Episode Details

In 2019 Marvel Studios completed the most ambitious movie cycle in history with its 2 billion dollar Avengers: Endgame masterpiece, even as comic stores wondered about the future and politics made deeper and deeper inroads into comics and comics fandom.

The Year in Comics 

Comics in Other Media

Comic Sales

Notable Comics

Top Comic News

Notable Passings

Marvel

Eisner Awards

Dan's Favorite

The Year in Daredevil 

Appearances: Daredevil v5 #611-612, Man Without Fear #1-5, Daredevil v6 1-12, Marvel Knights 20th #2, Guardians of the Galaxy #1, Spider-Man / Deadpool #47-48, Avengers: No Road Home #10, War of the Realms #1-6, War of the Realms: War Scrolls #1-3, Avengers #20 True Believers: Spider-Man – The New Spider-Man! #1, War of the Realms Omega #1, History of the Marvel Universe #3   

Writer: Charles Soule (#611-612), Chip Zdarsky (#1-12) 

Pencils: Phil Noto (#611-612), Marco Checchetto (#1-5 and #11-12), Lalit Kumar Sharma (#6-9), Jorge Fornes (#10) 

Inks: Phil Noto (#611-612), Marco Checchetto (#1-5 and #11-12), Jay Leisten (#6-9), Jorge Fornes (#10)

• In the final storyline of volume 5, “The Death of Daredevil”, We open with Matt Murdock on the brink of death—lying in an ER after being hit by a truck while saving a child, eerily echoing the childhood accident that made him Daredevil in the first place. And as the doctors fight to keep him alive, Matt mentally resets his mission. He decides this is war with Wilson Fisk, and war requires honesty. So he tells his entire team the truth: he’s Daredevil. No more secrets. 
• When he gets back out on the streets in his mind’s version of events, he barely has time to breathe before a bone-knife-throwing assassin attacks him. And when he limps home afterward, who’s waiting in his apartment? Elektra. They fall back into old patterns, but when Matt asks her to stay and join the team. 
• From there, Matt and his crew move aggressively—they decide to kidnap John Wesley, Fisk’s right-hand man, to force him to spill how the election was rigged. The plan blows up in their faces, but somehow, they still manage to grab Wesley. They lose his guards, get attacked by more bone knives, and end up scrambling into a church for cover…where Fisk’s assassin, Vigil, is already waiting. Daredevil and Elektra take him on in a brutal fight. Elektra almost kills him, Daredevil stops her, and in that split second, Vigil drives a bone knife straight into Wesley’s back. The only man who could presumably tell them how Fisk did it is now dead—Elektra walks out. 
• While out on patrol he’s ambushed by a swarm of Stilt-Men, forced into an arena, and dropped into a who’s-who gauntlet of enemies—Klaw, Ikari, Electro, Gladiator, Typhoid Mary. But Matt turns the tables, manipulating the villains into fighting each other for the “honor” of killing him. It works. At least until he reaches the roof, hoping to catch his breath, and is immediately shot by Bullseye. Matt’s seconds from dying again when he’s unexpectedly saved…by his magically created, now-fully-real brother, Mike Murdock, who claims he can help end all of this. 
• Mike’s intel leads Matt straight to the truth: the Mad Thinker helped Fisk rig the mayoral election. With that, Matt convinces the DA to prosecute the mayor and put Daredevil himself on the witness stand. A parade of heroes testify. Fisk slips up under questioning, admits to “adjustments,” and Fisk loses the court case and he’s recalled as mayor. It’s a victory…until Vigil returns. Daredevil unmasks him—and sees his own face staring back. 
• And that’s when the illusion cracks. We realize the entire story, every moment, every battle, every twist, has been in Matt’s head while he lies