‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Review: A Self-Contained MCU Victory

From the primary seconds of its first episode, watching Daredevil: Born Once more seems like coming dwelling. Opposite to the shiny digital nowheres of so many superhero reveals and films, Daredevil’s Hell’s Kitchen feels actually lived in, with its brownstone buildings snaked by creaky fireplace escapes and bustling rain-slick streets, lit by streetlamps and strobing police lights. It’s a way of place that’s even felt inside Josie’s Bar, the rowdy Irish joint stuffed with grumbling cops and gossiping attorneys, together with our hero Matt Murdock, a.ok.a. Daredevil (Charlie Cox), and his two finest pals, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Web page (Deborah Ann Woll).

This normal feeling of “we’re so fucking again” will get dialed up even additional when Matt’s sharpshooting nemesis Poindexter (Wilson Bethel) comes crashing into the bar. The combat scene that follows is every thing that Daredevil was identified for: a crunchy, kinetic fisticuff marked by brutal choreography and captured in lengthy, large photographs, in order to make sure that we really feel the load of each blow. Then there’s the hook of us with the ability to hear what Matt does as he makes use of his enhanced listening to to seek for the sound of his pals whereas Poindexter bloodily dispatches bystanders. Thus the violence has an emotional influence in addition to a bodily one.

Briefly, Born Once more picks up proper the place the unique Netflix collection left off. The combination of superhero story and authorized drama stays a successful method, making certain that Matt’s adventures are action-packed even when he’s carrying a non-super swimsuit. The brand new Disney+ collection even finds a intelligent strategy to carry its two halves collectively by having Matt defend one other costumed hero in court docket. And Matt himself stays probably the most complicated and compelling characters that the MCU has at its disposal: a gutter-born Bruce Wayne with an awesome dollop of Catholic guilt.

The broad strokes of Born Once more’s plot maybe hew slightly too carefully to these of the earlier seasons. After the brawl at Josie’s Bar, Matt retires his alter ego to ruminate some extra on the morality of his vigilantism. In the meantime, Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) returns to once more function the present’s foremost antagonist and, in reality, its different foremost character. He’s operating for mayor this time, however he’s nonetheless roughly following the identical character arc as earlier than, with Fisk rising from the shadows and successful over the lots with guarantees to make the town nice once more. After so many missteps, the MCU doesn’t thoughts shuffling again over just a few footsteps and retracing just a few others whereas it figures out transfer this story ahead once more.

For his half, Fisk stays simply concerning the best villain that Marvel has managed to placed on display. Now in his 60s, D’Onofrio doesn’t have the identical bodily presence that he as soon as did, however his Massive Dangerous nonetheless makes for a fascinating villain, mixing a thug’s brutality with the fragile sneer of an aristocrat and the awkward cruelty of an overgrown youngster. It’s no surprise that Marvel has been shoving him into reveals left and proper whereas Daredevil was off the air, however the character solely actually involves life in Hell’s Kitchen. An early episode of Born Once more contains a Warmth-style diner sit-down between Fisk and Matt the place we are able to really feel the total weight of their historical past collectively—that scrumptious mingling of resentment and respect. It’s a richer, extra attention-grabbing battle than so most of the MCU’s world-ending CGI showdowns, and all of it takes place over a cup of espresso.

Born Once more additionally does a vastly higher job than most up-to-date MCU properties of connecting with different elements of that universe, with cameos from and references to different collection that all the time really feel natural and unobtrusive. A journalist named BB Urich (Genneya Walton) does pop-up interviews that punctuate the season’s episodes, asking passersby how they really feel concerning the costumed vigilantes of their midst, and all of this enhances the sense of Hell’s Kitchen as an actual place the place superheroes have turn into simply one other a part of each day life.

And Born Once more is aware of have enjoyable with its id as a street-level drama set in a world inside an ever-expanding multimedia enterprise that’s now stuffed with aliens and magic—like when one vigilante mentions the magical amulet that provides him his powers and is met with the weary sigh of people who find themselves getting fairly sick of magic amulets. Or when Matt has to politely however firmly clarify to a consumer that “it wasn’t me, it was a Skrull” most likely received’t fly in court docket.

A lot of Born Once more’s storyline feels acquainted, however the climax that it builds to provides an thrilling basis for the following season. Whereas so many current Marvel initiatives give half their runtimes over to organising different characters and storylines, so as maintain the universe increasing, Born Once more merely tells its story, episode by episode, constructing clearly from one chapter to the following.

In the long run, Born Once more by itself received’t save the MCU at massive, which stays a tangled mess of half-told tales tugged throughout a number of dimensions. However saving complete worlds isn’t actually Daredevil’s type anyway, and this wildly entertaining new collection is precisely the form of smaller, self-contained victory that Matt and his pals are all the time striving for.