Guardian Born, Devil Again

Season Three of Daredevil has ramped up all the successful elements of Netflix Marvel to incredibly impressive levels.

The story line has some hints of “Guardian Devil” one of the most famous stories of Hornhead, but is primarily based on “Born Again” arguably THE greatest DD comic book story.

Fans have been clamoring for an adaptation of this tale since the Rex Smith Daredevil outing was announced.

Here’s the thing comic fans need to understand. 

This season worked for one of the same reasons epic comic book stories and runs work, the set up time.

In and of itself, the “Born Again” story wouldn’t mean much without the years of development and background that went into the characters beforehand.

Similarly, this season succeeds because of the emotional connections and details given to these characters in the two previous seasons of Daredevil, plus the Defenders series…plus the characters' roles and cameos in other Netflix series.

Fans really need to stop clamoring for the epic runs at the beginning.  Throwing forty years of continuity in one film and hoping it sticks is exactly how we got Affleck’s Daredevil, and Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern.

Here's a fantastic analogy. It would be perfect except for the fact that only about six people will get it, and half of them are in my immediate family.

Yes, Lou and Donald dancing the tango was the funniest moment in the series up to that point, but if you don’t watch all of their character development and interactions of the six episodes before it, the moment is meaningless.

Because of the background development time the returning characters can all settle in to

who they are, and then grow to new heights of heroism, or sink to new depths of villainy.

With that, there is room to build new characters from the comics, like Sister Maggie.

There are also modified characters from the comics, like Dex. I thought it was cool how they ignored where Dex’s powers/ inhuman skill came form but spent a great deal of time developing how he came to be who he is.  This is a universe where superpowers are a norm; we don’t need to know how he does what he does.  But why? That’s storytelling.

Finally, there were original characters, like Agent Nadeem, that got to be featured and developed. The main beats of this season were basically Agent Ray Nadeem’s story. 

Foggy has reached the levels of awesome he has in the comics, as a combination of the most compassionate member of the group, and also the most sensible.

Contrarily, Karen has reached levels of awesome she was never allowed to in the comics.  Comic book Karen has been through nearly every demeaning treatment of a female character a comic book universe has to offer in order to serve Matt’s plot.  Starting as a snooping, clueless secretary, she went on to be a drug addict, porn actress, betrayer, and was finally “fridged.”  TV Karen has shown why so many superhero girlfriends followed the “Lois Lane- Reporter” model. It reveals her intelligence and resolve, and provides a connection to the crimes that superheroes are investigating/ fighting. Plus, combined with a new backstory, it fleshed out someone who has become an equal partner and investigator in the firm of Nelson, Murdock and Page.

Fisk has fully transformed into The Kingpin, and in reaching that point across three seasons instead of at his introduction has done it via “Show don't Tell” methods that consistently illustrated his power, reach, ferocity and ingenuity. He was the unflinching criminal leader of the city, whose only shred of humanity was his connection with Vanessa.

Then there’s Matt Murdock.  His belief in what’s right, both in and out of costume gets pushed to the limits, and the fact that he probably really is nuts peeks out throughout the story. Yet he remains one of the most noble of Marvel heroes and I can’t wait to see where he goes next.