BIOGRAPHY -- Page 52
Matt was not fully healed when he started going back into action as Daredevil, but he felt like it was necessary. Fisk was still mayor and Matt’s task force dissolved while he was in recovery, leaving Matt at square one for his goals. Daredevil’s absence from Hell’s Kitchen had been noticed and criminals were bolder than before. Still, if he were honest with himself, Matt was still sloppy. He was missing jumps on rooftops, making impulsive decisions, trying to prove himself in public and in his own eyes when he knew he wasn’t ready yet. That simple yet illusive fact became apparent when Daredevil intervened at a liquor store breaking & entering. Matt was too 
much in his own head during the encounter, not clocking a third criminal with a gun when he first confronted the other two. He lost the initiative, missed a few punches and actually started to lose a mere 3-on-1 fight. After flailing wildly, Daredevil fled the scene just as NYPD arrived to see him take off. It wasn’t until the news reports hours later that he learned one of the criminals was knocked into a concrete wall after he hit him. Leo Carraro died of head trauma at the hospital, a victim of homicide. [Daredevil (6th series) #1]
Daredevil couldn’t believe the news when he heard it. He cornered and interrogated the ER doctor who worked on Carraro, but everything was done to save him. He eavesdropped on City Hall and, while Wilson Fisk was over the moon, he was happiest that Daredevil would fall without any planning or manipulation by him. He even sought spiritual advice at a local church, speaking with a nun called Sister Elizabeth who he had taken a special interest in. Matt tried to show it was still a mistake, going out as Daredevil and delivering “controlled violence” to criminals, proving he could still pull his punches. He even made the classic blunder of returning to the scene of the crime, where Detectives Cole North and Fred Higgins happening to be investigating. If he wanted to prove his innocence, attacking two cops trying to arrest him failed to show it. And if he wanted to prove his competence in the field, getting shot while fleeing the scene was a failure there, too. [Daredevil (6th series) #2]
Daredevil was desperate to escape custody, on the run through the streets of New York and unable to take to the rooftops with a bullet in his arm. He was trapped on a road by police barricades, but managed to sow doubt in several officers he knew by reminded them of his past. Detective North was a recent transplant from Chicago, though, and he had no history with masked vigilantes. It was an absurdity for both sides that the arrest degenerated into a boxing match 
between North and Daredevil. With his injuries new and old, Murdock wasn’t even a match of one cop with decent boxing training. He was thrown in the back of a patrol car under the watchful eyes of the NYPD, Hell’s Kitchen and even the mayor who came out to witness this wonderful moment. And then the street exploded with gunfire and smoke bombs. Daredevil passed out and woke up later in the arms of his savior: Frank Castle, the Punisher. [Daredevil (6th series) #3]
The Punisher was beside himself with the idea that the scarlet red, choir boy had finally come around to his way of thinking. He patched Daredevil up a bit but kept him handcuffed to a gurney in his hideout. Daredevil tried his same old tired speech about not justifying murder for the greater good, but Castle was absolutely done with his hypocrisy. The Punisher was in the middle of torturing one of the Owl’s henchmen as an informant, forcing Daredevil into the position of 
pleading for the man’s life. But as soon as Castle freed his hands, the man lunged for a gun and got a bullet in his head from the Punisher. Matt broke free from his restraints and soon he and Frank were at each other’s throats again. Daredevil blew up Punisher’s ammo and left Castle for the police. Barely on his feet but desperate to prove himself, Matt Murdock pushed through the pain so he could stop the Owl’s drug smuggling. [Daredevil (6th series) #4]
Daredevil was sloppy and reckless, crashing the Owl’s delivery truck in the middle of the street. He waded into a dozen or more goons, only to realize he was spent and wouldn’t survive the fight. By sheer luck, Luke, Jessica and Danny arrived to finish the fight and pull him out of it. They were actually very sympathetic with Matt afterwards, but he was horrified when he realized why. All of them admitted to accidentally killing on the job before; unfortunate, but ultimately something which was bound to happen. To someone with Matt’s complicated but rigid moral code, though, it meant they were murderers. All of them were murderers. He fled the Defenders and made his way home 
where he found another visitor. Spider-Man was in Matt’s apartment to tell him he was done. He was sloppy, out of control, fighting with the police and God knows what else. Daredevil was a liability to himself and to the reputations of other super-heroes. Spider-Man swore that if Daredevil went out in costume again, he would bring him in. Hearing his problems aloud, Matt finally gave up. He renounced his career as Daredevil and turned his mask over to Spider-Man. He was done. [Daredevil (6th series) #5]
Months passed. Matt Murdock never returned to the law. He found a new sympathy for criminals and wanted to find ways to help them other than a punch in the face. Matt became a parole officer, turning his knowledge of the law towards helping criminals stay on the straight and narrow, given half a chance. His nights were still restless, though, with Matt calling in anonymous tips to 911 for every crime his hearing picked up throughout the night. Over and over and over. His days weren’t any better, once he was assigned Joey Carraro as a parolee. Joey was Leo Carraro’s little 
brother who got caught selling drugs to support their mom after Leo was killed. Matt also accepted a dinner invitation from a friendly book seller named Mindy Libris. He didn’t make the connection to the Libris crime family of Hell’s Kitchen until dinner was served, and narrowly survived a hail of gunfire when the Owl made a play for Izzy Libris’ territory. On top of all this, locals in Hell’s Kitchen began taking to the streets in Daredevil masks, filling in for the missing hero.
Matt couldn’t stay idle forever. When Sister Elizabeth told him of a missing boy named Leelo, Matt went searching for the kid and fought a gang planning to ransom him back to his family. Matt began to lose his way again, and he began an illicit affair with Mindy Libris, who came to see him after the shooting in her family home. Matt knew he was being foolish for thinking he could “save” Mindy from her husband and a life in the Libris family, but they kept seeing each other anyway. All Hell broke loose when Matt was called into the local precinct after Joey was arrested on a stop & frisk. Detective Cole North had been having a rough time as well. An honest cop increasingly at odds with corrupt officers answering to Fisk, Owl and others, he and his partner were severely 
beaten as a message. When Detective Higgins died of his injuries at the hospital, the bad cops panicked and locked down the precinct. They intended to kill North and frame Joey for the incident, but Matt’s senses alerted him to their intent. Murdock used a mask to intervene and help save North from his murdering fellow officers, but he had to reveal his abilities in front of Joey to do it. Now Joey Carraro knew his parole officer was Daredevil, the man who killed his brother. [Daredevil (6th series) #6-10]
It was at this turning point that Elektra walked back into Matthew’s life. She saw Matt struggling to redefine how he attacked corruption in his city, but he was hopelessly out of shape after months of inactivity. When some corrupt cops captured a good-intentioned man in a Daredevil mask, Matt barely managed to survive a fight with them before Elektra showed up. He accepted her offer to renew his training as Stick once taught them both. She also helped Matt focus on what his 
mission in life would be. Since his fall from grace, cops in Hell’s Kitchen had actively stopped patrolling the neighborhood. He took a risk reaching out to Cole North about the issue, and the men began to develop a growing respect for one another. Matt and Elektra staked out police headquarters, where his senses learned that the embargo on police in Hell’s Kitchen came from the commissioner, and the state governor above that. [Daredevil (6th series) #11-14]
Murdock and Elektra raided the governor’s mansion, only for the man to easily give up his puppet masters, the Stromwyn siblings. Una and Quinn Stromwyn were multi-billionaire supporters of the governor who invested heavily in his campaign and (as it happens) that of Mayor Wilson Fisk. Now they had an interest in Hell’s Kitchen. Matt and Elektra broke into the Stromwyn’s company Sectotec and accessed their servers. From this infiltration point, Matt redistributed three billion dollars from the Stromwyns to various charities and small businesses around Hell’s Kitchen, supporting the local economy and allowing the neighborhood to recover from the current crime 
wave, at least in part. The adrenaline of the moment led Matt and Elektra back into bed together, even though he still hid “Daredevil’s” identity from her. However, Matt finally took a moment to focus on Elektra, and why she was helping him in the first place. He thought he had discovered the truth when he learned she took an extra billion from the Stromwyns, for expenses, and stormed out on her. [Daredevil (6th series) #15-16]