Daredevil (1964 series) #228

While Foggy and Glorianna try not to think too much about what’s been happening with Matt, they’re forced to when they keep getting distressing calls from him. Matt lays in a dirt-cheap hotel room, trying to stay warm and thinking about everything that’s gone wrong for him lately. He realizes that things have been building for months, just small things at first, until they started to add up. His paranoia taking over, Matt reasons that everyone must be conspiring against him, even Foggy and Glori! He then tries to remind himself that it’s the Kingpin who’s responsible. He thinks at first about killing Fisk, then settles for beating him until he gives Matt his life back. He tries to muster the energy to walk out the door but finds he’s too tired to do much of anything. Meanwhile, the Kingpin stands in his tower, with his gorgeous view of the city, and revels in what he’s reduced Matt Murdock to!

Matt continues to lie in his room, the sounds of the city overwhelming him. He decides to get up and walk out the door, maybe grab some breakfast. He then thinks about hitting the Kingpin, about beating him to a bloody pulp until Fisk surrenders and rights every wrong. Matt then snaps out of it, having dozed off again. He then calls Foggy and Glori and tells them that he’s on to them, which only distresses them more! Just then, the owner of the hotel comes to kick Matt out, check out having been long past. In his paranoia, Matt thinks the guy is working for Fisk and grabs him by the neck, choking him unconscious and decides to go right for Fisk himself! Sometime later, one of Kingpin’s men that he had tasked with surveilling Matt recounts what he witnessed. He recounts the incident with the hotel owner before describing how he followed Matt onto the subway. The subway ended up held up by three guys with guns and Matt did nothing until they pulled a gun on him. He then recounts in detail how Matt savagely beat up the three youths, breaking bones and splattering blood. Matt then attacked a cop that showed up to investigate and stole his nightstick before he shuffled off. Fisk admits he wished he could have seen that before predicting that Matt will head right there!

Matt calls Foggy on a payphone and tells him that there’s something seriously wrong with him. He imagines that Foggy tells him that he should go kill Fisk before it’s revealed that Matt has been talking to no one the whole time! Meanwhile, back in Mexico, Karen has her own phone troubles when she tries to call Matt but finds that his number has been disconnected! She spots her pursuers again and knows she has to keep running. At the Daily Bugle, Ben Urich tries to convince his boss J. Jonah Jameson that Matt is being framed by the Kingpin. Jameson is skeptical but Ben is determined to write the story, whether for the Bugle, or anyone else! As Foggy and Glori sit by the phone, unsure what to do, Matt makes his way to Fisk’s tower. He’s let in by Fisk’s secretary and lead right to him, finally coming face to face with the man himself! Matt attacks Fisk with the nightstick as best he can, but gets quickly overpowered! Fisk savagely beats Matt until he’s unconscious, and everything goes red!

Fisk then devises a plan to make Matt’s death look like a drunken accident, unable to be traced back to him. He covers Matt in whisky, places him in a stolen cab, and has it driven off the pier into the water. He even has the cab driver beaten to death with the nightstick Matt stole, making the whole thing look like Matt’s drunken fault! As Fisk imagines Matt’s final moments, Matt’s eyes open in determination! Over the following weeks, Fisk basks in his victory, assured that he’s eliminated his hated adversary. Until the cab is finally discovered. The photos show blood, signs of a struggle, a broken windshield, etc. There’s just one problem: there is no corpse. To be continued!