Daredevil: Born Again makes up an integral part of Marvel Studio’s Phase Five plans. Announced at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, the revived series will debut on Disney+ in the spring of 2024. Previously belonging to the Netflix x Marvel collaboratory project, Daredevil did exceptionally well during its 3-season run on the platform, before getting canceled along with the rest of the Marvel lineup on Netflix.
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Now, with Disney+ announcing its visionary resurrection of one of the most successful and beloved Marvel series, it seems fans are waiting with bated breath for every morsel of new information thrown their way. And the SDCC 2022 did exactly that. Here’s what we know about the upcoming series and what its title suggests keeping on par with the original comics.
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Daredevil: Born Again: A Synopsis Of The Original Comics
Like a cruel god ruthlessly delivering brush strokes laden in suffering, punishment, and insanity, Frank Miller laid out the elements of the Daredevil: Born Again series. Published between February and August 1986, the series which ran from issues #226 to #233 sets the comeback of Miller whose exceptional work brought Daredevil to the frontlines of success as a comic book superhero much like the Netflix series did with the character in 2015.
The Born Again series heavily invokes Christian symbolism and stands out as one of the darker storylines among Daredevil’s comic narratives. The story follows Matthew Murdock whose superhero identity has been revealed to Wilson Fisk and the latter uses this information to destroy the lawyer’s reputation and career and attempt to ultimately end his life. Karen Page hits rock bottom as she becomes addicted to heroin and runs a short stint as a prostitute and a pornographic film actress in Mexico.
The comic issue also brings the corrupt super-soldier Nuke to the forefront as a pawn in Fisk’s game. The latter is at the heights of exploiting his influence in high places and Miller unabashedly portrays America’s military program gone wrong in a twisted depiction of a Homelander-like Nuke. Themes of anti-nationalism run high though intermittently incorporated into the plotline by the author. The Avengers and Captain America make an appearance to establish a segue into Nuke’s evasive background. Daredevil, on the other hand, runs around Hell’s Kitchen, increasingly manic, paranoid, and homeless and vowing to end Fisk’s machinations by whatever means necessary.
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The plot of Daredevil: Born Again comic had been loosely adapted into the third season of Marvel’s Daredevil. It marked the return of Sister Maggie, Murdock’s mother, and also followed through with the imposter Daredevil storyline. Several callbacks to the original comic included an attempt on Matt Murdock’s life by swerving a cab holding a sedated Murdock into the East River. Born Again tests Murdock’s faith and portrays a Kingpin who becomes frantically obsessed with ending the vigilante once and for all.
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Marvel’s Daredevil did not shy away from bloodying the screen in swaths of red. The bare-knuckle fight upgrades from the streets and into prison corridors where Murdock least bothers to leave behind a clean impression and instead barely escapes with his neck intact and holding his ribs in place before blackness clouds his consciousness only to awake to find himself about to drown. Matthew Murdock is defined by his faith in God and the loss of his hearing coupled with the death of Elektra as well as discovering Sister Maggie’s identity makes him lose the remnants of that faith as he ridicules Him by narrating the pusillanimous tale of Job.
Disney+ is not equipped to let go of the reins in portraying psychopathic children who are murderers in the making. Disney+ does not have the reputation of leaving the audience with a racing pulse after depicting sheer 45 minutes of assassinations, manipulations, and mass hysteria. Disney+ cannot allow its PG-13 audience to be exposed to mockery of religious ideologies that could lead to mass sentiments being hurt. Disney+ will not be able to broach the original Born Again comic storyline and do it justice because as far as its acquisition of Marvel tells us, it will only serve to water down an impeccable and unnerving plot to suit its current comedic retelling of Marvel’s superheroes.
Daredevil: Born Again is set to premiere on Disney+ in 2024.
