BIOGRAPHY -- Page 45
While he tried to figure out what was happening in his personal life, Daredevil’s career with the Avengers also came to an end. An epic conflict united all the Avengers teams and reserves against the X-Men and their allies on Utopia over the fate of the Phoenix. Matt found himself facing semi-familiar opponents like the Hand-trained telepath Psylocke, to overwhelming forces like the Cyttorak-enhanced Colossus. The world was brought to the brink before the Phoenix was 
properly harnessed to undo the damage to the mutant race caused in the Decimation. [Avengers vs. X-Men crossover] In the aftermath, Daredevil’s team leader Luke Cage chose to retire with Jessica Jones to spend more time with his daughter. That roster soon disbanded as Captain America and Iron Man went to work building a larger “Avengers Machine” to coordinate the full roster. Daredevil quietly stepped back from the spotlight, having never enjoyed working with groups and only accepting Luke and Jessica’s gesture out of friendship in the first place. [New Avengers (2nd series) #31-34]
Several cases caught Daredevil’s attention during his solo activity, as well. He crossed paths with the Shocker and a diminutive criminal named Buggit while helping defend a man set up for murder by the mob. [Daredevil: Dark Nights #4-5] He also ventured down to Florida while shepherding an eyewitness testifying against a gang led by King, Misty Knight’s ex-boyfriend. [Daredevil: Dark Nights #6-8] On another night, a wandering spirit possessed one of Starr Saxon’s old Plastoid robots. Members of the ClanDestine were alternately trying to aid the spirit or destroy it, and Daredevil got caught in the middle until the Plastoid was defeated, releasing its passenger. [Daredevil (3rd series) Annual #1]
The sudden appearance of Jack Murdock’s skull was the beginning of a pattern intended to make Matt question his sense of reality. He returned home from a night out with Kirsten to find Milla Donovan in his bed waiting for him. Foggy reluctantly reached out to Matt regarding a locked room mystery for a new client. A crime boss’ nurse was blamed for his death when the man was somehow completely exsanguinated while locked in his secure office with her. Matt told Foggy 
about Milla and asked him to inquire with Broadshore how she escaped, while Daredevil investigated the crime boss’s overlord. That man fell to his death through a seemingly solid elevator, just as an incredulous Foggy telephoned Matt back and told him Milla was still in the asylum with no change. Daredevil leapt from the overlord’s penthouse to avoid his men, only to find his billy club missing from its holster in midair. The club miraculously returned in time to save him from plummeting to his death, but Matt was seriously starting to doubt his senses.
Matt reported to Hank Pym for some consultation about his perceptions, but the truth dawned on him as they talked. The sudden displacement of people and objects matched the teleporting abilities of his one-time foe, the Spot. With the death of the crime boss and his overlord, the remaining members of the crime family gathered for a summit. Sure enough, a teleporter appeared at the meeting and wiped out the rest before capturing Daredevil. To Matt’s surprise, a 
new man called Coyote had stolen the Spot’s powers for this gambit. Coyote was using Spot’s powers in more imaginative ways, facilitating drug running and human trafficking. He let it slip that he was hired by an unknown party to mess with Matt Murdock’s life. Daredevil shut down Coyote’s operation and got enough evidence to partially clear his name with Foggy and overcome the charges against the nurse. [Daredevil (3rd series) #17-21]
Unfortunately, after the goose chase with Milla, Foggy was more convinced than ever that Matt 
was losing it. While drunk at a bar, he slipped up and confirmed to Kirsten that Matt was Daredevil and possibly a threat to the public. Kirsten tried to warn the authorities, but her superiors at the D.A.’s office laughed it off as a “lover’s tiff” once the tabloids caught her and Matt dating. Kirsten reached out to Daredevil’s known ally Spider-Man as a last resort. At this time, however, Peter Parker had been supplanted by the mind of Doctor Octopus, and the Superior Spider-Man had little sympathy for Daredevil’s plight. Spider-Man attacked Daredevil, who was certainly suspicious of the lack of humor and banter from the web-slinger. Still, they were diverted into a fight with Stilt-Man and made peace afterwards. Matt confirmed Spider-Man’s biometrics to his senses, but still had questions about the wall-crawler’s new attitude. This pointless conflict led Matt to fully make amends with Foggy, just in time to learn what Foggy had been wrestling with alone: a diagnosis of cancer. [Daredevil (3rd series) #22]
While Matt and Foggy wrapped their heads around his new medical issues, they also brainstormed who had been targeting Matt’s life. More clues emerged when a pack of “Wilders” were unleashed on a high society fundraiser. Daredevil soon realized this group of madmen had been exposed to the same radioactive chemical mixture which blinded him all those years before. While pondering the mastermind behind his problems, Matt sat with Foggy as he began chemotherapy and treatment. He reached out to Hank Pym for additional consultations, oversaw Nelson & Murdock’s daily business, and also spoke to Kirsten for the first time since the Spider-
Man incident. She accepted his explanations regarding Coyote, etc., but also decided they shouldn’t see each other anymore. Kirsten was too independent to let herself be swallowed up in the drama that followed Daredevil’s life. In short, Matt Murdock was very busy over the next few weeks until his secret mastermind dropped a crate of rabid attack dogs with hyper-senses on the doorstep of his law firm. The message was clear: Daredevil’s foe was impatient and would not be ignored. [Daredevil (3rd series) #23-24]
Matt seemingly caught a break in the case when a man named Larry showed up, claiming to be one of the prisoners experimented on to create the Wilders. Daredevil knew he was being led into a trap, however, once he determined Larry was fitted with a pacemaker to prevent Matt from knowing he was lying. Indeed, the device was sabotaged and killed Larry once they arrived at their destination. Inside, the laboratory was abandoned and cleaned out, leaving an open space for Daredevil to face the final recipient of the mastermind’s work. Once the Wilder experiments led to reproducible results, a trained warrior was exposed to the process and gained all of Matt’s senses. Wearing Jack Murdock’s robe (taken from his grave), smelling of Matt’s father and those fateful chemicals, Daredevil now faced Ikari, the fury.
Daredevil and Ikari faced off, and Matt realized his foe had significant training and a radar sense of his own. Two nearly equal fighters did damage to one another, and the match quickly became an endurance test. Daredevil realized he had to fall back on his advantages, such as Stick’s training and his years of experience with hyper-senses. He lured Ikari into a sporting goods store and tried to set the stage: eclectic objects and shapes to distract Ikari’s radar sense, setting off the sprinkler system to cloud his hearing and sense of smell. Daredevil hoped to catch Ikari off-guard 
in an environment which would give him pause, but he made one crucial miscalculation. Ikari was not blind. Daredevil was totally blindsided that Ikari lacked his one weakness, and the fight easily turned for the assassin. Ikari followed his orders, however, and only beat Murdock to the brink of death. His employer wanted Daredevil to know fear, recognizing that Ikari could return at any time to finish what he started. Beaten and humbled, Daredevil ran for his life. [Daredevil (3rd series) #25]
Ikari stalked Murdock after that, using secret assassins to threaten him and Foggy, keeping them both on a fraying edge, expecting an attack from anywhere. As they examined the facts, Matt and Foggy came to a startling realization and concluded Bullseye was somehow behind the conspiracy. After making preparations, Matt used adrenaline from the hospital to change his heart rate and ditch Ikari. He tracked the source of the attack dogs and found Lady Bullseye guarding her mentor, in a greatly reduced state. She had attempted to use the Hand ceremonies herself to revive Bullseye after Shadowland, but her efforts only brought him back to life, not to full health. Bullseye was both deaf and paralyzed from his ordeal. Bullseye became a schemer, using proxies and his minimal remaining movement to plan and orchestrate his greatest revenge.
Left in an iron lung with nothing but his vision, Bullseye wanted to witness Murdock’s death himself. He ordered Daredevil to fight Ikari, and lose, otherwise his minions planted near Foggy, Kirsten and Milla would kill those whom Matt loved. But Daredevil anticipated this, and his own friends like Spider-Man, Black Widow and Iron Fist were already in place to defend his loved ones, leaving it a fair fight. Daredevil fought Ikari and Lady Bullseye with such force that the old 
clock tower Bullseye used as a lair collapsed around them. The assassins were captured and, in bitterest irony, Bullseye’s metal life support fell through the canisters holding the original radioactive chemicals. The toxins leaked out and seeped into his eye slot, falling on the helpless and paralyzed villain until Bullseye was robbed of his last remaining sense: sight. [Daredevil (3rd series) #26-27]
One of Matt Murdock’s old clients came back into his life at an opportune moment. After some soul searching, Bruce Banner made a deal to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. They provided him lab resources to further his beneficial research, and in exchange they received the Hulk as a living 
demolitionist. Bruce hired Matt Murdock as his attorney in case things went south. Matt was put on retainer by Bruce, receiving a monthly stipend to make regular check-ups with Bruce to confirm Director Maria Hill hadn’t pulled a fast one. Bruce gave Matt a secret deposition of damning intelligence information to go public if S.H.I.E.L.D. ever betrayed him or their deal. [Indestructible Hulk #9-10]