BIOGRAPHY -- Page 49
Back in Manhattan, Matt Murdock reapplied to the New York Bar to practice law. Because of the Purple Children’s compulsion, no one could clearly remember why he was disbarred in the first place, so he quickly regained his license. Isolated from his partners and allies of the past, Matt chose to seek a new position as an Assistant District Attorney, working on the opposite side of the bench compared to most of his career. Benjamin Hochberg was dubious at first to admit a high-profile former defense attorney to his staff, but he was willing to give Matt a trial run. As something 
of a joke, Murdock was given an office in the bottom of an unused elevator shaft, the lack of aesthetics and the metaphor showing the blind lawyer he had to start from the bottom. Matt accepted the hazing because he wasn’t going to waste the opportunity that was now before him. Matt Murdock had a plan which would change the future of costumed vigilantes and the practice of law. All he needed was time. [Daredevil (5th series) #1, 20]
His anonymity restored, Daredevil adopted a new black costume to commemorate his change in direction. He was still on the outs with Foggy, his D.A. colleagues disrespected the former defense attorney in their midst, and a distance now existed between Daredevil and other super-heroes thanks to the gaps in their memories surrounding him. Still, Murdock soon wasn’t completely 
alone. He crossed paths with a neophyte vigilante named Blindspot. Samuel Chung was an illegal immigrant living in Chinatown who built an invisibility suit from spare materials in order to help his neighborhood. Blindspot crossed paths with Daredevil and was interested in training under a super-hero sensei. Daredevil, meanwhile, saw much of himself in Sam, and appreciated the benefits of having an invisible partner that only he could detect. Daredevil and Blindspot soon became partners defending New York City. [All-New, All-Different Point One #1]
A.D.A. Matt Murdock and Daredevil both got involved in a case against a cult leader named Tenfingers. The Church of the Sheltering Hands welcomed the people of Chinatown under Tenfingers’ sway, reinforcing his control with murder, intimidation and racketeering. Murdock found a witness named Billy Li to testify before the grand jury about Tenfingers’ criminal activities, but 
Church members infiltrated the courthouse and removed several of Billy’s fingers, intimidating him into recanting. Trust between Daredevil and Blindspot only went so far as well. Samuel Chung didn’t know Daredevil was also pursuing Tenfingers at the D.A.’s office, and Matt didn’t know Blindspot was also an initiate in the church, trying to pull his mother away from being one of Tenfingers’ closest disciples.
While casing Tenfingers’ church, Daredevil witnessed Tenfingers was more than a con man and cult leader. Tenfingers was once a member of the Hand who stole knowledge of their magics to use for his own purposes. Daredevil quickly recognized the consequences, and indeed a fist of the Hand soon materialized to kill the traitor and anyone around him. Daredevil fought with the Hand while Blindspot focused on getting the parishioners to safety. Tenfingers ordered the murder of his own congregation when they saw him weak before the Hand’s enforcer, and Blindspot defied his own mother to protect the innocent people from the Hand or Tenfingers. Daredevil defeated the Hand but, when he sought out Tenfingers, he found the cult leader’s gruesomely mutilated body, apparently a victim of Hand ninja Matt missed in the melee. [Daredevil (5th series) #1-5]
Matt’s new role with the District Attorney’s Office brought him new challenges. He oversaw the transfer of Russian mobster Sergey Antonov from New York to Texas as a change of venue to secure an impartial jury. The transfer was interrupted by the Punisher in an attempt to save taxpayers the expense of a trial. Daredevil and Blindspot took over the duties of getting Antonov to the airport. Antonov was not an easy passenger, as his own men and the Crimson Dynamo made 
attempts to extract him from custody. He nearly escaped at the airport and killed two guards in the process. Both Antonov and the Punisher called out Daredevil for his hypocrisy in saving the mobster’s life. It was clear that part of Murdock’s reason for sending Antonov to Texas was because that state had the death penalty, giving his conviction there a sense of finality. Daredevil struggled to define his ethics to Blindspot and his opponents over the thin line between judicial and extra-judicial killings. [Daredevil / Punisher: Seventh Circle #1-4]
Matt’s secret identity caused him troubles he didn’t anticipate. When teaming up with Steve Rogers, the Captain tried to talk him through disarming a bomb, unaware that Matt couldn’t see the timer or the color of the wires. [Daredevil (5th series) #4] A more serious encounter happened when he met Elektra again for the first time since the Purple Children. Matt was curious how she remembered her bifurcated history with Matt Murdock and Daredevil now, but he wasn’t prepared for Elektra trying to murder Daredevil. With no memory of her time with “Daredevil,” Elektra had no emotional connection to hold her back when she thought he threatened her daughter. Elektra explained that she had a daughter eleven years ago that she gave up before entering the Hand. Now she received a silent video on her phone showing Daredevil training her daughter in the Hand’s arts. Matt could do the math and estimate that he would be the child’s
likely father. He consulted with Foggy and showed him the phone, only for Foggy to tell him there WAS no video in the device. Another confrontation with a maternal and furious Elektra only ended when she heard a trigger phrase that dispelled these false memories of ever having a daughter. Matt realized Elektra had been under the influence of Purple Man, a calling card from Killgrave to remind him that one of his enemies still knew his identity, and exactly how to exploit it. [Daredevil (5th series) #6-7]
Daredevil’s long-term plans for dealing with organized crime in New York led him to Macau. He knew of a briefcase which contained information gathering by the Black Cat during her recent turn towards more vicious crime. The information included detailed files on all her rivals in the New York area. Daredevil recruited Spider-Man to help him acquire the briefcase, though he kept his cards close to his chest. Spider-Man was no fool, however, and he was astute enough to recognize the holes in his own memory regarding Daredevil and their history. He acquired the briefcase first and refused to turn it over until DD cleared up his concerns. Matt was more honest 
with Spider-Man than anyone up until that point. He admitted to having done “something” that restored his secret identity in the minds of everyone who knew it and gave the basics on his plan against crime. Spider-Man, who had done something similar years earlier, wasn’t hypocritical enough to act betrayed by this. He merely turned over the briefcase and cautioned Daredevil about “black costume” phases. [Daredevil (5th series) #8-9]
Matt was put in an interesting position when he was recruited from the D.A.’s office to prosecute a case in federal court. Captain Marvel championed a predictive justice model based on the precognitive powers of a NuHuman named Ulysses. When Ulysses predicted a catastrophic rampage by the Hulk, many heroes went to confront the then-powerless Bruce Banner. During the heated exchange, Hawkeye shot and killed Bruce with an arrow prepped specially for him. Clint Barton explained afterwards that he got the arrow from Bruce himself, who asked Clint months earlier to kill him if it ever looked like the Hulk was returning. Hawkeye believed he saw a flash of green in Banner’s eyes, signaling a change. Matt was willing to prosecute Hawkeye in the name of justice, but he also learned the feds were influencing the judge and her rulings in order to force a guilty verdict. Matt was forced to take steps to sabotage his own success to ensure the ultimate verdict was fair, regardless of the outcome. From this complicated balancing act of the scales of justice, Hawkeye was eventually found Not Guilty for the murder of the Hulk. [Civil War II #3-5, The Accused #1]
Blindspot foolishly got in Elektra’s way when she attacked Daredevil, leaving him with a broken arm. Despite the Night Nurse’s work patching him up, Sam wouldn’t be able to keep his current job as a janitor. Feeling responsible, Daredevil set him up as a legal assistant at the D.A.’s office working for his “friend,” Matt Murdock. Once he healed up, Blindspot got back into action responding to calls for help left at a small shrine for him in Chinatown. From that shrine, he was 
drawn to a warehouse where a gruesome mural was painted with blood. Daredevil came at Blindspot’s call for back-up, and his senses told him 113 different people’s blood was present on the mural. When the warehouse’s owner Freddy Durrin decided to sell tickets to see the “art piece,” Andrea Pearson of the city council asked the D.A.’s office to get involved shutting him down, since her missing niece’s blood was identified among the victims.
D.A. Hochberg assigned Matt Murdock to the incident, which only escalated when the mural was destroyed by the mysterious artist, leaving behind an address for his next “piece.” Matt and Sam visited the new address on official business, finding a horrid display of dead Inhumans performing mundane tasks, highlighting the false divide between human and Inhuman. Matt sensed the artist outside waiting for a reaction and had his first encounter as Daredevil with Muse before the macabre artist disappeared. Frank “Nur” McGee of the New Attilan Security Service took over the case with the approval of the city, making the case an Inhuman matter. As Daredevil, Matt tried to reach Queen Medusa to encourage cooperation between Attilan and the city, but Medusa believed it a matter of honor to insist Inhumans were protected and avenged by Inhuman agencies. Still, Frank McGee quietly agreed to continue assisting Daredevil where he could.
Muse next showed up in the courthouse where Sam was observing. He kidnapped a judge, along with Pearson and the two NYPD officers who shut down his mural. As Blindspot, Sam found the hostages in the sewer’s tunnels, getting them to safety, but he was taken by Muse instead. While explaining his work, Muse revealed he was the real culprit behind Tenfingers’ death. Daredevil 
returned from New Attilan and tracked them down. Before he could free Blindspot, however, Muse was struck by inspiration and suddenly gouged out Sam’s eyes. As he chased down Muse, Daredevil discovered an abattoir where Muse was keeping his 113 victims alive to continually pump their blood for his paintings. Thanks to Sam’s information, Daredevil found and saved the victims, and Frank McGee arrived to imprison Muse at New Attilan. Despite their victory, Blindspot would never see again. [Daredevil (5th series) #10-14]