From Captain America: Civil War’s commentary on government oversight to the racial justice messages in The Black Panther, Marvel Studios has shown it’s willing to get political. Yet for the most part, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has shied away from any sort of value judgement on the man who has dominated American politics for the past decade. For the second season of Daredevil: Born Again, which debuts today on Disney Plus, that’s finally changed. Showrunner Dario Scardapane puts the man without fear into a fearlessly anti-Trump story, but it comes with a very bizarre, even incomprehensible, twist.
In Daredevil: Born Again season 1, Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) is elected as mayor of New York City on an anti-vigilante platform. The season ends with the new mayor declaring martial law. When season 2 begins, Fisk’s draconian policies are in full effect with his Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF) roaming the streets and terrorizing all kinds of citizens, even if they aren’t vigilantes. Daredevil (Charlie Cox) is leading a resistance of citizens dedicated to taking Fisk and the AVTF down, while his alter ego, Matt Murdock, is a missing person.
The political overtones might already be obvious, but before getting into that, it’s worth noting that the two seasons of Daredevil: Born Again had very different kinds of productions. Despite several returning cast members, the series began as a show entirely separate from the 2015 Netflix series . Towards the end of production, however, Marvel decided to tie Daredevil: Born Again directly to the original series. Showrunners Matt Corman and Chris Ord were replaced by The Punisher writer Scardapane, who reworked most of the episodes and shot three episodes worth of additional material to create the final product. In an interview with Cinemablend, even referred to the first season as a “cobbled-together Frankenstein.” Season 2, however, was all Scardapane. In that same interview he said, “We were able to kick the narrative into the second season relatively unfettered.”
The difference is noteworthy because it explains shortcomings or tonal shifts in Daredevil: Born Again season 1. The second season, by comparison, should be more consistent, with a clear tone and vision, yet it suffers from two agonizing inconsistencies that hurt the experience.
The first big problem is that the opening half of the season is often frustratingly dull, largely because we spend a lot of it with secondary and tertiary characters who aren’t nearly as interesting as Daredevil and Fisk, or the other Netflix series veterans Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer), and Bullseye (Wilson Bethel). Those characters are great and all deserve their own stories, which they get, but there’s also more than a half dozen other characters that were introduced in season 1 of Born Again. They each get their own plotlines in season 2 that mostly just take away from Daredevil. The most frustrating of the bunch is Matt’s law partner, Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James), who now shoulders all the legal drama of the series. The courtroom plotlines of the Netflix show were fine when they featured Matt and his best pal Foggy (Elden Henson), but McDuffie without Matt doesn’t hold my interest.
The show gets a huge shot in the arm in episode five thanks to a major character turning point for Fisk that Daredevil plays a part in. From then on, those secondary characters are relegated to their proper supporting status while Daredevil occupies far more screentime. We even get some new fight scenes and conversation scenes between Daredevil and Fisk, which continue to be the best moments of the series thanks to the chemistry between Cox and D’Onofrio. Episodes 5 through 8 are so satisfying and impactful they make up for the slow first half. Especially rewarding in the second half is the return of Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, which is limited, but sets up an interesting new status quo for the character.
Then there’s the politics of it all. It seems clear Mayor Wilson Fisk is a stand-in for President Donald Trump. They’re both temperamental, uber-rich New York businessmen who put their businesses in a trust before attaining power, yet they continue to profit while in office. They’re also similarly thin-skinned. Trump often rails against Saturday Night Live and any talk show host who lampoons him, while Fisk is annoyed by a Max Headroom-like internet personality wearing a mask of the mayor. The most obvious parallel though is Fisk’s command of the AVTF, an unrestrained paramilitary force terrorizing ordinary citizens, exactly like ICE ever since Trump returned to office. Watching the season and seeing the bullying AVTF agents in their tactical gear, it’s impossible not to think of ICE.
The team behind Daredevil: Born Again isn’t exactly leaning into these comparisons. . Cox called any similarities between Trump and Fisk “purely coincidental.” Scardapane said season 2 is inspired by Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and Ryan Coogler’s film Fruitvale Station. But I just don’t buy that the show isn’t at least somewhat informed by Trump and his policies.
This political relevance isn’t a bad thing. It makes Born Again feel fresh, exciting, and relevant. Several of Darevil’s fight scenes this season pit him against the AVTF and there’s definitely some satisfaction to be found in the fascist force getting their brutal comeuppance. It’s also nice to see a Marvel property not play it too safe in regards to Trump. While some fans thought Harrison Ford’s President Ross had echoes of Trump in Captain America: Brave New World, the movie ultimately didn’t say much of anything politically. But in Daredevil, the parallels are clear and integral to the story, and that’s to be applauded.
That is until the finale, where, in the final scenes, the series takes a bizarre turn that seems to contradict the whole rest of the season. While I won’t spoil the finale here, I will say that even Scardapane has admitted it’s intentionally referencing recent history, but I’d argue that what he did with it is confusing, wrong-headed, and even offensive.
Still, Daredevil: Born Again season 2 is worth watching. The first half may be sleepy, but both Daredevil and Fisk’s stories are solid and move both characters forward in interesting ways. They even set up an interesting new status quo for season 3. The biggest buzz throughout the season, though, will definitely be the obvious political parallels, and that’s good since it’s timely, thoughtful and well-written — even if a truly perplexing choice at the end seems to undermine it all.
Daredevil: Born Again season 2 airs weekly on Disney Plus. Episode 1 is streaming now.
