Marvel had multiple series developed at Netflix a few years ago. Some of them, including Daredevil, were very successful.  In fact, Daredevil had three seasons and spawned a spinoff in The Punisher.  Once Marvel Studios proper got the rights back to Daredevil,  The Punisher, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Danny Rand/Iron Fist, they canceled these shows It was inevitable that Marvel Studios would bring them back and try to weave them into the MCU. That time is finally here in the form of Daredevil: Born Again.

I was a big fan of the Daredevil show on Netflix.  Charlie Cox,Vincent D’onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, Ellen Hill, Ayelett Zurer, Wilson Bethel and Jon Bernthall are all back to reprieve their roles from the original series, but the show picks up right where it left off.  It also picked up the bloody action sequences it was famous for in the first series. I’m sure we all remember the incredible stairwell and rooftop fight sequences that were signatures of this awesome show. I sure do. There is one crazy and shocking scene in the first episode that is a jaw dropper. If that’s the tone they are going for in this series, then I’m all in.

Daredevil: Born Again was arguably the best comic book story ever written. Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli brought a realistic take on a character that was genuinely a side character in Marvel Comics. He implemented drug abuse, and other things thought fopa for comic books at that time. The 70s and early 80s Marvel Brock ground with many great stories at this time. Born Again, though, was pretty much done in season three of the Daredevil show on Netflix. They had to reimagine this classic Marvel Comics story for the new iteration of this show. The writers introduced a new villain, Muse (Hunter Doohan), for this new iteration of the series, as well as a new love interest, Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) who is also a therapist. The mix of older established characters and new ones is a nice blend throughout the show.

There were a few things I noticed that stood out to me in this new season of Daredevil. The first  was the cinematography, by Hillary Fyfe Spera & Pedro Gomez Milan, throughout the series. The showrunners and directors made a conscious effort to show how cold it was by having steam come up through the vents and manhole covers on the ground. People were wearing coats and shivering. These visuals gave a distinct look to the show. All the locations in New York were filmed stunningly well. Even all the tracking shots and random shots of the many different burrows looked fantic. You get a feeling of where and when this show is filmed and set.

Another thing I noticed that I liked about the series was,the writing kept me entertained. Subplots involving the niece of Ben Urick from previous seasons of the show BB (Gennya Walton), who hosts her on YouTube type report show, was a nice diversion from the main storyline. A single one-off episode involving a bank robbery that co-starred the  father of Kamala Khan, Yusuf Khan (Mohan Kapoor), had me in Stitches. That was the perfect way to change things up in the show without making it too obvious this was a throw-away episode. The rapoor between Cox and Kapoor was fantastic. I knew there was a reason besides the obvious that I liked the Ms. Marvel series. It made me laugh a lot.

One of the things I love about the Matthew Murdock/Daredevil character is that he has a disability and yet he still has to do his daily job besides being a superhero. There are multiple courtroom scenes of him doing his job defending his clients and sequences at the offices of Murdock and Associates, the storefront space he uses to do the day to day operations of the law firm he runs with his co-lawyer Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M James) and ex-NYC police officer private investigator Cherry (Clark Johnson). All the lawyer stuff breaks up the monotony of the main story involving the cat and mouse game between Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’onofrio) and Matthew Murdock. 

The MCU has a hit or miss record of its villains. Some of them liked Loki, Thanos, and the Winter Soldier before he turned good, and the Spider-Man villains, just to name a few. After the Netflix shows and now this new version of Daredevil on Disney +, I can safely say that Wilson Fisk, The Kingpin and Benjamin Poindexter or “Dex”, Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) can be added to that list. They are both visually realized once again in a fashion Marvel Comics fans can be proud of.  Even though the weight loss of Wilson Fisk is mentioned, the series eventually corrects that as the show progresses. D’onofrio’s Fisk has a new role in New York City, but it doesn’t change the fact that he has a vendetta against vigilantes and Daredevil in particular. He uses his high position as the mayor to push his weight around literally and figuratively. That’s the Wilson Fisk we know and love as a villain. Bullseye, on the other hand, has a couple of good action scenes, where he’s using his powers of perfect aim to procision. Wilson Bethel has grown on me as this character. I want to see him much more in season two, which is currently filming.  Throw in little of Frank Castle, aka The Punisher (Jon Bernthall, and you have some great antagonists for Daredevil and company.

Charlie Cox has appeared in rom coms and sci-fi films and so forth in his career, but he has made the character/role of Matthew Murdock/Daredevil his own. He was fine in the previous three seasons of this show, but he has hit a new level of what this character is and can be. It’s not derivative of something else. The blindness of the character is part of who he is, and Cox uses that as a way to make the character distinct and compelling.  He has advanced his own ability to become this multi-layered character. This character has been played before by Ben Affleck,  but Charlie Cox owns  this role now. It’s fun to see him take control of the role in great ways.

Daredevil: Born Again is everything I wanted it to be and more. The fight sequences were amazing, and jaw dropping at times. The character development was on par with previous iterations of the character. The villains were just as bad ass and screen stealing as I wanted them to be from that perspective.  D’onofrio and Wilson once again made these characters memorable to watch. The cinematography and visual style of the series were just what I was looking for in a show of this nature. This is clearly one of the best shows of 2025, and by far, my favorite that I’ve watched so far. Welcome back to the fold Daredevil and company!! Here’s hoping for an even greater season two.

All 9 episodes reviewed streams on Disney + 03/04/2025 at 9 pm est

4 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen