In a dingy, hot room in
Mexico, having turned to drugs when her movie career failed, a desperate Karen
Page writes down Daredevil’s name in return for a fix. Over the weeks, the note
with Daredevil’s name changes hands until it ends up on a certain ship owned by
the Kingpin. During a meeting, one of his men hands Fisk the letter and he
reads the valuable information. He orders that anyone who handled or even spoke
about the envelope be killed and decides to test the information he has just
learned. Six months later, Matt Murdock awakens on a cold winter day, unaware
that his life is about to fall apart. He gets up, feeling groggy and depressed,
with no job to go to anymore. He checks his mail and discovers a tape from
Glori, as well as a notice from his bank about missed mortgage payments, and a
notice from the IRS that his tax files are being audited and his money frozen!
He listens to the tape from Glori while he attempts to straighten things out
with his accountant. Matt’s accountant accuses him of lying, while Glori breaks
up with Matt over the tape, feeling that she’s run out of patience and tells
him not to call her.
Matt then receives a
knock at the door which ends up being a subpoena to appear at a Grand Jury
hearing! An hour later, Matt meets with a lawyer friend, learning that
Detective Nick Manolis is accusing him of paying a witness to perjure himself
for a case. That night, Foggy drops by Glorianna’s apartment to find her in the
midst of her completely trashed place! Whoever broke in wrecked her things and
ruined her photos and she admits she’s scared to stay there that night. That
same time, at the Daily Bugle, Joe Robertson asks Ben Urich to check out the
reports that Matt Murdock is facing a number of criminal charges. Knowing
something can’t be right, Ben calls Matt for clarification but Matt shuts him
out, causing Ben to worry even more. Back at his apartment, Matt stresses about
the checks his bank claims never to have received. Feeling like it’s all too
much, he goes out as Daredevil to try and clear his head.
Elsewhere, Glori
expresses her appreciation to Foggy for letting her stay at his place for the
night, as the two start to feel an uneasy connection. Daredevil breaks into
Detective Manolis’s place to ask him why he lied about Matt Murdock. When
Manolis attacks him, Daredevil throws him back and vanishes. Daredevil remains
perched outside the window, listening in on Manolis calling someone afterwards,
someone who was expecting him. He learns that Manolis’s son is very sick and is
being used as leverage against him. Concluding that someone is out to get Matt
Murdock, he heads home to discover that his power and phone have been
disconnected, ending the day on an even worse note. The next morning, Foggy
awakens to Glori cooking him breakfast. She then answers Foggy’s phone to
discover Matt calling about everything that’s happened to him recently.
Over the next few weeks,
the Kingpin uses his various sources to oversee Matt’s descent. He learns that
Matt is working with Foggy to build a defense against his allegations, as well
as acquiring candid photos documenting his deterioration. Most amusingly to
Fisk, reports of Daredevil’s increasingly erratic and violent behavior
circulate, culminating in Daredevil tearing apart a saloon demanding
information, thrashing about, unable to do anything about his life falling
apart around him. Fisk has people on standby to kill anyone else who might know
Matt is Daredevil, as he revels in watching Matt go slowly insane. At Matt’s
hearing, Foggy is able to keep him out of prison, but Matt still has his law
license revoked, all while he seems like a shell of himself. Knowing he is in a
good position, Fisk tells himself to avoid the temptation to deliver a killing
blow, but he’s unable to resist…
Matt thanks Foggy for
everything he’s done, despite Matt not having been a good friend lately. Back
in Mexico, Karen finds the man she gave Daredevil’s name to dead! As his killer
guns for her, the only person Karen thinks can possibly help is Matt! Matt
himself trudges along back home, his foreclosure notice giving him thirty days
to pay with money he can’t access, while the gravity that he’s no longer a
lawyer hits him. He starts to wonder if everyone is in on it, even Glori
and Foggy, but tries to dismiss that thought. Just as he’s about to enter his
building, he feels a rumbling and his entire apartment building explodes and
crumbles right in front of him! As the sirens blare, he stumbles into the
wreckage that was once his home, and clutches his tattered Daredevil costume. Unable
to have drawn a connection before, with this last act, Matt now knows that the
Kingpin has been responsible for all of this and swears--he shouldn’t have
signed his work! To be continued!
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