BIOGRAPHY -- Page 32
Matt’s relationship with Karen soured after the Boroughs case, however. When her past was put on parade before the eyes of the public, it made her more than just uncomfortable. Karen came to see her relationship with Matt as inherently unequal. Her history as a drug addict, as a porn star and as the woman who sold his identity for selfish gain would always hang over them. Their relationship was entirely contingent on his ability to forgive, and she felt (admittedly) irrationally resentful of this “condition” on their love. Rather than allow her feelings to grow into genuine bitterness or worse, Karen chose to take a new job with WFSK on the west coast. Unable to do anything to change her mind, Matt was left to recover in New York on his own.
A fantastical situation soon occupied Matt’s life to distract him from Karen. A teenaged mother was chased through the streets by men intent on killing her and her baby. She found her way to Sharpe, Nelson & Murdock where she claimed hers was a “virgin birth” and her child represented the Second Coming of Christ. A vision of angels told her that Matt was Daredevil, and that he was destined to protect her child from those who would do it harm. The girl then disappeared, leaving Matt with the baby. On the other hand, a man named Nicholas Macabes came to his office as 
well, representing an organization known as Sheol, dedicated to preventing the coming of the Anti-Christ. Macabes (who also knew Matt’s secret identity) begged him to turn the child over to them, so they could prevent the apocalypse to come. Macabes appealed to Matt’s Catholicism, leaving him a palm-sized cross as a calling card, and warned Matthew that the baby’s very presence would exacerbate the presence of evil in his life… and the lives of those closest to him.
Not knowing WHAT to make of all this, Matt soon saw the effects of Nicholas’s warning. Foggy spent the night with a client only to see her turn into a demon and leap to her death. He was arrested and charged with rape and murder when the police didn’t believe his story. Rosalind Sharpe chose to cut Franklin loose “for the good of the practice,” but Matt refused and quit the firm in order to continue defending Foggy. Karen also returned from California with news that she 
was HIV-positive, a consequence of her checkered past that only chose to manifest now. A man with unsettling features called Baal also tried to get information about the child from Daredevil, torturing him with the sound of an “angel’s shriek” as it was cast out of heaven. Baal would not identify his… benefactor, only that Murdock was being lied to by Sheol, leaving him to draw his own conclusions. [Daredevil (2nd series) #1-3]
Under this deluge of insanity, Daredevil began to break and considered the unthinkable. He left the child in Black Widow’s care while investigating the baby’s origins. When they reconnected, 
Matthew decided it was necessary to destroy the child and threw her off a roof. Only Natasha’s quick reflexes kept the baby alive. Daredevil immediately crumbled in shock over what he had just tried to do. Natasha got the baby away from him so Matt could examine his behavior better but, the next time they met, Daredevil’s judgment again compelled him to threaten the child. He became convinced Natasha was involved in the conspiracy against him, and viciously attacked her to reclaim the baby. After breaking Natasha’s foot, though, he had a moment of clarity and refused to go through with ending the baby’s life, or his own. A man on the verge of breaking, he crawled his way to Sister Maggie’s mission shelter.
In a crisis of faith and reality, Matthew Murdock recovered in Sister Maggie’s shelter. Seeing her son in such dire straits, Maggie finally admitted she was Matt’s mother. They reconciled, though Matthew’s faith remained in question. He sought out Doctor Strange for supernatural advice on the child and began to realize the truth. Strange had heard no whispers of the Anti-Christ or the Christian Redeemer returning to Earth and began poking holes in the stories Daredevil was told. He also identified the toxin in Matt’s bloodstream, released through contact with the cross given to 
him by Nicholas Macabes. The toxin rendered a victim highly suggestible, open to hallucination and introduced a specific trigger – any suggestion of the child’s innocence would trigger a paranoid and irrational response, causing Daredevil to suspect and lash out at the child’s defenders. Strange even evoked Mephisto himself for an audience. The Devil gave a knowing laugh about the wholly terrestrial charlatan manipulating Daredevil’s emotions.
Upon returning to the shelter, Daredevil found a scene of carnage. Bullseye had been hired to retrieve the child. Karen and Sister Maggie were both in the church as Daredevil tried to keep the assassin occupied. After his recent trials, though, Matthew was in no condition to win against Bullseye. He took a severe beating and lost his billy club to Bullseye while trying to catch his 
breath. Karen attempted to distract Bullseye with a nativity doll, while Maggie got the real child away, but their ruse failed. Bullseye recovered the baby and prepared to make his departure. As he reached the door, however, the grinning sadist decided to return Daredevil’s club to him. Realizing his intent, Karen threw herself in the path of the missile, taking the truncheon’s blow to her chest instead of letting it hit Matthew. Bullseye departed with a laugh as Daredevil crawled to his knees in time to hold Karen as she gurgled her last words to him through a chest full of blood. [Daredevil (2nd series) #4-5]
Matt Murdock was on the verge of suicide after Karen’s passing, and it was only her memory that encouraged him to find Nicholas Macabes, save the baby, and bring an end to the twisted affair. He tracked down Macabes’ skyscraper abode and faced a gauntlet. He fought through average thugs dressed as Hand ninja. He climbed an elevator shaft adorned to look like Karen and the other damned of Hell calling for aid. He was saved by Baal, who claimed to be Matthew’s guardian angel, while Macabes was the true servant of the Anti-Christ. And he tore open Baal’s 
chest to reveal the wholly-mechanical suit, giving the man his unusual appearance and powers. At the top, Daredevil finally faced his real foe, as Nicholas Macabes was unmasked as Mysterio, self-declared master of illusions. [Daredevil (2nd series) #6]
Mysterio told Daredevil the baby was alive but trapped in a vacuum-sealed room, hidden from his senses and with only twenty minutes of air. With a captive audience at his disposal, Mysterio explained his master plan. After being diagnosed with a brain tumor and cancer due to exposure to his various chemicals over the years, Quentin Beck decided to go out with style. He wanted to 
craft a plot so ingenious that it lived on long after he died, ending his status as a “second-stringer.” Unable to target his old foe Spider-Man for various reasons, Mysterio concluded Daredevil was a fine understudy for his masterpiece. He reached out to the Kingpin of Crime for any help he could provide. Once Beck explained his plan not to kill Daredevil, but to drive him mad, Fisk was amused enough to share every piece of information he had on Matt Murdock.
Daredevil allowed Mysterio to monologue until his senses isolated the power supply on the 
villain’s suit. Once he stripped him of his toys, Murdock stripped Beck of his dignity as well. Mysterio saw himself as an auteur and grand showman, but Daredevil dismissed Beck as never having an original idea in his life. His show pieces and acting only worked because he literally drugged his audience into buying it. Breaking Daredevil was an idea he stole from the Kingpin, while faking the supernatural came from ideas he used on Spider-Man years earlier. All Beck did was drug people and kill people, dressed up in B-movie clichés. A sobbing Mysterio revealed the baby’s hiding place and then drew a gun from one of his henchmen. To prove Daredevil right, he stole one last idea, from Kraven the Hunter, and turned the gun on himself. [Daredevil (2nd series) #7]
The aftermath came with deafening silence. Daredevil limped free from Mysterio’s lair and turned the baby over to social services. He and Maggie made sure the baby girl, named Karen, found a loving family. He made peace with Natasha after explaining Mysterio’s involvement in the affair, but their relationship would require some time apart to rebuild. Foggy was released from custody 
after files from Mysterio’s system revealed his innocence, but he was unwilling to reconcile with his mother after she threw him to the wolves. Matt was surprised to learn Karen had a massive life insurance policy from WFSK, and he was the beneficiary. She urged him to use the money for something selfish in her final note to him. Matt brought Foggy to the empty lot where his brownstone once stood, before the Kingpin blew it up. They decided to go back into business for themselves, rebuilding Nelson & Murdock on the lot, with an office downstairs and Matt living upstairs as he once did, reclaiming the land as they chartered a new chapter in their lives. [Daredevil (2nd series) #8]