BIOGRAPHY -- Page 28
“Jack Batlin” established himself on Avenue C as a con artist (or “social engineer” as he preferred), hiding his blindness and building a new reputation on the streets. By doing favors for local contacts like Randy Jillette, Lamar and Stithy, Jack acquired a place to live under the radar, hiding the remaining pieces of Matt Murdock’s life which he held onto. His only contact from his old life was Elektra, who struggled to assimilate Erynys’s essence into her own. Elektra was quite forward with Daredevil, a clinical desire to renew their relationship and repay her debt to him, but Jack only wanted to move forward, not backward. The new Daredevil did his best to appear different and more ruthless than his “predecessor,” willing to use guns and sacrifice old alliances in favor of making that distinction. He found himself in conflict with System Crash, a techno-
anarchist cell of Hydra. They used cyber-terrorism to weaken the rule of law in Manhattan, pressing the authorities to initiate martial law overseen by local super-heroes, a decision which further undermined the people’s trust in government. Daredevil worked with Captain America and Kathy Malper to prevent System Crash’s plans, while also doing his best to hide his identity as the Daredevil they were familiar with. [Daredevil (1st series) #326-332]
"Jack Batlin" had a difficult time leaving the law behind entirely. He worked a bit of "street legal" consulting into his efforts as a social engineer, recreating the old ghost-lawyering trick he pulled at the Hotline. Daredevil had another encounter with Baron Strucker and Hydra when they hired Hobgoblin and Sabretooth to kidnap victims from the streets of Hell's Kitchen. Hydra's underground fight clubs were only the tip of Strucker's plans as he intended to use Mole Man's technology to collapse all of Hell's Kitchen into a sinkhole. Hydra would then reap the benefits from the utter anarchy which would rise in its wake. Randi and Jack's client Juan wrre among the abductees, but Daredevil managed to get them all back to the surface and set back Baron Strucker's plans for the Kitchen. [Daredevil: Black Armor #1-4]
Daredevil had a curious encounter with a community of tunnel dwellers living under Manhattan. Wilson Fisk was slowly rebuilding his empire from the streets, but two of his couriers from the community were falsely arrested for a bombing. Daredevil tried to prove their innocence and implicate real estate magnate Walter Jenkins, the man trying to consolidate control of Fisk’s old land holdings. Numerous parties got involved, including Bushwacker, Deathlok the Demolisher, Blackwulf, Peacekeeper, and the Devourer, even the underground “King” whom Daredevil once fought to rescue Vanessa Fisk. Matt tried to get Foggy Nelson to represent the couriers with Lamar as an intermediary, but his old partner was too interested in paying his bills to accept pro bono cases like they used to. Jack Batlin had to rely on his con artist network to swindle the man rather than abide by the rule of law. In the end, it was Fisk who brutalized the real bomber into confessing, which freed the couriers and brought down Jenkins. Daredevil started to recognize his new limitations and knew another confrontation with Fisk seemed inevitable. [Daredevil (1st series) #333-337]
Daredevil’s personal connections began to wither. Elektra grew tired of pursuing Matthew and left him to form her own ryu of ninja to hunt down the Snakeroot. Now nobody in Daredevil’s life knew the real him anymore. [Elektra (1st series) #1] Spider-Man was experiencing his own crisis of 
identity and came to Daredevil for advice. He deduced “the New Daredevil” was still Matt Murdock and was curious how his old friend managed to leave everything behind. Without confirming anything, Daredevil darkly advised him to “kill Peter Parker” and bury him deep in the earth, reinventing himself free of the pain his civilian identity caused him and those around him. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #396, Spectacular Spider-Man (2nd series) #219]
Daredevil’s ego and martyr complex came into play when people from his old life began to suffer. Foggy and Kathy Malper were attacked, Glorianna O’Breen was unceremoniously thrown to her death and Ben Urich ended up in the hospital with his wife Doris in a coma after receiving a fractured skull. Matt naturally decided the attacks were all about him, when in fact they were merely incidental witnesses to a crime from years before, hunted by a man named Kruel with no 
connection to Daredevil. Matt’s conflicting desires struck him when he tried to interview Ben Urich about the attack. Urich tried to prove Daredevil and Matt were the same man using the photo trick he pulled on Matt years earlier, but Daredevil successfully bluffed his way through it. He kept his new identity secret but was gut-punched when Urich said the original Daredevil never would have let him and his wife be injured in the first place. [Daredevil (1st series) #338-342]
Urich was still on Daredevil’s mind when he learned Ben had been kidnapped in order to get his attention. A trail of breadcrumbs led Matt to realize that Larry Cranston, the third Mr. Fear, was still alive. Cranston lured Murdock to the law library at Columbia, where he could get revenge on the professors who once favored Murdock’s charisma over his own legal skills. Daredevil had time to prepare for a fight with Mister Fear, though, and was able to overcome his fear toxins. Still, Fear was able to escape while Daredevil tended to Ben Urich’s recovery. Though Larry and Matt threw each others’ names around freely in their fight, Ben feigned amnesia due to the massive dose of fear toxin he experienced. Urich allowed Daredevil to keep his secrets, but privately he was happy to know his friend was still alive. [Over the Edge #1]
Being Matt, Jack and Daredevil started weighing too heavily on Murdock’s mind, and he began to crack. Compartmentalizing aspects of his life like this caused them to take on a life of their own. First, “Matt Murdock” became a Devil’s Advocate voice in his head, using legal metaphors to challenge his behavior. The more ruthless act he put on as the “new” Daredevil was getting out of 
control, too, as the aspect of his mind that cared about the law separated from the one which “administered justice.” He started experiencing blackouts, unable to remember the events of his life for hours at a time. Daredevil was in no condition to intervene when a drugged and psychotic Punisher hunted down and killed Nick Fury. [Daredevil (1st series) #343-344, Double Edge Omega]
Daredevil faced a new threat called simply “Sir” after the serial killer threw a woman named Melinda Dennis to her death from a high window, just like Glorianna O’Breen died. Matt was already disassociating further, shredding his new Daredevil costume during a blackout as a metaphorical rejection of his vengeful new attitude. That wasn’t enough, for he also returned to using the original yellow Daredevil costume, a separate personality that refused to answer to Matt 
Murdock or Jack Batlin, claiming to be the “original Daredevil,” who still held laughter and hope in his heart. Matt’s conscious mind returned to using the red Daredevil costume, but questioned the identity of this other, yellow Daredevil when the grave of Matthew Murdock (where Hellspawn was buried) appeared dug up. Daredevil was also beaten in a rematch by Sir, who stole the red Daredevil costume and began wearing it, causing even more confusion.
As the fugue-like yellow Daredevil, Matt revisited Karen and Foggy on several occasions without being able to admit to himself why. Karen came to recognize the truth that Matt was still alive but deeply, deeply troubled. The yellow Daredevil (Murdock) tracked down the red Daredevil (Sir), who was gleefully hurting others in his name. Daredevil beat Sir, and this was cathartic enough to pull down the mental barriers, allowing Daredevil and Matt Murdock to become one mind again. It was not a healthy mind, though, for he finally recognized why the deaths of Melinda Dennis and Glorianna O’Breen weighed on him so. The mental barriers fell to reveal the first act of 
compartmentalization he did as a vigilante, when a teenaged Matt Murdock panicked hunting a criminal in a brothel and accidentally pushed one of the girls attacking him out a window to her death. Remembering that he was a murderer broke Matt Murdock all over again. He was utterly unresponsive when Karen and Foggy finally tracked him down and found him rocking slowly in the corner of his bathroom. Foggy was shocked to see Matt in his Daredevil costume without a mask, learning his best friend’s secret for the first time. [Daredevil (1st series) #345-347]
[Note: Earlier hints from #319-325 that Foggy was quietly aware of Matt’s dual identity were ignored here.]
Karen focused on the problem at hand, trying to get the catatonic Matt to respond to them. Foggy, however, had to deal with the revelation that Matt and Daredevil were one and the same. He was furious at Karen and Matt for hiding this from him for years, and he couldn’t hang around to support Matt’s latest breakdown. Matt fled from Karen’s care to Sister Maggie’s church, but even she couldn’t offer him absolution for what he was feeling. Instead, the spirit of his late teacher 
Stick emerged to challenge Matt and encourage his recovery. Matt made peace with Karen and, with Stick’s help, went on a spiritual journey to make peace with his past. He returned to the brothel and learned more about the girl, Lyla, whom he killed. He grieved and embraced his guilt rather than running from it, using Lyla’s loss to pressure him to make better choices in the future. [Daredevil (1st series) #348-350]
It was a difficult road behind and ahead of both Matt Murdock and Daredevil. Matt and Karen were reunited as a couple, and he started putting in the hours to show New York that the old, considerate and heroic Daredevil was back, instead of the grim and brutal vigilante of the past few months. Reconnecting with Foggy was much harder, though, as his best friend still felt betrayed by all of Matt’s secrets. For a time, Foggy even believed Matt was lying about being blind, until Matt explained the details of his hyper-senses and radar. Daredevil fought to protect Foggy when he was threatened by the likes of Klaw and Mastermind, but it was still a long path to recovery for the relationship between the two men. It didn’t help when Matt forced their partnership into the spotlight by suddenly appearing in court as Foggy’s co-counsel. Matt made a spectacle of 
returning from the grave, claiming that his life was threatened and so Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. faked his death to place him in protective custody until his enemies were no longer an issue. It was a necessary step for Matt to re-establish his public life as a lawyer, but it also dramatically overshadowed Foggy and his case. [Daredevil (1st series) #351-353, Over the Edge #6]
[Note: Matt Murdock’s resurrection story had some holes in it. Daredevil #353 called Matt Murdock “the man who took down the Kingpin,” going into hiding until Fisk’s influence was no longer a threat in New York. However, “Matt Murdock” had nothing to do with Fisk’s fall in #300 – that was arranged by Kathy Malper and Daredevil. Also, no mention was made of the news stories around the time of his “death,” which reported Matt Murdock and 
Daredevil were the same man. While somewhat discredited before his demise, they were still the reason for Matt’s deception. He had even pretended to be a “new Daredevil” BECAUSE Matt Murdock was dead, so he needed the public to believe the current Daredevil was a different man.]