The following contains major spoilers for “Daredevil: Born Again” as well as “Daredevil.”
Marvel’s “Daredevil: Born Again” came out on Tuesday, seven years after the original “Daredevil” show. Its premiere featured two episodes: “Heaven’s Half-Hour,” which ran for a little over an hour, and “Optics,” which ran for 46 minutes.
“Daredevil: Born Again” had many similar elements to the original show, especially when it came to the narrative framing of the main characters. However, despite having much of the same cinematography, style, and characters as “Daredevil,” it fell incredibly short of its predecessor.
“Daredevil: Born Again” started off strong, with the opening shot being one that looked straight out of a comic book. The first scene is of the same main characters from “Daredevil:” Matt Murdock, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, and Karen Page. The conversation they have is one that seemed to speak straight to the audience, especially as multiple of the characters look directly into the camera, as they talked about nostalgia and the future.
Nelson, specifically, said that what they have is “reverence for the past and hope for the future.” After the initial announcement that Page and Nelson would not be returning at all, this scene almost seemed to tell the audience that they had nothing to worry about. “Daredevil: Born Again” respected its roots, even as it wanted to move forward.
However, that was immediately contradicted by the show killing Nelson, for many reasons. Nelson’s death is one that parallels Page’s comic death strongly, as both happen at the hands of Bullseye (also known as Benjamin Pointdexter) after a reboot, though it is an unnamed extra who actually assumes Page’s famous death pose.
After the work “Daredevil” did throughout its three seasons to establish the importance of Nelson and Page in Murdock’s life, “Daredevil: Born Again” chose to spend its show opener on presenting the image of Page kneeling beside Nelson’s dead body, followed by Page moving across the country.
Killing Nelson in Page’s place could be read as a statement about sexism relating to the death of female characters, that “Daredevil: Born Again” doesn’t need to kill a woman for a man’s character development, but they still completely removed Page from the narrative for Murdock’s development. With two of the three original characters written out and the sudden one-year timeskip glossing over the worst of Murdock’s grief, “Daredevil: Born Again” seemed in a rush to cut as many ties to “Daredevil” as it could.
Beyond that, the show itself felt like it was the product of five writers arguing with each other until they were able to film enough content to release 18 episodes. It pulls from mid-to-late ‘70s “Daredevil” comics with Murdock’s love interest, as well as modern comics with Murdock’s more current love interest, Kirsten McDuffie, and early 2000s comics with the inclusion of Hector Ayala. It should be noted that none of those characters are at all involved in the original “Daredevil: Born Again” story.
The theme of the show, self-discovery, is also a conflicting one. After Murdock spent three seasons of “Daredevil” insisting he needed to be Daredevil, it didn’t seem possible for Murdock to give up his identity as a vigilante. In fact, the final season of “Daredevil” is dedicated to Murdock finding his civilian identity again after losing himself in Daredevil completely. Despite this, “Daredevil: Born Again” is based on the premise of Murdock deciding that Daredevil was no longer necessary and Nelson’s death had crossed a line.
Even accepting that premise, “Daredevil: Born Again” failed to make a compelling case for why Murdock was wrong to give up on his vigilante persona. Obviously, he must go back to being Daredevil — the show has that name for a reason — but the “why” just wasn’t there. After the timeskip, Murdock’s life seemed to be a much healthier one: his business was doing well without Murdock sacrificing his principles of working pro bono, he was maintaining good relationships with McDuffie and the ex-police officer, Cherry, and he started a romantic relationship with Glenn.
Towards the end of the second episode, Murdock engaged in a fight, which broke his glasses and added to this theme as the audience is told: this is what Murdock is. It is in his nature to fight for justice on all sides, as Daredevil and Murdock, and it is not true to himself to act otherwise. Yet that message felt weak because of the reason Murdock was in the fight in the first place: to save himself. He was there for his client, but the only reason he fought back against the police officers was because his own life was in danger.
“Daredevil” made it clear that the ethical choice for Murdock was to be Daredevil. It connected his origin to a young girl being abused and needing someone to help her, someone like Murdock. However, “Daredevil: Born Again” framed Murdock’s slip back into his Daredevil persona as selfish, which made it unclear if the show about Daredevil thought Daredevil should exist at all.
“Daredevil: Born Again” wasn’t without high points. The antagonist of the series, Wilson Fisk, was well-written, continuing to exist in a delicate balance between uncontrolled rage and dignity. The cinematography was beautiful, with multiple shots framing Fisk as being holy (a halo of light in his reflection, towering above the city, etc.) to contrast Murdock’s devil imagery. It looked like “Daredevil,” with seven years of preparation to make it better.
Still, “Daredevil: Born Again” failed to have the same spirit as the original show because it died with Nelson at the start of the first episode. It was conflicted in theme, barely relating to the large variety of source material it drew from, and completely devoid of understanding for the point made by “Daredevil:” that the self Murdock needed to discover and hold onto was the one connected to Nelson and Page.
Edited March 6, 2025 for updated cover photo.
