Courtesy Netflix

From left, Elden Henson (as Franklin “Foggy” Nelson), Deborah Ann Woll (as Karen Page) and Charlie Cox (as Matt Murdock) star in Netflix’s Daredevil.

Andrew A. Smith

Tribune Content Agency

Daredevil Season 3, which dropped on Netflix Oct. 19, wasn’t a direct adaptation of a given comic book story. Instead, the show includes DNA from a variety of comics. To find out which bits and what bobs came from where, let’s engage (with a huge Spoiler Warning for both TV and comics) in a little Q&A:

Q: Does Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter exist in the comics? Does he dress up like Daredevil? Is he crazy? Does Kingpin break his back?

A: Hit, hit, hit, near-miss.

In the comics, Poindexter first appears in “Watch Out for Bullseye, He Never Misses!” (1975), as a supervillain with the same uncanny aim as on TV, the same terrifying ability to turn any found object into a deadly missile and eventually a long history of working for Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk.  Note that on TV, Poindexter’s Little League baseball cap has a bull’s eye on it, and when we last see him (on the operating table) the camera zooms in on his eye, which shows a bull’s eye. Should Daredevil continue – a fourth season has not yet been announced – we will likely see Poindexter’s full conversion into his comics counterpart.

As to the masquerade, Bullseye discovers Matt Murdock with amnesia in “The Outsider” (1991), and takes advantage of the situation by impersonating DD. Poindexter also pretends to be Hawkeye during the comic book version of Captain America: Civil War in 2006. I guess he just likes playing dress-up.

And he’s not alone. In the 1986 story “Born Again,” a homicidal lunatic plays Daredevil at the Kingpin’s direction, in order to draw Murdock into battle. He’s not Poindexter, but he’s a good substitute. And just like on TV, it’s Fisk fixer Felix Manning in the comics who commissions the fake Daredevil suit from the somewhere-on-the-spectrum costumer/armor-maker Melvin Potter.

Speaking of Potter, when he’s off his meds he becomes the armored supervillain Gladiator, with spinning buzzsaws on his gauntlets. There was a hint of that on TV, where he uses a buzzsaw blade briefly against Daredevil, and wore a T-shirt with the Gladiator emblem.

As to Poindexter: Yes, he’s nuts. Initially, Bullseye’s mental instability was believed to be the result of repeated defeats at Daredevil’s hands (and billy clubs). But the 1981 “Elektra Saga” by Frank Miller (Sin City, 300) revealed that Poindexter also had a brain tumor, since cured, which muddies the water as to how much his insanity is inborn or a result of his illness.

Whatever the reason, though, he remains a homicidal maniac with a fixation on the Man Without Fear.

As to a broken back, that happened also – only it was Daredevil, not Kingpin, who administered it in the “Elektra Saga.” DD had pretty good reason, since Bullseye had just lethally skewered Elektra with her own sais. (Don’t worry, she got better.) Poindexter became mobile again when adamantium was fused to his spine in an experimental surgery – a recovery Daredevil Season 3 alludes to as well, in the final episode.

Needless to say, the “Dr. Oyama” performing the surgery is straight out of the comics as well, the “Lord Dark Wind” who invented the adamantium-to-bone fusing process.

Q: On the TV show, Wilson Fisk had figured out that Matt Murdock was Daredevil, but he got confirmation when he challenged Karen Page with the idea, and her expression gave it away. Did Karen let the devil out of the bag in the comics, too?

Cover art by David Mazzucchelli. Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

One of the major inspirations for Daredevil Season 3 was the 1986 story “Born Again.”

A: Oh, good lord, yes. And in the worst possible way.

In the comics, Karen goes to Hollywood in 1970 to become a movie star. It doesn’t work out, though – at the beginning of “Born Again,” Miller establishes that she becomes first a porn actress and then a junkie. She literally sells Daredevil’s secret identity to her pusher for a fix, and the secret finds its way into Fisk’s chubby hands.

On TV, Karen sarcastically tells her brother that she’s “one step away from giving blowjobs for my next fix.” Ha ha! But in the comics, she literally does exactly that.

Q: Kingpin tries to drown Matt Murdock in a taxi on TV. Is that from the comics, too?

A: Yes, as a coup de grace in “Born Again.” When Kingpin learns Daredevil’s secret ID, he destroys Matt Murdock’s life. He gets Murdock disbarred, indicted on a (false) witness-tampering charge and audited by the IRS (who freeze all his assets). Fisk even forecloses on Murdock’s home, and then blows it up. Murdock has a mental breakdown as a result, making it easy for Fisk to beat him in hand-to-hand combat, load him in a taxi and aim it at the East River. Murdock survives, of course, although he gets pneumonia from the polluted water.

The Netflix show mirrors this attempted assassination, although the river must be cleaner now, since Murdock doesn’t even get the sniffles.

Q: Whoa! Amnesia, mental breakdown – Matt’s not exactly the poster boy for mental health, is he?

A: Well, certain plot devices tend to occur to action heroes if they’re around long enough, including amnesia, evil twins, adventures that turn out to be dreams, and so forth. Murdock has had more than his share, including the 2010 story “Shadowland,” where DD experiences some sort of moral break and becomes leader of those evil ninjas, The Hand! At least in “Guardian Devil” (1998) he had an excuse for going nuts, in that he had been dosed with a hallucinogen by Spider-Man foe Mysterio.

Which leads to our next question:

Q: Does Father Lantom die in the comics, too?

 A: No, he’s doing quite well, thanks for asking. But he’s a supporting character in Runaways and Cloak & Dagger comics, not Daredevil. It’s unlikely that he’s even met Matt Murdock in the comics.

However, his death on TV did occur in the comics – to someone else. In “Guardian Devil,” written by Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy), Bullseye impaled Karen Page on one of Daredevil’s billy clubs. Since that death has been, um, let’s say, “used up” on the TV show, Karen’s future may be brighter there than in the comics, where she’s been dead for 19 years.

Cover art by Joe Quesada. Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

Season 3 included elements from the 1998 story “Guardian Devil.”

Q: So is Sister Maggie Matt’s Catholic conscience in the comics?

A: Yep, and she’s his mother there, just like on TV. She’s the one who nurses him (through the pneumonia) in “Born Again,” just as she nurses him (after a building fell on him) in the Netflix show. There’s even a scene in the comics, like on TV, where Murdock tries to get up too soon and his legs won’t support him.

Here’s one difference: On TV, Murdock learns Maggie is his mother by overhearing her prayers. In the comics, he makes the connection on his own, and asks her point blank if she’s his mother. She flatly denies it, but he can hear her heartbeat and knows she’s lying.

Q: What about Ray Nadeem? He seems like an important character.

A: Nope, he’s entirely the TV show’s invention. However, a great many other supporting characters are lifted from the comics, if not directly then at least in spirit. They include small-time crook Turk Barrett, lawyer “Big” Ben Donovan, Kingpin’s wife Vanessa, Karen’s parents Paxton and Penelope Page, Foggy’s girlfriend Marci Stahl and district attorney Blake Tower.

Q: What about Poindexter’s “North star,” Julie Barnes?

A: Another TV invention. Bullseye has given several different origins in the comics, and since he’s a loon who believes whatever he says when he’s saying it, it’s hard to tell when he’s lying. But none of those origins were like the one on TV, which is actually a pretty good one.

Find Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), on his website (captaincomics.ning.com), on Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or on Twitter (@CaptainComics).

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  • Great rundown, Captain!  Haven't followed Daredevil since about 1987 (when I seriously curtailed my comics collecting), not too long after the Born Again epic.  Many aspects of the Netflix series I recognized from Miller's runs and I'd also gotten the Bullseye's first appearance during Marv Wolfman's not quite as famous run (I'll make a wild guess and surmise Uri Geller will not be invited to make a guest appearance on any future Netflix DD episodes, even if there are another 3 seasons).

  • Great rundown, Captain!  Haven't followed Daredevil since about 1987 (when I seriously curtailed my comics collecting), not too long after the Born Again epic.  Many aspects of the Netflix series I recognized from Miller's runs and I'd also gotten the Bullseye's first appearance during Marv Wolfman's not quite as famous run (I'll make a wild guess and surmise Uri Geller will not be invited to make a guest appearance on any future Netflix DD episodes, even if there are another 3 seasons).

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