Much has been about this terrific story, and all the good stuff is true. I rated this as the seventh best DD story of all time, but on this reread I’m wondering if should have been ranked higher. I mean, it’s got to be better than Daredevil Yellow, right? Maybe not. But this is a tremendous story.
In the last arc, Matt Murdock surrendered to the FBI who are convinced that he is Daredevil. And so we start with him in prison, where everyone assumes he is guilty. Including his fellow prisoners, like Hammerhead’s gang, who attack Murdock.
Matt uses his abilities to defend himself and finds reasonably plausible ways to explain how a blind man survived a mass assault. To guard against future attacks, he gets himself put in solitary confinement.
Meanwhile, Foggy, who knows Matt’s secret, is defending him.
But no sooner is his secret identity seemingly compromised beyond repair than Daredevil himself appears in Hells Kitchen.
He is helping protect Dakota North, who has signed on as Foggy Nelson’s investigator.
And she can tell who it really is behind the mask, but doesn’t say his name out loud.
We the readers aren’t the only ones who don’t know who the new Daredevil is behind the mask–even Ben Urich and Foggy Nelson are in the dark. And Foggy needs to stay in the dark because, as Matt’s lawyer, he doesn’t want to know if Murdock is complicit with whatever kind of chicanery going on. This makes for interesting conversations between lawyer and client, as both talk around the fact that both of them know Murdock is in fact Daredevil.
Dakota North is with Foggy when he gets stabbed and “killed” while visiting Matt in Rikers. He’s killed by someone who doesn’t want him defending Murdock.
There’s even a funeral.
After that, Matt wants revenge. He gets himself out of protective custody and starts beating the crap out of his fellow prisoners, looking for the truth of who killed his partner, lawyer, and best friend.
On the outside, Dakota and Ben Urich also try to find the killer.
As much as I love another redhead being involved with Daredevil, her appearance points up a fairly large weakness here: Where is Black Widow? For that matter, where are all the people who Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson have represented over the years? They weren’t at Foggy’s funeral and they’re not helping now. Hm.
Over the course of these events, both Punisher and Bullseye end up in the same jail as Matt. Bullseye just got caught, but Punisher killed a pimp in front of a cop and then surrendered himself.
So clearly he wants to be in jail. Why? So he can see how Daredevil is getting on behind bars. Seriously, that’s what Frank tells Matt when they meet in the cafeteria.
Let’s move along a bit faster now. This is a dense story and I love it, but you should still want to read it yourself after reading this.
The guy who killed Foggy hangs himself in his cell. Murdock, of course, deduces that Kingpin is behind it. Kingpin is ALSO in Rikers, but he’s in a different cell block. (I’m assuming block K?). Anyway, Turk Barrett, who has been missing from Daredevil for far too long, is in with Wilson and does his errands.
Nice!
Turk sets up a meeting in the yard between Kingpin and Daredevil where Fisk denies any part of killing Foggy, and seems believable. Wilson also wants to get out of prison and tells Matt that the real reason they are both incarcerated in the same prison as so many other criminals that both of them have ties to, is because the system wants all of them to kill each other. That actually tracks as true. Kingpin tells Matt that some inmates are planning a riot and suggests that the two of them team up and use the riot as a chance to escape.
The riot jumps off and Matt and Wilson, side by side, defend against all comers. Meanwhile, Turk makes sure Bullseye jumps into the fray as well–on the side of his employer, The Kingpin.
Matt pulls a double-cross, leaves Fisk behind, and instead teams up with Punisher to escape. He also makes sure that it appears that Frank Castle is holding Matt hostage, so that Murdock doesn’t have any responsibility for busting out of jail.
Awwww. They like each other now!
As soon as he’s back in Hell’s Kitchen, Daredevil tracks down the fake Daredevil and…It’s Iron Fist.
Turns out, Iron Fist was hired to impersonate Daredevil. He THOUGHT he had been hired by Murdock and Nelson, but it turns out to be a trick: He was hired by the same lawyer that killed Foggy.
And that dude has fled to Spain.
But that’s not the end of this story! There’s a second punchline…
Of course he’s alive. And he’s in witness protection.
Most “superheroes in jail” stories are compressed to a single issue or even just part of an issue. This is a full story, and for a guy like me (who has watched HBO’s OZ series at least a half-dozen times), that’s fantastic.