BIOGRAPHY -- Page 54
The inmate called Daredevil received special dispensation from the courts, given a single occupancy cell and the right to wear a mask in prison. Elektra visited him in the night, and he thanked her for saving Hell’s Kitchen. However, she still didn’t understand his martyr complex. Elektra and Stick had uncovered the Book of the Fist, an order which predated even the Chaste in 
countering the Hand. The Fist needed a queen and a king to fulfill its plan for defeating the Hand, but Matthew refused to abandon his cell for her. He saw Elektra as a murderer, not a hero, and felt he couldn’t trust her plans. And so, Elektra went a step further to convince Matthew of her good intentions. She blunted her sai, foreswore killing and took to the streets of Hell’s Kitchen to defend the innocent as the new Daredevil in his absence. [Daredevil (6th series) #25]
Daredevil did not have an easy time in Riker’s Island. He met with Warden Hollis, who made a point of mentioned his son Mason Hollis was the one-time criminal organizer named Crime-Wave, whom Daredevil had brought down. The implied malice was something even a blind man could see. Unlike his apartment, the cell had no soundproofing to help him block out noises at night. Most of the other prisoners were either terrified or openly hostile towards him. Few people had any respect for his martyrdom, either. Daredevil told himself he was doing what was right, setting an example for other vigilantes and the public. Kirsten denounced his “self-flagellation,” and he also receiving a talking to from his fellow prisoner Marcus and the prison’s psychotherapist Doc 
Hayes. Prison was for people who had their freedom forcibly removed, and yet he voluntarily gave his up. Daredevil was an “inequality tourist” who would never be “treated equally” by the system, and pretending he would be was an insult to those who lacked his opportunities. He reached a breaking point when a man he prosecuted as Matt Murdock in court and defended as Daredevil in prison quietly committed suicide in the night, and there was nothing he could do about it. [Daredevil (6th series) #26-28]
Daredevil’s enemies got to him in prison. The warden had his food poisoned, then arranged for a 
crew of inmates to beat him to death. He survived and was transported into the city for medical treatment. McDuffie and Nelson visited him in the hospital with Detective North and Agent Kesbeh of the FBI. Kesbeh believed the for-profit prison was using inmates as disposable laborers and covering up their deaths. Daredevil’s attorneys arranged a deal where he would cooperate with the federal investigation against the warden and his people, and in exchange his sentence would be commuted. The infuriating idiot Matt Murdock agreed to help the investigation but insisted on serving his full term regardless. Kirsten, Foggy and Cole North all told him he was being ridiculous, and he would likely die in prison, but Daredevil continued to refuse any “special treatment.” [Daredevil (6th series) #29-30]
Back in Riker’s, Daredevil made a show of proving how powerless the warden was to stop him from doing anything he wanted to do. After being escorted into the warden’s office, Daredevil beat up the two corrections officers guarding him and destroyed the warden’s panic button, forcing Hollis to scream for help. In solitary confinement, Daredevil was able to focus his senses better and eavesdrop on the warden’s plans. Once his door was opened, Daredevil easily disarmed four guards sent for him and found the secret laboratory under the prison. They were testing a new drug called Re-Cid, dosing prisoners with it before release to increase their violent and anti-social behavior. Released convicts would inevitably re-offend, and even transmit Re-Cid to others for a short window of time, sending them back to the for-profit prison in a neverending cycle.
Seeing how incredibly broken the justice system was here was bad enough, but Daredevil’s 
intrusion on the lab released Re-Cid into the prison’s vents. Daredevil led the prisoners in a massive riot and takeover of the prison, a primal scream at the unfairness of it all. Detective North was sent in to negotiate with Daredevil, but Matt was on the verge of a psychotic break thanks to the drugs and stress. The only thing which penetrated the haze in Daredevil’s mind was hearing that Bullseye was on the loose in the city. Fixating on his old foe, Matt broke out of prison and raced into Manhattan in order to “save the city.” [Daredevil (6th series) #31-34]
Daredevil found Elektra in battle with Bullseye already and helped bring down the assassin. He exhausted the last of the Re-Cid in his system as Elektra, of all people, stopped him from killing Bullseye. A stand-off began when the NYPD tried to take Daredevil back into custody as an escaped fugitive. Kirsten McDuffie came forward with the evidence Daredevil uncovered as an FBI informant, and the other super-heroes of New York openly defied the police to protect Daredevil. It was a very dangerous precedent and intensified the friction between the law and the vigilantes of New York as Daredevil was released from custody five weeks later, due to the deal his lawyers had accepted from the FBI on his behalf.
Daredevil met with Elektra outside the prison, and they talked about her time as Daredevil. They found a middle ground after all, with Elektra gaining sympathy for the innocent after her efforts, and Matt’s faith in the system being at an all-time low. He was more understanding than ever about criminals turning to crime not out of malice, but over a system that failed them. In Matt’s absence, Kingpin and Typhoid had reconciled, and even found a semblance of happiness together. Daredevil genuinely approached Fisk before his wedding to wish him well, hoping his 
new bride would bring Wilson contentment, and maybe retirement. Instead, marrying Mary sent Wilson back into his old files. He discovered a file on Daredevil’s identity which he clearly kept at one point, but the materials inside seemed to be blank or gibberish. Wilson Fisk slowly came to recognize the hole in his memory, and he realized Daredevil had stolen the truth from his mind somehow. [Daredevil (6th series) #35-36]
Furious at this violation, the Kingpin began an all-out attack on vigilantism in New York. Using Daredevil as a scapegoat, he arranged to pass the Powers Act, making it illegal to use super-powers or engage in vigilante behavior in opposition to established New York authorities. Exceptions were made for his personal squad of Thunderbolts, deputized super-villains with the authority to hunt down and arrest super-heroes standing in opposition to the law. Fisk’s people 
targeted everyone from Captain America to the Fantastic Four. In order to ensure he won the upcoming reelection campaign, Fisk captured the Purple Man and recreated the Psycho-Prism to influence voters’ decisions. Nevertheless, Luke Cage stepped forward as an opposition candidate, running for mayor against Fisk. Foggy and Kirsten came forward to help him navigate the legal minefield of the Powers Act and legitimize his candidacy.
Events escalated as they approached election day. Doctor Octopus supplemented Fisk’s law with “anti-crime” drones, turning New York into a police state. Fisk’s people went after Foggy Nelson to shut him up for defending Luke Cage, administering a fatal beating. Still, when Daredevil visited Foggy in the hospital later, Nelson made a point of absolving Matt of responsibility for Foggy’s own deliberate actions. Several paths crossed at the hospital, as Daredevil caught Mike Murdock lurking around, still posing as Matt Murdock. Mike was worried his friend Butch was in too deep after taking over Izzy Libris’s territory, but Daredevil just dismissed Mike’s concerns as a lying 
grifter. Kirsten also showed up at Foggy’s bedside, and confusingly kissed Daredevil (not Matt Murdock) when he was drowning in self-recrimination. Meanwhile, Purple Man confirmed for Kingpin that the holes in his memory came from his own Purple Children, although even Killgrave seemed to have forgotten why by this point. Fisk harnessed the Purple Man’s power and forced himself to remember that Daredevil. Was. Matt. Murdock.
Fisk’s rage was unparalleled at this point, and he ordered his Thunderbolts to bring in the Purple Children, innocent casualties be damned. After the Purple Children’s power was drained by the Psycho-Prism and pumped into Killgrave, Kingpin unleashed the Purple Man on the city to kill every hero that ever got in their way. As Daredevil and the Avengers fought Purple Man and the Thunderbolts in the streets, Kingpin went to Matt Murdock’s apartment and found Mike instead. Fisk was in no mood to listen to the truth, and he beat “Matt Murdock” to death with his bare hands. Kirsten walked in to find the Mayor of New York holding the limp, lifeless body of Murdock in his grasp.
Kirsten called Daredevil during the riot to tell him Matt Murdock was dead, and Matt instantly understood what really happened. Daredevil and Elektra ran off to intercept Kingpin and Typhoid as they sped out of town in the mayoral limo. It was possibly their most personal fight yet, with Matt enraged over his brother’s death and Wilson furious that his mind was violated right when he was accepting his happiness. Matt was on the brink of killing Fisk with Elektra’s sai when she stopped him. She pointed to the crowd gathered around them and asked Daredevil if he was still a 
symbol, and what he wanted that symbol to stand for. Daredevil dropped the weapon and Wilson Fisk was arrested for the murder of Matt Murdock. It wasn’t that easy, for the Stromwyns interceded and tried to make Wilson their puppet again. Instead, he crushed Quinn Stromwyn’s arm and fled the country with Mary. But Mayor Fisk was done for, and Mayor Luke Cage soon won the election unopposed.
It was a complicated decision, but Daredevil decided to let the world go on believing that Matt Murdock was dead. New York remained a complicated battle ground for, even as mayor, Luke couldn’t just revoke the Powers Act. With vigilantes still technically illegal in Manhattan, Daredevil saw it as a good time to leave the city behind and focus on larger issues. By cutting all ties to his past, he was now free to join Elektra on her quest to restart the order of the Fist and finally destroy the Hand. [Devil’s Reign crossover]