Canceling “Daredevil” at the height of the shows popularity in 2018 is still one of the most contentious moves made by Marvel Studios in the entirety of the MCU’s run. Charlie Cox’s iteration of Matt Murdock became a fan favorite and over the years, Marvel diehards waited for the man without fear to get his show back. After lots of delays and cutting a monster 18 episode order in half to 9, we finally got ‘Born Again’. The series may not have brought back the magic of the original show, but season 1 surely had its share of memorable moments.
Marvel Television capitalized on Matt Murdock’s momentum by delivering a second season just one year later, which is becoming a rarity in the current TV landscape. ‘Born Again’ has also been renewed for a third season and is already on the process of filming, which means we should see a third season about a year from now. With the season 2 premiere airing last night, hopes were high for a mind-blowing return…which never seemed to actually materialize. Warning, beyond this point there are spoilers dor anyone who isn’t up to date on with “Daredevil: Born Again” on Disney+.
With the season 2 premiere airing last night, hopes were high for a mind-blowing return…which never seemed to actually materialize.”
Although one of our main complaints of the premiere (AND season 1) was the lack of action and signature Daredevil bareknuckle brawling, the episode does deliver on some fighting within the first few minutes (although the redshirts DD takes down are pretty light work). Daredevil stops a shipment of some type of elite marmalades into NYC, but the pilots hit self destruct and capsize the boat “Titanic” style. Seeing Matt back in action and breaking bones is a great way to start but that pace was not maintained throughout the season opener.
The next major sequence shows Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) training on a makeshift Wing-Chun dummy before DD gets home to their secret layer. Seeing Karen practice like this and learn moves from Matt makes us wonder if Feige and Marvel are planning some type of ‘Kare-Devil’ situation where Karen takes over the role or the Devil of Hells Kitchen. It is worth noting that a variant of Karen once became a vampire hero that fought alongside Blade and Man-Thing. The dialogue between Karen and Matt throughout the episode feels mostly forced, as the two ONLY ever talk about the plot with almost 0% small talk.
The Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) storyline becomes one of the most compelling things about the episode with the arrival of Mr. Charles (Matthew Lilliard). The character claims to be from the CIA and Fisk already knows him by face, but Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer) says his name is fake – which seems true. She also implies he is more than what he seems to and once again, Mrs. Fisk seems right on th3e money. There really no canonical character example of Mr: Charles aside from some free promo Army and Airforce comic, which may not have even the same character. If it was the character, he was associated with Roxxon corporation, which has been part of the MCU in some form or other for over 10 years. The conversation between Charles and Vanesa is also interesting because of a potential major spoiler that D’Onofrio seems to have let slip about a potential major death. On the “Daredevil: Born Again Official Podcast” discussing the premiere, Vincent made a remark that was partially edited, but this is what was left behind: “So, Fisk’s worry is that the public thinks — might think — that her death is preoccupying him.” That seems like a possible spoiler leak of Vanessa’s death, but it could also be the couple’s therapist, who we’ll talk about more soon.
For now, Charles is posing as a logistics guy, but it’s possible there may be a big reveal there. Could the actor be playing a more powerful villain than he first appears, like Mephisto did in Ironhesrt? There is a Daredevil baddie called Mister Fear who uses a weaponized gas that induces fear attacks on its victims. Fear even ends up a member of the Thinderbolts at one point under one of the men that donned the identity named Cranston. Is it possible that Cranston met Kingpin before and just told him to call him Mister C? It’s likely that we’ll have to wait until the season unfolds to really find out.
A surprisingly interesting story during the premiere was Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), Matt’s ex from season 1. Heather is tasked with determining the mental stability of Swordsman (Tony Dalton) for the upcoming vigilante trials. Heather’s traumatic flashbacks reoccur throughout the episode and fans have speculated whether or not she will have a mental break and become some sort of female ‘Muse’. Heather quickly shows she’s turned to the dark side after her breakup with Matt, as she betrays her oath as a doctor to make Swordsman look like a sociopath in her court report. The BB Urich (Genneya Walton) part of the story dug into the journalistic aspect of the show, which has always existed on both ‘Daredevil’ series. There is an emotional callback to the death of BB’s Uncle Ben (Spidey parallel?) who BB is secretly trying to avenge while working in the belly of the beast.
While we see Fisk’s obvious propaganda social media videos, there’s also a great moment where an ‘Anonymous’-like character appears dressed up in a Wilson Fisk costume with a hilariously ironic take on the Kingpin’s voice. 2 notable absences from the festivities are Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and the Punisher (Jon Bernthal). We know Jones will appear in the season as she’s featured in the trailer, but it’s unclear when. Frank Castle was last seen in the ‘Born Again’ season 1 finale in one of Fisk’s vigilante cages, but it’s alleged we won’t see the character at all in season 2 and we’ll have to wait until the “Punisher: One Last Kill” hour-long special that airs a week after season 2 finale on May 5th.
The premiere gets bookended with action scenes as the AVTF (Anti-Vigilante Task Force) raid the apartment of Cherry (Clark Johnson) in hopes of attracting DD…and they get what they want. In an unexpected twist, the gang of dirty cops has Matt pinned down and they unmask him. Just as Murdock is about to be executed, Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) executes Daredevils would-be murderers. Matt and Cherry are in shock when Bullseye throws in a knife with his logo that says “you’re welcome” on the handle. The irony of sending a written message to a blind man aside, the rescue from such a twisted killer as Poindexter is an extremely interesting development. Why was Bullseye watching Matt? Why did he want to rescue him? Did Matt’s sacrifice to save his mortal enemy Fisk somehow breakdown Bullseye’s thought process? The episode cuts to the credits before any abets are given, but it’s still an exciting last minute twist. Reviewers that have seen the season say the action only untreated from here and that specifically episodes 4 – 8 are the most reminiscent of the early Netflix days of the series. We agree the episode was slow, but it didn’t lack intrigue and aside from some forced dialogue it was overall a solid watch.
The team at Binge Rampage has been maintaining a chronological by scene edit of the entire MCU since 2017 and everytime a new season or movie drops, the cut moves and grows. Daredevil is a significant part of the MCU with over a decade of appearances that span 5 shows and a Spidey movie appearance with bigger things possibly on the horizon with Charlie Cox recently publicly expressing his interest in being an Avenger. Will we see Cox fight Affleck in ‘Secret Wars’? When will the Defenders finally be reunited?
What do you think? Will this season of ‘Born Again’ finally return the man without fear to his full glory? Will Kare-Devil become a thing? Is Bullseye on a redemption arc that will land him in the Thunderbolts like in the comics? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
