Ben Urich

"My experience, there are no heroes, no villains. Just people with different agendas."

- Ben Urich

Benjamin "Ben" Urich was an investigative journalist at the New York Bulletin.

Reporter
Urich worked for the New York Bulletin, his most notable stories were about the Hulk's Duel of Harlem and the Battle of New York. He took the most pride in exposing organised crime in Hell's Kitchen, through his stories he was able to bring several gangsters to jail as well as destroying crime rings.

His wife Doris was hospitalized with a debilitating chronic life threatening illness with some occasional symptoms of idiosyncratic impaired cognition. Due to his wife's need for constant care, Urich dedicated much of his time and money ensuring she got the best treatment possible. Urich was often advised to consider moving her into a nursing home due to her depleting mental state.

Last Story
"You know when I went away to do my ten, every newspaper in town dragged my name through the shit. You were the only one who did it without mentioning my kids, always grateful for that. "Then give me something, a name, anything. "Take a pass on this one Benny."

- Silvio and Ben Urich

Urich met with his contact in the mafia, Silvio, to discuss the recent criminal activities in Hell's Kitchen. Silvio claimed the previous head mobster had been murdered and there was a new criminal leader, only nobody knew who it was and what he was planning. Silvo made it clear that the reason he had given Urich the information was that when the newspapers wrote articles exposing his mob, Urich was the only one who did not mention Silvo's family in his article.

Back in his office, Urich was approached by his boss Ellison who suggested that he stop writing stories about gang violence and consider moving to another department and write about social events; Urich refused. He later went to visit Doris in Metro-General Hospital. There he pleaded with the administrator to extend his wife's stay at the hospital. She begrudgingly agreed to do what she could to help; as a thank you, Urich left her her favorite sandwich. After staying with his wife for a short time, Urich returned to his office where he was visited by Karen Page, who asked for his help in exposing a criminal empire working in Hell's Kitchen.

Urich and Page met for coffee to discuss the case, which involved Union Allied Construction, the company which had previously attempted to assassinate Page after she had discovered a money laundering scheme, now trying to discreetly rebuild itself. Urich suggested that Page should forget about the case as it was too dangerous; when she argued that Urich had taken on other cases similar to this, he told her that he was now too old and too smart to continue digging into such stories. Urich did however continue digging into the case and discovered Karen Page at an auction for Union Allied Construction's office equipment. Urich advised her to bid on something so to not draw unwanted attention to herself. He later explained to her that while he still wanted her to stop looking into the case, he was planning on exposing it.

War in Hell's Kitchen
Back in his office, Urich began using playing cards to make a map of the crime rings in Hell's Kitchen, including the Russians, Heroin dealers and the Yakuza, all leading up to the unknown man in charge. Before he could continue his work however, he was interrupted by the commotion inside the building as reports were coming in of massive explosions inside Hell's Kitchen. Ellison debriefed the journalists on the story and told them it was likely to be caused by gas explosions. Urich asked for the locations and told him that the places were all controlled by the Russians.

Urich travelled to a location where the police had surrounded an abandoned warehouse where it was believed that the man in the mask had taken a police officer hostage. Seeing that Detectives Blake and Carl Hoffman were running the situation, Urich approached and tried to get a statement from the pair but only got sarcastic remarks. When Urich asked about the officer named Sullivan inside the building, Blake and Hoffman demanded to know how he got the information; Urich simply smiled and reminded them how long he had been doing the job. When the television crews began arriving, Blake mocked Urich, claiming he no longer mattered to the media; Urich remained confident, claiming he still had some good stories in him, and the pair could likely appear in them one day. Urich later witnessed a team of S.W.A.T. officers arriving on the scene. Seeing that there was no hostage negotiation happening, Urich confronted Blake only to witness him getting shot in the chest; Urich desperately tried to help the detective by stopping his bleeding.

Meeting the Man in the Mask
"Do you believe that, what they're saying about me?" "You've been in an awful lot of wrong places at the wrong time lately, but I've heard the other stories, about the man in the mask, helping people. Sounds like there's more than one side to it."

- Masked Man and Ben Urich

During a rain storm, Urich was sent by Ellison to speak to a man who turned out to be a crazy man in a tin foil hat. Annoyed and getting soaking wet in the rain, Urich hung up the phone on Ellison and tried to get into his car. He instead found himself face to face with the man in the mask, although he was initally nervous around him, Urich gave him a chance due to the stories he had been told by Karen Page. The man insisted he was not responsible for blowing up the Russians but told him he wanted him to expose the man responsible, Wilson Fisk, who Urich had never heard of. The man told him that Fisk was connected to the Russians, Chinese and the Japanese and were using Leland Owlsley to move their money around. Urich told the man that he needed sources to expose Fisk but the man insisted they just needed to let the city know who he was so they could tear him down.

Returning to his office, Urich began writing the story, exposing Fisk's name to the public and accusing him of hiding in the shadows and slowly destroying their city. Just as he neared finishing the article however, he switched on the Television and saw that Wilson Fisk was making a public statement which contradicted everything in Urich's article. Fisk claimed to be doing nothing but good for Hell's Kitchen and the masked man was an insane criminal out to destroy his plans. Seeing that the public believed Fisk and hugely supported him, Urich knew that his article was now meaningless, so he was left with no choice but to delete it.

New Plans
With Fisk's plan going into action, Urich continued to dig for more information, but could only find facts that would portray Wilson Fisk in a sympathetic light. At the offices of Nelson and Murdock, Urich met with Karen Page and her friend Foggy Nelson, who had learned of their investigation. Urich explained to them that everything had changed as Fisk was being presented as a great thing for Hell's Kitchen. Matt Murdock then arrived and was introduced to Urich. Urich told the group about his encounter with the man in the mask and gave them the information the man had given them. The group began debating ways to bring down Fisk's reputation.

Family Disasters
Returning to his wife's bedside, Urich was present when she awoke from sleep, the pair joked and flirted with each other, when she asked Urich what the doctors were saying, Urich claimed that they thought she was improving. They briefly discussed the story Urich was working on and Doris offered him support and they talked what Urich was like as a young, fearless journalist and she assured him his best work was yet to come. At one point during their conversation, Doris became confused, when she looked at Urich, she greeted him as if they had not been talking for the last few minutes. They were interrupted by Shirley Benson who informed Urich that Doris could not longer stay at the hospital.

Back in his office, Urich began looking at brochures for caring homes when Ellison came in to ask why he had given a piece he was writing about a fundraiser to another journalist, Urich skirted the issue by claiming it was personal. Ellison then told him that one of the paper's editors was retiring to spend time with his grandchildren and Ellison asked if Urich would be interested in replacing him, as it would offer Urich a higher salary to support his wife. Urich turned down the offer, claiming that he was and always would be a reporter, not an editor but thanked Ellison none the less.

Moving On
He then decided to visit Karen Page at the Nelson and Murdock office, he found the door unlocked and no cream in the fridge, when Page arrived he informed her of both. Urich gave Page a box containing every bit of research Urich had done into the Wilson Fisk story, as he felt he should no longer pursue the story any further as he should be focussed on caring for his wife, who he had decided to bring home instead of putting her in a caring home. Page asked him to go visit a nursing home upstate which she had just heard of, Urich reluctantly agreed. As they drove together, Urich told Page about his wife's treatment, when she asked why he had not told her how serious the situation was, he told her that saying it meant it was true.

They arrived at the hospice, which was huge and clearly expensive, Urich told her he would be unable to afford it but Page insisted they have a look around non-the-less. During their walk through, Page convinced Urich they should speak to one of the people living in the hospice. Although Urich protested, Page went into Marlene Vistain's room and spoke to her, Vistain told them that she had been married three times in her life, revealing her first husband was Bill Fisk and her son was Wilson Fisk, meaning Fisk's mother was not dead as he had claimed. She went on to reveal that as a child Wilson Fisk had murdered his father defending her.

Final Chance
"There are no winners and losers in something like this." "Well, Elena Cardenas might disagree with you if she still could."

- Ben Urich and Karen Page

Urich met with Karen Page the next day to discuss what they had learned, he made it clear he was furious that Page had manipulated him into continuing with the story but using his emotions against him. Page continued to try and convince him to print the story but Urich remained reluctant as the story was not very convincing. Urich explained to her how Wilson Fisk could spin the story to his own benefit, as he could make himself appear as a more sympathetic character in the eyes of the public. Urich told Page about a fundraiser Fisk attended in which many guests were poisoned which likely meant someone was trying to kill Fisk.

Late that night, Urich was called by an emotional Karen Page who informed him that Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson had fallen out and the law firm was likely over. Urich comforted her by advising her to keep one foot ahead of the other, she thanked him for being there and caring despite the fact he told her he was not writing the story. In reality however, Urich had began researching into Wilson Fisk's family history and had just learned that his father was failed councilman Bill Fisk.

After finishing work for the night, Urich was met by the masked man again who asked for information, the man made it clear his absence was due to a recent fight that nearly killed him. The man asked Urich about some heroin that he had taken from the man who had murdered Elena Cardenas. He revealed that he believed that after the Russians had been wiped out, Wilson Fisk had taken over distribution of the heroin and he planned to disrupt that business and hope that he threw Fisk off balance so he would make a mistake big enough to bring him down. When Urich said he was working on something that could help, the masked man told him to keep his head down. Urich revealed a woman was the head of the Chinese drug trade and the man told him they were using blind workers to deliver the heroin.

Fired
"Run the article, it'll sell papers, it's sexy." "You sound like a whore." "Well I learned how to be one from you. I get lucky sometimes sure, land a story that makes a difference like Union Allied, but most of the time, now, working for this paper, I might as well be wearing lipstick and a red dress."

- Ben Urich and Ellison

When he arrived at his home, Urich found Karen Page waiting for him who demanded to know why he had not yet published the story about Fisk murdering his father, Urich told her that he was thinking about it. Page told him it needed to be out there because she believed Wilson Fisk might know about their talk with Marlene Vistain. After pouring them both a drink, Urich revealed he had been in contact with a mobster who might have more reliable information on Bill Fisk's relationship to Don Rigoletto, who he owed money to. When Urich asked why Page thought they might know about their investigation, she told him it was just a feeling, he tried to convince her to put it online herself but she believed no one would believe her. Urich promised to write up the story and give it to his editor Ellison.

Urich went to work the next morning and was informed that Ellison's kid had a chello performance at school he was currently attending. He called Karen Page to update her, their phonecall was brief as she was interrupted by a call from Matt Murdock. When Ellison did arrive he read Urich's story and refused to run it stating there was no evidence to support the story. Urich lost his temper and claimed Ellison had made his a sell out, claiming he was effectively a whore. Ellison suspended Urich but he still begged him to read the story again as Fisk was still killing and could be stopped but Ellison argued that Fisk was trying to save the city, Urich asked how much Wilson Fisk was paying him to stop Urich from writing about crime, with this Ellison fired Urich on the spot.

Buying a bunch of flowers, Urich visited Doris Urich in the hospital, he did not reveal that he had been fired and continued to keep the mood light and flirty. Urich suggested that they should go to Paris together, like they had always planned to when they were young. Doris told him that she could tell by the look in his eye that he had a story he needed to tell, he told her that it wasn't so easy as Ellison believed it was a pile of shit and had fired him. She was not angry or disappointed but instead told him it was a good thing as all Urich ever needed was a good story to tell, she suggested that he tell the story by using the internet. After the visit Urich called Karen Page to explain the situation and told her he planned on writing a blog revealing Wilson Fisk's entire plan.

Death
"I wrote a lot of stories in my days pushing ink, you know how many times people have threatened me, getting me to keep my mouth shut?" "But that's my mother that you brought into this Mr. Urich! My Mother! So I am not here to threaten you! I'm here to kill you!"

- Ben Urich and Wilson Fisk

Urich returned home with his possessions from his office at the New York Bulletin. Pouring himself a drink he opened up his computer to begin writing the blog exposing Wilson Fisk. Just as he began typing however he was interrupted by Fisk himself who was sitting watching him from Urich's sofa. Urich told him to leave his home but Fisk asked that they have a conversation off the record. To his surprise Fisk said he wished to apologise for showing Urich so little respect before revealing he did indeed have someone under his pay at the Bulletin. Fisk mocked Urich's attempts to reveal the story by using the internet as he believed that the internet was filled with nothing but videos of cats and celebrity news.

Fisk asked Urich if he had been alone when he questioned Fisk's mother, Marlene Vistain, not wanting to endanger Karen Page, Urich insisted he had been alone. Remaining calm, Urich told Fisk that he was not easily frightened while being threatened, but Fisk told him that as he had gone after his mother and gotten her involved, he was not here to threaten him but intended to kill him. Fisk launched out of his seat and attacked Urich, wrapping his massive hands around his throat and strangled him, although Urich fought back, before long Fisk had choked the life out of him and Urich died on the floor of his home with a photograph of him and his wife lying broken next to his body.

Family

 * Doris Urich - Wife

Allies

 * New York Bulletin
 * Ellison - Former Boss
 * Caldwell - Former Co-Worker
 * Henricks - Former Co-Worker
 * Taylor - Former Co-Worker
 * Haverson - Former Co-Worker
 * Nelson and Murdock
 * Karen Page
 * Foggy Nelson
 * Matt Murdock
 * Marlene Vistain
 * Daredevil
 * Silvio - Contact
 * Shirley Benson
 * Norma

Enemies

 * Wilson Fisk - Killer
 * Blake †
 * Carl Hoffman

Trivia

 * In the comics, Ben Urich works for the Daily Bugle, a newspaper which has been mainly associated with the Spider-Man comics, as it has been Peter Parker's workplace as well. Since the show was created before the deal between Marvel and Sony, when the film rights of the Spider-Man comics belonged exclusively to Sony, Urich's employment had to be changed.

Behind the Scenes

 * Ben Urich is a mainstay of the Daredevil comics, which meant his death came as a surprise to many fans, including showrunner Steven S. DeKnight when he came to replace Drew Goddard. He learned Marvel wanted to take a risk in killing someone as important as Urich in the comics.