Born Again is the perfect MCU reintroduction

So let me get this out of the way at the beginning – I didn’t watch any of the Netflix Marvel shows when they were airing or since they’ve been on Disney+. For the most part, this is my first long-form experience with Charlie Cox as The Man Without Fear – Daredevil, aka Matt Murdock. I’ve only seen him in a few minutes; he’s in Spider-Man: No Way Home and one scene in She-Hulk, so I’m walking into this very open. Now Vincent D’Onofrio‘s Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, I do have some bit more exposure to thanks to Hawkeye (the most underrated MCU show) and Echo, and those two shows are what leads us to this restart/reboot Daredevil: Born Again. Don’t look at this title as something to connect you to the old 80s arc of the comic series by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, but like most MCU usage of classic comic arc subtitles, it’s tenuous at best. Born Again is more about this part of the Marvel Universe’s return within the canonical MCU versus the nondescript way it was before. This season takes most of its inspiration from Charles Soule and Chip Zdarsky’s time on the title, with Wilson Fisk running for Mayor of New York City and winning the election.

From the start of the season, which hits you fast and hard with a very well-crafted action set piece, puts Matt in a position to change his life completely afterward. One of the season’s central themes, which connects to the original Born Again, is Matt’s challenge of his faith and, this time, with the system in which he works as a lawyer and as a costumed crimefighter. The election of his archnemesis Fisk, with who Matt is currently in a non-aggression pact of sorts, is based on both telling everyone around them that they’ve changed and are not the same men they’ve once been even to each other. Yet, as they settle into these new lives, it shows how much they can’t change, especially concerning each other. I think for most, I don’t need to go on and on about the performance of Cox as Matt Murdock as, at this point, his portrayal of this character is synonymous with him that the character is his just as much as many of the big core Marvel actors. Cox is Daredevil, just like RDJ is Tony Stark, Jackman is Wolverine, Reynolds is Deadpool, and Helmsworth is Thor. He’s wonderfully charismatic and full of emotional turmoil that you not only expect from Murdock but need for it to be truly him. This man is just a big twisted knot of emotions and guilt, and Cox’s performance of that internal conflict pours out of your screen.

D’Onofrio is equally amazing as Fisk, and the slow simmer-to-boil that we see this character go through from being a criminal kingpin to being the mayor of one of the biggest cities in the world. His frustrations about how to do things and dealing with a new set of people to overcome at times reminded me of two storylines in The Wire – Carcetti’s in season four and Stringer Bell’s in season three. The political storylines work well with these new characters in his cabinet, along with his gangster inclinations, butting heads with legality. In some ways, he tricks you, but the Kingpin gonna Kingpin. The scenes between D’Onofrio and Ayelet Zurer‘s Vanessa are very natural and comfortable with each other. This season, they feel like a married couple, dealing with tension in the marriage after Fisk’s life-changing confrontation with Maya Lopez in Echo. This grounds some of the story in a more crime show aspect and reality that is very much lacking in other MCU shows.

This show’s supporting cast has some good performers here, starting with one of my favorites, Clark Johnson, as Cherry, a retired Police Detective who works as an investigator for Matt’s law firm and as his conscience throughout the season. Johnson, an alum of Homicide and The Wire, brings that same type of gravitas and reality to his role here. Margarita Levieva, as Heather Glenn, Matt’s love interest, gives a good performance even if her character decisions feel a bit abrupt at the end of the season. I wish she got a little more. Nikki M. James as Kirsten McDuffie, who ends up being Matt’s partner in his new law firm, might’ve been one of my favorite characters in the show. She’s always calling Matt out on his BS and giving the right amount of snark when the scenes call for it. She plays a perfect partner in this and solidifies the legal show aspect. Michael Gandolfini is a pleasant surprise to see here. He holds his own with everyone else in this cast and shines as his character, Daniel Blake. Genneya Walton plays BB Urich, the niece of Ben Urich, and brings the press into the story. While She doesn’t get added to a lot of the story, her character’s viewpoint of having citizen interviews about the city and the events happening helps build the world and the MCU NYC that we Marvel Comic readers always wish we’d gotten more of in this Marvel Universe.

What shocked me the most while watching this show was how topical it was and how political some of the questions the characters’ journeys ask. Focusing Matt’s crisis of faith on the democratic and justice systems, things he’s a part of, and his realization of how fragile these things are is something that I think will resonate with many viewers. The same is how we see Fisk as mayor and how that compares with how people see Donald Trump. This season is very much about him, just as the comic stories this season is based on are also based on that change in our society. While many will see so many correlations to things happening currently, there is no way the show knew the last few weeks would happen, but they did just as the comics did have 2017-2020 to go off of. The anti-vigilante throughline in the season, I feel, works better than in the comics as there are fewer cooks in the kitchen and honestly fewer overall costumed crimefighters in the MCU that aren’t sanctioned by some higher governmental authority.

Seeing a show that deals with Policing and how that affects different parts of the communities in the city through White Tiger was not something I expected from this show. I don’t expect this from the Marvel Cinematic Universe at all because it’s historically been a nonfactor. Daredevil: Born Again, having long stretches of itself being law drama, was actually very thrilling to watch. Also, I feel dealing with not only corrupt police structurally but also the real-world implications of The Punisher and how Frank Castle sees and deals with that for me might be one of the most complex and best things I’ve seen Marvel do with their stance on their character’s real-world impact. Jon Bernthal is excellent in this role. He’s been perfect without me even seeing a frame of his show. If you have liked him before, he is a welcome dessert in a fantastic show. I say dessert because he’s mainly in the season finale, and while his presence is felt all the way through, he’s not overused and is not in a secondary hero role. It does feel like a perfect setup for this character to have a real presence in  the near future.

When watching this season, I felt energized by storytelling and it gave me some of the same feeling I got from watching The Penguin. The whole season really comes together to begin a fantastic story that, as I’ve said before, adds to and grounds the MCU. It’s something that the MCU needs now, with people not wholly liking the current phases as much. For my tastes, Daredevil: Born Again is the best television show Marvel Studios have made. It has no weak points to nitpick over, and the core conflict between Daredevil and Fisk stays clear and is the story’s center. I was shocked to like this as much as I did, and I think it is one of the best shows of the first half of Twenty Twenty-Five.

Daredevil: Born Again is available on Disney+ right now.