Daredevil #227-233

Daredevil #227-233

Originally released in 1986

Written by Frank Miller

Art by David Mazzucchelli

I realized that I technically wasn't done with Frank Miller's Daredevil run, as he came back a few years later for the "Born Again" storyline. It starts off with Karen Page, Matt Murdock's old flame, being so desperate for drugs that she exchanges Daredevil's secret identity for some, and this information winds up in the hands of the Kingpin.

The Kingpin proceeds to make Matt's life a living hell. In addition to Matt's girlfriend breaking up with him (which is due to how distant Matt has been, so it has nothing to do with Kingpin's plans; the timing doesn't help, though), he's audited by the IRS, the bank mysteriously lost his past two mortgage payments, he's charged with bribery, and he loses his license to practice law.

This should be enough as far as Kingpin's concerned - he's destroyed Daredevil's life without Matt even being aware of his involvement.  Matt Murdock is desperate, disgraced, and dismantled in just about every way.  And yet, it's not enough.

Just when Matt was thinking that it could all be bad luck or unfortunate coincidences, Kingpin has Matt's apartment blown up, which allows Matt to figure out that Kingpin's responsible and that he knows who Daredevil is.  Kingpin's inability to let go of his grudge against Daredevil, and his desire to send a message and make him know who is responsible, come back to bite him several times in this story alone.

Matt's become paranoid, thinking that even Foggy has turned against him, and that anyone, whether it's a police officer or the owner of a rundown motel, could secretly be working for Kingpin.  Like a man possessed, he makes his way across the city, slowly losing his grip on what little sanity remains as he works his way to Kingpin's penthouse.

In his current state, Matt is no match for the Kingpin, who intends to have Matt killed in a way that won't be suspicious.  Making it seem like Matt got drunk, took a cab, and assaulted the driver, the Kingpin has a taxi driven into the river in order to have Matt drowned.

When the cab is discovered, only the corpse of the driver is found.  Kingpin is about to learn the flaw in his plan: he's left Matt with nothing to lose.

As Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich investigates how and why Matt Murdock was framed, Matt stumbles through the city, reduced to being confused for a drugged-up homeless man.  Meanwhile, Turk Barret finds a suit that gives him better luck than the Stilt-Man suit gave him previously.

With nowhere else to turn, Matt stumbles his way to Hell's Kitchen, where he passes out in the gym that his father used to train in.  He's found by a nun who visited him shortly after the accident that cost him his sight, and who's revealed to be his mother. (Matt's father told him that she was dead, so presumably the relationship didn't end well)

Matt recovers from his injuries and pneumonia as Karen makes her way to the US - the Kingpin is systematically having everyone who handled the piece of paper containing Daredevil's secret identity killed, and Karen feels like she'd only be safe with Matt.

With Daredevil temporarily out of the picture, Kingpin's doing well, though his followers are losing confidence in him.  His obsession with his vendetta against Murdock is eating into resources and personnel, and they're starting to get concerned. (Though when one employee voices his concerns, Kingpin threatens to have his family killed and ultimately settles for having his legs broken, so it doesn't seem like anyone will be speaking out against him any time soon)

Kingpin's attempts at having Karen Page killed fail due to Matt's intervention, so Fisk hires a super soldier who goes by Nuke.  He seems to be an attempt at making Captain America for the Vietnam War, and both of them reflect the conflict that they became super soldiers.  Whereas World War 2 was a fairly black-and-white conflict (seeing as the Nazis were openly genocidal against anyone who was slightly different than them), with Captain America being symbolic of all that's good in America, the Vietnam War was much messier, with Nuke reflecting that.

Nuke is psychotic, delusional (he still thinks he's in Vietnam), and aims to kill as many people as he can, to the point where he keeps a tally of how many people he kills on a mission and aims to top his previous record each time.  Even the Kingpin's loyal second-in-command, Wesley, has concerns with having him operate in a US city, but Fisk isn't opening the topic up for debate.

As Matt tries to help Karen with her addictions, Foggy has gotten a new job that, unknown to him, has ties to the Kingpin. Fisk has Nuke dropped into the middle of Hell's Kitchen, which immediately turns it into something like a war zone, with Matt being able to hear every dying breath.

Nuke is dealt with, though not without cost.  Karen Page is injured, but alive - all things considered, I feel like Matt forgives her far too easily for her role in all of this; being in love with her likely plays a part, and it helps to show how good of a person he remains even after all of this, but it feels more than a little strange.

Captain America tracks down Daredevil to find out what he learned about the man who attacked Hell's Kitchen.  Cap is particularly unsettled by the fact that Nuke had an American flag on his face; Daredevil (for reasons that are obvious to the audience) didn't notice at all.

The issue switches focus to Captain America for a bit as he looks into the origins of the project that made Nuke, and much to his dismay, he learns about how it's tied to the Super Soldier Serum that made him.  Nuke breaks free while Cap is in the facility, but while Cap manages to get through to him and Daredevil tries to get him to safety, Nuke is shot and killed by a helicopter.

Still, it's enough to damage the layer of legitimacy that Kingpin had built around his businesses - it gets his employees talking faster than they can be killed, and while he manages to avoid any legal consequences, his reputation is in tatters.

Fisk thinks that, at the very least, he hurt Matt Murdock, but as the final page suggests, Matt's managed to bounce back, having cleaned himself up and starting a relationship with Karen.  This was a well-made epilogue to an already stellar run, and while I didn't feel the same sense of triumph that I did with the conclusion of Elektra's storyline in Miller's original run, it was great to see Matt come back from the brink even if many of his problems (such as him losing his ability to practice law) remain unresolved.