Karen Page

An Unlikely Career Path

The daughter of renowned scientist Paxton Page, Karen Page came to New York seeking an acting career, but had little luck. While considering her options at a diner, the criminal Kruel burst in with his employer Wilson Fisk, the future Kingpin, behind him. After savagely beating Kruel, Fisk drugged Karen, the only patron who dared to stand up to him, and other witnesses to forget the encounter. Months later and her prospects still dim, Karen set acting aside and found work at the fledgling law firm Nelson & Murdock. She quickly befriended her two employers, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson (another unknowing witness to Kruel’s fate) and Matt Murdock, who was secretly using his heightened senses to fight crime as Daredevil.

Karen was on the receiving end of romantic interest from both men but her interest soon centered on Murdock, who mistook her growing love for pity. Her relationship with Matt Murdock was a happy one that included a lot of mutual heartache. This joy was not to last: in the middle of wedding preparations, Karen asked Matt to give up his Daredevil alter-ego. When he refused she ended the engagement and entered a long vicious cycle of self-destruction. Embarking on a career as an actress, things went badly. As a film and TV work dried up, she became involved in the porn industry and turned to heroin. At her lowest, Karen told a dealer Matt’s secret identity in exchange for drugs. After Matt helped her kick the habit, their relationship continued intermittently until she was killed by Bullseye.

Character Powers

Karen Page (like Foggy Nelson) has no superpowers, but is a capable legal assistant, actress, and radio talkshow host, able to quickly adapt to new assignments.

An Easy Target

Karen makes many, many enemies the day she decides to romantically pursue Matt Murdock. In the beginning, when she doesn’t know that Matt is moonlighting as Daredevil, Karenunwittingly becomes the target of Daredevil’s enemies. Her work with Nelson & Murdock also create some legal adversaries, namely Wilson Fisk.

Friends from Work

Karen’s biggest allies, not to mention friends, are her two employers: Foggy Nelson and Matt Murdock. While her romantic relationship with Matt Murdock sometimes results in heartbreak, they are still each other’s staunch supporters.

In Pursuit of a Purpose

Nelson & Murdock quickly established a reputation for defending the Fantastic Four and other Super Heroes. While Karen remained unaware of Murdock’s secret identity, she recognized his innate compassion and nobility. When the Owl (Leland Owlsley) abducted both her and Daredevil, she perceived those same qualities in Daredevil when he rescued her and defeated the Owl. Later, Page accompanied Murdock to interview a prospective defendant, the Purple Man, but the villain uses his super-persuasive powers to add Karen to his subservient following until Daredevil disrupted his control.

Murdock proved less than receptive to Karen’s love, even when he was convinced that her feelings were genuine. To protect his secret identity, Murdock created a third persona, his supposed twin brother Mike, to be Daredevil’s “true” identity. Ironically, Murdock, as Mike, dated Karen and paradoxically grew closer to her as Daredevil/Mike while distancing her from himself as Matt. Ultimately, the ploy grew too cumbersome and Daredevil arranged for “Mike” to perish in battle with the Exterminator (Phillip Sterling). He remained reluctant to express his feelings as Matt.

Foggy was once mistaken for Daredevil when Spider-Man tracked the hero back to the offices of Nelson & Murdock. Parker did not entertain the idea that the blind Matt could be Daredevil, so he set his sights on Nelson, who did not deny the accusation in order to impress Page. To further the ruse, he bought a Daredevil costume from costume designer Melvin Potter. Potter disliked Super Heroes, but wanted to test the strength of his armor and convinced Foggy to fight against him, telling him it will impress Karen. The designer took on the persona of Gladiator and called for an actual fight that almost killed Foggy before the real Daredevil intervened and saved his friend’s life. Foggy admitted to the hoax, but was furious that Karen ended up with Mike, who was supposed be Daredevil, but was actually Matt’s third identity.

Believing Murdock would never reciprocate her love, Karen left the law firm, but was abducted by roboticist Samuel “Starr” Saxon, who learned of Daredevil’s secret identity. After Saxon tried blackmailing Daredevil, the hero faked Matt Murdock’s death in a plane crash then defeated Fear. Grief-stricken at Murdock’s “death,” Karen returned to her Vermont family home. Murdock’s love for Karen rendered him willing to renounce his secrets. He followed her to find her being terrorized by costumed madman Death’s Head, who is revealed to be Karen’s father Paxton Page, empowered and maddened by his cobalt radiation research. During the fray, Paxton inadvertently unleashed molten cobalt into Karen’s path, but pushed her to safety, apparently dying in her place. At Paxton’s funeral, Daredevil revealed his true identity to Karen, and when Murdock’s “death” is retroactively labeled a hoax to entrap Saxon, Karen becomes engaged to Murdock.

Once back in New York, Murdock initially promised to retire his Daredevil identity, but the call to action proved too strong and his insistence on risking life and limb drove a wedge between him and Karen. Finally, Karen cancelled the engagement and moved to California, where her college roommate Sally Weston, now an assistant TV director, found her a role in the soap opera “Strange Secrets.” Again Daredevil followed, rescuing her from the crazed Brother Brimstone (actor Vince Sterling, mimicking Ross Archer’s TV role), but a second reconciliation proved more elusive and Daredevil returned to New York. Karen continued her acting career on the “Stuntmaster” TV series, its titular star a former Daredevil opponent, and a film offer brought her back to New York with her agent Phil Kingston.

Although Kingston proposed marriage, Karen instead renewed her engagement to Murdock. Daredevil’s near-death at the Owl’s hands, however, reinforced her opposition to his double life, and when android Mr. Kline manipulated the Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) into pursuing Daredevil’s affections, Karen returned to California, turning in a memorable performance in the play “The Forget- Me-Knot.” On the “Stuntmaster” set, Karen met stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze with whom she enjoyed a brief fling. But Blaze, as Ghost Rider, inevitably found himself fighting Super Villains including Karen’s latest would-be abductor the Orb (Drake Shannon) and Daredevil’s enemy Gladiator, so he maintained his own emotional distance. When Death-Stalker (formerly the Exterminator) took on Paxton Page’s Death’s Head identity and abducted Karen in hopes of obtaining Paxton’s scientific secrets, Ghost Rider and Daredevil joined forces to rescue her. She gradually lost touch with both men as her acting career advanced, culminating in a starring role in the film “Tender Affair.”

Unfortunately, Karen’s career spiraled downward even more quickly than it had risen, and she was reduced to appearing in pornographic films such as “A Tail of Two Cities” and “Mefisto Comes Over.” She succumbed to heroin addiction and sometimes turned to prostitution for quick cash and served brief prison sentences. Finally, stranded in Mexico following an unsuccessful film offer, she desperately sold knowledge of Daredevil’s secret identity to an underworld informant. The information passed from hand to hand, its ultimate recipient being the Kingpin, who had become Daredevil’s most implacable enemy in New York. The Kingpin methodically reduced Murdock to poverty, framed him with witness-bribery charges that resulted in disbarment, and destroyed his home, driving him to near-insanity. The Kingpin next ordered the death of the entire informant chain from whom he had received the secret, including Karen. After barely escaping an assassin’s first attempt, she bargained with drug dealer Paulo Scorcese, becoming his mistress in exchange for passage to New York. She fled Scorcese to seek help from Nelson and Daredevil and ended up targeted for death by both Scorcese and the Kingpin’s assassins. Faced with certain death, she almost committed suicide by heroin overdose but was rescued by Daredevil, who had regained his sanity. When Karen revealed her betrayal, he forgave her and helped her overcome her addiction.

Karen and Murdock renewed their relationship, sharing an apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. Murdock opened a legal aid clinic, where Page, hoping to rescue others from the ordeals she had suffered, provided phone counseling for drug addicts and others going through difficult times. Resigned to accepting Murdock’s Daredevil activities, she helped him escape the mystic influence of Mambo and her zombie servant, the Nameless One. Weeks later, she accompanied him to rescue abducted children. Noticing his enemy’s efforts, the Kingpin vowed to once again break Daredevil and hired mercenary Typhoid to seduce Murdock using her identity “Mary.” After earning Murdock’s devotion, Typhoid hired several enemies to attack en masse and leave him for dead. During Daredevil’s absence, Karen recruited the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), an acquaintance from her Nelson & Murdock days, to protect Hell’s Kitchen. After Murdock was located and hospitalized, Karen’s visit to him was disrupted by Typhoid, who revealed Murdock’s infidelity. When Murdock deliriously mumbled Mary’s name instead of Karen’s, the heartbroken Karen fled. Upon recovery, Daredevil left New York in shame and remained hidden for months.

Eventually Karen found new purpose as an anti-pornography activist, another field where she hoped to help others who had suffered similar fates. When Murdock returned, Karen spurned him. After reporter Sara Harrington exposed his secret identity, Murdock again faked his death and again Karen mourned him. Hoping Karen would rejoin their pornographic productions, the O’Farell brothers offered her a demo disc of interactive erotica, on which she discovered images of child pornography. She channeled her grief into investigating the implied child pornography ring and received neither answers from the O’Farells nor help from police. She hired cyborg John Garrett, a former Daredevil opponent, to assist her. The investigation remains unresolved.

Karen also renewed her friendship with Foggy Nelson but both were startled by confrontations with the supposed “original” yellow-garbed Daredevil, actually Murdock, again on insanity’s edge. Once again Murdock recovered, his “death” was revealed as a hoax, and he and Karen reconciled.

While Murdock rebuilt his legal career, Karen became a WFSK radio talk show personality, “Paige Angel,” who praised Daredevil’s deeds. WFSK, however, proved to be a front for Mr. Fear (Lawrence Cranston), whose operative Insomnia used the station to transmit low-frequency sonic waves that rendered Fear’s victims more susceptible. Insomnia abducted Karen, who was rescued by Daredevil, but Fear’s plans continued as another operative, serial killer Charles Boroughs, threatened Karen on the air. Seeking police protection, Karen was unaware her “bodyguard” was Boroughs himself. When he attacked, she shot him in self-defense and was put on trial for his murder. As both lawyer and Daredevil, Murdock defended her, exonerating her by revealing Boroughs’ crimes and Fear’s involvement; Boroughs somehow apparently survived. Growing troubled by her increasing dependence upon Murdock, Karen returned to California to accept a radio job offer. Like her WFSK position, however, this proved to be part of a scheme, in this case by Mysterio (Quentin Beck), who imagined Daredevil’s destruction as his criminal career’s culmination. Mysterio’s doctored employee medical exam convinced Karen she was infected with the HIV virus. Horrified, she returned to Murdock, whom Mysterio had drugged into emotional collapse.

Having half-convinced Murdock that an orphaned baby was the Antichrist, Mysterio manipulated Karen into believing the baby, hidden at a church, had supernaturally induced her “illness.” Karen hurried to the church, prepared to abduct the baby, but was preceded by Bullseye (Lester), yet another component of Mysterio’s scheme. After murdering several nuns, Bullseye fought Daredevil and both men lost their weapons in the fray. Sickened by what she had almost done, Karen recovered Bullseye’s gun to threaten the villain but found it empty. Escaping, Bullseye retained Daredevil’s billy club and hurled the weapon at the hero, but Karen, desperate to protect her lover, threw herself in its path, echoing her father’s sacrifice years before. The club plunged into her chest, leaving her to die in Daredevil’s arms.

Ultimately, Daredevil defeated Mysterio, and the baby, placed with adoptive parents, became Karen’s namesake to honor her sacrifice. The infant Karen later proved to be the reincarnation of Matt’s ninja trainer, Stick.