Following the cancellation of Netflix’s Daredevil series back in 2018, it seemed uncertain when we might see the characters again. Considering the lure of IP, it was never in doubt if the red horned devil would return, though; simply when.
Lead Charlie Cox briefly appeared as blind lawyer Matt Murdock in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which paved the way for additional cameos in Disney’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) and Echo (2024) before it was announced that Dario Scardapane, Matt Corman and Chris Ord were creating a new series.
So here we are with Daredevil: Born Again.
In its first two episodes, the show is much more about the struggle to leave behind alter egos and live in the daylight than it is about a blind superhero fighting crime.
At least for now, it’s not a show about Daredevil and Kingpin. Rather Daredevil: Born Again is about Murdock and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio, who also reprised the role in Echo), as well as the baggage that results from living a dual life – be it a vigilante or a crime boss.
The premiere opens with one of the series’ trademark long take action sequences set in a stairwell (courtesy of lead directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who helm the first episode “Heaven’s Half Hour”). After the resulting tragedy, the action jumps ahead one year as Matt tries to pick up the pieces of his life.
Foggy (Elden Henson) is gone. Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) has moved across the country and the pair aren’t speaking. Matt’s closest allies are his new law partner Kristen McDuffie (Nikki M. James) and retired detective-turned-PI Cherry (Clark Johnson), though there’s the potential for human connection with new love interest Dr. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva).
The first hour is a fair amount of table setting. What does a life without Daredevil look like for Matt? What does a life without Kingpin look like for Fisk. The latter is arguably the more interesting of the two stories, if only because Fisk’s return to New York ruffles more than a few feathers. That includes his estranged wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer), who has been handling the city’s criminal enterprises in his absence.
The plot kicks in when Fisk decides to run for Mayor and, shocking no one, wins. It’s a timely, slightly on the nose acknowledgement of contemporary American politics (a known criminal winning an election because uninformed voters fell for his bullshit? What a fantasy!)
In the case of Daredevil: Born Again, this is aided, in large part, by D’Onofrio’s incredibly compelling performance as a giant who don’t need to issue physical threats because his quiet demeanour is so menacing. The long time actor is so well-suited for the role; it’s a delight to see him play the character again.
Aside from the action set pieces that bookend the beginning of the first and the end of the second episodes, these opening hours are nearly entire devoid of spectacle. It’s a wise choice, if only because it ensures that the focus is on the human (side of the) characters.
It also lays out of the narrative foundation of the series. Not unlike the Gotham of Nolan’s Batman films, New York is positioned as a city on the brink of chaos: it’s overridden by vice, corruption, and violence, overseen by useless politicians, and reliant on vigilantes in masks to keep the peace.
Scardapane (who pens the first episode) and Matt Corman & Chris Ord (who co-write the second) position Matt and Fisk as adversaries with similar ambitions. They both purport to want to protect/save the “broken” city, albeit using different methods and for different reasons. The stand-out sequence occurs late in the first episode when the pair sit down in a diner to warn the other that they’re watching (and waiting) for them to return to their old habits. It’s a tour de force tete-a-tete from Cox and D’Onofrio, in part because the actors (and, by proxy, their characters) have so much history, but also because it’s the emotional lynchpin of the series.
Both men believe they’re on the right side of history. They also both believe that the other is a threat: to progress, to peace, and – perhaps most importantly – to their own goals. It’s deeply ironic that both men fail to realize that they’re embarking on identical journeys; they’re too busy living in a nostalgic past that positions them as antagonists.
The second episode introduces the legal case that will undoubtedly dominate the rest of the season. Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes) interrupts a mugging on a subway platform, killing one of the two assailants, who is quickly revealed to be a corrupt cop. Matt naturally takes the case, which takes a turn when Ayala is outed as White Tiger, a superhero vigilante who has been picking up the slack in Daredevil’s absence. The case will clearly be part of the public-facing debate about the need for such figures, especially given Fisk’s campaign promises to clean up the city, but it also helpfully re-establishes the David vs Goliath narrative as Matt’s tiny law practice takes on the vindictive monolith that is the NYPD.
It’s good stuff, even if action fans will undoubtedly find some of the more character-driven moments a little slow. But it’s important groundwork for what’s to come, and there’s plenty of juicy stuff waiting to explode, including characters like murderer Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter (Wilson Bethel), and the fact that Dr. Glenn is acting as Fisk and Vanessa’s marriage counsellor, unbeknownst to Matt.
Other Observations:
- For now, it’s unclear where the storyline about Fisk’s eager new political protégé Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini) and ambitious web journalist BB (Genneya Walton) is going. While the idea of people seeking out a youth-skewing program on the internet feels like astute commentary on the rise of influencer culture and the shift away from traditional/mainstream media, the visual representation of The BB Report on Daredevil is lacking. It’s too amateurish and too earnest, which makes it difficult to believe that it would be a) popular and b) valuable to Fisk’s campaign.
- The slogan “Fisk Will Fix It” and the accompanying hats are very Trumpian. However, the choice to make them blue feels like the show’s attempt to “both sides” the representation. IMHO, it doesn’t work.
- Credit The Newton Boys for the inspired choice to use TV on the Radio over Fisk’s New Year’s speech to close out episode 2. It’s both epic and operatic.
- The opening credits, featuring crumbling marble-esque representations of iconic New York City landmarks, as well as instruments of the legal system, that reassemble into a statue of Daredevil, are excellent. It’s a really apt visualization of both the series, as well as what the character represents: a symbol of equal parts of the city and the law.
Daredevil: Born Again airs Tuesdays on Disney+. 2 episodes watched for review.
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