When Daredevil: Born Again premiered its first season last year, I was mesmerized by the drastic leap in quality from previous iterations of the blind vigilante.
Here was an adaptation that dared to push the material into the darkest parts Marvel would allow, and it did so with only a few rare moments of pointless brutality that marred the Netflix versions years prior.
Even with the occasional misstep, such as the goofy bank heist episode, Born Again proved to be a brilliant and powerfully timely story about the rising fascism in America.
Joonatan Itkonen
A year later, the world is a drastically worse place. When Daredevil's second season begins, the idea of innocent people locked up in cages isn't just old news; it's downright quaint compared to the squads of trigger-happy fanatics executing innocents on the street.
For the first few episodes, Daredevil builds an immense and haunting portrait of a failed system capitulating to fascism. It effectively shows how people are bullied or bought, and how quickly things collapse when everyone else looks the other way. There's a palpable sense of despair as every "right" avenue closes off without warning. It is a fascinating corner to drive a comic book hero into: one they can't punch their way out of.
Well, at least first. Because this is still a Marvel property, and as with all comic book films about masked heroes, it abides by their limitations. Granted, we're still midway through the story. Season 3 premieres in a year, and it remains to be seen whether or not Daredevil pulls its punches.
For the most part, the show doesn't. In fact, there are moments in Born Again: Season 2 that are so distressing, I'm surprised anyone at Disney allowed them through in this political climate. It's not quite Andor's second outing, which masterfully orchestrated a version of Melville's Army of Shadows in a galaxy far, far away, but it's close.
Some of the best parts are entirely bereft of our blind hero. A truly Orwellian scenario sees the justice system crumble before authoritarianism. Another underlines how healthcare is weaponized to target enemies of the state just as easily as any other institution.
The story picks up a year into Wilson Fisk's (Vincent D'Onofrio) reign of terror. Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox) remains on the run with Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), while their allies dwindle by the day. Fisk's right-hand man and protege, Daniel (Michael Gandolfini), continues to distort social media to rage against masked vigilantes, while BB (Genneya Walton) has seemingly sold out her soul for immediate access to power.
Where the series shines is in depicting the slow collapse of democracy. Daredevil is at its best as a street-level protagonist, and this season gives us a brilliant glimpse into how insiduous the turn from normality to horror is.
Sadly, at around the halfway mark, Born Again takes a stumble that lasts until the end. It leaves the series in an odd limbo, where it struggles against the constraints of its source material. A comic book needs a clear hero and a clear villain. It can't handle uncertainties, shades of grey, or even the insinuation of systemic issues. At worst, it suggests that certain problems can be solved by targeting a single individual. It even, in one particularly dire moment, plays into the ugly fabrication that some just follow orders, but they're actually good deep down.
On top of that, because the series spends so long setting up the nightmare, it rushes to a conclusion with such breathless pacing that not everything plays out in a satisfying manner. The series even toys with the idea that maybe a black-and-white Catholic sense of morality can't exist in the modern world, which raises all kinds of questions about Daredevil's function as a hero. For a moment, it lifts the entire series to another level, and then promptly drops the ball by ignoring the implications entirely.
Inclusions of other Marvel characters only serve to overstuff the already sprawling narrative at a time when it should focus. Then there's an entirely wasted episode that basically recaps the Netflix series, and wastes valuable time in an attempt to provide empathy for characters who deserve none. At times, Born Again: Season 2 is immensely frustrating because you can see where it's tearing itself apart at the seams.
There's still a lot to love here. D'Onofrio is superb as Fisk, even in the moments where the series has to play big and broad to placate the comic book overtones. Cox is just as compelling as Murdoch, though this season sees him far more as a reactionary than as driving the story. Woll is immensely compelling in a part that finally, finally gives Page the kind of agency and big, stand-out moments she deserves. Wilson Bethel is deliciously evil as Bullseye, even if it feels like he's in a much funnier show than the rest of the cast.
But it's Gandolfini who steals the show as the easily manipulated Daniel. He's the stand-in for all the dweebs who fall into the manosphere and trickle down into the far-right pipeline. There's a good person in him, somewhere, but it's dying out faster by the day. Gandolfini has a lot of his dad's mannerisms, yet it would be a cop-out to say he's merely following his footsteps. This is a wholly rounded, intricate, and complex character. A tragic buffoon with the capacity for something better. In lesser hands, he'd turn into a caricature; Gandolfini finds the pathos within, and we care about this kid even when we shouldn't.
Born Again: Season 2 takes much bigger swings than its predecessor. When it connects, it knocks it out of the park. The highs are much higher this time around. Conversely, the lows are lower, too. That's just the nature of taking chances. At this point, Marvel is such a vast cinematic empire that it would be impossible not to stumble when attempting to find the right tone. Now, when the series name drops important characters from other properties, I can't help but wonder why anyone would allow New York to turn into a warzone like this.
I'm sure they'll explain it in a streaming special or film at some point. But it's the kind of interconnected homework that just bogs things down. For now, it just makes the stuffed material feel even more bloated. Especially as newcomers like Matthew Lillard's sleazy government agent amount to very little. Most are here as cogs in a machine to ensure the plot can happen.
But if you can look past these faults and not despair over some clunky metatextual decisions made for the sake of corporate calm, Born Again: Season 2 is a tremendous run. It does more things right than it does wrong, and the things it succeeds at are often immensely valuable in this media landscape.
As a global pop culture phenomenon, Daredevil and Marvel have the opportunity to smuggle in iconography and start conversations that would otherwise fall on deaf ears. It is a great power, and there's a lot to be said about responsibility when you wield something like that.
