In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics).
Today, based on a suggestion from reader Rodrigo M., we will look at times that Daredevil's secret identity was discovered!
Our first example comes from Daredevil #24, where Spider-Man writes Matt Murdock a letter to let him know that he knows that he is Daredevil, but that he will keep mum about it. The thing is, Karen Page opened it instead!
The next issue, Karen and Foggy confront Matt...
And he convinces them that Daredevil is his twin brother, Mike Murdock...
Mike later "dies."
Later on, the villainous Starr Saxon puts a tracker on Daredevil and discovers his identity in Daredevil #51...
Saxon then later dies (he becomes a new supervillain post-death as his consciousness is transferred to a robot, but since he never came a calling, it is likely that he lost the memory of DD's identity).
In Daredevil #227, a now drug-addicted Karen Page sells Matt Murdock's identity for drugs (Matt told her years earlier. I'm not counting that because it was Matt's own choice)...
Later, in the 1990s, during the storyline, "Fall From Grace," Ben Urich (who had figured out Daredevil's secret identity, as well, but he kept it secret, so I didn't count it), has his computer files stolen by his slimy former assistant, who leaks the information to a slimy newspaper and Daredevil's secret identity is out...
However, when she tries to get the cops to Matt's apartment to prove he's Daredevil, he's ready for her, and she now looks like a fool.
Matt decided to fake his own death just for the heck of it, and became a con man named Jack Batlin (ouch, I know). He then came back to his normal life using the excuse that SHIELD had him in witness protection and faked his death.
During Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev's Daredevil run, they reveal that a bounty has been placed on Matt Murdock's head. We eventually learn that one of Kingpin's underlings discovered that Matt was Daredevil and he found it a bit odd that Kingpin wasn't doing anything currently with this information...
The Kingpin's son, Richard Fisk, compels Silke to use this info to try a coup. It temporarily succeeds, but then the Kingpin's wife comes and takes over (and kills her own son). Silke is now screwed, so he goes to the FBI looking to make a deal...
They decide to keep the info under wraps, but one of the FBI agents leaks the details and in the next issue, Daredevil #32...
Vanessa Fisk put the genie back into the bottle this time.
That leads to the most recent identity reveal. In the second-to-last issue of Mark Waid and Chris Samnee's first volume of Daredevil, the Sons of Serpent try to blackmail Matt into representing them in court...
Matt outmaneuvers them, though, in the final issue of this volume when he reveals his identity in open court...
During the most recent Daredevil series, the genie has once again been put back into the bottle.
Until, of course, the next time. ;)
Thanks for the suggestion, Rodrigo! Everyone else, feel free to write me at brianc@cbr.com with suggestions for future Drawing Crazy Patterns!