Warning! Spoilers ahead for Devil's Reign #5
In the latest issue of Devil's Reign, the "death" of Daredevil by the hands of Wilson Fisk's Kingpin is one of Marvel's weirdest fakeouts. While the entire point of the crossover event has been Fisk going to war against his longtime rival, the corrupt mayor of New York has no idea that's he's just made a potentially lethal mistake. While he might have killed Matt Murdock from a certain perspective, Kingpin hasn't actually killed the Man Without Fear like he thinks he has, an act which will certainly carry some strange dynamics into the crossover's final issue.
Devil's Reign began with Kingpin demanding to know Daredevil's secret identity, having discovered that his mind had been tampered with as he couldn't recall who's under the mask. However, Daredevil refused to reveal the truth seeing as how he had recently made his secret identity secret once more thanks to the Purple Man's children and their powers over the mind they share with their evil father. This is what prompted Fisk's all-out war on the superhero community by outlawing their heroics and vigilantism and recruiting supervillains as sanctioned Thunderbolts to arrest them. He also found the means to co-opt the Purple Man's power for himself to win the upcoming election and maintain his power over New York. However, the Purple Man's abilities in Fisk's hands surprisingly resulted in his memory being restored, regaining the knowledge that Daredevil is Matt Murdock once more.
Now, Devil's Reign #5 from Chip Zdarksy and Marco Checchetto sees Kingpin ordering the Purple Man himself to take command of the Thunderbolts, Doctor Octopus and his Superior Four, and an entire mob of innocent civilians to "kill every hero" in New York. This major battle provided Fisk with the distraction needed to go after Murdock directly, finally getting his revenge and brutally beating the lawyer/vigilante to death. While tragic, the kicker is that Fisk ended up killing the wrong Murdock. Instead, this was Mike Murdock, Matt's fake twin brother who was recently made real with reality itself being rewritten to compensate for his existence. As such, Mike had been posing as Matt while Daredevil was incarcerated. While Kinpin's mistake is logical, the dark catharsis and satisfaction he's experiencing by finally getting his revenge on Daredevil isn't earned or real. "Matt Murdock" might be dead, but Daredevil is still very much alive and fighting alongside the Avengers.
Interestingly enough, the tie-in issue Daredevil: Woman Without Fear #3 confirmed Matt Murdock's death before this issue was released, resulting in an accidental Devil's Reign spoiler on the part of the publisher. However, the issue featuring the actual murder itself reveals the twist (that it's actually Mike). Putting the fact that this is one of Marvel's most soap opera-y twists aside, this is also a fairly strange scene given the raw emotion and rage Fisk displays. Had Kingpin murdered the real Matt Murdock in this issue, it would have undoubtedly been a hugely significant moment that would've made Marvel history as one of its most dynamic events ever featuring Daredevil's final moments.
The intensity and genuine drama of Fisk's emotional murder are undercut by the fact that he's killed the wrong man. While the final issue of Devil's Reign will no doubt feature the aftermath and Daredevil's rage following the death of his brother, the fakeout with Mike in this penultimate issue simply proves that a scene where Kingpin kills the right Murdock would have been vastly superior. In any case, it will still be interesting to see what happens when Kingpin learns he's killed the wrong man when the real Daredevil inevitably comes for him with a vengeance in the final issue of Devil's Reign from Marvel Comics.