Samuel Chung (Earth-616)

Sam Chung was born in China to his mother Lu Wei, a rural farmer. When Sam was still young, he and his mother moved to the city. Sam was enrolled in an acrobatic school, and became an excellent gymnast. A few years later, Lu sought help from a people-smuggler to illegally enter the United States of America. Later on, Lu had another child named Hannah, who was a legal citizen unlike Sam.^[3] When Sam was 12, he began putting together a design for an invisibility suit.^[4] He kept working on it throughout most of his childhood.

Blindspot[]

Having grown into adulthood, Sam worked fourteen hours as a janitor at Columbia University to pay rent and sustain him and his sister after their mother left them behind to join the Church of the Sheltering Hands.^[5] His job served another purpose, as it allowed Sam to develop his innate genius intellect, convincing professors to let him audit their classes and use their labs in the middle of the night. Using the resources at his disposal, Sam developed his own invisibility suit.

Though Sam initially intended to file a patent for his invention, he backed down in the idea, fearing his status as an illegal immigrant could easily lead to bigger companies stealing his invention or taking advantage of him. Instead, he put the suit to use as a vigilante in order to protect the streets of Chinatown as a hero called "Blindspot". While out on patrol one night, he ran into Daredevil fighting thugs in Hell's Kitchen. Startled, Sam fell over the ledge, but Daredevil catches him. Aware he would need practice as a vigilante, he sought Daredevil's help to train him as a fighter.^[4]

The Church of the Sheltering Hands[]

The life of Sam and his mother, Liu Wei, changed drastically with the appearance of crimelord Tenfingers, who lured Liu to become a member of his Church of the Sheltering Hands. Lu Wei vouched for Sam to become a member as well, and the Church extended him an invitation. Sam accepted, and began to work for the temple solely in order to investigate their nefarious secret activities, with the intention of helping Daredevil take them down. After discovering the connection between Tenfingers and the dangerous cult of ninja known as the Hand,^[6] Sam confronted his mother to convince her to leave the Church for her safety, revealing his secret identity to her in the process.^[7]

When the undead warrior of the Hand, the Fist, attacked the Temple of the Sheltering Hands, Tenfingers ordered his lieutenants, including Lu Wei, to kill any witnesses. Blindspot confronted Tenfinger's men and his own mother to protect the innocent followers of the temple. Wei ultimately decided to turn on her teammates and kill them to let Sam and the innocents escape. However, she warned Sam that he should consider her dead to him.^[8]

Dark Art[]

Sam's right arm was broken when a meeting between Daredevil and Elektra went awry, as she had been brainwashed to believe her non-existent daughter had gone missing.^[9] Because he had to take days off from work due to his injury, Daredevil offered Sam to work as an assistant for his civilian identity of lawyer Matt Murdock.^[10] Even after his arm was healed, Sam continued working for Murdock.^[2]

Once he got back in the game as Blindspot, Sam was lured to a warehouse where he discovered a mural made of human blood,^[2] the first of many works of "art" created by the twisted Muse.^[11] As Blindspot, Sam pursued Muse when he attacked a courthouse and kidnapped a judge and took him to the sewers together with a councilwoman and two police officers.^[12] Even though he managed to get Muse's victims to safety, Sam was kidnapped and taken to Muse's garret. Daredevil managed to track both of them with his senses. Unfortunately, as soon as he arrived to rescue Sam, Muse gouged his eyes out and then escaped.^[13]

Following Muse's capture, Sam was taken to St. Luke's Presbyterian Hospital, where he remained sedated.^[14] Desperate to restore Sam's sight, Lu Wei took him away and travelled to a Hand temple in China, where she traded her soul to the Beast in exchange of restoring Sam's sight. Sam become a disciple of the Hand afterwards.

Wei then had Sam lure Daredevil to the temple with a false call for help, so the hero could take Lu's place in the bargain with the Beast. Sam would learn of Daredevil's true alter-ego as Matt Murdock while holding him prisoner. While escaping with his mother, Sam snapped out of the Hand's dark influence and had a change of heart, deciding to rescue Daredevil instead. Lu reluctantly helped his son confront the Hand and was killed by the Beast. The demon then abruptly teleported the temple away, leaving Sam and Matt alone. Both returned to the United States afterwards.^[3]

The Hand's Siege[]

When Muse escaped from custody and started a new artistic campaign which resulted in the slaughter of six police officers,^[15] Sam ignored Matt's suggestion that he didn't go after Muse alone, and destroyed one of the villain's murals to draw him out.^[16] Blindspot was effortlessly overpowered by Muse, resulting in the Beast reaching out to Sam to lend him its power. Sam accepted the Beast's gift and managed to defeat Muse. However, Sam refused to repay the Beast by killing Muse, and ended rejecting the Beast. Following his defeat, Muse committed suicide by walking into a pile of burning debris. In retaliation for Sam's rejection, the Beast launched a massive assault on Manhattan which paralyzed the city. Matt Murdock had recently started working as deputy mayor for Wilson Fisk, so when Fisk was critically injured during the Hand's siege, Matt temporarily became the mayor of New York City.^[17] Sam sought Matt's help at City Hall, and worked with him in fighting off the ninja invaders.^[18]

Near the end of the conflict, the Beast personally approached City Hall to claim Sam in exchange for leaving the city alone. Sam prepared to hand himself over to the monster, but police commissioner Nalini Karnik stopped him. The Hand attacked City Hall, but they were intercepted by Daredevil, a handful of vigilantes and the Ordo Draconum. The ninja clan was defeated during the subsequent fight when Daredevil stabbed the Beast with a magical sword and it vanished in a flash of light. Following the end of the conflict, Blindspot was eyed by the Ordo Draconum for recruitment.^[19]

After Matt suffered a near-death experience when hit by a truck, Sam visited him at the hospital. He was surprised to hear Matt expressing no intention of putting on the Daredevil costume again and advised Sam to do the same before he ended up like him. Sam left, hurt and angry.^[20]

Red Fist Saga[]

Despite the Beast's death, he continued to thrive in Hell and began haunting Sam in his nightmares which nearly drove him insane. Stick visited Sam and offered him an opportunity to destroy the Beast for good. Sam traveled to the Siege Inferal in Japan, the Beast's gateway from Hell to Earth, and camped out in the area to await for the Beast's arrival to kill him. After several months, Matt arrived at Sam's campground and reconciled with him. Matt told Sam to go back home to New York and be with his sister. Sam obliged and left, while Matt took Sam's sword, relieving him of his burden.^[21] After Matt was able to destroy the Beast and save the Hand's victims that the Beast imprisoned in Hell, they escaped through the Siege Infernal where Sam was waiting to retrieve them. When Sam asked what happened to Matt, Foggy Nelson tearfully informed him that Matt remained trapped in Hell.^[22]

Attributes

Abilities

Genius-level Intellect: Samuel developed a suit that allowed him to become completely invisible to the naked eye.^[4]

Skilled Martial Artist: Under Daredevil's tutelage, Samuel has become an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, being able to defeat several Tenfingers's henchmen.^[23]^[6] He refined his fighting skills even further once he became a disciple of the Hand.^[3]

Skilled Acrobat: Sam spent his entire childhood training in gymnastics, and was a notable student.^[3]

Additional Attributes

Limited Sight: After losing his vision when Muse gouged out his eyes,^[13] Blindspot was granted new eyeballs through the Hand's magic. However, for Sam "everything looks so dark."^[3]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Blindspot's Suit: Was created by Sam Chung using resources from Columbia University, which allows its user to become invisible from the naked eye. The suit, however, needs an incredible amount of batteries to run.^[4]

Notes

As Blindspot, Sam has a Twitter account. It has over 50,000 followers.^[6]

Links and References

References

[Daredevil_Vol_1_596-1] Daredevil #596

[Daredevil_Vol_5_10-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Daredevil (Vol. 5) #10

[Daredevil_Vol_5_27-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 ^3.4 Daredevil (Vol. 5) #27

[All-New,_All-Different_Point_One_Vol_1_1-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 All-New, All-Different Point One #1

[Daredevil_Vol_5_26-5] Daredevil (Vol. 5) #26

[Daredevil_Vol_5_2-6] 6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 Daredevil (Vol. 5) #2

[Daredevil_Vol_5_4-7] Daredevil (Vol. 5) #4

[Daredevil_Vol_5_5-8] Daredevil (Vol. 5) #5

[Daredevil_Vol_5_6-9] Daredevil (Vol. 5) #6

[Daredevil_Vol_5_7-10] Daredevil (Vol. 5) #7

[Daredevil_Vol_5_11-11] Daredevil (Vol. 5) #11

[Daredevil_Vol_5_13-12] Daredevil (Vol. 5) #13

[Daredevil_Vol_5_14-13] 13.0 ^13.1 Daredevil (Vol. 5) #14

[Daredevil_Vol_5_15-14] Daredevil (Vol. 5) #15

[Daredevil_Vol_1_598-15] Daredevil #598

[Daredevil_Vol_1_599-16] Daredevil #599

[Daredevil_Vol_1_600-17] Daredevil #600

[Daredevil_Vol_1_602-18] Daredevil #602

[Daredevil_Vol_1_605-19] Daredevil #605

[Man_Without_Fear_Vol_1_2-20] Man Without Fear #2

[Daredevil_Vol_7_12-21] Daredevil (Vol. 7) #12

[Daredevil_Vol_7_13-22] Daredevil (Vol. 7) #13

[Daredevil_Vol_5_1-23] Daredevil (Vol. 5) #1

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