It has been 7 years since fans said goodbye to Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock. Now he’s back with Daredevil: Born Again and better than ever.
Cox returned as Daredevil back in Spider-Man: No Way Home and has since made small appearances leading up to the release of Daredevil: Born Again. But the small smattering of references we got to Matt led to a brilliant first season back in action. It is, at times, different from the original show on Netflix but it still has an energy that is so essential to who Matt is.
Created by Dario Scardapane and directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the first episode is a lot of set up for the season and, in watching it on its own, it can feel like something of a disappointment. But revisiting it after seeing the entire season made me appreciate what Scardapane was doing with our grand return to Daredevil.
While the first episode kicks us off with an action-packed first act, it does a lot of work to set up where Matt is going in a Hell’s Kitchen that doesn’t have the Devil to protect it. At each turn, Born Again reminds us that even without the suit, Matt is always going to fight for what is right and find the answers he needs. And in a season with twists and turns more darker than the last, it feels good having him back and fighting throughout it.
A rivalry that is one for the ages
Since he dawn of Daredevil as the hero of Hell’s Kitchen, he has had Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) watching his every move. The Kingpin himself was Matt’s biggest threat and the two came to something of a truce at the end of season 3 of Daredevil. Matt told Fisk that he would not let him change who he is but the two adversaries had a moment of clarity: Leave Vanessa out of it and keep Foggy and Karen safe and the two could exist in New York together.
Born Again poses a simple question: What if Fisk was no longer the Kingpin? What if he went “clean” to run for Mayor of New York? It leads to both Matt and Fisk in a stalemate with each other. In the first episode, the two make another agreement: If Fisk stays clean, Matt doesn’t have to come for him and if Matt becomes Daredevil again, Fisk will come for him.
It leaves an interesting dynamic through the first half of the season. The two are putting up a front, hiding one part of themselves and trying to keep their dreams for New York going without being the Kingpin/Daredevil of before. Seeing this change in the two, both knowing everything about the other but not being able to do anything to stop the other, really is a fascinating change for the two characters.
Matt Murdock back where he belongs (in the courtroom)
Aspects of Daredevil got lost throughout the seasons. One being Matt’s daily dedication to to the court of law. He was always part of fighting for the justice of those New Yorkers who needed him but the overarching story would, at times, take him away from his profession and his connection to Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll).
This season, when tragedy befalls Matt, it brings him back to his lawyer roots. We get to see him fighting cases, working for clients, and investigating his case more often than not in season 1 of Born Again and it felt like the necessary return to form that Matt needed. His vigilante ways are part of who he is but he is also an “Avocado at law.”
It felt good to see him back in the courtroom on a more regular basis and not as a side story that the show threw in to remind audiences of what Matt does for a living. And the show found a nice balance between his Daredevil antics alongside Matt’s desire to help in the courtroom.
Forever Jack Murdock’s son
The fighting style of Matt Murdock is just as we remember. He won’t kill but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to brutally take on his opponents and leave them wishing they never crossed paths with Daredevil. And just because the series is on Disney+ doesn’t mean that they made his style more “PG.” If anything, it is more gruesome than the original series.
Snapping legs, throwing men off buildings, and more, one thing about Matt’s style in this show is clear: He is his father’s son. Part of what made Matt’s fighting so fascinating was the use of boxing mixed in with his martial arts that Stick (Scott Glenn) taught him. But when we do see those boxing roots, the connection that Matt still has with his father Jack, it tugs at the heart.
Matt explains at one point in the season his backstory, explaining that his father died and he was raised as an orphan. So when he does show those connections back to Jack Murdock, it highlights Matt’s deep need for connection and his faith.
Our good Catholic boy is so back
Religion and superheroes do not often go hand in hand. But Matt Murdock has always represented a complicated relationship with the church. As the descendent of Catholics myself, Matt’s guilt and connection to the church is something I’ve always related to. In Born Again, Matt’s Catholicism is a bit different from the original series.
He carries a prayer card with him throughout the season. As someone with my grandparents and father’s on display in my room, that is a feeling of loss and guilt I understand well. But he also is wearing his cross necklace and praying when he can. He may not be in Mass every Sunday but he’s connected to the faith that gave him hope and took everything from him.
Seeing that part of Matt still alive and well meant a lot to me. It is a part of what made me love Matt Murdock as much as I do and Born Again introduced a new kind of connection to his faith and it made for an interesting theme to unpack throughout he season. But it is also still integral to who Matt is.
He won’t kill because of his Catholic upbringing and he fights for what he believes is right.
It is so worth the wait
This all feels too good to be true. That somehow, after all these years, the show can come back and not have missed a step. But to me, it is the same Daredevil I have been missing for the last 7 years. He is violent yet kind, sweet and funny, and genuinely one of the good men fighting to keep New York safe.
His battles with Fisk, his own trauma he refuses to explore, and his need to be too much for everyone is what makes him one of my favorite Marvel heroes of all time. And Born Again allows all those aspects of Matt to shine through while still making him the Daredevil we know and love.
Vicious, violent, and so very Matt-like, the show is a worthy successor to the original series and worth the 7 years we’ve been waiting for him to come back to us.
