After a series of fan campaigns and media attention led to cameos from Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio in Marvel titles, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is back in the streaming landscape. Daredevil Born Again, the first official continuation series based on the Netflix adapted series, dropped on Disney Plus on the night of March 4th. As a heads up, this recap of the original series and review of the Disney+ series may contain some spoilers.
Netflix’s Daredevil Recap
Before a look at the dual series premiere of Daredevil: Born Again, we’ll have to briefly go over the original Netflix series. The series showcased Matt Murdock in the early-ish years of his legal career as a burgeoning defense attorney jointly running the local firm Nelson & Murdock alongside his best friend and former Columbia Law roommate Foggy Nelson. Taking place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the series does make small references to the Battle of New York the Avengers had with the Chitauri now and then.
After successfully proving the innocence of their first official client Karen Page, she begins to work alongside them as she believes that they can help usher in a real change in New York City. While believing in the good of the city and defending those that he believes innocent through the law and courts, Murdock also moonlights as a vigilante at night called Daredevil who is like Batman dispensing brutal beatings to criminals and attempting to clean up the streets of Hell’s Kitchen.
Murdock, Nelson, and Page swiftly garner reputations in the city as their efforts get the attention of local crime families and bosses. One crime boss in particular, Wilson Fisk, aims to use money and his influence to get them to let him operate freely to no success. Murdock encounters other local characters throughout the series’ run and appearances that would aid, including Jessica Jones, The Punisher, and Spider-Man.
One Hell of a Start
Daredevil: Born Again picks up a few years after the original show ended. Foggy and Karen (now fully aware of Matt’s double life) have rekindled their friendship with Murdock. Nelson, Murdock, & Page is now a realized firm and the three are shown in good spirits heading to their favorite spot, Josie’s.
The trio are knocking back a few drinks and Foggy chats up a fellow lawyer about one of his clients when he gets a call. The three listen in on the scared guy who’s been living with him and Matt starts to don his hero fit to investigate.
The client reveals he was coerced to distract him and just then, the stakes are elevated as viewers are re-introduced to one of Daredevil’s rivals, Benjamin Poindexter AKA Bullseye by comic fans. Foggy is shot in front of Karen by Bullseye and Matt, now in full gear, traverses the rooftops to find him and the two begin a brutal bout throughout the bar onto the roof. As Foggy bleeds out and eventually passes, both Karen and Matt are mournful. Without hesitation, Matt throws Dex off.
Turning a New Leaf
He tosses his mask off the roof too, both signifying him leaving his life of vigilantism behind. The brutality of the original series is back in spades. It was reported that an original, lighter version of Born Again was partially in production until the WGA and SAG strikes halted further development.
The strikes may have been a blessing in disguise, as they gave Kevin Feige and Marvel’s top brass the foresight to retool the series into something more akin to the Netflix show. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, known for working on the Disney+ original series Moon Knight and Loki, along with many more crew members, were brought in to reshoot episodes, and so far, it appears to have paid off. The look of Daredevil: Born Again is on par with the best episodes of the Netflix series.
While the brutality of the show makes sense, there does seem to be an overreliance on CGI that did make for a few noticeably stylized shots in the first few minutes. The show continues a year after that tragic night and Matt now runs a new law firm without Karen.
When the two reunite after his sworn testimony that Dex be sentenced to life, we learn she has moved to San Francisco. Wilson Fisk becomes the new mayor of New York and a new case for Matt that involves a fellow masked vigilante starts to upend his life outside of Hell’s Kitchen. As much as he tries, Matt can’t avoid his darker half and it appears he’ll go back to becoming the Devil once again.
Daredevil: Born Again Overall Impressions
The first two episodes of the series were written and directed near-perfect. The dialogue, except a few asides here and there, felt in line with the cast of characters viewers have come to know for years. The action depicted was shocking for an official Disney property and set the tone for how dark Daredevil Born Again will be.
It felt like meeting old friends seeing all of the returning faces, especially Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, reprise their old roles as if no time had passed. The inclusion of making New York City more of a character in Born Again was an ingenious move as it feels more like an actual city tale. The creative minds between this series has all they need to knock this effort out of the park.
