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Marvel Fanfare #27, "Cars" by Bill Mantlo, Tony Salmons, Glynis Wein, and Jim Novak

In which Matt and Foggy go car shopping.

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Heather Glenn's death is not as famous as it should be, so I'll provide a summary for anyone not keyed into the long and notorious history of Daredevil love interest fridgings--of which Heather's is (in my estimation) the most shocking and horrific. I actually have a comprehensive overview of Heather's story, for anyone who enjoys that sort of thing, but here is a short(...er) version:

Heather Glenn was Matt Murdock's fourth girlfriend, following the end of his long-term partnership with Natasha Romanov. She was a really fun, vibrant character--upbeat, passionate, funny, and unashamed to be her full self as loudly and effusively as possible. She liked Matt from the moment they met and pursued a relationship with him, and he soon fell for her in return.

Heather's time in Daredevil comics was, however, marred by tragedy, tearing into her joyful spirit and eventually transforming her into a haunted, traumatized echo of her former self. Not all of this was Matt's fault (we'll get to that). Her first trauma came when her father was ensnared by a mind-control villain called the Purple Man, arrested for crimes he committed while brainwashed, and then killed himself while in prison.

Daredevil volume 1 #151 by Roger McKenzie, Gil Kane, Klaus Janson, and Bruce Patterson

It took a long time for Heather to recover from the loss of her father and to forgive Matt for his involvement (as Daredevil, he had helped to bring her father in, unaware of the mind control). When she finally healed enough to return to something like her former self, it did not last long.

During the course of Matt's relationship with Heather, Elektra Nachios, his first love, miraculously returned to his life. This reunion stirred up deeply buried emotions and re-affirmed the bond that they had forged while together in college. And then Elektra was killed, spending her final moments bleeding out in Matt's arms--and something in Matt snapped. He could not handle the loss and became obsessed with the idea that she wasn't actually dead, up until the point that he could no longer deny it (after going to the cemetery in the middle of the night and digging up her grave). Then, his desperate psyche turned to a different avenue for coping with this unbearable grief: his poor girlfriend.

Daredevil volume 1 #183 by Roger McKenzie, Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Joe Rosen

With Elektra gone, Matt became convinced that Heather needed to take her place--to be bound to him forever, to fill that "great, black hole" that Elektra's death had left in him. In his twisted and traumatized mind, any means justified this end. He began to emotionally abuse Heather, aiming to make her feel weak, stupid, powerless, and in need of his love and protection. When Heather, deeply disturbed by his behavior, hesitated to accept his proposal, he attacked her position as CEO of her father's company, wielding his law firm as a weapon to destroy this one thing her dear father had left her. She lost the company. She lost everything, including the will to fight back.

Daredevil vol. 1 #186 by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Joe Rosen

In the weeks leading up to the wedding, Heather began drinking heavily. Matt's friends Foggy and Natasha, who had been watching this nightmare from the sidelines, made a desperate plan to rescue Heather: Foggy asked Natasha to forge some break-up notes. But the plan backfired; with everything good in her life gone, this apparent rejection by someone who had put her through so much in order to win her, and who had at one point genuinely loved her, became just one more act of cruelty.

Daredevil vol. 1 #189 by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Joe Rosen

Heather's final issue opened with her alone in her apartment, drunk and upset. Readers by this point had not seen her in 25 issues. She called Matt on the phone and begged him to come over. She needed him. Her life was in danger.

Daredevil volume 1 #220 by Denny O'Neil, David Mazzucchelli, Christie Scheele, and Joe Rosen

Heather called him again, frantic, and he chastised her and then ripped the phone cord from the wall. He was angry (visiting her had prevented him from rescuing a murder victim several blocks away) and unwilling to put up with her. Heather called and called. Finally, Foggy went over to her apartment and discovered that she had killed herself.

This past July was the 40th anniversary of Heather's death. She has never been brought back.

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Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #566 by Marc Guggenheim, Phil Jimenez, Mark Pennington, Chris Chuckry, Jeromy Cox, and Cory Petit 

Matt is clearly messing with Peter here, because there's no way he wouldn't recognize his voice on the phone or notice him standing right outside the window.

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MARVEL/DC 2025 variant cover — drawn by me, colored by Matt Wilson! 🦇👊 Just revealed at SDCC, this is an homage to THE INFINITY GAUNTLET issue 1 cover by the legendary and incredible George Pérez.

I got to draw Wonder Woman! 🖤🖤🖤🖤

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Just 24 HOURS left to give your vote to the most tragic guy of all time!

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Reblogging this one more time to just share a few panels. Here's Matt going murderous with grief over Mike's death:

Devil's Reign #6 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Marcio Menyz, and Clayton Cowles

And here is Mike's lifelong best friend not getting to mourn him properly because Matt decided to use his brother's corpse to fake his own death instead:

Devil's Reign #6 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Marcio Menyz, and Clayton Cowles

Devil’s Reign: Omega by Chip Zdarsky, Rafael de LaTorre, Federico Blee, and Clayton Cowles

Mike was Matt's alter ego given physical form by accident, his existence was one horror show after the next, and in the end, nothing he did to save himself mattered because he was murdered and buried under Matt's name.

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what would your ideal “milla returns” story look like?

I love this question, though I have such a hard time thinking beyond "I just want her BACK!" that I'm not completely sure what that ideal story would be for me. The bar is low. I'll take anything.

I've had discussions with other fans about the concept of her returning in a vengeful manner as some kind of supervillain or antihero, which would be thrilling, satisfying, and really fun. I would read a dozen What If?s with that premise. I don't know if it would feel exactly right for Milla's character, though. To me, she has always stood out as the epitome of an interesting, well-rounded civilian who doesn't need to exist within the superhero/villain binary to be powerful.

It's also tough because the current, MCU-flavored Daredevil status quo is so unappealing to me that "ideal story" seems like an unreachable concept (I wish Nyla, for instance, could have returned at any time other than now, because man...).

In some ways, I think a really good touchstone for what I would want is the Echo "Vision Quest" story arc, in which Maya steps away from the world--from Matt, from New York, from the aftereffects of her traumatic introductory arc--in order to find herself and process her grief. I would want a Milla story that fully centered Milla, that dug into what she went through and how she comes back from it on her own terms. As soon as Mr. Fear's neurotoxin hit, we lost her internal world and perspective on what was happening to her, in direct contrast to how much her perspective was prioritized when she was first introduced, and so a story told in her POV would be powerful. I want to see her grabbing her autonomy back as a survivor of the brutal, dangerous superhero world, and particularly as a Daredevil love interest who made it out alive.

There's an obscure Daredevil character from the 90s who I've always found compelling, called Shock. She was the estranged daughter of one of the other Mr. Fears (Alan Fagan, not Larry Cranston), and she used her father's Fear Toxin-soaked skin(!!!!) to harness his powers, with the aim of using her criminal gains to care for her dying mother. I think she could be brought in as a neat counterpoint/adversary/friend? to Milla, as someone with ties to the supervillain legacy that destroyed Milla's life, but also as the exact kind of person Milla was so passionate about helping through her work at the housing commission. Plus, her specific type of Fear Toxin caused people to hallucinate their worst fears, which would be ideal for the kind of introspective, psychological story that I would want for a Milla comeback.

(Tragically, Shock was finally brought back for another appearance just last year and was then immediately killed off. But if we're talking hypotheticals, we can just...ignore that.)

Thanks for the great question!

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Seconding this. I'll also add Matt Murdock having one of the most horrific mental breakdowns of his life afterward:

Daredevil vol. 1 #182 by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Joe Rosen

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Very uneducated Daredevil fan. May I ask about Heather?

Of course! I'll definitely do a little write-up for the poll when it seems needed (she appears to be winning her current match-up, so I'm holding off for now). In the meantime, though, here is a comprehensive post I recently wrote about Heather's suicide and the complex, messy, disturbing circumstances leading up to it.

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karedevil yellow my belovedssss

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Daredevil vol. 1 #86 by Gerry Conway, Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, and Artie Simek

This scene has always appealed to me: the formal Boyfriend Hand-Off between Karen and Natasha.

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Blindspot charm pre-orders are live from August 8th to August 15th! Check it my shops if you're interested! E/tsy S/torenvy (highly recommended for better shipping prices for those outside the US)

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matty in the rain !

very inspired by the maleev and bendis run + outfit from brubaker’s shadowland arc

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This DD/Green Arrow team-up is unearthing memories of a conversation I once had with a friend about the concept of Matt teaming up with Black Canary. I really hope she shows up in this too.