WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Daredevil #23 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Marcio Menyz, and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Elektra, Matt Murdock's unpredictable, on-again off-again lover recently returned to his life and while he currently has plenty to deal with as both Matt and Daredevil, especially with the latter going on trial, she warned him that an even greater threat is taking shape. In Daredevil #23 Elektra explains that the Hand, the organization which both she and Matt have been battling for most of their adult lives, is returning to power and Elektra wants Daredevil's help to stop whatever it is they have planned.
Created by Frank Miller the Hand first appeared in 1981's Daredevil #174. A cult of ninja assassins, the Hand practices black magic and serves the demonic entity known as the Beast. Although they have also come into conflict with many other Marvel heroes over the years, the Hand's most personal battles are always with Daredevil and Elektra, for whom they have caused immeasurable heartache. Stick, the sardonic ninja master who trained both Matt Murdock and Elektra, led the Chaste, an organization dedicated to combatting the Hand and his students have been caught up in the ancient war between the two groups ever since.
Matt and Elektra's importance to the war owes to their status as what Stick and others refer to as "adepts". What exactly this term means has generally been left rather vague but it at least partially refers to their shared natural talent for combat and the mystical abilities the Chaste and the Hand employ. In 1993's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #2 by Miller, John Romita Jr., Al Williamson, Christie Scheele, and Joe Rosen, Stick's ally, Stone, stresses the importance of recruiting both Matt and Elektra to the Chaste, or at least preventing them from being recruited by the Hand and refers to them as the only two adepts born in the current generation. Despite this, Stick would stop training both of them when they became corrupted in his eyes.
When Matt was possessed by the Beast in Andy Diggle and Billy Tan's Shadowland, Elektra theorized that it was their status as adepts that made them vulnerable to such control and that Stick knew one of them would be possessed and tried to train them to resist. But that doesn't explain why Stone thought they could be valuable to the Chaste. The Hand has gone to extreme lengths to get whatever power Matt and Elektra have for themselves, including raising, or trying to raise the latter from the dead on multiple occasions.
In the most recent issue of Daredevil Elektra seems to have changed her belief in what their purposes are. She explains that the Hand is resurging, gaining increased power under a new leader and that the money she recently stole while on a mission with Daredevil is meant "to rebuild a counter to them." She asks for help fighting them from Daredevil (who she now believes to be a separate person from Matt Murdock) and states that "It's what Stick was training us for, I know it."
During his time as writer of Daredevil Chip Zdarsky has taken most of The Man Without Fear's greatest enemies, from The Owl to Typhoid Mary, in bold new directions so it's only fitting that he would put his own unique stamp on the Hand. While Matt may already have a lot to deal with with his upcoming trial, the return of another former lover, the Kingpin's return to crime, and the scheming of the Stromwyns, his inevitable confrontation with the Hand and their mysterious new leader just might be the most challenging battle and the greatest test of his new crime fighting mentality.