Like a bullet between the eyes, the debut of the Punisher into Daredevil struck hard and fast and left nothing but carnage in its wake, but while the build up for Jon Bernthal’s presumably volcanic take on the infamous character has certainly lived up to expectations (a room full of Irish gangsters riddled with hollow points tends to make an impression), the first episode of Daredevil’s second season really put its point across when it ended with the murderous vigilante pulled a gun on our hero after a brutal fight and planted a bullet right into his forehead.
However, after an introduction such as this (which also included him hang Cartel members on hooks and shooting up a hospital to nail a criminal who earlier escaped his grasp), can Daredevil manage to deliver on the promise that it’s going to do the character justice?
Well it looks like Jon Bernthal’s increasingly bloody hands are also very safe ones for a character that’s now on his fouth live action incarnation.
It hasn’t taken long for season 2 to leave its titular hero in a bloody heap as the previous episode ended with Matt Murdock’s alter ego Daredevil catching a bullet in the head courtesy of a savage new vigilante that’s been murdering members of organised crime all over the city. Thankfully we’re spared twelve more episodes of a static camera recording Matt’s rapidly smoldering corpse due to the fact that his cowl managed to stop the round before it caused any fatal damage. That doesn’t mean that Murdock is all hunky dory and it takes his faithful buddy and law partner, Foggy Nelson, to track him down and bring him home where a scolding ensues.
However, the pair don’t have time to rest on their laurels as Grotto, the sole survivor of an attack by the vigilante now dubbed the Punisher, needs to be placed in witness protection. Karen’s grown weirdly fond of the Irish gangster, possibly because she’s got blood on her own hands, but the staff of Nelson & Murdock are taken aback when District Attorney Samatha Reyes (fresh from Jessica Jones) merely wants to use the criminal as bait to draw out his attacker.
Meanwhile, Matt’s discovered quite a worrying detail about his special senses as having his bell rung by a point blank bullet has caused his super abilities to cut in and out, essentially leaving him blind and deaf at random intervals, but that doesn’t stop him from calling in once again to Melvin Potter to put in an order for a new, reinforced cowl.
Soon it’s time to send an unwitting Grotto out on his fateful mission and while Foggy and Karen protest, their worst fears are realised when it becomes apparent that the Punisher is one step ahead of the DA and everyone else, but when Daredevil intercedes once again for a rematch, his twitchy powers let him down at the worst possible moment.
There’s a moment located within Dogs To A Gunfight that’s almost perfect Punisher. You’d expect that to truly capture the essence of Frank Castle, you’d just have to simply include a scene of him machine gunning scumbags into patty, but the makers of Daredevil instead give us a quick but effective look into what makes the man tick. Picture the scene: Frank is in a sleezy porn merchant to pick up a police radio and various other supplies and after paying cash for an additional shotgun behind the counter and the security tape from the camera he turns to leave. However, barely feet from the door, the owner of the shop chances his arm and asks Castle if he wants from creepily illegal forms of sex tape. Frank stops, flips the man’s door sign to “closed”, turns and advances on the man while ominously wielding a baseball bat. Considering there’s no cordite, no skull emblazoned body armor or even an onscreen kill, it could possibly be the most subtly accurate Punisher moment I’ve ever seen which shows exactly how quick the man can turn on a dime once he’s decided you don’t deserve to live. It’s extraordinarily telling just how well cast Bernthal is as the Punisher that he feels so right despite barely having any meaningful lines or conversations in two whole episodes. It also helps that he already has a win over Daredevil after their first fight and while I could bang on about the Punisher all night, Murdock’s already racking up his fair share of issues already.
Whether it’s the doubt of Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2, the desire of Kal-El to be normal in Superman 2 or even a power dampener affixed to Wade Wilson in Deadpool 2, apparently it’s the law that all superhero sequels have to fuck with its hero’s powers and guess what, after taking a round to the face, Murdock’s abilities are up the spout too. But while this usual means that our depowered lead has to live his life as a mere mortal (or in Wade’s case, start to die from cancer), to lose his powers is to render Matt really blind and possibly deaf too and the scariness of the ramifications make this overused plot trope feel a little fresher. In fact the sight of a blind Matt panicking while unable to hear his own screaming is genuinely unnerving and Cox deserves plaudits by having the Man Without Fear literally freak out.
While the episode is working overtime when it comes to its two main characters and even has room to slot in a character who appeared in Jessica Jones (we got ourselves connected universe within a connected universe, people!), it still farms out enough suff for the supporting cast to do. Foggy manages to figure out what has happened to Matt at the end of the last episode, locates saves him, gives him a dressing down and even manages to stymy the DA with an impressive use of legalese and we even get to visit Melvin Potter again as Matt needs his costume upgraded. However, elsewhere we find Karen bonding with Grotto which proves to be the only bum note of the season so far as I’m not entirely sure why she would become so attached to someone linked to the Irish mob. Maybe it’s because she’s become far more forgiving as she herself is guilty of murder after shooting the Kingpin’s right hand man last season, or she’s worried that a vigilante who kills killers wouldn’t be particularly pleased to discover her past, but I just don’t buy her sudden Florence Nightingale attitude to a leg breaker just because he’s got a good line in banter.
Conversely, if you thought we were getting spoilt by getting a Daredevil vs. Punisher brawl at the end of the first episode, guess what, we get a round two and it’s even cooler than the first one. While the two beat the tar out of each other while water from a busted water tank spills about them, the stakes are raised even higher when hidden police snipers start taking pot shot at them while they dance the dance of blunt force trauma. Amazingly, the Punisher goes two for two once Matt’s powers crap out on him again and it seems that the distinct lack of breaks the shoe offers its bruised and bloodied lead will certainly continue.
Two episodes in and the balance between Daredevil and Punisher is being handed well and the show’s even dropping in the worrying issue that Matt’s extracurricular activities may even be to blame for Castle wanting to take the law into his own hands. However, it’s started so hard and so fast, I have to wonder where the hell the remaining eleven episodes can possibly go, even with Elektra waiting in the wings…
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