Alex Segura has created a fascinating story focused on Matt Murdock and a major murder case fresh out of Hell’s Kitchen, where he must also juggle his alter ego Daredevil while facing down familiar foes like Punisher and Bullseye. We had the chance to speak with Segura on his new novel.
Continue reading “Alex Segura on ‘Enemy of My Enemy: A Daredevil Marvel Crime Novel’”
Let’s make no mistake about this. This first month of 2026 has proven to be a disgusting era in US history, with the president’s ICE patrols continuing to kidnap and murder people on the streets of Minneapolis and all around the country. The irony of all of the horrors here is that it makes a Marvel Studios show, like Daredevil: Born Again — set in a fantastical universe — feel so tragically close to home. However, in many ways, that’s why we need Matt Murdock now way more than ever before.
Continue reading “The Relevance of ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 in the Era of ICE”
Even as a Marvel fan, I’ll be the first to admit that not all of the MCU’s Disney+ shows have worked. I really didn’t care for Secret Invasion or She-Hulk. However, when they’ve hit, such as X-Men ’97, WandaVision, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and Loki, they’ve hit hard. And that brings us to one of the hardest hitters of all: Daredevil: Born Again.
Continue reading “NOC Review: ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ is Marvel Television at Its Peak”
MCU directors don’t get more prolific than Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson. They may not be household names to the extent of The Russo Brothers. However, given their stellar work on Moon Knight and Loki Season 2, they are quickly becoming the premiere duo behind some of the MCU’s best works in recent years.
Continue reading “Directing ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ with Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson”
Marvel history doesn’t get much more storied than the work of Sana Amanat and Dario Scardapane. From their work on the comics and shows, they’ve firmly established their place as legends within the Marvel Universe. Today these two giants are teaming up to bring back one of the best Marvel shows, with one of the best Marvel heroes in the MCU with Daredevil: Born Again. And we were able to speak to both of them recently in honor of the show’s debut on Disney+ March 4.
Continue reading “Producers Dario Scardapane and Sana Amanat on ‘Daredevil: Born Again’”
We’re so back! It’s been a long wait for fans of Daredevil. Back when the first series was cancelled on Netflix after three seasons, fans rallied and cried to bring it back with the #SaveDaredevil campaign. Little did we know that seven years later, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen would be saved, hallway fighting back to our screens under Marvel Studios. His epic return in the new series Daredevil: Born Again premieres on Disney+ March 4. And we were able to sit with the stars of the show, Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk themselves, Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio!
Continue reading “Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio On Power and Violence in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’”
Corruption and politics go hand in hand. Just look at the upcoming state of the presidency and the current state of the Supreme Court. And it’s an issue that the MCU is tackling in Daredevil: Born Again! “Devil’s Reign” is coming, and the only one who can stop Wilson Fisk’s rise to power as Mayor of New York City is the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, himself: Matt Murdock! If only Daredevil existed in our world today.
Continue reading “Matt Murdock Takes on Corrupt Politicians in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Trailer”
Hell’s Kitchen is open once again! And in the wake of the terrific Echo, it sounds like Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, is planning his run for mayor of New York City. And the one man who could stand in his way is the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen! Matt Murdock/Daredevil is returning folks! And today we got more details about the upcoming Marvel Studios television revival, Daredevil: Born Again!
Continue reading “New Details Revealed for ‘Daredevil: Born Again’”
So.
I can’t say what I would have to say about the orientalism in Daredevil Season Two any better than Arthur Chu, so I will leave you to read that and bristle at will.
My thought process upon reading about Daredevil killing Nobu and not counting it as killing a person went as follows:
Continue reading “Racist Like Daredevil with this One Weird Tip!”
Originally posted at The Daily Beast
I liked Daredevil Season 2 a lot. I didn’t like it quite as much as Season 1, but it was always going to be impossible to find someone to live up to Vincent D’Onofrio’s take on Wilson Fisk (who still effortlessly steals the few scenes he gets this season). But the writing and the acting for Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, is compelling as hell, enough to spark a lively debate about the appeal of vigilante justice and gun violence in American culture.
The tangled, messy web of corruption behind the death of the Punisher’s family, the complicity of the state and the media in creating him, his turnaround in becoming a criminal defendant in the Trial of the Century, and the moral ambiguity of Castle’s past as a soldier who exposes the American public’s hypocrisy by bringing the brutal logic of the overseas War on Terror stateside — that’s all great stuff.
The problem is all that great stuff is only half of Daredevil Season 2. There’s a whole other half that’s almost totally disconnected from the Frank Castle plot, the Nelson and Murdock law firm, and New York City politics. There’s a full 50 percent of Daredevil Season 2 that’s total crap, and that half is the part with the ninjas.
Some of my fellow NOCs and other contributors have written eloquent season reviews and critiques of Daredevil so I’ll keep this brief. I’m pretty biased with this character and while I tried to restrain some and was somewhat critical, there was a lot of praise throughout my recaps. When something that’s been a part of 2/3 of your life finally is treated correctly, it can be quite the emotional ride. Congrats to Netflix for this, their greatest and most-watched original series. Netflix and Marvel: the new Kingpins. Best superhero show? Yes. Best Marvel property? Yes. Best show, movie, anything a camera has filmed? Shit, probably. Sure. Yes.
What a groundbreaking ride this has been. I am so thrilled that this character and his world that connected with me as kid has finally fallen into the right hands and ended up not just revolutionizing the superhero genre, but TV and film in general. Therefore, it’s fitting that show runner Steven DeKnight took the writing and directing duties for the finale. After all the defending of Daredevil I’ve done up to this point with haters of the “lesser Spider-Man,” not to mention the failure of the movie, it feels personally triumphant for me. Bill Everett and Jack Kirby have passed, but I can’t imagine how Stan Lee must feel watching a Pavarotti moment with these characters in the finale culminating the origin story and thusly named: “Daredevil.” I think Puccini would approve.
“The Ones We Leave Behind” is another dense episode that fortunately doesn’t feel like it drags. Two of the leads deal differently with killing, there’s some backstabbing in the consortium, some classic Daredevil roof hopping, and another climactic and shocking ending. Damn. Fucking Sony.
It opens with Karen tossing the gun in the river. She’s obviously messed up after murdering Wesley and this plays out once she gets home and hits the bottle hard to put herself to sleep. She wakes up startled thinking she hears something, but then relaxes and decides to switch to beer for bed. Does that ever work? She turns from the fridge and our bald menace is staring her down. He delivers another stellar speech telling her he knows how hard it is to take a life. He goes on about how you feel the weight of the person’s life, the cherished moments, and such. Then he says: “I want you to know something, something important that I’ve learned: that it gets easier the more you do it.” And he attacks. And Karen wakes up. Really wakes up this time. The old nightmare within the nightmare. Well played writers.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: So Much for a Complete Daily Bugle Staff”
Four of our favorites are paired up once more and give us some outstanding on-screen chemistry. Claire’s patches up Matt again, even if it’s for a brief moment. While Vanessa is in recovery, Fisk and Wesley share some very tender moments as Wesley tries to balance his BFF’s sanity with keeping the machine moving. Nelson and Murdock Attorneys at Law continues to unravel with Karen upset and the boys still not talking to each other. Mr. Potter battles like a gladiator and we get quite the climatic ending in “The Path of the Righteous.”
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Saw Blades & Tender Villains”
Yes, the boys are fighting and Foggy Bear attacks like a… bear. It’s Foggy’s turn to learn about Matt’s powers and the first part of “Nelson v. Murdock” basically repeats previous scenes and flashbacks of folks that know about Matt. Nothing new that we don’t already know until the way Foggy plays it at the end. Besides Foggy’s cross examination of Matt, we get flashbacks to their meeting and law school daze days, Madame Gao puts Fisk in another time out, Karen tricks Ben in a game changing way, and a benefit dinner really could have used a Medieval cup-bearer.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: The Trial of the Incredible Matthew Murdock”
Ninja fight! Maybe you didn’t get that, let me clear my throat: FUCKING NINJA FIGHT!!!!!! I feel like I’m 12 again. One aspect of this episode I loved and found very original was the use of the ninja battle as the tie that binds. Though the ninja fight scenes are one complete fight, they are broken up chronologically and are stuck between all the other subplots. So essentially, the fight itself becomes not just a fight, but its own overarching subplot. Very cool. Credit due to the director Nick McCormick (The Good Wife), Silvera, and crew for a new take on the use of and cutting of a fight scene.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Ninja Nobu! Ninja? No. Boo.”
At this point, the similarities between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk both wanting to make their city a better place have been repeated a few times. Yep, they’re two sides of the same coin; we get it. Well, there’s another strong tie that binds; they both have serious daddy issues. Matt’s came earlier and now we get to see a big reason why Fisk is who he is. I mentioned there may have been a hint at potential childhood trauma on the fourth episode recap, and my, my; “hint” seems so wrong after this. In addition, Matt ends up in Karen and Foggy’s (and Ben’s) investigation, and Fisk’s grip on his empire starts loosening, creating tension among the consortium in “Shadows in the Glass.”
I love Stick! Sticky Sticky Stick! I lost my mind on this one. It’s still hard to pick a favorite, but this episode is a strong candidate. This is the first time the character has appeared off the page — because we are not counting the terrible Elektra movie — and after Daredevil/Matt, he’s right there as my next favorite character. Why? I think it goes like this: having grown up on many (mostly shitty, some good) martial arts flicks and having trained for years, there’s this stereotypical Mr. Miyagi idea of what a teacher — a sensei — should be like. Kind, gentle, wise, patient, caring, loving, etc. I’ve even had some that sadly seemed to be playing the part.
The wise part, sure, and ninja master indeed, but stereotype be damned. Dude’s an asshole! An arrogant, mean, crotchety old piece of shit asshole. This is the way Miller created and wrote Stick, and Scott Glenn knocks it out the fucking park. I couldn’t get enough. The Golden Broken Arm is yours sir.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Sticking it to Matt Murdock”
The Russian that we love to hate ends up taking one for team Murdock in “Condemned.” We get our first Fisk/Murdock confrontation (via walkie talkie), get to see Urich working the case, and in my opinion, get the best Easter Egg of them all to this point.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Say Hello to My Little Friend”
When great writing, directing, and acting come together in a crime drama, every so often we are treated to interesting and complex characters that are so much more than just “the bad guys.” It also turns out, from stage and some screen experience, these are the roles actors salivate over. Whether they admit it or not, everybody wants to play the villain. Even more want to play a villain with depth that can get the audience behind them. This episode gives us deeper insight into the well-oiled machine that is the extremely organized crime operation run by concert master Wesley on the ground, but overseen by the true conductor of the symphony: Wilson Fisk.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Symphony of Destruction”
About three weeks before we got “the Netflix drop,” Vincent D’Onofrio was responding to Daredevil and Wilson Fisk questions on Twitter. One of the early questions that he responded to was probably the best:
"@NachooIAm @vincentdonofrio #AskFisk #Daredevil can you summarize Wilson Fisk in three words?" Child and monster.
— Daredevil (@Daredevil) March 18, 2015
This is our introduction to Fisk and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He owns this one. Golden Broken Arms, legs, all limbs to D’Onofrio. In addition, the Russians get some more attention, Matt and Claire continue being awesome, and Ben and Karen team up.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: The Child and the Monster”
by Takeo Rivera
So let’s get one thing out of the way: it’s probably safe to say that Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil is the finest piece of television ever made in the superhero genre. With its stellar cast and consistently tight writing and direction, the show can easily go toe-to-toe with any other major serialized TV drama in this golden age of Mad Mens and Breaking Bads, elevating superherodom to an unequivocal status of high art in much the way Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica elevated the space opera. And, as a cherry on top, Daredevil happens to be one of the most progressive shows of the genre; in particular, Matt Murdock battles not some alien Super-Wario intent on blowing up the planet with an ancient glowing Rubik’s cube, but a scion of urban “redevelopment” — read gentrification — in Wilson Fisk, and spends an unhealthy time fighting white collar crime and community displacement by punching the crap out of it.
But Daredevil also has one massive problem: Asians. That is, Asians are the problem, and Daredevil’s problem is that Asians are a problem.
It’s been three weeks since Marvel dropped Daredevil on Netflix, and the nerdosphere is still head over heels for the show. Now that Netflix has announced a second season of their hit superhero series, Hard NOC Life returns to talk about how Marvel is taking over the streaming television game with Black Nerd Problems’ Jordan Calhoun (@jordanmcalhoun) — whose Daredevil piece you’ve probably read — and returning Hard NOC champ Raymond Chow.
