BIOGRAPHY -- Page 39
At this point, it almost seemed like Matt Murdock had turned a corner. The media fervor had died down, the police and the general public adored Daredevil, and crime in Hell’s Kitchen was still at an all-time low. On top of all this, Milla finally returned. She never filed the annulment papers and reconciled her concerns about Matthew’s mental health. They were in the middle of reconciling further when Elektra arrived at the bedroom window. Elektra had infiltrated and taken over the Hand since last they spoke, but she was there today on personal business. His enemies were gathering, and Matthew Murdock’s freedom could now be measured in hours.
Despite months of effort, the FBI failed to assemble an airtight case against Wilson Fisk. Even a man like the Kingpin could not be held indefinitely without trial in the federal system. But then, Fisk offered to make a deal – in exchange for his freedom, the Kingpin would give them Daredevil. FBI 
Director Leland Drummond was a petty man without principle. He wanted a successful case to make a name for himself. ANY case. He was also personally insulted by Murdock’s success at avoiding the FBI task force’s efforts to catch him committing a crime, as Daredevil or otherwise. So, if the information was good, this was a deal Director Drummond was perfectly willing to accept without qualm. When Angela del Toro raised a litany of moral and ethical objections to the plan, Drummond fired her on the spot.
Fisk reported he kept a collective of recordings and evidence known as “the Murdock Papers” which could definitively prove in a court of law that Matt Murdock was Daredevil. The Papers were preserved independently by a lawyer named Samuel Baruch who didn’t even know what he had. 
As part of his deal with the FBI, Fisk demanded Ben Urich of the Daily Bugle be present for the negotiations, and news of the deal was released to the public. Fisk wanted public scrutiny on the deal so that Drummond couldn’t back out of their agreement. However, Elektra and Bullseye also knew about the Murdock Papers from their time in his employ, and so now it was a race to acquire the Papers.
Once Elektra filled Matthew in on what she knew, they made their way to Baruch’s office. Daredevil and Elektra were joined by Angela del Toro and Black Widow. Angela explained to Matt the FBI side of things, while Natasha confirmed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Maria Hill, refused to pull any strings on their behalf. Daredevil could destroy the Murdock Papers and save himself, but that would constitute active obstruction of a federal investigation, a purely self-serving criminal act that attorney Matt Murdock struggled to justify as one more compromise to his integrity as a lawyer. While Matthew debated internally, Bullseye arrived with his own plans for the Papers. Daredevil sent Natasha to ensure Milla’s safety, but he also broke Angela’s arm and threw her off a roof to keep the rookie hero out of a fight with Bullseye.
Together, Daredevil and Elektra proved to be too much for Bullseye to handle, and Lester was knocked unconscious in the streets. As Bullseye fell, however, Matt’s shoulder exploded. Drummond had hired the mercenary Paladin as support. Using a high-powered sniper rifle fired 
from maximum distance with his superhuman reflexes, Paladin managed to hit Daredevil from beyond his senses’ range. Elektra pulled Daredevil away and got him to the Night Nurse for treatment. It was around this time that Kingpin revealed to the FBI that there were no Murdock Papers. It was a bluff he had set up years in advance in case he needed it. Still, he had fulfilled his part of the deal – Daredevil’s pool of blood on the street could be DNA matched to Matt Murdock, implicating him in trying to obstruct federal justice. He also revealed the real reason Ben Urich was there “reporting” on the deal. Because the only place an injured super-hero would go for treatment was the Night Nurse, and Urich reported on the Nurse and knew where her clinic was. Thanks to Fisk, Ben now had to betray his friend Matt or join him in facing federal obstruction charges.
A collection of allies gathered around the clinic to defend Daredevil as he recovered, including Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Black Widow, Elektra and even the Hand. The writing was on the wall, though, and soon Matt Murdock, dressed as Daredevil, bleeding from an identifiable gunshot wound to the shoulder, was arrested by the FBI. At his arraignment, Matt pled not guilty and was ordered to be held without bond in protective custody on Riker’s Island until his trial. He would not 
be alone. Wilson Fisk got his deal and became a free man again… for all of five minutes. A vindictive Owl passed on evidence to the FBI about crimes committed by the Kingpin which were outside the scope of his plea deal. Fisk was re-arrested on new charges and ended up in the same cell block as Matt Murdock. [Daredevil (2nd series) #76-81]
A month passed with Matt in protective custody, as the federal government dodged demands for speedy trial. Foggy did what he could, hiring Becky Blake full-time as an attorney now that she’d graduated law school, and putting a private investigator like Dakota North on the payroll. Some unknown figure had also started wearing the Daredevil costume and fighting crime around Hell’s 
Kitchen, further muddying the case. Still, Director Drummond was serious about making sure Murdock never left prison. He pressured Warden Cole to transfer Bullseye from the super-powered wing of the Raft into Riker’s, and challenged Matt’s need for protective custody so that he was sent back to general population.
Threats came at Matt from all sides in prison. Carlos LaMuerta, the former Black Tarantula, pressured him to take a stance on an upcoming prison riot. Hammerhead bribed a guard for some alone time with Murdock. Matt “somehow” surviving a scuffle with a half-dozen armed prisoners didn’t help his defense of needing protective custody. Matt was already in solitary when Foggy came for a visit with the growing bad news. They made a plan to subpoena eye doctors to show 
he was really blind before the protective custody hearing, but the plan never came to pass. Even down in solitary, Matt Murdock could hear the crooked guard lead Foggy and Dakota into a locked passageway. He could hear the beating Foggy took for being Daredevil’s lawyer. And he heard the knife slide in-between Foggy’s ribs, next to his heart. [Daredevil (2nd series) #82]
News of Foggy Nelson’s death virtually broke Matt. He was allowed to attend the funeral, in handcuffs, but wouldn’t even acknowledge the sympathy expressed by Jessica Jones or the threats made by Rosalind Sharpe. He didn’t assist Becky in fighting the motion to send him to gen-pop, because he was eager for an excuse to express himself. Beginning with the Owl, a wave of violence swept through Riker’s, always off-camera, never confirmed, but Daredevil made his 
presence known to the prison population as he searched for answers regarding Foggy’s murder. A personal visit to Hammerhead’s cell showed the gang boss Murdock wasn’t fooling around anymore, but Hammerhead wasn’t responsible for Foggy’s attack either. [Daredevil (2nd series) #83-84]
Murdock never expected to see a friendly face in prison, or rather a close approximation. Frank Castle saw the Daily Bugle’s reporting on Riker’s and decided to get arrested so he could visit the mad house. The Punisher was oddly concerned about Murdock, and realized he didn’t want Daredevil to turn into him. Kingpin was eventually transferred to gen-pop, too, with Turk acting as his right hand. Matt naturally suspected him of Foggy’s murder. Murdock and Fisk met, though, and they agreed they were being manipulated into killing each other by some unknown third party. An ugly truce developed between the two men, at least until they got outside the prison walls. [Daredevil (2nd series) #85]
As the full prison riot inched closer, Matt was horrified when Becky showed up at visitation with Milla. Milla wanted to make sure her husband was still okay, but all Matt could think of was that she was sitting in the same chair he last spoke to Foggy in. Matt was angry and defensive over his actions in prison since Foggy’s death, but Milla struck home when she asked him if this was the man he wanted to be, the man Foggy died to protect. The riot began just after they left, with Black Tarantula, Hammerhead and Boss Morgan’s thugs getting access to the armory. Murdock’s senses tracked the progress of the riot in real time, as various parties moved into position with synchronicity. He managed to intervene and stop the targeted execution of Warden Cole and his staff.
After getting the warden to the security station and a penitent Melvin Potter back into his cell, Murdock entered the thick of things. He fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Wilson Fisk as every 
inmate loyal to the other gang bosses tried to kill the two of them. Kingpin sent Turk to free Bullseye, making a truly unlikely trio. Murdock and Fisk planned to escape via helicopter, but the idea of letting Bullseye loose as well was too far for Matthew. He turned on his “allies” and struck down Fisk and Bullseye after the rest of the riot was quelled. Instead, he turned to the Punisher for an assist. Using a shotgun and a blind man as a human shield, Punisher made his own way to the helicopter and got them back to Manhattan with Matt’s cover as intact as it could be. They went their separate ways and Castle was glad he could remind Murdock how different they were, and should be.
Becky, Dakota and Ben Urich had given Matt information before he escaped about an attorney named Alton Lennox. He was lawyer to the convict who killed Foggy, and the last visitor the man had before the murder. However, Dakota’s independent investigation also suggested Lennox was 
behind the second Daredevil haunting Hell’s Kitchen. This all meant Matt came out swinging when he tracked down Daredevil 2.0. After a brief struggle, though, “Daredevil Dos” revealed he was Danny Rand, Iron Fist. Danny believed he had been working for Foggy to set up reasonable doubt and thought Lennox was an intermediary just for plausible deniability. Matt and Danny found Ben and Dakota already investigating Lennox’s office, only to discover it had already been cleaned out. The only clue was a copy of an e-ticket to Monaco. Matt decided he had to follow the leads to Lennox, no matter the cost. [Daredevil (2nd series) #86-87]