What do you do when you have to continue one of the best seasons of superhero television? Well, for Daredevil, the answer is twofold. Daredevil: Born Again is the series’ fourth season, but also the first go-around in the post-Netflix Disney+ era of Marvel streaming shows. The final product is also created by two different creative teams. The first wanted a soft reboot, distancing the show from its Netflix roots through its cast and tone, while the second wanted a more direct continuation.
What we ultimately got, though, is far more interesting.
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What’s even more confusing is that the name Born Again is derived from a seminal comic book arc by veteran Daredevil writer Frank Miller. However, the contents of the story itself had been partially adapted by the third season of Netflix’s Daredevil. Meaning that Daredevil: Born Again virtually bears no resemblance to the comic book of the same name, other than in a meta sense of the show returning after almost a decade and being revived by a new production team.
Now that the show has finished airing all nine episodes, what can we expect for the future of our blind, horn-headed hero?
A Sequel-Reboot Made in the Dark
The second season of Daredevil: Born Again has already undergone shooting at the time of publication, and the production stills have revealed a new black colored suit for our titular hero as he fights off the anti-vigilante taskforce, an extremely violent and morally corrupt team of police. Legally authorized by Wilson Fisk, the criminal mayor of New York, the story looks to be carrying on the relevant themes of growing fascism that is held in power by militarized law enforcement.
With that in mind, it’s apparent that the show takes more influence from the 2000s to 2020s era of Daredevil comics compared to the original Netflix seasons, which primarily took note from Frank Miller’s 1980s run. But in between those two generations, there is another run that merits mention, one that comes right after the original Born Again story, and that is Ann Nocenti’s Daredevil.
By looking at Nocenti’s approach — her avoidance in piggybacking such an iconic run and instead largely doing her own thing — I think we can get a handle on Daredevil’s fate in the future as coexisting in an interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Photo courtesy of Disney+.
As a show, Daredevil: Born Again is stuck between a rock and a hard place. It can either make a name for itself by being radically different from the original Netflix series or risk comparison because, frankly, it can never be the same. The budget is different, for one, and 7 years have passed between seasons. Either way, fans won’t need to look far for things to complain about.
That’s why what Nocenti did (i.e., doing away with ninjas and kingpins of crime) was quite bold. One of the reasons she was able to do this was because of her fresh perspective. She didn’t come from the world of comics, and so she wasn’t burdened with the familiar tropes. Her Daredevil went on a spiritual journey, leaving Hell’s Kitchen to venture into the literal depths of Hell before coming back a changed man. Nocenti’s Daredevil dared to be different.
The Politics of Ann Nocenti
“I never read comics, so the idea of a hero to me was different. I couldn’t think of it in terms of a ‘superhero’ hero. I thought of it more as a conceptual hero. Not having a comic book background, I tend to come up with the metaphysics before I come up with the characters.”
It’s no wonder she took a man who wears a devil costume and sent him to hell to confront the devil. Being an outsider to comics, Nocenti brought a new sensibility that’s distinct from Miller’s previous noir tone. Hers is more surreal and overtly political, backed by a background in journalism.
Photo of Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr. from Forbidden Planet.
A criminal mayor and a violent police force are tame in comparison to how Nocenti explored themes of societal injustices in her Daredevil comic. She is heavily critical of irresponsible corporations and the poor policies of corporate America at-large. Her new side characters reflect her fears of the time, often becoming mouthpieces for outspoken opinions, ones confronted by Daredevil and integrated into his conflict.
A child paranoid of nuclear armageddon. An animal rights activist, the daughter of an animal rights abuser. A blind victim of chemical waste from negligent corporations. Nocenti was aware that it was the younger generations who would have to face the future world’s moral decline. She writes her verbose resistance on paper, a woman without fear in her own right. Daredevil is a symbol of justice, a keeper of the law that works beyond the natural order, a bringer of fairness that doesn’t exist in the real world. It’s only right, then, that in the realm of comics, he can make a difference. That’s what heroes are for, right? Yet for Nocenti, it’s not that simple.
Often, her hero doesn’t get the last laugh. Midway through her run, Daredevil is beaten by his villains, but he doesn’t get retribution in the end; he just survives. He is rarely a hero in the traditional masculine sense. Sometimes, he is even saved by a deus ex machina, things beyond his control. Nocenti is more interested in presenting ideas and concepts for readers to mull over rather than having fight scenes where men in tights beat each other up.
Make no mistake, there are still plenty of those as drawn by the impeccable John Romita, Jr. But Daredevil’s real enemies aren’t ones he can punch. In her final arc, Daredevil and one of his archenemies, Bullseye, switch costumes, and their fight confuses them ideologically, as Bullseye starts to act like a hero, embodying the symbol he wears. Nocenti blurs the line of good and evil, showing how cartoonish it all is, yet it’s executed with the gravitas of a Shakespearean tragedy.
Her critiques and ideological deconstruction are most visible in an issue where Daredevil meets Captain America.
“Sometimes I think all we did was replace king and crown with the royal aristocracy of the corporate elite. Man is still tyrannized — by the corporate kings,” said the man wearing an actual American flag as a uniform.
Written by Ann Nocenti with art by Mark Bagley. Courtesy of Marvel.
Instead of joining forces to fight a big costumed villain, Daredevil teams up with Cap to defend an immigrant with a dream, whose only crime is that his invention threatens to make the oil industry obsolete.
Crossovers are something that happens often in Nocenti’s run. Whether or not the characters mesh at first glance, she’s able to make it wholly natural, as if coming from different corners of the same universe. One of her most out-there inclusions is having two Inhumans, superhuman royalty that live on the moon, as part of Daredevil’s main supporting cast. With Daredevil now squarely seated in the MCU, and him having already crossed over in multiple projects, more outrageous appearances aren’t too far-fetched.
The Big Crossovers Around the Corner
In Born Again season one, due to its original intent of being a soft reboot, most of Daredevil’s supporting cast is replaced. Surprisingly, that is something that’s happened in the comics before. Karen Page and Foggy Nelson were both main players in the original Born Again story and also in the Netflix series.
But the subsequent Nocenti run de-emphasized their appearance after a certain catastrophe. That makes their absence a core extension of Daredevil’s Catholic guilt, which is the true mark of his character across all appearances. In the show, the catalyst is Foggy’s death, but in the comic, it is Daredevil’s infidelity that pushes Karen away.
Nocenti makes use of mandated crossovers to introduce a new rotating cast of supporting characters. She takes advantage of these multi-issue events for her story’s benefit, which become essential to Daredevil’s character growth. Thanks to her writing, they’re not jarring or tacky, but rather a refreshing change of pace and setting, putting Daredevil away from his familiar comfort zone of dirty New York streets.
One event has Dr. Doom send the android Ultron to kill Daredevil. Rather than a typical punch-up or indulging in cameos, Nocenti injects interesting ideas into this story. She uses it as an opportunity to explore questions of the faults in pursuing perfection. At the climax, Ultron’s own doubts destroy him, as he attempts to rip off his own head, searching for the “bad circuit,” the voice or memory that keeps him from being happy.
Art by John Romita Jr. Courtesy of Marvel.
Hopefully, if Disney wants crossovers in the future, they’ll let them breathe, carrying over themes other than highly paid actors in front of green screens. (Though looking at their track record, that seems unlikely.) In the show, characters are already bleeding from appearances in other properties, like Swordsman from the Hawkeye series
Even though season two of Born Again aims to recapture the essence of the Netflix show, we can learn from Nocenti that sometimes change is good. When done well, crossovers can shine a light on each of the characters’ different strengths; they offer essential contrast.
Sometimes, the best way to continue a critically successful piece of media is not to make more of the same but rather to try something radically different, and something with a clear creative vision. What worked once can only be repeated for a certain amount of time before diminishing returns come knocking. Nocenti understood this; she stuck with her gut and what she knew, and the editors allowed her the freedom to express her art through Daredevil, and it was the better for it.
What we can count on is that this time around, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead have creative control of season two from the very beginning (and aren’t just brought in for reshoots). And that means we can expect a truly united vision, and with it a robust visual style not unlike Nocenti and Romita Jr.’s collaboration, with iconic linework that stands out from other runs.
My only fear for the man without fear is that he falls victim to fan demand, unable to pave his own path, stuck with the nostalgia of the past, and blindly looking back.
Typhoid Mary, Saving Grace
Photo from Getty Images and art by Dan Mora.
Long before the development of Daredevil: Born Again for Disney+, a fourth season for Daredevil’s Netflix series was planned. Unfortunately, Netflix lost its rights to these Marvel characters, and all subsequent sequel plans were canceled. In that original plan, showrunner Erik Oleson toyed with the idea of having Typhoid Mary as Daredevil’s main foil. Mary was a character created by Nocenti and a prominent part of her run’s first half. It would be chronologically fitting to continue from season three’s Miller-inspired story and use the fourth season to explore its aftermath with Nocenti-invented characters.
Typhoid Mary also plays a big part in the series from which Born Again season two seems to be taking inspiration, which is Devil’s Reign by Chip Zdarsky and Mark Chichetto. In that story, Mayor Fisk marries Mary, as he is obsessed with winning a second electoral term. With Daredevil and other New York heroes defending innocents against his oppressive rule, Fisk grapples with a choice: he can either be content with the love of his life, leaving behind his life of crime, or rule in a never-ending battle of ego and sin.
Typhoid Mary is Nocenti’s most fabled and long-lasting impact on Daredevil’s pantheon. If there is one thing that the new show should borrow, it is her.
Art by John Romita Jr. Courtesy of Marvel.
The Blind Leading the Blind
The Marvel streaming shows from Disney+ have had a history of good ideas marred by middling executions. The Hawkeye series was not as visually unique as Matt Fraction’s and David Aja’s source material, nor as creative with the overarching narrative structure. Consequently, Daredevil: Born Again is not as monumental as its namesake, nor as refreshing as the modern stories it pulls from.
In recent years, the constant reshoots (Born Again included) suggest that Marvel Studios’ approach to its overarching pipeline has been to play it by ear. Unfortunately, not everyone has perfect hearing like Hell’s Kitchen’s hero. With the anticipated Avengers: Doomsday looming on the horizon, which telegraphs changes to multiple universes, one has to wonder whether or not Marvel’s handling of the Daredevil character is a classic case of the blind leading the blind.
The Netflix series has come and gone. Attempting to recapture old magic will certainly spell doom for Daredevil, just as it has for other shows revived after a long hiatus. But Daredevil: Born Again season two has a lot of core advantages: a singular creative vision, a near-blockbuster scale budget, and the goodwill made of bold choices by the current team.
Recreating previous successes will not put a piece of art, comic, or television in the same sentence as its predecessor. But doing something wildly radical will certainly make it legible for conversation. Nocenti’s Daredevil run tells a continuation that did not aim to reach the same heights of previous milestones but instead capture a different side of Daredevil that is thoroughly unique and new.
“The world over is rejecting dictatorships and monarchies and regimes of control! Yet you persist in your authoritarian rule and game-playing!”
In many ways, Nocenti’s stint on Daredevil was far ahead of its time. Her run stands out with political text that rings true even now. Though the Born Again show jumped to the new millennium and skipped Nocenti’s influences, how it carries itself going forward, tackling relevant political issues and major crossovers, could bear more resemblance than we assumed. If the show truly expects to run for more seasons, they shouldn’t turn a blind eye to this well of inspiration.
Whatever the future holds for Daredevil, the show needs to let go of its baggage carried from the Netflix series’ expectations, just as the character learns to do by the season finale. It’s about honoring the past, but not repeating it. Only then can it hit the bullseye of becoming a truly original and timeless piece of television.
