Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again S1E1, “Heaven’s Half Hour” (written Dario Scardapane and directed by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson), and S1E2 ,”Optics” (written by Matt Corman and Chris Ord and directed by Michael Cuesta)
Daredevil has always and forever been my favorite superhero. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t mesmerized by the all-red suit, the devil horns, and the billy clubs as weapons.
How deep is my love for the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, AKA Matt Murdock? It started with a 1986 Secret Wars action figure (I still own an unboxed Daredevil from the set). From there, it has spread like wildfire. I own issues #1-220 of the original Daredevil comic book run. There are seven Daredevil Funko Pops in my office. I have commissioned original Daredevil art and had someone create a wooden panel replica of the original Daredevil comic book corner box. You might say I’m more obsessed with Daredevil than Daredevil is with protecting Hell’s Kitchen.
The reasons why I fell in love with Daredevil are easy to identify. While Spider-Man (radioactive spider bite), Captain America (super soldier serum), and Incredible Hulk (gamma radiation) all gained tremendous power and ability by the incident that propelled them into superherodom, Daredevil lost something very important in his childhood accident. As depicted early in Season 1 of the original Netflix Daredevil show, Matt Murdock was exposed to chemicals that caused him to lose his sight at a very early age.
Over time, he was able to use what he lost to help him make tremendous gains in his other senses. But it was the loss of something essential that is at the core of what makes Daredevil (and Matt Murdock) who he is. He is, and always has been, an underdog, fighting an uphill battle to grow up without his parents, make it through law school, and become the defender of the small corner of the world known as Hell’s Kitchen.
It is interesting, then, that Daredevil: Born Again—the much-anticipated and hyped new Marvel Cinematic Universe show from Disney+—begins with Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) suffering a tremendous loss once again. Matt Murdock’s longtime law partner, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) is gunned down in the first few minutes of the opening episode by Benjamin Poindexter, AKA Bullseye (Wilson Bethel). For backstory, Bullseye was hired by Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) in Season 3 of the original series to basically run a smear campaign against Daredevil.
Bullseye wore a Daredevil suit around town, committing violence to turn the city against the masked vigilante. Kingpin eventually turned on Bullseye and broke his back in his culminating fight of the third season. As part of the attempt to keep up continuity between the old show and this new one, it appears Bullseye reappeared after healing, intent on destroying those that ruined his life.
Because of his devoutly Catholic upbringing, Murdock does not believe in killing his enemies, and he considers it an unforgivable sin. Many of the more interesting conversations in the original series between Murdock and Frank Castle/Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Father Paul Lantom (Peter McRobbie) focus on this idea of Daredevil not wanting to kill enemies he knows he must and wanting to kill enemies he knows he doesn’t need to.
However, after winning the initial fight between Daredevil and Bullseye in Episode 1, Daredevil sees that Foggy has been killed and throws Bullseye off a roof, enacting his own form of retribution and justice. Bullseye ends up not dying, but the idea that Daredevil tried to murder him haunts him, eventually leading to Daredevil taking off the mask and putting away the weapons for more than a year.
One year later, at the sentencing of Poindexter after his murder conviction, Murdock finally reconnects with Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll). Page eventually became a co-partner of the law firm that would be named Nelson, Murdock & Page, but left New York City for San Francisco after Foggy’s death and when Matt Murdock became unreachable. Page knew they needed to lean on each other, and even if Murdock didn’t, their physical and emotional separation drove a wedge between them that still has not healed after all this time.
A brief pause to say that it was extremely surprising and jarring to see Foggy Nelson, a lead in the original show and the source of levity and “everyman” in that series, be murdered in the first few minutes. Will Foggy continue to be in the show via flashback or other methods? Will Karen Page have a major role now that she no longer lives in Hell’s Kitchen (or that side of the country at all)? Part of the appeal of Daredevil was the music that this trio made together, so life without at least one of them is going to be a major adjustment.
Speaking of adjustments, Kingpin is back in New York after uninspiring cameos in Marvel’s Hawkeye and Echo television series. In Hawkeye, Wilson Fisk and Kingpin were introduced to the MCU as the mysterious mob man who runs New York City. It was a similar persona for Fisk, albeit a tamed version since Disney+ wasn’t interested in TV-MA programs at that time. In Echo, Kingpin played the role of caretaker and mentor to Maya Lopez/Echo, a deaf martial artist who has the power to mimic her opponents’ movements.
Echo and Kingpin had what you might call a major falling-out, which led Echo to shoot Kingpin in the eye at the end of that series. Since Kingpin can apparently rest up and heal from that in about a year’s time, he makes his return to New York in Daredevil: Born Again, this time with the intention to run for mayor of New York City. In a storyline straight out of the comic books, Fisk does win the position, but we clearly know he plans to use the position to line his own pockets and give benefits to those who are loyal to him. Sound familiar? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Still in superhero retirement, Murdock (now a lawyer at a prestigious white-shoe firm in New York) cringes at this news and confronts Fisk, leading to the infamous diner scene that has been teased in all of the promotional materials and trailers for the show. This was maybe the most compelling conversation of the first two episodes as the two decide and communicate that they will operate as dueling watchdogs of sorts. Murdock will be watching to make sure Fisk does not take advantage of the people of New York City. Fisk will be cracking down on anyone who roams around the city in a suit, enforcing their own kind of vigilante justice (including suits with “a skull” or “a spider” on them).
Episode 2, “Optics,” follows the very early days of Fisk as mayor as he tries to make good on his promises to fix the city (including getting a major pothole fixed) and bring to justice any vigilante who tries to do the job of the police. This is where we are introduced to Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes, who tragically died from cancer in December 2023), a seemingly Good Samaritan who found himself at the wrong subway platform at the wrong time. When trying to break up a fight, one of the perpetrators (who happens to be a cop) falls on the platform and is killed by an incoming train.
The police are now out to get the guy who “murdered” one of their own, and Murdock agrees to defend Ayala in his upcoming trial. But one liiiiitle thing Ayala forgot to mention when he was arrested is that he has also been operating as the vigilante White Tiger, who plays a similar role to Daredevil, busting up crime at night. The dirty cops already want to take Ayala down, and now, if Fisk finds out he is a vigilante, he will take a personal interest in the case. Murdock plans to play it all on the down-low and just use the testimony of the subway platform witness to get Ayala out of jail.
But while Murdock and his investigator, Cherry (Clark Johnson), try to track down the witness, they discover the dirty cops are trying to do the same. Murdock is able to get to him just before the police do and gets the witness to safety, but Murdock stays behind to stall the police. The two dirty officers that arrive—as everyone always does—underestimate Murdock, and when they try to kill him, the devil inside finally comes out again. A few broken bones and fractured skulls later, Matt Murdock has succumbed to the devil on his shoulder once again, after the angel won for so long. His red glasses are shattered, as well as the idea that he could ever really hide from who he truly is meant to be.
Daredevil: Born Again Quick Hits
- One of the two dirty cops in the last scene appears to have the Punisher logo tattooed on his wrist. We know Frank Castle/The Punisher is in this show, but since we last saw him, has his symbol been taken and perverted into something Castle never wanted it to be, mirroring real life right now?
- Fisk and his wife, Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer), have apparently been separated while Fisk was off recovering, and she took over running his business while he was away. Fisk doesn’t seem too fond of this arrangement, and the two eventually find themselves in marriage counseling. I guess if Tony Soprano can have a therapist, anyone can.
- I really hate the high-pitched nasally kid who is following Fisk around and blowing smoke up his ass.
- BB Urich, who seems to have a popular online news journal called The BB Report, is the niece of Ben Urich, who was a journalist at the New York Bulletin during the original Daredevil show. Urich was killed by Kingpin in that show, so it begs the question: Would someone from Ben’s family be out for revenge and work in partnership with Daredevil?
- Last we saw Daredevil, he was getting some superhero-on-superhero action with Tatiana Maslany in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law. I guess they made a deal not to be exclusive, living in different parts of the country and all that.
- I REALLY hope that’s not the last we see of Foggy Nelson. Nelson and Murdock have been partners for more than 60 years in the comics, and it would be a shame to end that partnership on screen now.
