First Appearance: The Boss

Villain: The Boss, Marauder goons

Guest Appearance: Karen Page, Foggy Nelson

Cameo: "Mike Murdock" (in flashback), Louie, Stan Lee

Letters Page: Page One • Page Two

House Ad: Ad #1 • Ad #2

Meanwhile, a month has gone by with no contact between the Masked Marauder and his band of hired goons. The Marauder had left instructions for them to read open a vault if he had disappeared from sight for too long a time; the men open it and find a note, saying that it is their job to avenge whatever trap may have befallen him, and to start with Nelson and Murdock, "who know who Daredevil is!"

However, a double-crossing Marauder goon takes his information about Nelson & Murdock to "The Boss", a local hood with great power in the underworld. The Boss figures that taking over the Nelson & Murdock case will enable him to pull the Marauder's goons under his sway. Later that night, they hijack the Marauder goon's convoy and tell the thugs that they are now in the employ of The Boss.

Daredevil carouses over the rooftops toward the law offices, giddy as a schoolgirl over his impending proposal. He runs into Stan Lee on the way, but even that chance meeting won't stop him. He arrives at the offices and changes into his Matt Murdock duds, but as he walks into the main office, his radar sense informs him that the office has been turned over and his partner Foggy is hogtied on the floor. Pretending to be blind and helpless, he stumbles over to Foggy and takes his gag off. Foggy tells him that thugs from the Marauder's gang took off with Karen in order to "set a trap for Daredevil." Matt reads over a note they left behind, then tells Foggy he's going to find his brother Mike.

Instead, Matt has a taxi convey him to the address given on the note, a dark and ominous house on the edge of town, a house inside which he knows is a trap! But he prepares "a trap" of his own- what he calls to himself "the performance of a lifetime!" Brandishing a gun, he saunters slowly towards the front door. He walks inside, and while a large collection of thugs with guns stand in the darkened corners, Daredevil hobbles around, babbling Karen's name. Suddenly, the thugs step up behind him and take his gun away from him and hold him tight. They rip his mask off and see the blind lawyer Matt Murdock, which explains why Daredevil was acting so off-balance. Matt acts all defeated, and explains that he was only trying to sacrifice his life so that when the real Daredevil showed up, he would take them by surprise and save Karen. They tie him up alongside Karen and await the arrival of "the real Daredevil."

After the Boss and his thugs filter back to their places to wait for Daredevil, Matt frees himself from his bonds and leaps into action. The Boss fires at Daredevil, but he swings from his cable to fast to be hit! One after another, the Boss' henchmen go down; so, too, do the Marauder's goons. In fact, in the midst of the fighting, there is a little time for pent-up anger between the two groups to spark, with the Marauder's men telling the Boss what a wimp he is in comparison to their former leader.

They return to the matter at hand, which is trying to defeat Daredevil, but the acrobatic super-hero is too much for them. After being his punching bag for the better part of the fight, the Boss surrenders.

After the fight, Karen asks Matt why he had called her earlier, to tell her something important. Matt realizes her life would be threatened every day from people like the Boss if they were married, so he begs off the question and decides to forget about proposing to her.

--synopsis and panel images by Gormuu

--letter pages and house ads provided by Aussie Stu

Issues Reprinted
Daredevil #22-32, King-Size Special #1

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.