Review by C.J. Bunce
As we get closer to the release of a teaser for the second season of the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, let’s take a look at the first season of the series, streaming this year on Disney+ — the fourth season TV viewers have been exposed to this superhero. With DC Comics’s competing brand Arrowverse and its success on the small screen with so many of its pantheon of superheroes, it’s strange that the superhero with the most seasons for Marvel is B-hero Daredevil. When Charlie Cox first appeared as Matt Murdock, fans of Marvel’s Daredevil were ecstatic. But what has Marvel, and then Disney, done with the character? The answer is “not much.” Three seasons of Netflix’s series were lackluster, with Cox’s take on the blind superhero flat and lacking personality. For personality you had to look to his partner, Eldon Henson’s Foggy Nelson or guest star Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle aka The Punisher. Add to the picture the very inward, unemotional Vincent D’Onofrio as Spidey-verse’s villain Wilson Fisk and the best you can say for the Netflix series is that it provided a platform to introduce Mike Colter as Luke Cage, Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, and Bernthal as Castle.
Years after the purchase of Marvel by Disney, Disney finally found its way to reviving Cox’s Murdock. But before we discuss Daredevil: Born Again, let’s look back at the other superhero lawyer in the house: She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law.
The 2022 Disney She-Hulk series re-inserted Cox’s Daredevil back into the fold. Suddenly, opposite top-tier, award-winning actress Tatiana Maslany, Matt Murdock grew a personality as boyfriend to Maslany’s unusual, outgoing lawyer Jennifer Walters, the woman behind the title’s superheroine. Murdock at last was funny, sincere, and charismatic. But the writers and directors seem to have forgotten about the She-Hulk series. What happened? Who dropped the ball? The other things She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law did right was portray the high-level, stress-filled, busy work of a lawyer, and the diligence required in running a law firm. The writers of the Netflix seasons didn’t nail it, and the misfire wasn’t remedied in Daredevil: Born Again. The same lack of attention to the realism of the world Murdock lives in returned, a difference from the kind of writing and direction that has grown to be a hallmark of other Marvel Studios films and TV series.
The biggest flaw of this third season of Daredevil is hamstringing the superhero. And they do it by killing off the show’s personality, the lovable sidekick Foggy. It takes the bulk of the season to get through the drama. Doesn’t everyone come to a superhero comic book, TV show, or movie to celebrate and explore the fantasy, the fun, the action, and the excitement of superheroes? When your plot is all about keeping your superhero from using his abilities, it’s a set-up for failure. And that’s why Daredevil: Born Again didn’t work. It was a slog to get through for this season’s nine episodes. What could viewers possibly expect but more of the same for the next nine episodes, scheduled to arrive on Disney+ next Spring? Fortunately the promise is in its expected new cast members: Krysten Ritter back as Jessica Jones, Matthew Lillard and Lili Taylor as new yet to be disclosed characters, plus at least a few episodes more with Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle.
Doubling the inaction of the superhero protagonist is the very strange relationship between D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk and his wife Vanessa, played by Ayelet Zurer. Scenes between the two were difficult to watch. In part that reflected the difficulty in their relationship required by the chosen scripts. But even more than that, the two lacked any chemistry. In no realistic universe would these two characters get together. Despite its mantel of superheroes, Marvel has always struggled with compelling villains, in part because Stan Lee recycled so many concepts so many times. What is needed is a writer to match the potential of D’Onofrio with a take on the character that matches the actor’s previously demonstrated passion, intensity, and other strengths. Unfortunately D’Onofrio has suggested it’s unlikely he will appear in Marvel movies because of rights issues for the character. As for the rest of the villains, the B-villainy of the season was unfortunately more of what we’ve seen before. And as for the other recurring characters, why is office manager Karen Page in the series at all? She jumps from secretary at a construction company to legal mastermind quickly, and has yet to add anything to either series.
Daredevil, and now Daredevil: Born Again, share other disappointments. Put aside how much fun the series would be with a blind actor as Murdock. Don’t think it would work? Bruce Horak pulled it off beautifully as Hemmer in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Couldn’t a dynamic director be more creative, and instead of showing us how a blind man uses other senses to face the world (and more importantly for the comics realm, to face super foes), use the cinematography to reflect the literal darkness Daredevil faces? Actually put the viewer in Murdock’s head instead of making it look like he can see through some kind of sunglasses or visor, which is the most the efforts have delivered so far. It seems part of the problem is that lighting Daredevil has been a struggle for four seasons. The audience is missing details because many scenes are so poorly lit. Just try to find any clear images of the series on the Internet. They’re all fuzzy because the film was shot in poor light. Get some filmmakers who understand lighting!
In an era where even superhero series do their research and reflect the alter ego’s career as real as would be portrayed in a nonfiction series, Murdock and Nelson did nothing like a duo in a real New York law firm in their first three seasons, and that didn’t change in Daredevil: Born Again. As for the law and order, how about the next team of writers at a minimum put in some time with the 25 seasons of Law & Order to see what compelling courtoom drama can look like on the small screen? She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law’s creators did it, so can someone for Murdock & Co.
A mistake for the long-game of Marvel Studios was the current creative team forgetting about the growth of Frank Castle in the two seasons of his series. The inclusion of Castle this first season of Daredevil: Born Again wasted a top actor’s talents. Castle seemed even worse off than when viewers first met him at the beginning of the first season of Netflix’s Daredevil series, now nearly a decade ago. Fortunately some kind of Marvel special like Werewolf by Night is in development for Bernthal to move Castle forward in the MCU. Maybe they’ll get it right. The only episode that seemed to gel this season and reflect Murdock as a fully realized character was the heist episode, the fifth episode “With Interest.” More episodes like that could get the show back on track.
It’s been ten years since Netflix showed viewers the potential of the superhero genre on the small screen, putting one toe in the pond as it tried out several action dramas with B-level characters from the pages of Marvel Comics. Those characters wouldn’t have made much difference had the series failed, because the real Marvel moneymakers were finding their own potential on the big screen and at the box office (Spider-Man, Wolverine, The X-Men, Captain America, etc.). But Daredevil: Born Again seemed to take it all backward. Marvel has created its own problem with its inter-relationships in various “phases” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kevin Feige has his work cut out for him. Continuity at that level can’t be easy. But Marvel series and movies have been limping along since Avengers: Endgame. It’s possible that the aftermath of the better received Thunderbolts movie this year will change things, and finally re-align the MCU so new writers and directors can get on with it. Fans can hope.
The second season of Daredevil: Born Again is slated to stream on Disney+ in March 2026. Until then revisit or catch up on Daredevil streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, and Daredevil: Born Again streaming on Disney+.
