Origin
Dakota North was the daughter of Samuel J. North, and she chose the career as a fashion model. She did not like the job, and wanted something with more depth, more importance, and become a private investigator and opened her own agency. It’s quite successful, having branches in four major cities them being New York, Rome, Tokyo and Paris.
Creation
Dakota North debuted in a self-titled series by Martha Thomases and Tony Salmons.
Major Story Arcs
Earliest cases
Fashion designer Luke Jacobson hired Dakota to guard him and his designs after a series of threats. Her first day on the job she found a bomb in a makeup case when she was mistaken for a last minute model. She tracked the attacker to the docks, but she unfortunately killed him before she could get the name of whoever he was working for.
Her next case was for Major George C. Cooper. She was to guard a sample of a deadly gas that was stored in a gold pen. The gas was stolen and was in possession of Dakota’s brother, Ricky. Dakota followed her brother in Switzerland, where they were captured by Sheik Ibn Bheik. The sample gas was released and killed Bheik and his men, but Dakota and her brother escaped.
Dakota was then hired to track down a serial killer who had murdering fashion models. The murderer was called “Slasher”. The investigation led to two models who were Elyse Nelson and Mary Jane Watson. Along the way, Dakota met Spider-Man and found out that Nelson was in fact the serial killer and save Watson just in time.
Next, she was hired by Jack Power to clear Jessie Wilcox Jones of theft chargers. She had met the Punisher while investigating and together they worked to prove Jones’ innocence. She also battled Wasp and King-Size.
Chicago Spectator
North was hired on retainer by a publisher to turn the Chicago Spectator into a national newspaper as part of a special investigation team looking into Luke Cage, who had just set up in the city. Jeryn Hogarth, law counsel of the team and acquaintance of Luke Cage, offered him an invitation to meet with the group. She was part of a pitch to help with the investigation side of Cage’s Heroes for Hire gig in exchange for exclusive rights to the story for the paper.
When Hardcore got wind that Cage was working with the Spectator, he started to target the paper, looking for info on Cage. North kept some of the info undocumented and stored in her own memory. When Hardcore learned of that, he upgraded his attacks to her specifically. North admitted to Cage that she had information that his father might still be alive and agreed to help Cage find him. Who she found instead was Cage’s brother, James Jr. She tried to ask him some questions, but he got away.
North and Cage were about to go on a road trip running down more leads for Cage’s dad when they crossed paths with the Tinkerer. He wanted to hire them to rescue his son, who he said is being kept with Cage’s brother and father by The Corporation. So, together, they break into one of their facilities. They rescue Tinkerer’s son and Cage’s father, however, James Jr. was given superpowers as Coldfire and manipulated into an agent of The Corporation. After a brief fight, Coldfire was convinced to help them save his dad, and he ultimately sacrificed himself so they could escape.
Seduction of the Innocent
North was hired by M’Koni, a cousin of Black Panther, to investigate her husband, Wheeler. He had been seduced by Malice, former Dora Milaje, with a special herb that lowers his inhibition. She was simply trying to get information about Panther out of him.
After she broke the bad news to M’Koni, Panther came to her with a new job. He believed Malice was targeting his loved ones and M’Koni was just the start. Panther needed North to surveil Monica Lynne, Panther’s former lover.
While guarding Monica at the mall, they are attacked by a few of Malice’s narcotically seduced men. She shot their way out and then decided to track Malice before she could send any more men. They tracked her to the Wakandan embassy, where Malice attacked them. Panther came to their rescue after shaking off Malice’s herbal seduction cocktail.
The Law Office of Nelson and Murdock
While Jessica Jones was busy with her newborn, she suggested North to replace her as the investigator for the Law Offices of Nelson and Murdock. She joined up just as Matt Murdock was locked up for suspicion of being Daredevil. She was with Foggy Nelson, when he was seemingly stabbed to death at Ryker’s while visiting Matt. In the aftermath, she was recruited by Ben Urich to look into who the new Daredevil was (It was Iron Fist, trying to clear Murdock’s name).
Urich believed Foggy had something to do with the new Daredevil, so North followed leads about his killer. It led them to a lawyer named Alton Lennox. When North broke into his office, Daredevil (who had recently broken out of prison thanks to Punisher) and Iron Fist, were already inside. North was the only one able to find any evidence (a plane ticket to Monaco) by hitting reprint on the fax machine. Daredevil was able to use that information to eventually clear his name and track down Foggy’s killer, only for Foggy to come out of hiding from Witness Protection, having faked his death.
Back to work, Dakota was put on a case to help Lily Lucca. She was once used as a pawn by Vanessa Fisk to screw with Matt. She was given a perfume that would make Matt and any other men go crazy for her. Even though she stopped wearing it, men were still reacting to her as if she was. Dakota tracked the chemical to an old college rival of Matt’s, Larry Cranston, active as a new Mr. Fear. He was also responsible for the acting out of Melvin Potter and Matt’s wife, Milla Donovan.
Cruel and Unusual
With Milla Donovan on her way to jail for killing a man while under Mr. Fear’s influence, Matt was becoming unstable. Dakota tried to lure him back into the world. Her attempts failed until she took a job from Luke Cage. Big Ben Donovan (no relation) was on death row for a grizzly triple murder of three young siblings. The execution was in 6 days. Big Ben confessed to it, however, Cage thinks he is innocent and asks Dakota to look into it.
Dakota got the file from her NYPD contact, Alex Kurtz. She noticed there were no interviews from the parents of the children. According to Kurtz, their mother died after the third was born, and the father has been missing. Dakota made her way to Sing Sing to interview Big Ben, who told her everything. She hoped to get the recording to Matt so he could put his natural lie detector to it, but she was attacked during a pitstop at a diner and warned to let Big Ben fry.
Dakota was pretty sure he was guilty until the attack. Now, she’s suspicious. She brought the recording to Matt, who agreed he was innocent. Comparing notes, the two of them concluded that he was covering for something or someone. The only lead they had was the guy who attacked Dakota at the diner. She got a picture of the guy from diner security cams and went through mugshots with Kurtz. Another detective recognized him as Federal Agent Moss. She tried beating some answers out of him, but he stuck to his guns.
All this poking around earned Dakota a visit from her spy father, Samuel. He said he was asked to warn her and Matt off the case. He called it a matter of national security. The team decided to ignore it. Matt was going to run down a lead on the kids’ missing father, while Dakota was going to look into Big Ben’s financials. Those pointed her to Big Ben’s son, “Little” Ben. Big Ben had been secretly funding a trust fund for his college education. Dakota determines this is what Big Ben was hiding, but she was shot by a sniper outside of Little Ben’s apartment.
Luckily, first responders got to her in time, saving her life. By tracking down her killer, Agent Moss, Daredevil was able to beat a confession out of him. A joint task force investigating terrorist activity coming in and out of the docks needed the help of the gangster running that territory, so they set Big Ben to take the blame for one of his more gruesome shakedowns.
An Affair with Daredevil
When she got out of the hospital, Matt brought her to Iron Fist, who used his chi to channel her own chi to heal her bullet wound faster. She wasn’t at 100% though, so Matt promised to show her some stretching techniques for the remaining stiffness. Those exercises eventually led to sex. Morning awkwardness about how Matt was still married to a woman who was recently committed to a mental institution was avoided when Matt was arrested.
Daredevil had been accused of murder, but Dakota was able to give him an alibi. Unfortunately, that also outed Matt as a cheater, and he was displeased with that. They argue about it all the way back to Matt’s place, where they find Black Tarantula, Master Izo, and Iron Fist. They had been attacked by The Hand and wanted Daredevil’s help for a concerted retaliation. In over her head, Dakota leaves, when she is called by Kurtz. The witness who accused Daredevil of murder was dead.
Later, Dakota gave Matt a ride to the asylum to meet Milla, but she was taken home by her parents. They had a judge consider Matt a danger to her after they got evidence of Matt cheating with Dakota. Matt, now faced with the choice to fight for Milla or embrace a new relationship with Dakota, decides not to give up on his marriage, to Dakota’s disappointment.
Daredevil also pays a visit to the P.I. his in-laws hired to shake him down for the copies of the pictures. He got him to approach Dakota and hand over the evidence directly to her, which she was offended enough by to quit Nelson and Murdock.
Shadowland
After she quit, Dakota was approached by Foggy, who needed to hire her to find Matt. With a gang war brewing between Kingpin’s gang and The Hand, Daredevil sided with Kingpin prompting Foggy to fire him impulsively. Now, he’s regretting it. Dakota tracks Turk, a Fisk lackey, to a construction site, where Kingpin was having a secret meeting with the new Hand enforcer, Lady Bullseye. Lady Bullseye immediately caught her watching them, and Dakota was kidnapped to bait Daredevil. The Owl decided to torture her to get back at what Daredevil did to him in jail, just as Daredevil breaks in. Turk spilled the beans to Matt because he is scared of what Fisk has become.
After Daredevil rescues Dakota, he does the unthinkable and joins The Hand as their new leader. He hopes to control them from the inside, but he failed to turn it into a force for justice when he crossed a line he swore he never would: he killed Bullseye! He put Hell’s Kitchen under martial law. This chased out not just the criminals but most of the residents. Dakota and Foggy stayed behind hoping to find Matt and talk some sense into him. Instead, they just run into ninja attacks. Those in The Hand trying to corrupt Matt see Foggy and Dakota among his last ties to his old life that need to be severed
They are saved by Iron Fist and Luke Cage, who plan on getting as many of their allies together to run an intervention on Matt. The foursome end up sitting down with Master Izo and Kingpin to discuss how to confront him. With nothing to offer the “tights brigade,” Dakota vows to get Foggy and Becky Blake out of the city. Unfortunately, before they could pick up Blake, Dakota and Foggy are caught in a riot and separated. Dakota decides to go for Blake, which proved correct when she found Blake in her on-fire office without wheelchair access to escape.
Newbird
When Carol Danvers was being attacked by a Deathbird imposter, she got help from Dakota. Dakota tracked some bird watching records of a bird of unusual size to a building with a vacant floor that she and Carol checked out together on a hunch. There, they found a goon squad that was trying to put stress on Danvers and had been working for a mutual employer as the imposter. When Carol was attacked again, Dakota was part of a group of experts recruited by Carol to figure out who was behind all the different attacks, eventually connecting it to Yon-Rogg.
Character Profile
- Height: 5’7″
- Weight: 130 lbs
- Eye Color: Blue-gray
- Hair Color: Red
- Citizenship: American
- Marital Status: Single
- Occupation: Private Investigator, Head of North Investigations; formerly fashion model
- Known Relatives: Samuel “S.J.” North (father), Ricky North (brother)