Even a blind man without the aid of greatly enhanced senses could tell you that Netflix (now Disney’s) gritty Daredevil series not only gave the Man Without Fear a much needed shot of respect, but delivered a violent, sprawling crime epic that pulled no punches despite technically being part of the MCU. However, the brains behind it were savvy enough to realise thar superhero world building 101 states that you hold back enough of the juicy stuff just in case you get a second series. Thus after a first season that re-introduced us to Matt Murdock and dealt in Wilson Fisk, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Ben Ulrich, Nobu, Leyland Owlsley, Melvin Potter and even Turk, we now start a highly anticipated second season that promises to rework the same, revitalising magic on two Marvel heavy hitters – The Punisher and Elektra.
Both have appeared in movies before with Jennifer Garner playing Murdock’s lethal ex twice and a whole raft of actors including Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane and Ray Stevenson portraying uber vigilante Frank Castle with varying degrees of success. Can Daredevil do for such fan favorites what it did for old Horn Head himself? And can a Daredevil show still leap as nimbly from rooftop to rooftop without the presence of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk? It’s time to reenter Hell’s Kitchen and find out.
In the wake of the Kingpin of crime getting publicly taken down by the masked vigilante known as Daredevil, you’d think that our trio of heroes at the form of Nelson & Murdock would have time to kick back and smell those legal roses. However, while their scappy little law firm is seeing plenty of business, the type of clients they are attracting means that while they’re getting paid in pies and fruit, they’re not making enough to keep the lights on indefinitely.
However, despite this, Matt Murdock still feels the need to go out nightly in his red battle suit and batter the snot out of any wrongdoer he fixes his enhanced senses on, but there’s a chance that that’s not going to be enough to stop a tidal wave of blood that’s about to wash in. You see, thanks to Fisk getting sent off to the slammer and the Japanese and the Chinese withdrawing from Hell’s Kitchen entirely, his gargantuan form has left a sizable power vacuum that everyone from the Irish to the Cartel wants to take their cut.
However, someone is going to extreme lengths to make that happen – and it ain’t Daredevil. Anyone who wants to make a play for power is soon turned into bloody mince meat as a shadowy figure is acting like a one-man army, ambushing whole criminal families with military precision and Murdock wants to bring him down sooner rather than later. A lead surfaces in the wake of this vigilante’s latest massacre in the form of a survivor, Elliot “Grotto” Grote, but after Matt, Foggy and Karen to scoop him up, the killer takes another crack at him by shooting up the hospital he’s hidden away in. However, when Daredevil shows up to tale this crazed killer down, his natty suit and fight skills turn out to be no match for a gun hidden in an ankle holster.
Now that Neflix’s street level corner of the MCU is now up and running with Jessica Jones already scoring a season and Luke Cage and Iron Fist waiting in the wings, you can tell that the people behind Daredevil’s second season was chomping at the bit to dive back into Daredevil’s back yard. Well, judging by the first episode along, it’s been worth the wait as we not only get to see Matt do his thing in his red threads, but we also get possibly the most hard-edged crack at Marvel’s greatest ever anti-hero.
So let’s start with Daredevil himself – which only seems fair seeing as it’s his show – and it’s truly awesome to see him strut his stuff, taking out ground level lowlifes clad in the red and horns. I’ve warmed to the costume now a lot more since the first season (although the cowl and neck piece still has the awkward nature of Captain America’s costume from the first Avengers film) and he’s using those billy clubs a lot more now and watching him go through a nightly routine of whupping ass is a nice return before the trauma begins to pile up.
It’s also nice to see the trifeca of Matt, Foggy and Karen in a good place too, although that blatantly won’t last knowing how much the show’s writers love to spread out the pain and now that they’re starting to pull the trigger on Karen starting to show feeling to Matt, ots bound to add to the strain that’s bound to come.
However, while the banter between Charlie Cox and Elden Henson remains a fervored plus, the fact that Foggy now knows Matt’s secret identity adds another layer to the two that wonderfully adds to the old married couple back and forth the two share.
However, while we get the important breathing room to watch Daredevil at work, the show certainly doesn’t slouch when attempting to introduce The Punisher, which is an altogether trickier prospect considering people have been trying to crack the character since late 80s. I have to say, I’ve been a hefty Frank Castle fan for a while (Garth Ennis’ Max series may still be the greatest comic run of any character in history) and while I’ve loved the 80s cheese of Lundgren, the grit of Jane and the physicality of Stevenson in their own way, no ones really managed to nail big Frank conclusively. Well, while it’s early days yet, it looks like The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal is hitting the target if we’re basing him on sheer presence alone. No, no one’s called him The Punisher out loud yet and there’s still a noticable absence of that iconic skull (why does every live action version of The Punsher cheap out on the skull?), but if the saying is true that you can judge a man by his actions, then it looks like we have our Punisher. Be it slaughtering a gang of Irish mobster by using an automatic weapon to turn their club house into a killbox (nice touch of a camera gliding backward through a gaping, bloody, exit wound during the aftermath), or going all Leatherface on the Cartel by hanging them all up on meathooks to die, the show certainly hasn’t toned down it’s act when it comes to the rough stuff and we have all the hallmarks of maybe getting the greatest Punisher of all.
Additionally, while we had to wait a full two thirds of the first season for Daredevil and Kingpin to finally lay their mitts on one another, Double D and Punisher are allowed to throw hands at the end of the first episode and it’s pretty fucking glorious – especially considering we get a shock ending where a somewhat outmatched Murdock gets sloppy (maybe beating on Turk so much has made him lose his edge) and catches a bullet in the head courtesy of his opponent. Now, obviously Daredevil didn’t get his brains blown out in the first episode of his second season (hardly a spoiler) but it goes a long way to establish Frank as a legitimate threat – if shooting up a hospital like the fucking Terminator in order to kill Grotto and Karen hadn’t done it already.
One episode down and Daredevil’s back, The Punisher is an utter beast and Murdock’s life is once again about to tumble back into the shitter thanks to the man in the skull. To name drop one of Castle’s most famous arcs, Welcome Back, Frank.
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