In 1986, Comic book writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli teamed up to write the story “Born Again.” The issues ran from #227-233. The story consists of Kingpin finding out Matt Murdock is Daredevil and doing everything he can to break him by any means necessary.
At the time, this was such a big deal because Miller brought Daredevil to the lowest point. No other superhero at the time was ever broken down mentally as much as Daredevil.
This story arc is considered one of the greatest comic book runs of all time. With all this being said, it pains me to say that in the Disney+ version of “Born Again”, the only thing THIS show and the storyline in the comics have in common is the title.
Part of the problem is that some of the key elements of the Born Again storyline from 1986 have already happened in the third season of the original Netflix Daredevil show.
In the show, Kingpin sent Bullseye disguised as Daredevil to kill Karen Page and Foggy Nelson. This also happened in the comic, except it was a violent mental asylum patient and not Bullseye.
The title “Born Again” could be misleading for comic readers expecting this series to be about that storyline. The title only makes sense because the show is being brought back after being canceled in late 2018.
The original Netflix series ran from 2015 to 2018. Many praised this show for its amazing story, acting, cinematography, and grounded tone. I could go on about why the original show was so amazing for days. Unfortunately, with the new Daredevil: Born Again series, I did not feel the same energy I did with the previous series.
The new series brings back fan-favorite characters from the original Netflix series, including the original actors, Charlie Cox as Daredevil, Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Wilson Bethel as Bullseye, and Jon Bernthal as the Punisher.
The majority of the story consists of Matt Murdock trying to find his way back into the vigilante life after losing a major character in the first episode, and the uprising of Wilson Fisk, Matt Murdock’s worst enemy, who becomes mayor of New York City and implements an anti-vigilante task force.
This Mayor Fisk storyline started very recently in Daredevil (2015) issue 595, and not in the original Born Again storyline. The anti-vigilante task force storyline was told in the “Devil’s Reign” Storyline from December 2021 to May 2022. The show does an okay job of adapting both storylines, but it’s like, why name it Born Again? It was a little bit of false advertising.
There were many great moments in the series that I enjoyed. Charlie Cox was phenomenal throughout the entire season. In episode 4, there was a conversation between Frank Castle and Matt Murdock, and the acting in that scene was so powerful. Jon Bernthal and Charlie Cox gave it their all, and it showed.
The new villain, Muse (played by Hunter Doohan) is a masked serial killer who uses his victims’ blood as paint and terrorizes Hell’s Kitchen, and was a great addition to this show. Doohan’s performance was terrifying and some of the best in the MCU (sigh).
Throughout the show, there are tiny clips that show normal people in the streets being asked about vigilantes and their thoughts on them. This was never seen in the MCU, and it was a nice touch to see bystanders in this way and not be collateral damage.
In episode 8, Bullseye has one of the coolest moments where he kills a prison guard with his tooth that was loose. Wilson Bethel once again brings amazing acting, being one of the scariest villains in the MCU, and my personal favorite villain.
Seeing Wilson Fisk adapt to being the mayor of New York and realizing the things he can and can’t do, and him slowly showing his true nature, and when he finally snaps, he kills a man in one of the coolest, bloodiest ways I’ve ever seen in the MCU.
Even though this show is technically a continuation of the Netflix series, it feels very disconnected from the original series throughout the whole show. Karen and Foggy were a huge part of the original show, and their absence is very much felt, and they were pretty much replaced with new characters who I can’t even remember the names of.
All of Matt’s new friends have almost zero connection to me, and the show didn’t make me care for them at all. All those new characters have zero development, and we barely know anything about them and what drives them. I felt they rushed most of these characters into the show without fleshing them out.
The series introduces Matt’s love interest, Heather Glenn, played by Margarita Levieva. I found her character to be annoying and unrealistic, considering Daredevil saves her, and she is still talking about “I saved me” after Matt was saying that Daredevil saved her.
Also, they didn’t talk about the gap between Season 3 to this series and the coloring in the original show was beautiful, and in the new show it feels very bland.
Muse’s whole thing in the comics is that Daredevil can’t detect him, which makes him an awesome and compelling villain to him just for him to be downplayed as a “Villain of the week.” He was built up throughout the whole marketing and series and I felt he was very wasted.
And I know Spider-Man can’t legally appear in a Disney plus show, but with Kingpin’s anti-vigilante law makes it feels so odd for him not to be there. There wasn’t even a mention of the other Defenders like Luke Cage, Jessica Jones or Iron Fist, which felt wrong because they are all active somewhere in New York and they are for sure affected by this law.
The CGI in some scenes was TERRIBLE. Sometimes when Daredevil is fighting he looks like a video game and there were some scenes where it was needed but there are also times when it was not needed.
In the show it is revealed that Kingpin’s wife Vanessa Fisk hired Bullseye and if you watched Season 3 of Daredevil you would know that it makes ZERO sense for that to ever happen.
The first half of the season was very slow and even the second half struggled too. The bastardization of the title Born Again was also irritating to me knowing its not even a quarter of what the storyline was, the title should’ve been Devils Reign instead but that’s more of a personal nit pick, and probably didn’t feel right for a Disney series?.
Overall, I felt this new series didn’t live up to the original series that we all loved.
The entire show just felt like a set up for Season 2, which has already begun filming and by the looks of it it seems to be promising.
But what I learned from this series and a lot of other Marvel Disney Plus shows is to not have high expectations. I really wanted to like this show but there were too many inconsistencies in this series which is why I have to rate it a 5/10.
