Daredevil Born Again and Why You Don’t Always Have to Start from the Beginning

A few years ago, I was shopping at Kroger when my eyes landed on the cover of a book. It was The Race by Clive Cussler. Here’s the cover.

I was immediately captivated. Old-fashioned planes! Cussler’s name! And was that trailing plane firing weapons at the leading plane? I picked up the novel and read the description and discovered the Isaac Bell series.

The Race was the fourth one and I made the decision to start from book one and make my way forward from the beginning. With all of my other reading, it took me months to get to The Race but I read, listened to, and enjoyed every book in the series ever since.

Daredevil: Born Again

Cut to this spring’s television. I didn’t immediately jump on the new Daredevil series on Disney+ because I had barely watched the Netflix series nearly a decade ago. I watched maybe two or three episodes and then just never kept going. Ditto for Luke Cage. Never even watched Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, or the Defenders. With so much content, I picked and chose what I wanted to watch and, well, these never landed in my queue.

A co-worker of mine talk Star Wars and Marvel movies and the Reacher TV show and books. After Reacher’s third season ended, he asked if I was watching Daredevil. I said no for the reasons I just listed. He told me it was quite good so I watched the trailer.

And was intrigued. Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk sitting in a café, just talking? Both Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio were born to play their respective roles. I last saw D’Onofrio in the Hawkeye series and for Cox, it was She-Hulk. So I said why the heck not give episode one of Born Again a try.

I was hooked.

It took me a few weeks—Daredevil is a show my wife doesn’t watch so I had to fit it in—but I caught up in time to watch the penultimate episode and the season finale when they debuted. I thought the season was fantastic. 

I loved the emphasis on Murdock and Fisk both trying to absolve their former selves to do something different only to be drawn back to what makes them themselves. I appreciated that we got basically a two-episode arc of Murdock just being a lawyer. I savored D’Onofrio’s portrayal of Fisk, including his peculiar way of speaking. And I loved the judicious use of action.

Stan Lee’s Famous Mantra

Stan Lee, creator of many of the mighty Marvel heroes, always had a mantra: every issue is someone’s first issue. As a result, nearly every Marvel comic in the 1970s and beyond featured a short bio, bringing a new reader up to speed on the character. From there, the new reader is empowered to read the issue and, hopefully many more.

When I read a few articles and listened to a few podcasts that ended up talking about Born Again, I discovered some disappointment. More than one person commented that elements of Born Again was a rehash of one of the Daredevil seasons from the Netflix era. That the Netflix version was better. That there wasn’t enough action.

But for me, Born Again was my real re-introduction to the TV Daredevil. I barely have any memory of the episodes I watched on Netflix nearly a decade ago. Now, it acts as my own template by which to judge any future Daredevil show, including the Netflix version if I choose to go back and watch those shows.

As my co-worker and I discussed each episode of Born Again, he extolled the Netflix series as something I should go back and watch. But, again, there’s just too much content out there that I want to watch. Andor season 2. Paradise season 1. The final season of Bosch. Mobland, Friends and Neighbors. The Studio. Heck, I didn’t even bother rewatching Ander season 1 because there’s just too much content and too little time. 

Go With the Book Whose Cover Grabs You

So, my experience with the excellent Daredevil: Born Again reinforces what I’ve started doing ever since I went back to the beginning of the Isaac Bell series: If a book captures your attention and you pick it up, read that book. Watch that show. Watch that movie. Listen to that album. It doesn’t matter if the book is the seventh in the series, it’s season three of a TV show, or if it’s the sequel to the hit movie you never watched. 

You can always go back. But you don’t always have to.