BIOGRAPHY -- Page 43
Matt could not easily recover from these events. Demonic possession left him deeply troubled and paranoid over which actions were his own over the past few weeks. The NYPD returned to Hell’s Kitchen and could not ignore the reign of Daredevil, issuing a warrant for the arrest of Matthew Murdock in response to a need for questioning, at the very least. Shadowland did not fall with Lord 
Daredevil, for Kingpin took the opportunity to claim the leadership of the Hand, which was once offered him. With Typhoid Mary and Lady Bullseye at his side, Fisk had a new army and a new base of operations. Matt prepared to leave New York until he could get his head on straight, so he reached out to King T’Challa. The Black Panther had recently been through trials of his own and needed to test his mettle after recent losses. Matt asked T’Challa to ensure his neighborhood was protected in his absence, and T’Challa accepted. Matt left a note for Urich, but suggested they let Foggy believe him dead, so his best friend could grieve and move on. [Daredevil (1st series) #512, Shadowland: After the Fall #1, Black Panther: Man Without Fear #513]
Matt went on walkabout, traveling across the country and eventually arriving in Nevada. He found a small town caught up in a smuggling ring exchanging guns for heroin. A young, blind boy named Billy pushed Murdock’s sense of justice enough for him to get involved. Coming to accept that he had spent too much time running from his problems, Matt decided it was still within him to deal with injustice when he saw it. He defeated the corrupt sheriff’s men and the psychic attacks of a drug runner named Calavera. With his path set before him, Matt returned to New York and reunited with Foggy as he prepared to reclaim the life he had abandoned weeks earlier. [Daredevil: Reborn #1-4]
Daredevil was barely back in New York (crashing a mob wedding to protect them from the Spot) [Daredevil (3rd series) #1] when Blitzkrieg U.S.A. began. The Asgardian God of Fear called the Serpent and his adopted daughter Sin summoned an army of Nazi war machines to attack the city, causing fear and chaos. Daredevil tackled a squad of the armored soldiers and learned they intended to siege Avengers Mansion. Knowing that Luke Cage and Jessica Jones lived there with 
their daughter, Matt rushed to their defense. He got Danielle Cage-Jones and her nanny Squirrel Girl into the underground bunker and fought off the advancing army. [New Avengers (2nd series) #16] Daredevil later met up with the Avengers themselves to fight Sin and her Mjolnir-level hammer on the streets of New York. After the events at Shadowland, Matt Murdock earned back some credibility with the city’s heroes as he joined them in their darkest hour. [Avengers (4th series) #17]
Meanwhile, Nelson & Murdock were back in the halls of justice as Matt and Foggy tried to move on from their past entanglements. Foggy’s license to practice was reinstated and, although a warrant technically still existed for Matt Murdock a.k.a. Daredevil after Shadowland, the NYPD seemed reluctant to enforce it. No less than Captain America tried to bring Daredevil in, but Matt convinced Cap that his demon possession story was true, and Daredevil had returned to being the Scarlet Swashbuckler of ages past. In fact, Matt’s happy-go-lucky, wise-cracking new façade made Foggy worry about his mental health. In a private moment, Matt admitted that everything he had been through was nearly too much to deal with, so he was choosing not to deal with it at all until he had more time and distance from the losses. Foggy very reluctantly accepted his decision, for now.
Their law firm had trouble finding its feet, however. By Matt’s estimation, a third of the public was still convinced he was Daredevil, a third believed it was impossible and a third didn’t care at all. Still, his appearances in court as Matt Murdock, esq. drew out the paparazzi each time, and even his opposing counsel often made efforts to muddy the waters at trial by constantly bringing up his alleged vigilantism. In a clear-cut case of police violence against shop owner Ahmed Jobrani, the judge declared a mistrial and strongly encouraged Mr. Jobrani to seek new counsel that would be less “distracting” for the jury. Assistant District Attorney Kirsten McDuffie gave Matt some friendly advice afterwards, warning him that this would keep happening every time he set foot in a courtroom. Matt and Kirsten soon developed a playful relationship where she tried to get him to admit he was Daredevil and he naturally dodged her insinuations.
The Jobrani case became more complicated as Matt and Foggy learned other attorneys were receiving calls threatening them and their loved ones not to take Ahmed’s case, and Ahmed himself reported hearing voices telling him to drop the lawsuit. As it turned out, A “sound-shadow” echo of the super-villain Klaw had been squatting in the back of the building where Ahmed’s store was located. When Mr. Jobrani publicly declared that he would buy the whole building with the 
proceeds of his lawsuit, “Klaw” took efforts to compromise his case. After Klaw was dealt with, Matt and Foggy switched tactics and acted as consulting counselors, coaching Ahmed Jobrani on how to defend his own case and proceed pro se, without them in the courtroom. After Ahmed’s success, they altered Nelson & Murdock’s business model towards this new method. [Daredevil (3rd series) #1-3]
And business was booming. Nelson & Murdock soon accepted a new client named Austin Cao for a wrongful termination lawsuit. Austin was a young blind man and translator who spoke over seventeen languages and was recently fired from Midas Investments. Austin had a good relationship with his boss Mr. Randall and a good work record. He could only assume his firing related to when he showed off that day and identified a Latverian dialect being spoken by two clients passing through the halls. Daredevil uncovered that Midas was a money laundering 
business for “Megacrime,” a financial union of Hydra, A.I.M., Black Spectre, the Secret Empire and Agence Byzantine, whose assets were managed through a series of shell companies incorporated out of Latveria. Randall did, in fact, care about Austin and tried to fire him in advance of the fallout when those two Latverian businessmen were murdered by Midas for talking too openly about their business.
Randall’s ruse failed and his boss Zachary sent hitmen after both Randall and Austin. Both men were captured and brought before the Megacrime representatives to seek satisfaction for this mess. Daredevil followed Megacrime’s freelancer Bruiser back to Midas’s secret facility in order to 
rescue Randall and Austin. In the process, he chanced upon Zachary trying to secure Midas’ greatest leverage, the Omegadrive. The drive was a fragment of Reed Richards’ unstable molecules, reprogrammed as a unique, unhackable and indestructible storage medium for all of Megacrime’s confidential data. Zachary was killed by Megacrime for his failures, and Daredevil only managed to secure their escape with a lightning-fast courtroom argument. He convinced the agents of Hydra, A.I.M., Black Spectre, the Empire and Byzantine that none of them would allow the others to secure the Omegadrive. With Midas going under, Daredevil was the closest thing to a neutral party and a common enemy for Megacrime to allow to hold onto the drive. The five organizations would have to come up with a unified plan to get the Omegadrive back from him or risk an international gang war if one tried to act alone. A well-reasoned argument or a colossal bluff, the Megacrime agents accepted the premise and allowed Daredevil to escape until they were prepared to hunt him down properly. [Daredevil (3rd series) #4-6]
A few weeks after the events at Avengers Mansion, Jessica and Luke Cage caught up with Matt over his defense of their child during a crisis. In order to thank him and rebuild the bonds of trust between them, Luke offered Daredevil membership in his Avengers team. The offer came with implied forgiveness for Shadowland and running interference between him and Captain America if 
necessary. Daredevil’s walk towards redemption seemed to be a success, at least amidst his peers. [New Avengers (2nd series) #16] Having never found it easy to operate in a crowd or sacrifice his independence, Matt Murdock was slow to adjust to the Avengers’ world of meetings, scheduled gatherings and catered breakfasts. He joined Luke’s team in a fight against the returning Norman Osborn, who had his own team of new dark Avengers working with a united force of the Hand, Hydra and H.A.M.M.E.R. [New Avengers (2nd series) #19-23]