“Daredevil: Born Again” is finally out. The first two episodes were released on Disney+ on March 4, the third episode will be released this Tuesday, with the rest of the season to be released on a weekly basis. In this article, I will go over the show’s background, my thoughts on the first two episodes and what can be expected next.

Background

Daredevil has been through a lot. The blind lawyer/vigilante was first portrayed by Charlie Cox in Netflix’s “Daredevil,” which aired for three seasons from 2015 to 2018. To fans’ dismay, the show was canceled following Marvel’s decision to move their productions to Disney+. Since then, Cox has made cameos as Daredevil in other Marvel projects, including “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” and “Echo.” Cox’s co-star, Vincent D’Onofrio, also made appearances as Daredevil’s nemesis Wilson Fisk in “Hawkeye” and “Echo.”

“Born Again” is Daredevil’s first solo project since 2018. Originally, it was meant to be an 18-episode soft reboot that ignored the Netflix continuity, omitting many characters from its predecessor. Six episodes had already been filmed when the writer’s strike halted production. Marvel took that time to review the footage and decided it wasn’t working. Head writers Matt Corman and Chris Ord were let go and replaced by “The Punisher” showrunner Dario Scardapane.

The scenes by Corman and Ord were kept but enhanced with new footage, linking the revised story together and three new episodes were added to cap the season at nine episodes. Actors were brought in from the previous “Daredevil” series to reprise their roles, including Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page and Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, making “Born Again” a continuation of “Daredevil.”

First Two Episodes Review

The first two episodes are messy, to say the least.

The story follows Wilson Fisk’s ascension to power as duly elected mayor of New York. Concurrently, Matt Murdock has retired from being Daredevil after “a line was crossed” in the first episode, leaving both characters cut off from their usual activities.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: this is a Marvel Studios production. If you want something like Marvel’s Netflix television shows, then you’re better off watching “Echo,” which took inspiration from “Daredevil” and follows its down-to-earth tone. Now that Daredevil is officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the story of “Born Again” is based around the existence of superheroes in New York, with characters like Spider-Man casually name-dropped.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The first 15 minutes of the first episode did an excellent job in marrying the old format with the new in the series’ first one-shot fight sequence, a tradition carried over from the Netflix show. Daredevil was shown flipping across rooftops and swinging on poles in a distinctly super heroic manner, unlike in his previous show. When the fight scene moved into close quarters, it resembled more of what Daredevil fans are used to. The whole sequence was thrilling to watch.

Unfortunately, the remainder of the two episodes were less exciting. Most of the episodes were spent exploring the logistics of Fisk’s rise to power, often mirroring the polarized politics of U.S. presidential elections. But while “Daredevil” similarly went long stretches of time without fight scenes, it infused every line of dialogue with emotional weight to sustain the audience’s attention, something missing in “Born Again.” Disney’s trademark desire to inject humor into everything and have Fisk joke about “the younger generation” felt at odds with the otherwise dark tone of the show, causing its message to fall flat.

Some scenes were better than others, displaying the impact of the creative overhaul. While the pilot episode bridges the gap between the two continuities, and explains things like Foggy and Karen’s disappearance in the second episode, little was done to ensure tonal consistency. The result is that Matt acts oddly well-adjusted following narrative developments that would have driven his Netflix counterpart to depression.

There are also several new characters introduced in “Born Again,” including Matt’s law firm partner, Kirsten Mcduffie (Nikki M. James), love interest Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) and White Tiger (Kamar de los Reyes) – Marvel Comics’ first Hispanic superhero in his MCU debut. Though the narratives with these new characters are interesting, they were introduced under the shadow of the old cast’s absence, making them difficult to appreciate.

But these are just the first two episodes, and it may be too soon to judge the whole show. The second episode ended in a brief fight scene that hinted at more action to come, and D’Onofrio has assured that the show goes even further with violence than its predecessor, so we likely haven’t gotten to the exciting bits yet. Hopefully, the show can straighten out its kinks as it progresses.

What to Expect

Several characters who appeared in the trailer have yet to appear in the show.

Perhaps the most prominent is Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), a.k.a. The Punisher, who acted as narrative foil to Matt in “Daredevil” season two before receiving his own spin-off. Frank is another vigilante, but unlike Matt, he has no qualms about killing. Given how Matt nearly crossed this line in the first episode, an interesting conversation could be had between them regarding their ethics.

Although Karen did appear in the first episode, plot developments caused her to leave Matt’s side and not appear in the second. Aside from her connection to Matt, Karen also formed a connection with The Punisher and appeared as a character in his spin-off. Bernthal has said that he didn’t want to play Frank Castle again if Woll wasn’t there, so we can expect Karen to re-enter Matt’s life around the same time Frank does.

Finally, there is Muse, a villain from the comics who creates art pieces using the blood of his victims. Since Bullseye is behind bars and Fisk is sticking to legality, the position of big bad is yet unfilled, and Muse is the perfect character to fill it. His intentionally eye-catching crimes make him impossible to ignore, causing him to be the perfect catalyst to pull Matt out of retirement and back to being Daredevil. Moreover, the violent nature of his gimmick is certain to accompany a grittier tone that would justify the show’s TV-MA label and fulfill Scardapane’s promise of delivering a darker show than Netflix’s “Daredevil.”

Reem Fan can be reached at [email protected].