Daredevil, Born Over and Over Again

Starting with the good stuff, Daredevil is my favorite Marvel character, and I'm glad his show is still going. I have enjoyed the ride a great deal. 

Yes, there will be spoilers.

Rumor is there will be multiple villains next season and I hope so. D'Onofrio's Kingpin is amazingly well acted, and comic book accurate. However, if the show stays focused completely on the rivalry between Fisk and Murdock, staleness will set in. (Or perhaps accelerate is a better way to put it.) Last season was all about Fisk building his power base as mayor. Much of this season continued a focus on his machinations, and his underlings.

I've pointed out before how everyone goes to "Born Again" as the "best" Daredevil tale and insists on breaking Matt down to his lowest point. The comics, however, being continuously published every month, are wise enough to give him substantial periods where he rises up from time to time.

Some more good stuff about the show. The action stayed top notch. Along with his extremely dangerous intelligence and planning abilities, Fisk has become the absolute physical terror his comic book incarnation is. Daredevil increased the use of his billy club and the grapple on it, but remains a down and dirty, street level fighter, with an intimate knowledge of boxing. 

Matt is also a magnificently crazy bastard. They showed this in combat, with his unhinged grin at the ATF member he stole the rifle from when the guy expected to get shot... before DD beat the snot out of him using the rifle as a club. They also showed this in Matt's courtroom antics, both in his grand entrance at Karen's trial, risking his own skin coming out of hiding. Even more so was the greater wild card play of exposing his secret identity himself during that trial to take down Fisk, "by the book"(ish) in court. (Both of these things have happened, in some form, in comics.)

It was great seeing Jessica Jones back. However, Marvel continued it's long standing tradition of not treating women with powers well. There was no reason for her "power incontinence" except to keep one of the main bad guys intact and show Matt having to save her. There were about thirty ways to have done that scene better, especially after showing her impressively bursting through the wall at its opening. (Followed , hilariously, by Matt using the door.) At least she's back, and (like the comics) with Luke Cage. (Now that Claire Temple is busy dual wielding light sabers in another galaxy.) Along with them we got the build up of Matt's allies promised last season. New and old members of the NYPD are on Daredevil's side, as well as hints of other returning Defenders and a new, extremely cool, White Tiger. (WOO!)

While the show has continued with impressive comic accuracy in many cases, two characters have developed well away from the source material.

In the comics, Bullseye is irredeemably evil, completely mercenary in his views and lives to enjoy inflicting pain in others, directly or via grief. Dex in the series has been shown to be mentally unbalanced, and having been taken advantage of and steered by multiple powerful individuals. While irredeemable in the comics, he may end up providing proof why Matt's refusal to kill and underlying Catholic Guilt based compassion and forgiveness are the proper choices. (That is, providing Matt Lillard doesn't completely screw up Dex even further.) True to the comics, however, Bullseye truly can turn anything into a deadly weapon. Man, that diner scene was pretty cool. 

The second "new" character is Karen Paige. She's basically become an "on the job training" version of Taskmaster. Karen has picked up legal skills from Foggy and Matt, investigative journalism skills from Urich and Ellison and combat skills from The Punisher. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to see Karen, instead of Elektra step into the Daredevil role in this universe. (Albeit less effectively.) I still hope Elektra comes back, to talk some sense into Karen. Not every superhero has a Lois Lane. (And Charlie... Karen isn't DD's Mary Jane. Heck, they way you're defining it, Mary Jane isn't even Peter's Mary Jane much of the time.) 

Karen needs some sense talked into her, as Doctor Glenn is proof of. Heather has gone fully down two of the three usual path's of Matt's girlfriends. (Evil, Crazy Dead... often a combo.) Taking two separate comic book story threads and merging them to make her life unpleasant. 

Come on, Karen. When Frank Castle seems like he could have been a more stable choice for a romantic partner, its time to reassess. 

Speaking of comic book threads... the season ends with Matt in jail. This has been handled a couple ways in print, but I'm hoping it leads to another insane bit of courtroom bravado. Hopefully it will feature Mr. Murdock defending himself and wearing the red business suit and/ or with the "I am not Daredevil" sweater. The Man Without Fear is at his best when unhinged, and being absolutely terrible about protecting his secret identity. 

I'll be honest, large parts of the ending bothered me. Thought, we did get a lot of cool stuff for secondary characters. BB Urich stepping into her Uncle's role, when that character was so important to many comic stories, was very nice. Buck and Daniel both followed interesting arcs, but we seem to have lost them both. Watching those who stood up to Kingpin at various levels within the system provided many hopeful and heartwarming moments.

Just like "not every superhero has a Lois Lane," not every superhero and their rival should be shown as two sides of the same coin. 

Daredevil loves his city, and believes in the due process of the law so much, that he is willing to step outside of it wearing demonic pajamas to ensure it continues to be seen as working most of the time. (Yes, he is unhinged, we have covered this.)

Wilson Fisk is not a man who loves his city. They did a great job of showing him exactly as he is in the comics: He is a man who loves power above all else, but is clever enough to usually keep his hands officially clean while having incredible depths of greed and rage driving him. The only humanizing factor he has is his love for Vanessa... who they had follow the comic book path to being a criminal WAY faster than it did in print. 

Aside- I've seen her dead almost as many times as Foggy. They still could both come back. 

Granted most of Fisk's illegal behavior as mayor was tied into shady government deals, therefore a cover up is believable. 

Aside- To those complaining that super hero stories should stay away from being political and throwing shade at people you support. Once again, perhaps admiring organizations that act in ways that super villains have behaved throughout the history of comics is a bad call.

However, Fisk's final rampage where he slayed large numbers of protesting New Yorkers with his bare hands while in view of and and being filmed by many other New Yorkers are staggeringly punishable offenses. Matt's end of The Killing Joke type speech and the final "exile" resolution didn't work for me there. Additionally, even when Wilson is at his most dangerous, well trained, mountain of muscle fighting abilities, if Matt is focused and ready, he should be able to take the Kingpin down, with effort, but much more effectively than shown in their basement battle.

The Punisher: One Last Kill premiered the week after Daredevil ended, therefore I (and I figure many others) believed it would follow where Frank was during Fisk's take over after escaping last season. The big reveal, unexpectedly, turned out to be he was moping. Yes, the way Frank's trauma and PTSD was acted and shown was excellent. Yes, the action scene that played like Dex's diner scene but over a half hour and throughout a terrible neighborhood was incredibly well done. I particularly liked how Castle was shown as a highly trained, well conditioned, intelligent and experienced combatant against all the attackers who had none of that. They were random and crazed, he was focused and measured including- checking all the weapons he picked up, aiming before firing and using controlled shots, prioritizing the most dangerous targets first, finding cover, and using the most effective stopping methods. Angela Bower proved to be just as terrifying a crime boss as Lana Lang did back in Season Two. A generally entertaining and excessively violent ride, following a strong performance of grief and loss. Yet, there was still a pervading feeling of "why did we need this?"  Looking forward to seeing him in Spidey though.

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