DAMN! That got super dark!
Daredevil: Born Again picks up several years after the end of the Netflix series and 1 year after Matt Murdock's friend and law partner Foggy Nelson is assassinated by Bullseye.
Matt suited up as Daredevil to confront Bullseye and throws him off a 5 story building with the intent of killing him.
Bullseye doesn't die from the fall but Matt hangs up the Daredevil suit.
Meanwhile after being gone for a long while, Wilson Fisk, the erstwhile Kingpin, has returned to New York City.
Wife Vanessa is not sure how she feels about that. She's been running the vast Fisk criminal empire and running it very well.
Wilson has aspirations beyond returning to the role of the Kingpin. He wants to be mayor of New York City.
And despite being a dour, grim, gravel voiced bulky man monster with zero charisma, Wilson Fisk gets elected mayor.
Wilson chafes at the constraits of the niceties of being mayor, the glad handing, the public appearances, the photo ops.
There is one funny sequence involving Wilson Fisk making a series of appearances at elementary schools where each school's chorus has decided to perform the same damn song: "We Built This City" by Starship.
Wilson Fisk is used to being the Kingpin, barking orders and expecting things to be done or there will be hell to pay.
The nuances of politics gives way as Wilson becomes more Kingpin like. Why cajole and smooze when you can blackmail and threaten?
Kingpin's only real threat is Police Commissioner Gallo and Wilson resolves that threat personally: by squeezing Gallo's skull with his bare hands until Gallo's head bursts like a grape.
Holy shit! That was gruesome. (Andrea was hiding under a blanket.) Yes, Kingpin has super strength as demonstrated in the Hawkeye series.
Meanwhile...
Matt Murduck is trying... really, really trying to make a difference as a lawyer but damned if it seems like he's getting nowhere.
Then the masked serial killer Muse has taken at least 60 lives in New York and it appears this is a job for Daredevil.
Muse is a nasty piece of work. His M.O. is to drain the blood of his victims, mix the blood with paint and paints murals all over the city.
The season ends with Wilson Fisk in full Kingpin mode declaring martial law over New York City and Daredevil realizing he is outmatched and needs an army to defeat Fisk once and for all.
I am hoping for some guest appearances by other NYC set street level characters like Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Moon Knight, the Kate Bishop Hawkeye and others.
The only team up we got in season 1 was with Frank Castle, the Punisher.
All in all, Daredevil Born Again was a very grim and gritty take on the Marvel Universe, perhaps a bit grimmer and grittier than I was expecting. Andrea elected to join me for this show because she liked Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock in his appearances in Spider Man: No Way Home and his arc in She Hulk: Attorney At Law.
I tried to warn her that more light hearted take was not what we were going to get here. Still, I was uncomfortable that Andrea was on this journey with me when Kingpin crushed Gallo's skull in his hands. YUCK!
I was a big fan of Vincent D'Onofrio from his work on Law & Order: Criminal Intent but nother prepared me for how deeply he was invested in the character of Wilson Fisk.
Daredevil Born Again was not without drama behind the scenes. The original concept for the series was for it to be more episodic and with a light touch. Episodes were actually shot but all that got scrapped. New showrunners were brought in with a darker vision and more serialized storyline.
Daredevil Born Again will be back in March 2026 with season 2 and I am so looking forward to the Kingpin getting his ass handed to him.
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Weird Episode Title Coinky Dink
Last week's episode of Ghosts was "I Know What You Did 37 Summers Ago". It's an episode that revists the death of teenager Stephanie by a chain saw wielding pyscho killer.
The show that followed was a new episode of Elsbeth with the title "I Know What You Did 33 Summers Ago". Same title construction, weird, right? Elsbeth investigates the 33 year old murder of a teenage girl by a selfish, rich, entitled brat who is now a selfish, rich, entitled Supreme Court nominee. And Elsbeth doesn't win? Well, that was unusual. The episode ends with the normally perky and positive Elsbeth disillusioned.
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That is that for this week's Touchbase.
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