URI ROSENTHAL
Real Name: Uri Rosenthal
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Entrepreneur, business owner
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Mr. Ingersol, Nanci Koric
Enemies: Daredevil (Matt Murdock), Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), Foggy Nelson
Known Relatives: Mrs. Rosenthal (wife)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: New Jersey
First Appearance: Daredevil II#37 (November, 2002); (identified) Daredevil II#44 (May, 2003)
Powers/Abilities: None.
History:
(Daredevil II#37 (fb) - BTS) - Rosenthal served six years in Viet Nam, and later started a multi-million dollar empire, owning businesses such as the Daily Globe newspaper in New York City.
(Daredevil II#36 - BTS) - Matt Murdock filed a lawsuit against Rosenthal Publications for slandering his name as Daredevil in the Daily Globe newspaper. He held a public press conference to declare this.
(Daredevil II#37 (fb) - BTS) - Rosenthal was furious and chose to take the case to court. He hired Mr. Ingersol to represent him against Murdock, though he fired Ingersol for unprofessional conduct with Murdock and his partner Foggy Nelson. Following the advice of his lawyers and realizing that the original source had caved, Rosenthal agreed to settle out of court. He hired Nanci Koric to represent him and determined to settle at a maximum of seventy five million dollars.
(Daredevil II#37) - Koric and Murdock bartered over settlement prices, and Rosenthal and Murdock finally agreed at 75 million and a printed apology. Murdock instructed them to pay the money to the National Endowment for the Blind and the Hell’s Kitchen Restoration Society. Murdock also made it a term that Rosenthal couldn’t claim financial hardship or blame the Globe. Speaking with Murdock alone, Rosenthal claimed that he knew Murdock was Daredevil and that calling him a liar made him furious, but that he’d chosen to follow his lawyers’ advice. As Murdock left, Rosenthal changed his mind, furious at how smug Murdock had been. He retracted the deal and prepared to face Murdock in court, no matter what it took.
(Daredevil II#42) - Acting as Rosenthal’s council again, Ingersol explained that they had little chance of winning the case and that Murdock could end up owning the paper. Ingersol said he would think about it, and went for a swim at his New Jersey residence. He was later murdered by the Kingpin, who pulled off his head.
(Daredevil II#43) - The police investigated Rosenthal’s death. Mrs. Rosenthal and Ingersol received the news.
Comments: Created by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.
Despite his "Maybe" line in Daredevil II#42, it's not the Owl but the Kingpin who killed Uri Rosenthal. First, the (admittedly blurry) man standing at the side of the pool at the end of #42 appears to be bald, and is wearing the same brown jacket/black shirt the Kingpin wears in #44-50. He certainly lacks the Owl's distinctive hairstyle. Second, the method of the murder -- the man's head being pulled off -- fits better with the Kingpin's strength and methods in the arc than with the Owl's talons. (Fisk also crushes Sammy Silke's head in his bare hands in #45).
The clincher for me is dialogue in DD #50, where the Kingpin remarks that "I thought the combination of the police, Typhoid Mary, and Bullseye, in such a short period of time, might do the trick." Now, we see the Typhoid and Bullseye stuff in DD II #46-49, but in that arc the police seem to be on good terms with Matt Murdock and aren't harassing him. The only recent police trouble he has involves Rosenthal's murder...suggesting that the Kingpin pulled off Uri's murder along with his other actions meant to restore his underworld primacy (killing Waldo Dini and Silke, destroying Mary's therapy and seducing her again, etc.). In fact, it's a police officer's misconduct during Daredevil's interrogation regarding Rosenthal's death that ends his trouble with the police for a brief period.
Note also that in Daredevil II#44 the Owl seems rather surprised at the news of Rosenthal's death and the news coverage of Murdock's possible involvement. It's only after he sees this that, in front of his lieutenants, he says "Maybe" and allows them to believe he's responsible. The rest of his dialogue in the scene -- "I -- I literally dream of things like this happening to Murdock" -- suggests that it's less a plan he's had than an unforeseen opportunity he's been capitalizing upon.
--Omar Karindu
Profile by Chadman.
Uri Rosenthal has no known connections to
Mrs. Rosenthal
(Daredevil II#43) - Wife of Uri Rosenthal, multi-millionaire, Mrs. Rosenthal was shocked when the police reported her husband had been decapitated in their pool.
--Daredevil II#43
images: (without ads)
Daredevil II#37, p13, pan5
(main)
Daredevil II#43, p2, pan2 (Mrs.)
Appearances:
Daredevil II#36-37 (October, November,
2002) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Alex Maleev (penciler/inker), Joe Quesada
(editor)
Daredevil II#42-44 (March-May, 2003) - Brian Michael Bendis
(writer), Alex Maleev (penciler/inker), Joe Quesada (editor)
Last updated: 12/12/07
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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