With Matt Murdock attempting to atone for sins past, Hell’s Kitchen finds itself defended by a familiar face with a new look in his absence.
WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Daredevil #25, by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Marcio Menyz and VC’s Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Hell’s Kitchen is a Manhattan neighborhood often targeted by nefarious supervillains and organized crime in the Marvel Universe. And most of the time, one of its most capable residents, Matt Murdock, often stands alone as its greatest defender under the guise of his superhero alter ego Daredevil. However, Murdock has been preoccupied by atoning for his actions recently, and his old neighborhood needs a different guardian superhero.
And in Daredevil #25, Elektra Natchios, Matt Murdock’s most famous love and a lethal antihero in her own right, takes his place as the hero of Hell’s Kitchen, complete with her own Daredevil costume.
Matt had recently been spiraling in a cycle of self-destruction after he accidentally killed a common criminal named Leo Carraro in a routine patrol. Initially refusing to believe himself responsible, attributing it to another plot by the Kingpin, Matt eventually accepted he had committed manslaughter. Despite having a strong chance to emerge from the high-profile criminal case without a conviction, Matt surprises his legal team by deciding to accept a plea bargain provided by the prosecutors for a lighter sentence in exchange for confessing to second-degree manslaughter and is sentenced to two years in prison while being allowed to keep his mask and secret identity.
Matt’s decision to accept the plea bargain was largely informed by the quiet assurance that Elektra would watch over Hell’s Kitchen in his absence. The two on-again/off-again lovers previously staged a daring heist on the Stromwyns, a nefarious family of Manhattan socialites that were financing supervillains to attack Hell’s Kitchen, drive out the residents and buy up the real estate at a significantly lower rate. Matt convinced Tony Stark to buy Hell’s Kitchen and sell it back to the rightful residents without taking any sort of profit only to be outmaneuvered by Elektra, who outbid him through a shell company and hijacked his servers before Iron Man could rally the funds to make a counteroffer. As Matt arrived in the courtroom, Elektra whispered just audible enough for him to hear her confirm she was the mystery buyer.