BIOGRAPHY -- Page 37
For six weeks, Matt Murdock disappeared into his Daredevil identity. He tore the streets apart imposing his message on the crooks too stupid to understand that things had changed. Maya Lopez returned during this period, but he was in no position to start up their relationship again. Frank Castle heard “new Kingpin” and decided it was his job to take down Daredevil, but was beaten up and turned over to the FBI himself. Idiots like Bullet were sponsored by local thugs to make a play for the Kitchen, only to be shown to the border. Whatever working relationship Murdock had going with Agent Driver and the FBI was torched by all this, but soon Hell’s Kitchen was cleansed of drugs and violent crime. [Daredevil (2nd series) #52, 56, 65, 76]
During this time, Daredevil was also privately recruited by Nick Fury. S.H.I.E.L.D. uncovered that America’s tech-themed criminals were secretly sponsored by Lucia von Bardas, prime minister of Latveria after the fall of Doctor Doom. Against Presidential orders, Fury assembled a team of 
heroes to cut the link, including Daredevil, Spider-Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Wolverine and Luke Cage. Things got out of hand when these “secret warriors” attacked Castle Doom and leveled it, effectively assassinating the elected head of a foreign government. Using S.H.I.E.L.D. psi-tech, Fury had their minds wiped of the mission after the fact, leaving Matt and the others oblivious of their actions. [Secret War #1-5]
And when the time came, Murdock showed he could build up as well as destroy. The class action lawsuit he won against the corporation owned by Sammy Silke’s father finally paid out. The largest settlement in state history, Nelson & Murdock’s percentage of the payout was still hundreds of millions of dollars. Matt turned the money around and immediately reinvested into Hell’s Kitchen and its infrastructure. With Milla’s familiarity with the Hell’s Kitchen Housing 
Commission, she knew exactly where the money would do the most good, refurbishing old buildings, establishing a library, funding a neighborhood program, etc. The Mayor of New York saw opportunity and publicly matched the donation, encouraging other benefactors to contribute, and soon Hell’s Kitchen was really thriving again in every way.
Not everyone was pleased, though. Matt was called to an intervention by Luke Cage, Peter Parker, Reed Richards and Stephen Strange. They thought his vigilantism had crossed a line. Matt argued that it had worked, and Hell’s Kitchen was crime free. When they pointed out that other areas of the city now suffered more because of the criminals fleeing the Kitchen, Murdock just encouraged them to adopt his strategy: Claim Queens. Claim Harlem. Mark their own 
territories and try something new. When Matt refused to operate under their approval, the other heroes declared he was on his own for the future. [Daredevil (2nd series) #56] For this and other reasons, Matt’s next actions were done in near-total secrecy. He proposed to Milla Donovan, and they were married in a private ceremony with only Foggy and her friend Linda as witnesses. [Daredevil (2nd series) #58]
Nelson & Murdock received a new client named Maggie Farrell. She wanted to sue New Jersey Power & Light for dumping chemicals into their local water table, which led to her contracting ovarian cancer. While Maggie was sincere and vulnerable, her husband Sean Farrell was abrasive and difficult. They were Hell’s Kitchen locals who moved away to New Jersey only for this to happen, and Sean only reluctantly gave in to Maggie’s insistence on hiring the “local boy who made it big” named Matt Murdock. Matt thought Sean seemed familiar, and when he asked Farrell about it, the man’s heartbeat indicated he was lying when he claimed they never crossed paths. As the case progressed, Matt grew more concerned over Maggie’s well-being after signs of domestic violence between her and Sean started to become apparent.
Daredevil’s crusade to make Hell’s Kitchen crime free began leading to unforeseen consequences. A serial killer nicknamed “Johnny Sockets” began striking around New York, removing the eyes of their victims. Because they never entered Hell’s Kitchen, though, it remained mostly off of Murdock’s radar. In fact, the NYPD charted a dramatic increase in the crime rate for 
other boroughs and neighborhoods, indicating that Daredevil wasn’t truly stopping crime, he had just driven it elsewhere. A media mogul and philanthropist named Nestor “NeRo” Rodriguez crafted vigilante identities for his posse as Eleggua and the Santerians. They took the time to rough Daredevil up for shoving his messes onto their front stoop. Daredevil made an effort to challenge the Santerians to a rematch and learn NeRo’s secret identity for “parity,” but he still refused to take responsibility for anything happening outside of Hell’s Kitchen.
The Johnny Sockets case eventually made it to Murdock whether he liked it or not. An Agent Guida met with him privately after the FBI found a connection between the serial killer’s victims… all of them were former clients of Nelson & Murdock. Matthew’s address book (in Braille no less) was found at the scene of the most recent murder. A long time ago, Daredevil saved Guida’s niece from the Matador, and so he lifted the evidence from FBI property and returned it to Matthew, giving him a head’s up about the investigation. Matt realized the book went missing the day the Farrells first came to his office. He came to the conclusion that Sean Farrell was “Johnny Sockets” once he finally placed the name. Farrell’s father had been the local butcher in Hell’s Kitchen, and young Matt once caught his father Battlin’ Jack Murdock beating up Mr. Farrell when Murdock was moonlighting as a mob enforcer.
Matt realized the Johnny Sockets killings had been targeted towards him from the beginning, and he had been too tunnel visioned to give them a second thought. He went out to confront Sean Farrell in Jersey, but the situation wasn’t what he thought. Yes, Sean hated him because Jack 
Murdock crushed his father’s skull, but Sean also thought Matt and Maggie were having an affair. He had found a scrapbook Maggie kept dedicated to Matt Murdock with years of clippings, a real obsession. Murdock realized Sean wasn’t the killer when he keeled over, dead from a knife wound in the guts. Maggie was the real Johnny Sockets, and she had gone to Nelson & Murdock to meet him.
Matt made it back to his office at record speed, arriving just in time to stop Maggie from adding Foggy’s eyes to her collection. Raving like a mad woman, Maggie told him how everything that went wrong in her life was because of Matt Murdock. After contracting cancer and seeing the 
tabloids about his identity, she knew she had to get revenge. The FBI busted in to see Maggie holding Foggy at knifepoint, and an itchy trigger finger went off when she dropped the blade. As Maggie Farrell died, she whispered her secret to Matt. It all started with her father, an abusive drunk who molested her for years as a child. Fate would have saved her from more years of abuse when her blind father drunkenly walked in front of a truck. But Matt Murdock was there, and he pushed the blind man to safety. And she had hated him for it ever since. [Daredevil: Father #1-6]
Inevitably, somebody made a serious play for Hell’s Kitchen. A force of younger Yakuza out of Philadelphia led by Sano Orii and jacked up on MGH decided to assassinate Matt Murdock. A hundred men attacked him in the pouring rain as Matt sent Milla running for safety. And yet, Matthew bested the one hundred Yakuza all in the three minutes it took his FBI tails to call in a backup response. Still, Matt was injured during the fight and disappeared. He had told Milla to find 
Ben Urich if he ever went missing, and sure enough Ben was able to track down the Night Nurse clinic where Linda Carter discreetly provided care to injured super-heroes. This gave Urich the opportunity to finally confront Matt with his developing theory, which was that everything in Murdock’s life had been a @#$damned ongoing nervous breakdown ever since Karen Page died. Matt refused to accept it, but Foggy overheard Ben’s premise and realized just how true it was.
The Yakuza didn’t get the message and remained in New York. After Agent Driver and his new partner Angela del Toro interrogated Sano, he ordered a hit on the agents, killing Driver and nearly getting del Toro as well. Once he recovered from his wounds, Daredevil sought out Luke Cage and apologized. He admitted he screwed up and that his life was spiraling out of control without the advice of his peers. Jessica Jones was Luke’s pregnant girlfriend by this point, and Matt finally admitted to her that he was Daredevil, an open secret which he had never officially shared with her during her employment. Luke accepted the apology, and soon Daredevil, Cage, Iron Fist and Spider-Man reunited to clear the Yakuza out of New York City. Sano was humiliated and forced 
into making a full confession to the NYPD. However, Foggy had been staying with Milla while Matt was out and he raised the nervous breakdown theory with her. Matt had never shared anything about Karen with Milla, and he couldn’t honestly reject Urich’s idea completely when she pressured him. Afraid that their entire marriage had only come from his breakdown, Milla walked out of Matt’s life. [Daredevil (2nd series) #56-60]