By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
When Daredevil returns to Netflix for its second season March 18, the series will take some liberties with an iconic story. But even comics fans are likely to concede that it’s for the best.
The story in question was a long-running affair in the early 1980s that established Daredevil’s popularity, as well as populating his life with characters specific to his mythos. Prior to that, going back to the Man Without Fear’s introduction in 1964, Daredevil was a weak seller featuring villains that were often lame, borrowed from other titles, or both.
I mean, he fought a guy named The Matador, whose chief weapon was … a red cape. And the Stilt-Man, who had … stilts. Seriously. Needless to say, Daredevil wasn’t exactly selling at Amazing Spider-Man level.
But in 1979 a young writer/artist named Frank Miller came to Daredevil, at the time such a low-selling title that it only came out every other month. Working first with more experienced writers like Marv Wolfman and Roger McKenzie, Miller changed the look of the series dramatically, re-worked DD’s fighting style to be more ninja than boxer, and eventually took over the writing as well. Sales quickly responded, and Daredevil leaped into the ranks of Marvel’s A-list titles.
Miller established Bullseye – a supervillain with the uncanny power to never miss when throwing an object – as one of Daredevil’s major foes. He upgraded the villainous Kingpin and crusading reporter Ben Urich, both lifted from Amazing Spider-Man, as characters more closely associated with Daredevil than the web-spinner. He introduced the ninja assassin cult The Hand, and its opposite number, The Chaste. The latter featured a new character Miller inserted into Matt Murdock’s past, a blind mentor named Stick.
And in a masterstroke, he introduced Elektra Natchios. It didn’t take long for Miller to establish her tortured relationship with Matt Murdock – first as a lover when both were in college, and then a vengeful, heartless ninja assassin as the result of the murder of her father, the Greek ambassador to the U.S., by terrorists – a murder Murdock tried to stop, and failed.
Daredevil wanted to “save” her. Did he simply want to turn her from her murderous path? Or did he still love her? Probably both.
As to Elektra, her expressionless face revealed little, and her words were cold. But her actions were less so, giving Murdock hope that he was getting through.
That didn’t exactly work out, though, as – spoiler – Bullseye killed Elektra with her own weapons in order to curry favor with The Kingpin. Weirdly, four of Daredevil’s girlfriends have been knocked off over the years (although Elektra has an annoying tendency to get resurrected by ninja magic). Ladies, do not date Daredevil, unless you have access to ninja magic.
Back to the story: Daredevil sought revenge against Kingpin and Bullseye, and being the hero, largely got it. But that storyline has had numerous sequels and replays over the years, and remains the definitive Daredevil story.
And even if you don’t read comics, it does sound familiar, doesn’t it? That’s because Miller’s opus was the plot for Daredevil, the 2013 movie starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. You know, the one the critics gave a measly 44 percent approval to on Rottentomatoes.com, with only a 35 percent thumbs up from the audience.
With Affleck making a big splash this summer over in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (another story partly inspired by Frank Miller’s work), it’s probably for the best that the producers not remind everyone of that previous effort with a remake.
And besides, many of the elements that made the Elektra saga so powerful have already been used. The first season of Netflix’s Daredevil saw the rise and fall of The Kingpin. It introduced Stick and The Hand. Even Elektra was mentioned obliquely, in one of the conversations we saw between Foggy Nelson and Murdock in college.
So Daredevil season two isn’t going to be a remake of the earlier movie, or an adaptation of Miller’s original comics story. So what will it be?
Well, the major players are all back, of course, including Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page and Eldon Henson as Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. The chemistry between the three in the first season was a delight, and should be even better in season 2 without the necessity of “origin stories” cluttering up the place.
And, yes, we’ll meet Elektra, played Elodie Yung. Given that this storyline is absent most of the comics context for Elektra – Kingpin, Bullseye, The Hand – even comics fans have no idea what her motives or goals are. But given her ability in the comics to turn Murdock’s life upside down, she’ll bear watching.
As will the other major addition, Frank Castle, played by Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead, Fury). Also known as The Punisher, this character should be familiar to movie audiences from his three – three! – unsuccessful solo movies, where he was played by Dolph Lundren (1989), Thomas Jane (2004) and Ray Stevenson (2008).
The Punisher’s story is so well-known it almost doesn’t bear repeating. But for the record, military vet Frank Castle returns from “The War” (originally Vietnam, currently Afghanistan), only to have his family slaughtered by mobsters while on a picnic in Central Park. Vowing vengeance, Castle uses his special-ops training and equipment to wage war on organized crime with military, and lethal, precision.
Punisher’s opposite number in the vigilante field is Daredevil, of course, who goes out of his way to avoid anyone dying. (We can assume Elektra has no problem with Frank’s bloody hobby.) So one thread of the show will be Murdock’s conflict with Castle, another will be whatever Elektra is up to, and a third will be the struggling law firm of Nelson & Murdock.
Oh yeah, our two favorite lawyers will have a problem, too, with a possibly corrupt district attorney named Blake Tower (Stephen Rider). That’s straight out of the comics, where the DA once posed a problem for our intrepid attorneys.
Oh, and we’ll likely see Claire Temple again, played by the ever-amazing Rosario Dawson (Sin City). She’s a composite character, using the name of an early Luke Cage love interest, but patching up heroes pro bono like the Night Nurse, a character named Linda Carter in the comics. Temple has already appeared in the first seasons of Daredevil and Jessica Jones, and will likely be the common element in all the planned Marvel series at Netflix, which will include Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders.
And if they’re all as good as Daredevil and Jessica Jones, then even comics fans won’t mind how far they stray from the originals.
Reach Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), the Internet (comicsroundtable.com), Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Replies
If you'll pardon me, Miller didn't work with Marv Wolfman on Daredevil, just McKenzie and (for one issue) David Michelinie. Bullseye was created by Wolfman, but that was earlier, when Bob Brown was the penciller.
Denny O'Neil edited most of Miller's issues, but not his first ones as artist. Miller first drew Daredevil in The Spectacular Spider-Man #27-#28, written by Bill Mantlo.
Comments on Cap's syndicated article (like Luke's) should be posted here.
Comments on the show once it is available to watch should be posted to this thread:
https://captaincomics.ning.com/forum/topics/daredevil-season-two
We finished watching season two (the “Punisher/Elektra” season) last night. I haven’t yet read any of this discussion, but plan to do so now. Here are my initial thoughts. I liked the adaptation of the Punisher story from comics, but the changes made to Elektra’s back story seem a little off to me. In the comics, the college-age Elektra was dangerously wild and maybe a little self-destructive, but she wasn’t a criminal, a killer. I’m also not too wild about the insertion of this “Black Sky” stuff or the idea that Stick called her “Elly” as a child. Having said that, though, the casting was much more appropriate than Jennifer Garner.
Nice “Daredevil 101,” Cap. But when I found this topic several weeks ago, I thought it was an in-depth discussion of season two. (How disappointing.) Is there such a discussion? Richard’s link above does not work.
Ah, here it is.