Daredevil (1964 series) #209

After his deadly night the previous night, Daredevil is recuperating, swinging along when suddenly he’s caught on the edge of a huge explosion! He ends up falling hard into an alley and can hear someone running away. Daredevil quickly catches up with the supposed perpetrator and knocks him out, before realizing that he knows the guy! Matt recognizes him as Johnny Squarejohn, someone he grew up with! The next day, Matt is out to lunch with Foggy and Debbie. While Foggy and Debbie get into a very public argument, all Matt can think about is Johnny, as well as the mansion deathtrap he narrowly survived the previous night. Debbie storms off, and Foggy follows her, leaving Matt with the check, to his annoyance. Matt heads out and makes his way to the courthouse, all the while being unknowingly followed by one of Mrs. Sterling’s little girl robots, the same as the one that lured him to the death mansion last issue.

At the courthouse, Matt ends up running into Johnny, and both think about their shared history. Matt and Johnny were good friends as young kids, until Johnny started running with the wrong crowd when they got older. They ended up parting ways until sometime after Matt got blinded. Johnny was being roughed up by two thugs for being late on a payment and Matt stumbled by the scene. Johnny saw Matt take out the two goons, still amazed all these years later as to how he did it. In the present, Johnny wants Matt to represent him, honestly wanting to go straight and reunite with his family. Matt can tell he’s telling the truth but admits he has too much on his plate and refers Johnny to a colleague. Not long after that, Matt finally notices the robot girl in the crowd. He leads her away from innocent people down an empty hallway and ends up pushing her down an elevator shaft, where her explosion can’t hurt anyone else.

Outside, Matt encounters yet another robot girl and decides to just follow this one. The robot leads him back to the estate and the charred remains of the Sterling mansion. Realizing the robots were set to explode when they reached the estate, he throws this one into the rubble where it can explode away from others, though not without some notice. Matt then has the thought that there may still be more of the robots out there and heads out to try and track them down. Meanwhile, Johnny stops by to see his wife and kids. Though Johnny tells his wife he’s trying to reform, she doesn’t want to hear it, and kicks him out. Johnny then drifts along, unsure where to go or what to do, until he has the idea to go see Matt.

Daredevil discovers a couple more of the robots near his apartment building, as well as his bank and his deli, and realizes they’re staking out places he frequents! Johnny ends up spotting Daredevil as he’s trying to corral the robots and decides to follow him. Daredevil warns anyone nearby to keep the streets clear, as he tries to keep the robot girls from running into anything. While he’s following them, he comes across a mugging in progress and decides he can’t ignore it. Johnny witnesses Daredevil take out the muggers, finishing things with the exact move he saw Matt use all those years earlier! This ends up clueing Johnny in that Matt is Daredevil, which also makes him realize that Matt knew all along that he was guilty, and yet still tried to help him. Daredevil leads all of the robots back to the estate and tries to swing away just as he can sense they’re about to explode! Daredevil is caught on the edge of an explosion yet again, before noticing that one of the robots remained, but is too stunned to do anything about it! Suddenly, Johnny comes up and pushes the robot away, taking the full brunt of the explosion! Johnny tells Matt that he was only trying to set things right and asks Matt to make sure his kids are looked after, before he succumbs to his injuries. Matt promises and solemnly says goodbye to his old friend…