BIOGRAPHY -- Page 51
Not everything went Fisk’s way, as his chosen successor Diamondback failed to organize the 
gangs of New York to make him the new Kingpin. Instead, the Hood returned to New York and named himself the Kingpin of Kingpins after Diamondback’s fall. Daredevil and the Defenders failed to prevent the Hood’s rise to power, only maintaining the status quo under a new boss. Still, their close association reached the point where Matt was willing to share his secret identity with them again, unmasking in front of Luke, Danny and Jessica. [Defenders (5th series) #6-10]
At the D.A.’s office, Matt Murdock received a surprising phone call from Wilson Fisk asking him to become deputy mayor. Fisk wanted to put on a show of forgiving old grudges and would take advantage of Matt’s recent celebrity before the Supreme Court to the benefit of his administration. Realizing he could not remain with the district attorney’s office on the task force, Matt accepted Fisk’s offer for the slim opportunity to influence and monitor Fisk in the mayor’s office. Behind 
closed doors, however, Fisk had no time for his deputy mayor. Since Fisk refused to buy Braille readers for the office, he assigned a junior staffer named Steve Cornish to read the administrative code, policy and city regulations to Murdock. Aloud. Matt did his best to tune out Steve while eavesdropping on Fisk and his chief of staff Wesley from several floors away. Matt learned of something called The Sarnos Project, but only through snippets of conversation.
The Fisk administration faced its first major hurdle when Muse escaped from New Attilan custody. He embraced the plight of masked heroes under the Anti-Vigilante task force and arranged dramatic murals denouncing Fisk and supporting super-heroes. Murdock tried to caution Fisk to treat Muse as a serious threat, but Fisk used the civil disobedience for his own agenda. When several NYPD officers caught Muse making a Punisher mural, he easily killed them all and left their bodies to emphasize his art. Fisk seized the opportunity to blame Punisher for the attack and reinforce his Anti-Vigilante policies as a result.
Daredevil learned that Sarnos referred to an Italian restaurant in the Bronx. Fisk was setting up a meet between Diamondback, Hammerhead, Black Cat and the Owl to carve up city government positions among the criminal underworld, giving them each a piece of his legitimacy. Matt’s focus on Fisk kept him from zeroing in on Muse, and a vengeful Blindspot planned to seek out his attacker even without Daredevil’s help. Matt planned to coordinate with the Defenders and other 
allies to catch Fisk in the act of meeting with underworld figures at Sarnos. Once he had enough information, he hoped to testify under the Slugansky rule to the police commissioner and get Fisk removed from power. Daredevil failed to realize that Sarnos was a sting operation, set up by Fisk to eliminate his criminal competition. The heroes got swept up in it and the NYPD’s Anti-Vigilante task force arrested Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Moon Knight, Spider-Man, Echo and Misty Knight on the scene. Daredevil tried to go after Fisk himself once his friends fell and was beaten into submission before being turned over to the NYPD too.
Everything seemed to be going Fisk’s way, except for a variable he couldn’t account for. Blindspot went after Muse and got the violent artist’s attention by defacing one of his murals. Muse was too strong for him as they fought, but the Beast of the Hand reached out and offered Sam strength enough to win in exchange for his soul and Muse’s life. Blindspot initially accepted the demon’s power but refused to kill Muse in the end. The oath-breaker provoked the Beast of the Hand to launch a full ninja invasion of New York City, beginning with Fisk’s triumphant rally in Central Park. Kingpin was shot full of arrows as the Hand descended on the NYPD. Fisk was taken for immediate medical treatment and, as the city fell into chaos, Steve Cornish informed Wesley and the Fisk administration of a surprising bit of policy. The previous administration altered New York City’s rules of mayoral succession while in office. With Wilson Fisk incapacitated, Matt Murdock was now Mayor of New York. [Daredevil (1st series) #597-600]
Overhearing all of this in the back of a police van, Mayor Murdock first had to make a break for freedom. After changing clothes and making his way back to city hall, Matt assumed control of the city’s response. He removed Wesley from city hall once it was clear Fisk’s aide wouldn’t play ball and brought Foggy Nelson in as support. Murdock ordered the release of Luke Cage and the 
others from custody, putting them on the streets to deal with the Hand. He made a similar deal with Hammerhead and the crime bosses in lock-up, releasing them in order for the gangsters to rally forces and defend their own turf. Blindspot also entered City Hall and caught Matt up to date on his actions with Muse and the Beast, leading Mayor Murdock to declare Blindspot his official bodyguard. Elektra, Father Jordan and the Ordo Draconum also made themselves available to the Murdock administration. [Daredevil (1st series) #601-603]
Sixty-six hours into Mayor Murdock’s reign, the Beast unleashed a cloud of supernatural poison into the air. Jordan and the Order of the Dragon joined Daredevil in tracing the fog back to the Hand’s stronghold in Manhattan. They drove the Beast from its temple, but it made its way to City Hall to seek out the oath-breaker, Blindspot. The vigilantes of New York joined forces with the NYPD and the Order to beat back the ninja clan. Daredevil personally wielded a holy sword of the Order to strike the Beast in the chest, dispersing its evil. The Beast of the Hand was dead, sent 
back to its own Hell dimension. Blindspot found a new place among the Order and New York returned to normal. Wilson Fisk was eventually released from the hospital a week later and, very reluctantly, Murdock relinquished the role of mayor and retired from the Fisk administration altogether. Only as Matt and Foggy were leaving City Hall did Matthew finally overhear what he had suspected all along: Fisk and Wesley fixed the vote for mayor. [Daredevil (1st series) #604-605]
Before he could deal with Fisk, however, Daredevil had to deal with just so many other things. Malekith of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim brought war to the Ten Realms and finally to Midgard. Manhattan was his invasion point, leading to Daredevil and many other heroes assisting Thor and the Avengers with the occupation. The first battle went poorly, and Doctor Strange teleported most of the civilians of New York City to Avengers Mountain. As a series of strikeforces were readied, Daredevil was brought before Heimdall, formerly the All-Seeing and now-blind Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge. Through Hofund, Heimdall’s sword, Daredevil inherited Heimdall’s powers and his mantle. He gained cosmic senses as the God Without Fear and deployed the War Avengers throughout the Ten Realms using the Bifrost. Nearly overwhelmed by his new senses at times, 
Daredevil split his time between the Rainbow Bridge and returning to Manhattan to protect stragglers. He eventually gave up the power of Hofund when the war ended but forged a bond with Heimdall over what he had perceived as a god. Matt’s own faith had always been tested around Thor and his people, but he now felt a newfound appreciation for how even a god couldn’t attend to every prayer. Heimdall also respected Murdock, and provided him with a new pair of truncheons, carved from Yggdrasil itself. [War of the Realms crossover]
In a curious adventure, Daredevil, Elektra, Punisher, Hulk and Black Panther came together over a prophecy of future ruin. They used the device which once removed all knowledge of the Sentry and the Void from mankind to create a global amnesia regarding all the “Marvels.” Supposedly, removing the heroes and villains from active play would prevent the unknown tragedy. More than once, however, the amnesiac heroes began to remember the truth and sought out the device, only to remember why they did it and return to memory-less slumber. In the last cycle, a vision of Karen Page came to Matthew and pushed him to make things right. The quintet finally ended the global amnesia thanks to Karen’s assistance. The others convinced themselves that “Karen” was a sentient interface from the device communicating with them, but Matt wondered if Karen’s genuine spirit had reached out to him from beyond the grave. [Marvel Knights 20th #1-6]
Other mysteries also caught Daredevil’s attention. Kitty Pryde of the X-Men approached Daredevil when the late Wolverine’s body went missing from his grave. Matt assembled a team of investigators to find Logan, including the former NYPD detectives Frank McGee and Misty Knight, plus the information specialist Cypher. They found Logan’s cyborg clone Albert running around independently, but also uncovered a conspiracy involving the mysterious corporation called Soteira. [Hunt for Wolverine: Weapon Lost #1-4] Daredevil also briefly became involved with the search for the Infinity Stones. Turk Barrett (of all people) found the Mind Stone and used it for telepathic powers. Turk started building his own criminal network, and finally scored a victory against Daredevil when he psychically made Matt forget about his stone altogether. [Infinity Countdown: Daredevil #1]
Daredevil (and Matt Murdock) finally put together an investigative team to prove Wilson Fisk rigged the mayoral election. He contacted Frank McGee and Cypher, and also met another Inhuman acquaintance of Frank’s named Reader. Reader had a unique power to make anything he reads become real. The consequences of his powers took his eyes when he was young, but Reader learned Braille so he could still use his powers sparingly by better controlling what he read. Matt Murdock sent over his Braille case files on the Kingpin for the investigators to study, but 
Reader’s power was inadvertently “active” when he read the history of Matt’s “Mike Murdock” identity. Reader conjured into existence a Mike Murdock who believed he was Matt Murdock’s genuine long-lost twin brother. Reader was prepared to “unwrite” Mike out of existence, but Matt hesitated. However Mike Murdock came into being, he now had a sense of identity and self-preservation. Matt made an instinctive call to let his “brother” go rather than taking back his life. [Daredevil (1st series) #606-608]
[Note: For the record, Matt's original lie was to Foggy and Karen that he was his own twin brother, Mike, who was also Daredevil. This was a thin story to explain why “Daredevil” always seemed interested in Nelson & Murdock business. This is not something Matt would have written down and included in “case files” he handed off to someone he just met.]
Matt’s big plans for taking down the Kingpin were waylaid when he raced in front of a truck to save a young boy. The impact of the vehicle nearly killed him, putting Matt in a coma and delaying all the plans he tried to put together. [Daredevil (1st series) #609-612] The cumulative toll Matt placed on his body over the years was exacerbated by the crash. Even his stubborn constitution and the meditative healing of the Chaste could not help him recover faster. Weeks and months would pass as Matt slowly put himself through physical therapy to regain the ability to walk. Perhaps even worse than the physical injuries was the toll on his mind. The Man Without Fear 
was afraid. Matt struggled emotionally to regain his confidence in his abilities and find the drive to continue as Daredevil. Blindspot called him a coward for giving up, driving a wedge between them. Kirsten McDuffie heard about his injuries and came to see him, but Matt pushed her away again. The Defenders couldn’t understand what he was feeling. Matt fought through the pain, finished his physical therapy and rededicated himself to Daredevil by the end. Because that’s what he wanted. Wasn’t it? [Man Without Fear #1-5]