These seven issues comprise the “Tree of Knowledge” arc in Daredevil, which followed the better-known “Fall from Grace” arc from issues #319-325. There, we saw Elektra return to Daredevil’s life just in time for his secret identity to be revealed to the world, leading him to fake Matt Murdock’s death to save his loved ones from harm and hope people believe there is a new Daredevil in town (with a new, armored costume). The “Tree of Knowledge” storyline deals with computer crime, which Captain America and Daredevil both investigate from different angles, bringing them together in an uncomfortable alliance, while Cap struggles with his declining physical strength (while his resolve remains as strong as ever).
We start in issue #326 with the funeral of “Matthew Murdock,” actually a demonic doppelgänger who died in the previous issue, which gave the real Matt the idea for this ruse. As well as putting his beloved Karen Page and best friend Foggy Nelson through the emotional ringer, this is also affecting his superhero colleagues, including the three below who know his secret.
Note Natasha’s last name is spelled correctly, which is rare, although it was correct in last month’s Avengers #373 too. (Maybe someone was paying attention around this time.)
When next we see Cap, he’s breaking in on Knowbot, a high-level hacker who has been granted a bodyguard named Kilobyte by his clients, and his partner, Sinclair Spectrum. (Computers, aren’t they neat?) Apparently Knowbot’s hacking has attracted the attention of the federal authorities, who naturally called in the FBI the Sentinel of Liberty (as we see in Captain America #431), who surely made a grander entrance.
Soon we get the first of several references to Cap’s deteriorating health (confirmed in this month’s Captain America #425), emphasizing that his perseverance carries him forward regardless.
Apparently Kilobyte fears that Knowbot will compromise their mutual employers and acts to end both of their lives, leaving Cap to regret not anticipating before it happened, if only due to his discomfort with modern technology.
In issue #327, Cap and federal prosecutor Malper view the bodies of Knowbot and Killobyte (who seems to have acquired an additional “L” since he passed). Malper talks tough while Cap dwells over his failures…
…and as they leave, he longs for the days when tech was simple. (Tubes!)
In tribute to the title character, Cap hears something Malper cannot, and then orders her to keep security back for their own safety.
Cap returns to the morgue to announce his support for evidentiary integrity and meets two members of System Crash, a cyberterrorist group working as Baron von Strucker’s “vanguard of anarchy” for his latest version of Hydra (as revealed to the reader at end of the last issue).
Now Cap has to protect the security team…
…allowing the new players to escape with Killobyte’s body while Cap’s agony and resolve is noted once again.
When Cap finds Sinclair Spectrum, he appears outside her window to ask her some questions, which is more of a Daredevil move…
…as the Man without Fear can confirm as he joins the scene to investigate Sinclair’s links to other members of von Strucker’s group he ran into at the beginning of the issue during a disaster involving the Staten Island Ferry. He takes issue with Cap laying hands on the young woman…
…especially after other Avengers, including an extremely belligerent Black Knight, intervened and took over the situation at the ferry.
Daredevil catches the surprisingly heavy shield while Cap is befuddled about this “new” Daredevil, not only wearing a horrible-looking new outfit but could not possibly be the same man Cap saw in a coffin in the last issue.
The issue ends with a very ominous and creepy image that just screams “1994!”
In issue #328 (by a different creative team altogether), Daredevil recalls the above encounter, which ended with Cap asking Sinclair if she wanted a lawyer—a legitimate question, given that she invoked her rights, but also perhaps trying to get a reaction of Daredevil, about whom Cap is suspicious.
While Matt mourns his past life and thinks he’s fooled Cap into thinking he’s someone else, “good cop” Cap is interrogating Sinclair further with “bad cop” Malper. She pokes fun at his reputation before asking him about Daredevil, and his reply shows Matt might be right.
The rest of the issue focuses on Daredevil, who runs into Silver Sable and the Wild Pack, including Battle Star (Lemar Hoskins), as we last saw in Captain America #418-419 and Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #15.
In issue #329, DD and Cap are once again reunited, with the narration reminding us of Cap’s condition…
…which, as always, does not affect his performance but only makes it more difficult for him.
And yes, Iron Fist has also joined the festivities, this particular battle taking place in a site owned by the Rand-Meachum Corporation.
Below, Cap gets a clue that this may be the real Daredevil after all—or maybe he just wonders, with the rest of us, how enhanced senses enable him to detect increased electrical energy.
(For more on common exaggerations of DD’s abilities, see Christine Hanefalk’s definitive book, Being Matt Murdock: One Fan’s Journey into the Science of Daredevil.)
Despite our heroes’ best efforts, the members of System Crash get away, and Cap for one has had it. He lays into DD, who’s applying his special hearing elsewhere—and lets him know it.
Cap responds by asking who DD is, because he couldn’t be Matt Murdock. (“No death has ever been faked on my watch, except all the times Nick Fury used an LMD to do exactly that!”)
Unfortunately we don’t see the resolution of the tense scene above, and the next time we see Cap, he’s meeting with Natasha, who’s planning on drastic measures in response to the rise in terrorist violence in New York, which been blamed on the “Silicon Pirates,” a front for System Crash (and Hydra)…
…measures that Captain America cannot support (and which also happen to play into von Strucker’s plans). When he begins to explain his suspicions about the source of the violence, he mentions the wrong name, triggering Natasha’s own intense loss over her former crime-fighting and romantic partner.
Cap’s final thought above was not just about Matt, but also the battle they currently find themselves in, so different from what he is used to.
We next see Cap near the end of issue #330, when he goes undercover at a cyber-rave at Matt’s invitation to find out what’s going on with the “Silicon Pirates”…
…about whom he has suspicions, which also include the Avengers’ rush to martial law and Daredevil’s identity.
Next, Cap expounds on the potential benefits of the burgeoning internet. (For the younger readers, there was hardly even a World Wide Web at this point: Netscape would not release its first browser until October of this year, and Microsoft would release the first version of Internet Explorer in 1995.) And I assume the image of Cap behind Steve in the upper-left-hand-corner is meant to assure the reader who the Masked Avenger actually is, but it looks a lot like the cover to Captain America #333, which is oddly specific.
Matt wisely hears in Cap’s speech the words of Thomas Jefferson, who emphasized the importance of an informed populace in resisting tyranny—see here for a sampling. But he also has a much more pessimistic view of the future of the online world:
True to form, Cap’s view has been proven naively optimistic, especially given von Strucker’s plans to use the internet and the government’s Clipper Chip spying technology to spread disinformation, and Matt’s has proven disturbingly accurate in describing the darker fringes of the cyberworld. (Kudos to writer D.G. Chichester for seeing all this in 1994!)
In issue #331, we get a page poignantly reiterating Cap’s internal struggle over the current situation, again referencing Jefferson (and hinting toward the struggle between liberty and security at the heart of the superhero civil war coming in the next decade).
After Matt gets a lead, he reunites with Cap outside the New York Botanical Gardens, where they find several heavily armed agents…
…and their boss, whose identity is revealed to our heroes at last.
Cap will have cause to consider his reaction considering what happens much later!
After System Crash joins the fight, Cap’s deteriorating body helps them prevail…
…but before he goes down completely, von Strucker gets a few words in, just the normal “man out of time” taunts, but this time tailored to the current technological context. (It would have been appropriate, given that this is Daredevil, for Cap to say “I’m loyal to nothing… but the dream,” as he famously did in issue #233.)
Finally, in issue #332, Daredevil takes care of the remaining Hydra agents on the ground before leaping off the Williamsburg bridge onto the System Crash gunship carrying Cap. (Now you see why he’s called “the man without fear.”) Cap comes to just in time to help in the following two action-packed pages.
When they realize the ship is not long for the air, our heroes regret leaving Killobyte and Bitmap behind…
…but ultimately save themselves, after which Cap tells Daredevil he’ll take the case from here, but Matt isn’t hearing it. (Get it? He actually hears really well, but… oh, never mind.)
After they find von Strucker and the rest of System Crash at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey (a terrific place to take the kids if you’re able), Cap encourages them to submit themselves to the authorities, but it seems they’d rather fight—even Wirehead, who usually stays in his “multi-user dungeon” (or MUD), an early version of the metaverse.
After another member of System Crash blinds him with bright light (and his condition prevents him from bouncing back quickly), Daredevil offers to throw the mighty shield for him, which we all know is really what all this was for.
The last remaining terrorist takes Sinclair hostage, which puts Sweaty Cap into strategic mode, but Matt knows better.
After Matt promises to make sure Sinclair doesn’t get lost in the system, Steel Collar electrocutes himself, after which Cap and Daredevil have a scowl-off. Cap feels duty-bound to bring her in, but relents and allows Daredevil to look after her—which he realizes is something Matt Murdock would have done, hmm.
Of course, Cap questions his tough call—he wouldn’t be Captain America if he didn’t.
(As far as Matt is concerned, he goes through for it for a while longer until he has a complete mental breakdown, which is resolved in a brilliant arc written by J.M. DeMatteis, well known to readers of this blog, culminating in issue #350.)
ISSUE DETAILS
Daredevil (vol. 1) #326, March 1994: D.G. Chichester (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Hector Collazo (inks), Christie Scheele (colors), Bill Oakley (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Daredevil (vol. 1) #327, April 1994: D.G. Chichester (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Hector Collazo (inks), Christie Scheele (colors), Bill Oakley (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Daredevil (vol. 1) #328, May 1994: Gregory Wright (writer), Sergio Cariello (pencils), Ariane (inks), Ovi Hondru and Paul Becton (colors), Susan Crespi (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Daredevil (vol. 1) #329, June 1994: D.G. Chichester (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Hector Collazo (inks), Joe Andreani (colors), Bill Oakley and Jon Babcock (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Daredevil (vol. 1) #330, July 1994: D.G. Chichester (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Hector Collazo and Rich Rankin (inks), Joe Andreani (colors), Bill Oakley (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Daredevil (vol. 1) #331, August 1994: D.G. Chichester (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Hector Collazo (inks), Christie Scheele (colors), Bill Oakley (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Daredevil (vol. 1) #332, September 1994: D.G. Chichester (writer), Scott McDaniel (pencils), Hector Collazo (inks), Joe Andreani and Marie Javins (colors), Bill Oakley (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Daredevil Epic Collection: Fall from Grace.
PREVIOUS ISSUE: Daredevil #283 (August 1990)
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