By Andrew Pelechaty
WARNING: This review contains spoilers from Daredevil Born Again Season 2.
While it could be argued that Disney was a big part of the MCU backlash post-Endgame (with lots of interconnected Disney+ series and movies that turned watching the MCU into homework), Daredevil’s introduction has been one of the high points.
Born Again has been just as good as the Netflix series, functioning as both a continuation and sort of a soft reboot, and quickly dismissing concerns that The Man Without Fear would be sanitised to please Disney. While Charlie Cox’s cameo in She-Hulk was more comedic (including the retro mustard suit), the dark and serious Daredevil is all over Born Again.
One of the big improvements from season 1 is there’s a lot more Daredevil. Matt put away the red suit for most of season 1 as he was mourning Foggy’s death, but he wears the new black suit (with the comics-accurate DD logo on the chest) nearly every episode, with more action set pieces as a result. This balances the slower and more dramatic court room/crime/political/journalism/religious scenes (Karen Page’s trial takes up most of the final episode) and shows why Born Again’s different tones and themes is one of its biggest strengths. It feels appropriate that Michael Gandolfini (James Gandolfini’s son) has a prominent role when Born Again has clear The Sopranos influences.
Speaking of influences, there’s almost undeniable references to a certain president in this series, especially around the Anti-Vigilante Task Force: while supposedly meant to stop vigilantes, the Force seem happy to go rouge and capture whoever they want to, using as much force as necessary.
Though this season doesn’t have a lot of lighter moments, the romance between Matt and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) has been rekindled, there’s some Foggy and Matt flashbacks (with Elden Henson returning), and Matthew Lillard adds a little bit of levity.
If you wanted to be picky, you could argue that Kingpin/Wilson Fisk again being used as the main antagonist is getting boring, but when you have Vincent D’Onofrio, you’d be silly not to use him as often as possible. There is some variety, with Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) becoming more prominent as an anti-hero (including a comics-accurate makeshift costume), and Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) becoming the serial killer Muse after he nearly killed her in season 1. Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton) also appears as the vigilante the Swordsman.
While I complained earlier about the ‘homeworkification’ of the MCU on Disney+, season 2 appears to setting up The Defenders in the MCU. After a lot of hype (“Mother is back!” became a popular social media tagline), Krysten Ritter returns as Jessica Jones and has enough opportunities to show off her superhuman strength. There’s a cameo from Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Finn Jones is set to return as Danny Rand/Iron Fist in season 3. And will Elektra also return (ideally played by Élodie Yung again)? The upcoming Punisher special – A Marvel Television Special Presentation: The Punisher: One Last Kill – could lay the foundation for Born Again season 3, with Jon Bernthal returning as The Punisher.
