Daredevil was one of the best TV shows that the comic book/superhero genre has ever produced. The show captured the essence of Frank Miller's crime-noir reinvention of the Man Without Fear in the early 1980s, but it was also very similar to a crime series you might find on Hbo. Fans were disappointed when it was canceled, but this past December's Spider-Man: No Way Home and the streamer'sHawkeye series were good replacements.
Since being put back under the spotlight, the show has seen a resurgence in popularity, with reports that actors Charlie Cox andVincent D'Onofrio are in other MCU projects before a rumored new solo series. Cox and co.'s revival will be in the form of a soft reboot, and getting into debates on canonicity can be as confusing as it is. The general continuity of the original show will likely be retained, as will the new jumping-on point of a new writer/ artist team. The Devil of Hell's Kitchen on Disney+ has ghosts of Daredevil's past, from complex love triangles to bitter arch-nemeses.
The main villain in Daredevil's life is the Kingpin of Crime, who started as a Spider-Man villain. The show's three seasons were masterfully translated to the screen, with Matt and Wilson Fisk's bitter rivalry feeling palpably visceral and immensely cathartic. Round three of Daredevil versus Kingpin can be waited on.
Daredevil ended on a satisfying note despite being cut short. The superhero's blood feud with Kingpin is the only plot thread that closes in a tidy fashion. Bullseye is the next contender for having given Matt and his loved ones their tailor-made hell on earth. Wilson Bethel's portrayal of a more grounded and ominously traumatized version of the villain doesn't get praised enough because the expert marksman can turn even the most benign everyday objects into lethal projectile weapons thrown with pinpoint accuracy.
In season 3, the writing team did an excellent job of playing Bullseye as a supporting villain, with the supervillain getting his deserved share of the spotlight while also being supplementary to the main villain. The depiction of his origin story in a black-and-white filter through Fisk's perspective was a brilliant take on an origin story. The transformation of Ben Poindexter's mind was as compelling as Harvey Dent's descent into madness in The Dark Knight.
Bullseye's teased return was one of the two major loose ends. The three-way brawl between Daredevil, Bullseye, and Kingpin was frightening, with the marksman having his back broken by Fisk. In his final scene of the series, doctors perform experimental surgery on Poindexter's spine, with the villain waking in the middle of it with a bullseye in his eye.
He won't steal Kingpin's spotlight without wasting his own character in the process. Bullseye is Daredevil's next main character in a successor series, and it has been a long time since the finale of season 3.
The first and third seasons are stand-alone when it comes to story, with season 2 largely building up The Defenders. lodie Yung's casting as Elektra was a strong pick.
Her dynamic with Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock was fun, tense, and electric, with her future being another easy iteration of an historic Daredevil character. Elektra's death at the end of season 2 felt somewhatlimactic, partly due to her only being recently revealed and Nobu not being a very emotionally investing villain compared to others Daredevil has faced. Being revived as The Hand's weapon in The Defenders was more of a waste than it was worth.
It still seems like a missed opportunity because that last point is outside of any of the creative teams control. It's a free pass to correct this if the body of Elektra is not found by the time the third season starts. If there is no visible corpse, assume no one is dead, and sometimes even that isn't enough to prove a character has died.
There is plenty of room to flesh out the story of Elektra. Having her and Daredevil team up against Bullseye would make for a gripping story that echoes the comics of the same name.
The ending of season 3 was a milestone for Matt. The first two seasons were spent grappling with his faith as a Catholic and the seemingly insurmountable gray area that the vilest of villains succeed in operating in. The Daredevil we saw in the final episode of season 3 was a dark evolution of his own making, becoming something grimmer that existed to satiate his hatred and drive for vengeance.
When Bullseye impersonates him, Matt's crisis of faith is brought to a boiling point. Daredevil was reborn in Episode 13 as he reclaimed his symbol for Hell and what makes him human. This is a great place to start for a soft-rebooted Daredevil that has mastered himself.
Daredevil's appearances in She-Hulk and his and Kingpin's supporting roles in next year's Disney+ series could easily happen if the rumors are true.
Daredevil is available to watch on Disney+.
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