Daredevil: Born Again… is OK

I mean, it’s not up to the standard of the three series of Daredevil that were on Netflix, c. 2015-18. The third season of that (actually a version of F Miller’s Born Again storyline) is about as good as live-action superhero material gets. Notwithstanding my reservations about superhero stuff which excludes kids… and this most certainly does, in all its incarnations… the Netflix show, but especially season three, was excellent.

Netflix DAREDEVIL. Who’d think that DD played by a Brit would be so good?

Born Again of course is full-on Disney/MCU/Kevin Feige territory. This left some people to dismiss it as foredoomed junk from the outset. Not entirely without reason, perhaps, but……

Granted, when this series started production in 2023, it was going to be a very different show. Daredevil was pushed to the background and a light-hearted approach was favoured. You can call this the Feige Effect, if you like. But when production was halted by the Hollywood Strikes, stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio lobbied for an approach nearer to the earlier show. When it resumed production, the guy who ran the Netflix Punisher series, Dario Scardapane, was made showrunner. Punisher was nowhere near the quality of Daredevil, although season one was very good… and IMO, Born Again was course-corrected pretty well by this move.

The main problem is that Marvel insisted as much of the earlier material as possible be incorporated into the series, so the first half of Born Again season one is… a fucking mess. Tonally all over the place. No doubt about it. Once that was out of the way, it actually got good. Not as good as Netflix, by any stretch… but pretty good.

Season one’s other misstep, obviously, was killing Foggy in the very first episode. Now, apparently, we’re forever denied any possibility of Elden Henson pretending to be Daredevil…

Elden Henson was itching to play this. Art by John Romita, from DAREDEVIL #18, 1966.

Season two has been dismissed on a number of grounds. Notably, that Kingpin is reduced to a banal Trump avatar, his troops thinly-disguised ICE agents, etc. I don’t even think that’s literally the case (maybe there are intentional echoes here and there), but even if it is, I’m thinking only a bunch of utter snowflakes would get upset about it…

Kingpin in BORN AGAIN—practically Donald Trump’s twin brother. Whatever.

Comments bemoaning Karen being a “Girl Boss” are particularly vexing. In actual fact, she didn’t do a hell of a lot. She probably kicked ass twice in the whole eight episodes. Also, she tended to be more aggressive than Matt in some of their one-on-one discussions. So what? Anyone moaning about this is being an arrant sexist. Period.

This is not like some of the stupidity seen in a number of recent films—for instance, showing a skinny 5’2″ woman beating a huge hulk of a man in a one-to-one fight. Most people will agree this is ridiculous—if super powers aren’t involved.

In Karen’s case, we have a healthy woman of about 5’10”, who beat a couple of similar-sized guys with SKILL as much as strength.

No one objected to Ellen Ripley doing this kind of stuff. It’s fine. Stop being so fucking sexist about it, dudes.

Karen wants to kill Bullseye. Girls aren’t meant to be angry & violent, sayeth The Chuds.

The one objection I can see and somewhat agree with is that of pacing. The pacing was slow. In a couple of episodes, hardly anything significant happens at all. But let’s be honest—fast pace was not a signature of the Netflix shows, either. They were all fairly glacial, and sometimes very padded. So, while I could criticise Born Again (in particular season two) for being lax in terms of pacing—I’d say the same about the older shows.

But, they were still good—no, great—at their best.

Ironically, the final, eighth episode of Born Again season two has been slammed for its hysterical, bombastic, high-octane absurdity. The first half of it is, I think, excellent. The second half… well, yeah, it does rather descend into ultra-violent madness. And it doesn’t hold up greatly to scrutiny—there are plot-holes and logic issues. But, you know what? It was absolutely ridiculous and as OTT as it could get, but it was watchable and entertaining. Get over it! This is not Shakespeare.

Kingpin goes on a mad killing spree—the climax of BORN AGAIN season two.

And it is the cast which makes these shows. Charlie Cox seems like an unlikely Matt Murdock, in a way. He’s British, for starters. But, in fact, he’s terrific, and his accent is spot-on. Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin, I think, has been universally acclaimed, and what needs to be said? He owns this role. He’s brilliant. But they damn well better backseat him a bit in season three—you can’t keep doing this conflict over and over.

Elden Henson was a great Foggy, just as Deborah Ann Woll is a great Karen. I am disappointed they never let their three-way dynamic in the law practice just sit there and breathe a lot more. The stories were too busy splitting them all up, or ultimately killing Foggy off. They had wonderful chemistry and it wasn’t used enough.

Matt, Karen and Foggy in the Netflix days.

Wilson Bethel is an excellent Bullseye, and while I’d like a break from Kingpin, I’m happy to see this guy more.

Bullseye in action—season two of BORN AGAIN.

So, I think it’s a show worth checking out. I am not an MCU fan by any stretch. In the last decade, Marvel-wise, I’ve watched some of Doctor Strange (it looked awful), all of Black Panther (it was awful), and the excellent MCU-adjacent Logan. That’s it.** I’m beyond bored with these breathless, exhausting, CGI jizz-fests.

This show is a different animal. I like it. Room for improvement? Plenty. But a lot of the criticism has been nonsensical, some of it doubtless politically motivated.

Well, bluntly… fuck that shit. If you haven’t, go watch it!!

**Almost forgot. I also saw the 2025 Fantastic Four movie! And… maybe I’ll review it sonetime. Not positively……