Villain/Origin/First Appearance: The Matador/Manuel Eloganto

Guest Appearance: Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, Karen Page

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The defeated Daredevil heads back to his law offices to resume his life as Matt Murdock. His partner Foggy has to work late, so he asks Matt if he will take Karen Page to a costume party that they were going to attend as dates. Matt readily agrees, having his own affections for Karen. Matt doesn't have time to get a costume, but Karen goes dressed as Cleopatra. They show up at the costume party, where there are guests dressed as knights, Indians, flappers, devils, and Civil War infantry...but there is also a guest who happens to be the Matador! Matt picks up his heartbeat in the crowd and follows him with his radar sense to where the Matador is robbing a wall safe in plain view of all the guests. Nobody sees him, though, because he holds his cape up to obscure his thievery.

Matt realizes he must help stop him, but can't change into Daredevil in front of all these people. He says out loud to Karen "I'll bet if the Matador wanted to rob the wall safe here, he could do it without anyone noticing!" This inspires the guests to look at the wall safe, and then they notice the Matador robbing the wall safe! Found out, he fends off the hordes of attacking party guests by using his cape as if warding off oncoming bulls. Karen ushers Matt into a side room where he will "be safe," but he changes into Daredevil and joins the party. He makes his way through the crowd and attacks the Matador, but is confounded by the villain's cape. Dazed from missing his target, Daredevil receives a right hook from the Matador, then a bop on the head, and the Matador escapes through an open window.

Later, public sentiment turns against the "loser" Daredevil, and towards the Matador, as kids in the neighborhood all aspire to be more like him and less like Daredevil. This really chafes Matt Murdock, who is determined to do something about it. Meanwhile, the Matador continues his crime rampage by robbing a burglar alarm company! As newspaper headlines trumpet the "daring crime of the century", Murdock tries to figure out a plan to stop the Matador, while also trying to figure out how he can approach Karen Page with his romantic feelings. Foggy enters his office to ask his advice: how should he propose marriage to Karen? Matt says he can offer no advice to his friend, as he is a loser at love himself, and then wonders how he can ever find love with Karen as long as Foggy also loves her.

Daredevil heads to the library to do some research on his enemy and he uncovers the story of Spanish bullfighter Manuel Eloganto in the pages of a Spanish newspaper. Eloganto vanished from the public scene after the arrogant star-bullfighter was gored by a bull. He vowed revenge on humanity after his fans turned on him and cheered for the bull. Now that he knows the identity of the Matador, he concocts a plan to flush him out of hiding. As Matt Murdock, he calls a press conference where he announces that he thinks Daredevil is actually the Matador. Foggy erupts in anger at Matt for not discussing this with him first, but Matt tells him he had his reasons.

His plan works, as the Matador comes in the dead of night to break into Murdock's law office to challenge him for trying to give Daredevil credit for his criminal feats. Waiting for him, though, is Daredevil, not Matt Murdock! DD takes the fight out from his office up to the roof, where his radar sense will work better and he can stretch out. He throws him off balance by revealing that he knows his secret identity as Eloganto, and shortly is able to knock out the Matador once and for all and hand him over to the police. Later, Foggy tells Murdock that he must feel foolish for saying Daredevil was the Matador!

Pin-Up: Daredevil, walking a tightrope in yellow costume.

--synopsis by Gormuu

--panel images provided by Avengers Assemble

--letter pages and house ads provided by Aussie Stu

Issues Reprinted
Daredevil #1-11

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.