After the end of the Infinity Saga, the separation from the characters who led its universe (at least for now) and the entry of the streaming service Disney Plus, Marvel is still searching for its path and it seems to be in total chaos.
The beauty in this chaos is that it can also lead to products that fail critically and financially like “The Marvels” (2023) and “Echo” (2023–2024) but also to special and interesting products that break the familiar Marvel formula like “WandaVision” (2021).
At Marvel’s peak, viewers knew exactly what they would get, maybe it was formulaic, but one should not underestimate the successful combination of action comedy drama again and again.
Today, every Marvel product is a gamble accompanied by uncertainty and yet only in this way can a violent and adult series like “Daredevil: Born Again” exist.
Similar to “WandaVision,” if Marvel only knew to let go more of its grip we could have gotten a truly good series and not just almost good.
Marvel’s gamble to create a sequel series to the beloved “Daredevil” (2015–2018) of Netflix was doomed from the start.
Everyone with sense understood that Marvel could not afford to go into the violent and dramatic territories of Netflix, that it is too limited within the laws of the world it built for itself and that once it casts the same actors it creates a comparison from which it cannot emerge victorious.
After the awkward appearances of Daredevil and Kingpin in other Disney Plus series, the crash was expected to be painful and inevitable, but after changes in Disney’s top management and the return of CEO Bob Iger, it was decided to do ‘reshoots’ for the series and try to save it. The result is that against all odds, they succeeded.
Although it is not an improvement over the original series and not even at the level of the weaker second season of the Netflix version, the series definitely honors the original series and does not harm its legacy, which is a great relief for fans.
The plot of “Daredevil: Born Again” takes the characters five years after a traumatic event that occurs near the end of the Netflix series.
Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) decides to run for mayor and wins without any reasonable explanation for why the voters forget his criminal and dubious past and give him their vote.
This will not be the only hole in the plot and, as is customary with Marvel, it is recommended to turn off the brain a little.
At the same time, Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox) hangs up his superhero mask from Hell’s Kitchen and decides to focus only on his work as a lawyer defending the weak and needy.
Matt’s choice to believe in the rule of law is tested both through his legal work and through the new old threat as Fisk uses his position as New York mayor to fight the phenomenon of lawbreakers/superheroes spreading in the city.
Similar to the DC series “The Penguin” (2024), which demanded comparisons to “The Sopranos” and “The Godfather,” “Daredevil: Born Again” deals with similar themes borrowed from gangster movies.
The opening monologue from “The Godfather”: “I believe in America…” fits the series’ concern with the question of whether one can trust Western justice systems or if they are rotten from within and sometimes you must take the law into your own hands and use violence to achieve the desired justice.
This question accompanies Matt throughout the series, which has more courtroom drama than visual and violent spectacle as required by the genre.
Daredevil’s strength has always been in the drama unfolding with Matt during fistfights, and when that drama is lost and only the violence remains, as in the last episode, the series loses interest.
The series’ focus on the necessity of lawbreakers/superheroes (depending on who you ask) raises questions especially since it is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As usual, the question arises where the other superheroes are who are in New York City during the series’ events and why they do not come to help.
Even if one ignores this and assumes Spider-Man or Dr. Strange have more urgent matters than dealing with a serial killer, the ease with which it is completely ignored that the Avengers saved the city from an alien invasion and revived half of humanity is intolerable.
You cannot really leave the question of superhero necessity unaddressed without considering these facts and giving some justification for why people still think they are merely violent criminals.
Just as it is impossible to understand the anti-hero conceptions of Heather (Margarita Levieva, “Summer of Love”), Matt’s new girlfriend and a clinical psychiatrist who is also a couples’ counselor, who feel like a blatant script compulsion.
Thus, the series misses the opportunity to create another real conflict, unlike the question of the effectiveness of judicial systems.
Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio continue in their excellent performances as Daredevil and Kingpin (respectively) and they can be mentioned in the same breath with castings like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man such successful castings that made the characters so identified with the actors that it is difficult to imagine another actor playing them.
Conversely, actors so identified with the characters that it is sometimes difficult to accept them as another character. D’Onofrio is so successful that he makes lines full of self-importance verge on ridiculous slide smoothly and even works as grandiose speeches meant to persuade people to follow him.
The charisma and quiet madness that threatens to erupt at any moment he is on screen are mesmerizing and make all scenes featuring him nerve wracking. Of course, Fisk is not complete without the equally criminal other half Vanessa, played by the wonderful Ayelet Zurer.
With all due respect to Gal Gadot, Zurer is a better actress and Vanessa is already the second character in the superhero worlds she embodies after having been Superman’s mother in the film “Man of Steel” (2013). She deserves more recognition for her amazing career.
Due to the ‘reshoots’ done to the series, watching it is like a game trying to guess what was originally filmed and what was filmed again in an attempt to fix the series.
Originally, the first season was supposed to be 18 episodes and we received only 9, which may explain why the ending did not close any plot lines and made the whole season feel like a preparation for the next season of the series.
Similar to almost all Marvel content that succeeds in masquerading as an artistic product of value on its own and then turns out to be a ‘filler’ meant to prepare viewers for the next big reveal and so on.
Perhaps because of this, although “Daredevil: Born Again” deals with complex questions, it reduces awkward jokes (thank goodness we did not get more from “She Hulk’s” Daredevil), and has brutal violence unsuitable for children, it does not completely escape the problems of the comic giant, even if it manages to stand out positively and enter the list of the best products the company has ever produced, certainly in its current chaotic era.
