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Daredevil (1964 series) #230

May 1986 on-sale: Jan 28, 1986

Frank Miller
writer
 |  David Mazzucchelli
penciler

Daredevil (1964 series) #230 cover

Story Name:

Born Again


Synopsis

Daredevil (1964 series) #230 synopsis by reviewer Anthony Silvestro
Rating: 5 stars

Matt Murdock fights for his life as he groggily remembers what happened to him, and everything the Kingpin took. After briefly flatlining, Matt’s heart starts beating once more, as Sister Maggie rejoices that he’s alive! Meanwhile, each of the other major players think about Matt. Karen Page travels with her companion, finally reaching America, and thinks about Matt as the only one who can save her. The Kingpin trains, obsessively thinking about how Matt is alive. Foggy signs on to a new job, and he and Glori talk about how long Matt’s been missing. And finally, still shellshocked from being threatened, Ben Urich refuses to even think Matt Murdock’s name, cradling his broken fingers as the paramedics load Nick Manolis onto a stretcher. Matt determines that he can’t give up, while Karen finally reaches New York. She tries to have her escort Paulo drop her off at Penn Station, but he’s not so eager to let her go quite yet.

Fisk finishes his training and orders his aide Wesley to locate a dangerous operative named Nuke. Back at their shared apartment, Ben’s wife Doris worries that he may be killed, and Ben urges her not to say or even think Matt’s name. As Matt heals, his rib back in place, and the bleeding stopped, he uses his senses to try and ascertain where he is. He determines that he’s still in Hell’s Kitchen, in the basement mission of a church. He tries to get up but finds he has no energy and Sister Maggie forces him back into bed. Elsewhere, while Paulo is asleep, a scared Karen gets a number for Foggy and calls him up, looking for Matt. Foggy tells her that no one knows where Matt is, and agrees to meet up with her to talk. At the Daily Bugle, an angry J. Jonah Jameson chews out Ben for his decision to drop the Kingpin story. Ben doesn’t say a word as Jameson kicks Ben out of his office, and a janitor outside tells Ben that he better keep his mouth shut and reminds him that the Kingpin always has someone watching!

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At the church, Matt fights through a terrible fever, and notices the cross made of gold that Maggie wears. Ben faces more issues as he can’t muster the motivation to make the deadline for a simple puff piece, causing his editor to yell at him. While Joe Robertson tries to figure out what’s going on with him, Ben gets a call from Manolis at the hospital, claiming he’s ready to give his official statement on helping the Kingpin frame Matt Murdock. Still scared and numb, Ben pretends to not know what he’s talking about, when the nurse that attacked them before barges into the hospital room. With the bustle of the newsroom going on all around him, the nurse makes Ben listen to her strangle Manolis to death over the phone, as all he can do is sit there in stunned, terrified silence! Back at the church, Matt recognizes the gold cross and realizes that Maggie must be the woman who came to him when he was a boy, and wonders who she really is to him.

At a social event, the Kingpin begins to develop a plan to lure Matt out of hiding and makes a call to a psychiatric ward. Meanwhile, Ben can’t get the image of Manolis’s death out of his mind and stumbles his way along in a daze, as back at the church, Matt’s fever grows ever higher. Karen meets with Foggy and tells him that she’s in deep trouble, while he in turn tells her everything that’s been going on with Matt. Feeling responsible but not able to tell Foggy why, Karen breaks down as Foggy invites her to come back to his place, telling her that she and Matt are both family. At the church, Sister Maggie prays passionately to God, asking Him to heal and save Matt, no matter the cost. In a random park, Ben sits at a bench, still obsessing over everything that’s happened. Then, in a powerful moment of reflection, Ben decides to stop living in fear, to fight back, and for the first time in a long time, speaks Matt Murdock’s name! Downtown, a couple of Kingpin’s guys threaten Melvin Potter into making an exact replica of Daredevil’s suit. Finally, Matt sits in his bed, his fever having miraculously broken and asks Maggie if she’s his mother. She responds that of course she isn’t. He smiles, because he can tell she’s lying. To be continued!

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Characters
Good (or All)
BENURICH  
Ben Urich
(Benjamin Urich)
DAREDEVIL  
Daredevil
(Matt Murdock)
FOGGYNELSON  
Foggy Nelson
(Franklin Nelson)
GLADIATOR1  
Gladiator
(Melvin Potter)
JJJAMESON  
J. Jonah Jameson
(JJ Jameson)
ROBBIEROBERTSON  
Plus: Doris Urich, Glorianna O'Breen, Nick Manolis.

Antagonists
KINGPIN  
Kingpin
(Wilson Fisk)
Plus: James Wesley.

> Daredevil (1964 series) comic book info and issue index



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Main/1st Story Full Credits

David Mazzucchelli
David Mazzucchelli
Max Scheele
David Mazzucchelli (Cover Penciler)
David Mazzucchelli (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Joe Rosen.



Review / Commentaries


reviewer
Daredevil (1964 series) #230 Review by (April 22, 2026)

Review: Things rapidly cut between all of the characters this issue as things ramp up for everyone! Once again, the issue opens with Matt laying somewhere, this time in the basement mission of Sister Maggie’s church as he fights for his life! This is the issue where Matt is the most passive, and also the one where the Catholic allegories are at their most prominent. As this the issue the whole story is named after, it’s quite important as the one where Matt goes through his metaphorical rebirth, embracing the Catholic and Christian ideals of casting away his old life and being Born Again, represented by way of fighting through a terrible fever. Though he doesn’t do a whole lot actively, this issue is the turning point for Matt, for Karen as she finally makes it to New York, and the surprising real MVP of the issue, Ben Urich! Ben spends the whole issue being terrified of even thinking Matt’s name, not least of which because of an extremely tense and harrowing sequence in which he’s forced to listen to Detective Manolis be killed over the phone! It’s just as gruesomely unforgettable for us readers as it is for Ben!

All this leads to the continued trend of another iconic, knockout ending! After being terrified all issue, Ben decides to finally fight back, removing his cast, and tossing away what had both literally and metaphorically been crippling him! I’ve always found the panels where he finally dares to say Matt’s name again to be some of the most powerful in the entire story! And of course, Sister Maggie is confirmed to be Matt’s mother. It may seem a little random, considering she was only introduced last issue, but future writers have done a marvelous job of fleshing out details over the following decades. These two moments are the first real moments of hope in the whole story, and reinforce that this is the turning point. Matt has been through the worst of it, and he will prove that he can’t be broken by rising up even better than he was before!

Comments: Part four of Born Again. Death of Nick Manolis. Sister Maggie is confirmed to be Matt’s mother. First mention of Nuke.





Thor

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