BIOGRAPHY -- Page 41
In time, Carlos LaMuerto was released on parole from Riker’s Island. He sought out Matt Murdock, looking for work to keep him honest. Murdock had gained some respect for Carlos while in prison, so he gave the Black Tarantula a chance helping Dakota North with the investigative side of their practice. Carlos lacked the patience for clerical detective work, though, and wanted to 
get back on the streets busting heads. Daredevil obliged, and soon he and the Black Tarantula cleared some Yakuza out of Hell’s Kitchen. Dakota’s case revealed a young gangster named Little Loco killed a woman and made it look like a suicide to clear out an apartment building. The Tarantula made Loco what he was, and he rejected Daredevil’s way of doing things in order to kill a mad dog that he helped create. Carlos went underground after that to help his old neighborhood the way he saw fit. [Daredevil (2nd series) Annual #1] Carlos later came to Daredevil when his family threatened his estranged wife and son in order to steal the hereditary power of the Black Tarantula. Murdock came to tacitly endorse Carlos’ more brutal form of vigilantism, since it was ultimately for a cause he respected. [Daredevil: Blood of the Tarantula #1]
Matthew faced a hard road ahead for his marriage with Milla. Initially, Dakota North drove him up to Broadmore three times a week to visit her. However, after a month, Milla’s doctors asked Matt to stop visiting. Milla was not improving and she could clearly feel the weight of his expectations, hampering her recovery even further. Matt was frustrated and wracked with guilt, spending more and more time away from the office and as Daredevil. The criminals of Hell’s Kitchen faced a particularly brutal Man Without Fear when they stepped out of line. Whenever he was at home, Matt fixated on scrubbing the townhouse with bleach, desperately trying to get rid of Milla’s scent. Dakota, Foggy and Ben Urich tried reaching out to Matt, but his isolation continued to grow. [Daredevil (2nd series) #106]
Daredevil’s growing frustration made him lash out when Luke Cage came looking for his help. Cage’s judgmental attitude to Matt’s brutality got him angry enough to throw a punch at the bulletproof man. Luke went to Dakota instead with his concerns about an old sparring partner, “Big Ben” Donovan, who was sitting on death row for child murders that Luke didn’t believe he committed. Dakota’s investigation confirmed Donovan had confessed for the murders, but she was roughed up outside of Sing Sing prison after talking to the inmate. Dakota used the mystery to provoke Matt out of his shell and back into the world of helping people, rather than just punching crooks. Matt and Dakota uncovered a federal task force gone rogue, covering up murders committed by men working for their dockside informant Eric Slaughter, and Big Ben’s son was threatened to force his confession. Thanks to their efforts, the truth came out and Donovan was exonerated. [Daredevil (2nd series) #107-110]
Matt Murdock had several encounters with his old partner Spider-Man in the following weeks. After Kraven’s daughter mistook Peter Parker’s roommate for Spider-Man, Spidey came to Matt to 
borrow his Daredevil costume and throw Ana Kravinoff further off his scent. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #565-566] Matt returned to an old client when Eddie Brock was finally separated from his symbiote permanently. Murdock proved in court that Eddie was legally insane while bonded as Venom, helping to exonerate him as a free man. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #568] When Spider-Man was imprisoned for several crimes, including violation of the Superhuman Registration Act, Matt Murdock acted as his attorney. He successfully defended his client’s right to privacy in his identity, despite the Act, and recruited a small band of volunteers to collectively pose as Spider-Man in court. Their antics established reasonable doubt that the man in custody was the “Spider-Man” who performed the specific acts on the specific dates and times he was accused of in both criminal and civil suits. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #587, Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #1]
After these acts renewed their long-term friendship and partnership, Spider-Man was prepared to reveal his secret identity to Daredevil. Thanks to a complicated spell overseen by Doctor Strange, Spider-Man had recently restored his secret identity after revealing it to the world during his early support of the Registration Act. The ongoing cloaking effect of Strange’s spell even prevented 
Matt’s senses from properly identifying Spider-Man. Peter had begun sharing his secret with others again, like the Avengers and Fantastic Four, but Daredevil stopped him. Matt knew better than most heroes the consequences of losing one’s secret identity. Spider-Man had somehow put the genie back in the bottle, and Daredevil called him a fool for even thinking of jeopardizing it again. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #600]
During the Donovan case, Dakota North was shot in the arm by a sniper. Matt brought her to Danny Rand so that the chi of the Iron Fist could speed her recovery, and he also taught her some of Stick’s yoga and meditation to alleviate her pain. Their close time together aroused feelings between them, and Matt and Dakota had a one-night stand. This played into the plans of Lady 
Bullseye, a new assassin working for the Hand. In an effort to keep Daredevil distracted and off-guard, she killed some local punks and intimidated the survivor into insisting to the police that Daredevil was responsible. The NYPD brought Matt Murdock in for questioning, which led Dakota to give a statement that she was with Matt “all night.” Matt’s guilt over cheating on his wife ate at him, and he lashed out at Dakota at first for the alibi.
Before they could come to terms over what Matt’s wife still meant to him, and what they meant to each other, Lady Bullseye began the second part of her plan. In plain clothes as Maki Matsumoto, she represented Milla Donovan’s parents in a lawsuit to claim legal custody over their institutionalized daughter. Matt only heard about this when he and Dakota tried to visit Milla at Broadmore and discovered her parents had already removed her under a temporary custody 
order. On top of the existing concerns over Matt’s influence and dangers threatening Milla, the Donovans were also provided with a private investigator’s photos of Matt and Dakota together. Matt didn’t appreciate being cornered, and instinctively lashed out at the Donovans to fight for custody of his wife, despite his feelings for Dakota and the hard truth that there was nothing left he could do for Milla.
More complications arose when Matt learned about the Hand’s involvement in New York. He met Master Izo, Stick’s former mentor who first founded the Chaste when they broke off from the Hand hundreds of years ago. The Elektra leading the Hand was recently revealed as a Skrull, leaving the Hand without a leader. Now Lady Bullseye and her Lord Hirochi were testing local fighters to kill and resurrect as corrupt followers of the Hand. Despite the efforts of Matt and Izo, they 
succeeded in killing Black Tarantula and White Tiger, bringing Carlos and Angela back to life under their control. Lady Bullseye told Daredevil the Hand’s true purpose was to welcome him as the new leader of their ninja clan. Her legal efforts were intended to sever his ties to his wife and his city, her victims were resurrected to serve as his new lieutenants. Matt rejected her mad plan for him, driving the Hand into retreat. [Daredevil (2nd series) #111-115]
Matt continued to make bad decisions as he sought out the Donovan’s PI as Daredevil. He intimidated the man into leaving town and abandoning the case. He also pressured the PI to beg Dakota’s forgiveness as he gave her the photo originals. Dakota didn’t appreciate the scare tactics or Matt fighting her battles for her. She gave in to her better judgment and quit the law firm before their connection became even more toxic. With their first lawyer and their investigator both disappearing, the Donovans were heated towards Matt, and he was doing little to help Foggy control the custody case. Matthew’s attention was redirected when Turk came to his door with a 
meeting offer from Wilson Fisk. Changing tactics, Lady Bullseye had sought out the Kingpin in retirement in Spain. She and the Hand killed a single mother and children with whom Wilson had tried to find peace. Lady Bullseye prompted him to return to New York and blame Daredevil for the Hand’s attention. Instead, Kingpin offered Daredevil an alliance in order to destroy the Hand once and for all. [Daredevil (2nd series) #116-117]
Master Izo wasn’t pleased with this alliance, but Daredevil didn’t care about his self-appointed mentor’s point-of-view. Still, Matthew was put on his back foot when Foggy showed up at his house to complain about Matt blowing off the latest settlement meeting with the Donovans. When the Kingpin called with a tip while Foggy was there, Nelson found he had had enough. Foggy felt 
like he always had Matt’s back, but it had reached the point where his entire life revolved around whatever Matt’s latest crisis entailed. Their business was in shambles, as the law firm’s resources were dedicated almost entirely to cleaning up Matt’s personal business. Foggy was finally done with it all, and he fired Matt from the law firm before storming out. [Daredevil (2nd series) #118]
Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk was of course planning to betray Daredevil. He used the cover of taking down the Hand in order to consolidate power among the gangs in New York again. Fisk also arranged for the Owl’s release, using Leland as a go-between to hire the Hand as assassins to eliminate his rivals. When the proper moment arrived, he directed the Hand to kill Franklin Nelson while Lady Bullseye (realizing the ploy) had the Owl bring her to Kingpin. Daredevil finally caught on to Fisk’s plot, but not before Owl and Lady Bullseye captured Dakota for spying on them. [Daredevil (2nd series) #119]
Master Izo revealed to Daredevil what he’d been up to ever since Murdock started playing games with the Kingpin. Izo showed Matthew to the hospital where Milla had been convalescing once her parents moved her out of Broadshore. Izo also pointedly reminded Matt that, with his senses, he could have done this weeks ago if he had been thinking clearly. Seeing Milla again allowed Matt to finally come to grips with his pride and denial, finding the courage to let her go. He called Foggy just long enough to tell him to drop the case and give the Donovans back their daughter. Turk got wise to the dangerous game the Kingpin was playing and ratted him out to Daredevil, giving Matt a head start in finding Dakota and freeing her from the Owl. Dakota told Matt that Foggy was in 
danger, but Izo told them not to worry. He had set a plan in motion weeks ago when Carlos was first turned by the Hand. Izo knew that Black Tarantula’s healing factor would shrug off the Hand’s corruption, making him a sleeper agent against Lady Bullseye’s people. Sure enough, Black Tarantula saved Foggy and then used his healing power to purge White Tiger of the Hand’s poison as well.
Izo explained that his long-term plan had always been for Murdock to take over the Hand, provided he did it for the right reasons. Izo believed his old order could still be cleansed from the inside, provided that its corruption didn’t undermine Daredevil first. Lady Bullseye had brought Kingpin before Lord Hirochi, setting him up to replace Daredevil as the next choice for grandmaster of the Hand. Once Fisk killed Hirochi for ordering the death of the family he cared for in Spain, Wilson was eager to hear their offer. Daredevil and Izo broke in to disrupt the 
negotiations. Faced with a choice of controlling the Hand or letting Wilson Fisk do it, Daredevil reluctantly accepted the offer of the remaining Hand leaders. As a condition, he ordered Wilson Fisk and Lady Bullseye expelled from their ranks. With his life as Matt Murdock virtually gone, with the Tiger and the Tarantula as his secret allies, Daredevil prepared to take control of the greatest clan of ninja assassins the world had ever seen. [Daredevil (1st series) #500]