Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation at Marvel Studios, Brad Winderbaum, has made it crystal that the studio views Daredevil: Born Again as its flagship streaming series. With plans to leverage the “extremely rich” world of the “streets of New York” into annual releases that stretch out into “infinity”, Winderbaum sees the forest…but he’s leaving the trees up to showrunner Dario Scardapane.
While Scardapane probably appreciates the job security, writing a television series that’s expected to stretch out into infinity also places a heavy mandate on his plate. For Daredevil: Born Again to ultimately be judged as a great show, not only will Hell’s Kitchen have to become the same sort of living, breathing enclave Frank Miller created in the comics but it’s cast of characters designed to support its dual protagonists will also need to bear the weight of world building, provide tonal shifts and serve–in one way or another–as moral counterweights to the dilemmas faced by the leads. With a pair of beloved stars like Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, protagonist fatigue doesn’t seem likely but Scardapane and the rest of the show’s writers must still build in safeguards against it by creating a supporting cast that does more than fill screentime..and so far, those results have been decidedly mixed.
After the opening episode of the new season established Daredevil as the enemy of Wilson Fisk’s police state, episodes 2 and 3, titled “Shoot the Moon” and “The Scales & The Sword”, respectively, spend their narrative currency on the tissue that connects the revolutionary and the regime to the reality faced by those who while not the public-facing symbols of the struggle, belong to the society or are actively taking part in its downfall. While this includes characters such as Karen, Vanessa, Jacque Duquesne and Bullseye, the latest double dip spends more time on Fisk’s collaborators Daniel Blake, Buck Cashman and, and Heather Glenn, in addition to BB Urich, whose role in the propaganda war puts both her and Blake at risk, and Kirsten McDuffie. While each of these characters has a defined role in this revolution, some of them are simply more interesting than others.
By choosing to canonize the Netflix series, Marvel (and perhaps Scardapane) chose to accept all the consequences of the choices (both good and bad) made by those writers and none resonates more loudly than the decision to kill Ben Urich. An absolute cornerstone of Daredevil’s Marvel Comics lore, Ben was killed by Fisk at the end of Season 1 of Daredevil…an act that you’ll be constantly reminded of in season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again. Without spoiling the entire season, it’s safe to say that not even Scardapane could write himself out of that particular hole and, as such, BB–and her relationship with Blake, the “heir unapparent”– just too often feel as an effort to right that wrong. And don’t get me started on Blake.
On a positive note, Scardapane seems to enjoy enhancing the parallel paths of Murdock and Fisk by pairing the arcs of characters in their respective orbits. Karen and Vanessa. BB and Blake. Heather and Kirsten. The AVTF and the AdT (Angela del Toro). Buck and…Foggy (gasp). In episodes 2 and 3, the writers leverage the supporting characters by setting them in ideological opposition to one another. As Vanessa tries to convince Wilson to leave New York, Karen and Matt talk about staying put. As the AVTF cracks down, AdT levels up. As the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Communications elevates his position in the regime, BB digs deeper and becomes the underground press, attempting to strip away the facade of fear by mocking the Kingpin. Buck serves as Kingpin’s loyal capo, weaponizing authority, while Foggy’s absence–and his adherence to the idealism of the system–allows Matt to teeter on the edge of disappearing behind the mask.
The transition between episodes accentuates these polarities as the cracks in both sides begin to show, both literally and figuratively. Karen’s radicalization (Matt compares her thought process to that of Frank Castle) and Vanessa’s gaslighting (convincing Heather of her security while fearing for her own); Heather dissociates and descends into madness as Kirsten grounds herself in the reality of the populace; state-sponsored security becomes state-sponsored terror. The final straw, of course, is the farcical trial of Jack Duquesne, in which Heather’s lack of morality and the Kingpin’s influence over the Vigilante Trials conclude with a guilty verdict handed down to a LARPer. By publicly executing the spirit through the illusion of due process, Fisk unwittingly hands the resistance its eventual winning hand.
For the entertainment of the masses. Presented in all it’s ugly glory by then whose hand holds the scale.
-Jack Duquesne
And, of course, the wild card becomes increasingly wild…but it’s not time for his story just yet. Through 12 episodes, Daredevil: Born Again has patiently painted a picture of a pair of protagonists prepared to prove his love for his city is greater than the other’s; however, the cumulative scar tissue on the city and its inhabitants–the sinew of the story–and each man is increasingly faced with losing something they love, even if only the blind man can see it coming.
