I wasn't expecting this one to remind me of "Born Again."

At least not in that way. From 1994, Daredevil #327, "Tree of Knowledge, part two: System Error" Written by D.G. Chichester, pencils by Scott McDaniel, inks by Hector Collazo.

I'm positive I read "Tree of Knowledge" back when it came out, and I don't recall being wowed by it, even though I quite enjoyed Fall From Grace and the intro of DD's armored suit. It probably didn't help that #328 was an "Interlude" without Chichester or McDaniel and may have killed any momentum stone dead; or #330 guest-starring Gambit because...Wolverine was booked solid? I don't know. (From the GCD synopsis for that one, "With Matt thought to be dead, Karen is given an opportunity to star in cyberporn." Or, as we call it nowadays, porn.)

Daredevil's working the trail of some hackers, which leads to an explosion on the Staten Island Ferry. While DD is rescuing bystanders from the river, another of the hackers is murdered, but he is stopped from going after the killer by the arrival of the Avengers. This is what reminded me of "Born Again," in that Matt doesn't seem to see himself as a peer to them, that they're operating on another level. On the other hand, he's held up by a rather lippy Black Knight, and DD could've made him eat that helmet. (Not unlike Iron Man's usual scam, I think the armored DD wasn't supposed to be the same guy as the original, as far as anyone knew, although duh; but that would explain the Knight's attitude.)

Meanwhile, Karen Page...was still in this book? Huh. When we checked out #325 a couple years back, she was wrecked after news of Matt's "death," and I thought she was already gone for another long stretch, but okay: she's taking photos of schlubs leaving porn stores, to be named and shamed. Is...is that okay? Yes, men should consider women "as human beings, instead of airbrushed toys!" but...Well, Karen may be about to get a taste of her own medicine, as she's approached by two of her 'producers' from her own days in front of the camera. It's a brief appearance, but her producers seem either brutally naive or methed-out themselves, as they act like old friends, or like she was a willing participant and not drugged out of her gourd. Obviously DD never met them, he'd still be beating their asses.

Even more meanwhile, at the morgue, Captain America is on the scene with federal prosecutor Kathy Malper, when another of HYDRA's tech goons shows up: Wirehead. He seems to see the world as a virtual reality game, and he and another cohort, Steel Collar, get away with the corpse of Killobyte. Matt briefly visits the recently returned Elektra, then goes to 'work' as con man/'social engineer' Jack Batlin. (Remember last month, when we saw a Thor issue where he realized his current secret identity was a bit crap? DD wasn't quite to that realization yet, but it was coming.) Finally, both Cap and DD have questions for teenage hacker Spectrum, which looks like it's going to come to blows between them!

The Mighty Marvel Checklist this issue has the concurrent Captain America issue: #427, three issues into "Fighting Chance," a twelve-issue-plus storyline with the Super-Soldier Serum breaking down and Cap's health collapsing. Which would lead to Cap getting his own armor suit of limited duration, but it's alluded to here: Cap is not in top form, while DD was in good shape and had his new suit. I don't think their fight was until DD #330, but that issue has Iron Fist on the cover, so I'm guessing it wasn't a 12-round brawl-for-it-all.