talents all around New York had been killed, not just S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They set a trap but ‘Tasha ended up captured by the killers, a telepath named Rose and her muscle, Charlie. They escaped S.H.I.E.L.D.’s dragnet and fled to a cabin upstate, with only Daredevil still in pursuit. Matt was exhausted by the time he reached them and was overpowered by Charlie and Rose. Black Widow had to free herself and ultimately killed Rose while the telepath was inside her mind, experiencing both her madness and her death. Daredevil consoled her afterwards, but it would be a long time before Natasha felt like herself again. [Daredevil / Black Widow: Abatoir]
Daredevil continued to struggle with defining his ideas of justice. He met Wheeler, a former member of Wakanda’s aerial guard who moved to New York only to lose himself to gambling. Wheeler was married to the Black Panther’s cousin, and his debts continued to plague his wife and son. T’Challa believed Wheeler was too far gone to redeem himself, advocating for Wheeler to abandon his family so that his compulsion would only destroy him. Daredevil refused to allow Wheeler to throw his life away, fighting with him as he tried to rob a bank to repay his debts and even considered suicide. Daredevil would not give up hope on Wheeler rebuilding his family and wouldn’t let Wheeler give up either. T’Challa opposed Matt’s self-righteous crusade to impose his expectations on Wheeler, for in their culture a man had the right to choose death before further dishonor. [Daredevil (1st series) #245]
Matt soon received an unwelcome surprise when Karen unveiled her new venture. Restless at 
home alone, she applied for special grants to open a drug hotline and free advice clinic for the neighborhood. The Hotline provided help for those like her who suffered from drug abuse and needed a hand moving past their addictions. It was also an opportunity for Matt to put his legal skills to use in Hell’s Kitchen, providing advice on the law to those who couldn’t afford lawyers. Matt immediately rejected the idea, for he survived Kingpin’s assault on his life by convincing himself he was a “free man” now that he left the law behind him. He tried to show Karen that Daredevil was all he needed by intervening AS Daredevil on a tenant dispute relayed to the Hotline. However, a masked vigilante with his fists of justice was no help mediating a utilities issue between a greedy landlord and his tenants.
Matt reluctantly began to see Karen’s point as he walked through the park. He met a boy named Tyrone playing with his toy sailboat in the water. When Tyrone submerged, however, he was struck in the face by chemical runoff from Kelco Industrials and became blind. Matt detected a truck nearby doing the dumping, identifying the unique chemical signature of the materials with his 
senses, but as a blind man he was unable to identify it to the police and prosecutors later after getting Tyrone to the hospital. He infiltrated Kelco as Daredevil and successfully acquired evidence of Kelco’s guilt with his senses, but none of it would be admissible in court. Giving in, Matt returned to the Hotline and admitted how right Karen had been. Revisiting his old skills as a “ghost-lawyer,” Matt gave the tenants direction on how to fight their landlord legally and began building a case against Kelco with Tyrone and his father, Ross. [Daredevil (1st series) #248]
A woman named Marilyn came into the Hotline looking for help. She was afraid her husband was mentally unwell and might harm himself or others. Matt and Karen advised her on involuntary commitment, and Matt decided to follow up on the case as Daredevil. Unfortunately, Marilyn’s husband was an assassin named Bushwacker, who was killing mutants on contract and had already drawn Wolverine’s attention. Wolverine was ready to kill out of revenge, but Daredevil wanted to give Bushwacker a fair trial and chance at recovery. While they were sparring, Bushwacker killed another mutant victim, which only riled Wolverine further. Wolverine and 
Daredevil chased Bushwacker to a gas station, and the X-Man slashed open a gas truck to flummox Bushwacker’s cybernetic gun-arm. Bushwacker would rather face the torch than a cell, and opened fire despite the risk. The gasoline exploded in flames and Bushwacker was badly burned, but Daredevil pulled him to safety and turned him over to the authorities, against Wolverine’s judgment. [Daredevil (1st series) #249]
Behind the scenes, Wilson Fisk was responsible for Kelco Industrials. He intentionally instructed Kelco to violate safety regulations in creative, but technically legal, ways, while paying off judicial and governmental figures to grease the wheels further. Fisk wished to make an absolute mockery of the law’s ability to administer justice in order to spite Murdock one last time. To twist the knife even further, he had Foggy Nelson appointed as Kelco’s chief legal counsel. Matt coordinated his case against Kelco with Save The Planet, an environmental group whose class action lawsuit was being stymied by Kelco’s legal team. However, Save The Planet’s offices were bombed and their peaceful protest site was marred by a body murdered and dumped in toxic waste, discrediting 
their message. Daredevil traced this sabotage to a freelance government agent named Bullet with ties to the Kingpin. However, even after he was arrested in connection to the murder, Bullet’s “friends” fixed things to arrange his release. On top of that, the New York bar issued an injunction against Murdock for the illegal practice of law without a license, threatening to shut down his clinic. [Daredevil (1st series) #250-251]
Still, the Hotline became a gathering place for the neighborhood, a community center where the people of Hell’s Kitchen came together in times of crisis. Matt arranged for a young lawyer named 
David to work at the clinic under his tutelage and operate as a beard for his ghost-lawyering. With David as the official attorney providing advice to their clients, the Hotline won the case against its injunction, keeping the doors open.
When Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen invaded New York City, they caused a citywide blackout which led the population to fear that a nuclear war had begun. In the darkness, Matt took the lead and brought the Hotline’s crowded waiting room to the hospital to bunker down until order was restored. Unfortunately, some of Manhattan quickly turned survivalist, particularly a gang under the leadership of a disgruntled veteran called Ammo. They seized control of a nearby National Guard armory before preparing to claim the hospital. Daredevil and Black Widow joined forces with some more honorable soldiers to oppose the breakdown of societal norms. Daredevil personally beat Ammo into submission, breaking the spirits of his “army.” By the time the sun came up, word of Apocalypse’s defeat quelled any fears of war and life returned to normal. [Daredevil (1st series) #252]