This post contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again season 1. The devil is in the details. That’s what Marvel realized in October of 2023, when the writer’s strike forced them to pause their long-in-development revival series Daredevil: Born Again. Although six of the planned 18 episodes had been completed, Marvel let go of writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and brought on new showrunner Dario Scardapane and directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead for a creative overhaul. To be sure, the finished product shows its seams. The transition from what was originally intended as a more traditional courtroom drama to a crowd-pleaser superhero show has resulted in awkward pacing, tonal shifts, and the usual issues with bad special effects. And yet, Daredevil: Born Again is a triumph, a show that captures everything that once made the MCU such a phenomenon: charismatic actors, stand-up-and-cheer moments, and fun set-pieces. The success of Daredevil: Born Again is great news for not just the Man Without Fear, but for the MCU in general, which is hoping for its own resurrection. Down to the Abyss “I am Marvel Jesus!” That typically edgy line from Deadpool & Wolverine seemed to come true, at least for a while. Marvel’s sole movie release in 2024, Deadpool & Wolverine sliced up $1.338 billion at the box office, overcoming (or perhaps relying upon) an R-rating and recycled characters to become the second highest grossing movie of the year. Yet, nearly a year later, that momentum has slowed. Once again, the MCU feels like it’s returned to its post-Avengers: Endgame status quo, running on fumes and lacking direction. The high points of the past five years — WandaVision, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, X-Men ’97 — get buried under middling entries such as Thor: Love & Thunder, Echo, and Captain America: Brave New World. Even the continuing excitement for The Fantastic Four: First Steps feels like it has to potentially overcome next month’s Thunderbolts*. Along the way, Marvel’s had to retool several times, undermining the image of Kevin Feige as a master planner, a key part of his appeal. Beyond the problems posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the writers and actors strikes, there are strange decisions such as holding a Black Widow movie until after the character’s death in Avengers: Endgame and the entire debacle surrounding intended big bad Kang. In short, Marvel’s fallen far from its once-high status. And its attempts at retooling don’t exactly fill us all with excitement. First, Marvel Studios separated into three branches, with separate divisions for Marvel Television and Marvel Animation. Second, Feige turned to big names from the MCU’s heyday, bringing back Robert Downey Jr., this time as iconic villain and Kang-replacement Doctor Doom, and the Russo Brothers to direct. Honestly, from the outside, these changes seem superficial at best, more shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic than rediscovering a sense of direction. But then came Daredevil: Born Again. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Reborn in Flames Within 15 minutes of Daredevil: Born Again, Foggy Nelson has died, and viewers couldn’t be happier. Okay, no, no one’s excited about the fact that Matt Murdock’s best friend, played so affably by Elden Henson, gets killed right away in the first episode. But even his being on screen is a win, given the original plan for the series. Under the initial concept, Foggy and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) would never have appeared at all in the show. Whether they would have been killed or simply have left Matt’s life is unclear, as Wilson Bethel, who plays Foggy’s killer Bullseye, wasn’t slated to return either. In fact, only Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio would come back from the Netflix series, with even Ayelet Zurer replaced by Sandrine Holt as Vanessa for the new series. On one hand, bringing back fan favorites like Henson, Woll, and Zurer seems like the same type of pandering that gave Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine a short term burst of excitement, fun in the moment but unsustainable. Daredevil: Born Again uses its returning characters in the exact opposite way. Getting to spend even ten minutes with Foggy at the opening of the show, seeing Matt happy with Karen and watching the three of them celebrate their meager victory together isn’t just a reminder of a better show that we used to like. It’s a genuine character moment that informs Matt’s loss throughout the rest of the season. Even losing Karen, who makes only intermittent appearances until returning to Matt’s life in the finale, haunts Matt and makes his reluctance to become Daredevil again feel real. Inserting Zurer’s Vanessa into the show sometimes results in choppy editing and composing, as certain scenes were clearly shot with Holt interacting with D’Onofrio and Margarita Levieva, who plays the Fisks’ marriage counselor and Matt’s new love interest Heather Glenn. However, the emotional payoff of seeing Vanessa grow distant from Fisk, and then finally return to him in the finale, works better because it’s a face we’ve seen before as the object of Wilson’s affection. In short, Daredevil: Born Again still bears the marks of reshoots, shoddy compositing, and unconvincing CGI. But because it puts the focus on the characters and themes, we viewers forgive the technical shortcomings and thrill to the story. Salvation Through the Devil Midway through the penultimate episode of Born Again‘s first season, Matt Murdock visits Bullseye in prison. Matt comes in all righteous fury, deflecting Bullseye’s attempts to needle him with acknowledgments of respect. That is until Bullseye points out that there’s a scenario in which Matt would be defending him in court. “Because that’s what good men do,” Bullseye sneers. “Defend their enemies in court.” The line hits the target, forcing Matt to freeze, just one more reminder that he can’t be a good man, at least not through the legal system. It’s a great character moment, one that underscores Matt’s moral quandary and larger loss of faith in the law. However, it has little to do the plotlines that made up the middle of the first season, stories about White Tiger, Fisk’s bayside renovation projects, or Heather’s mistrust of vigilantes. One could argue that the scene is distracting, ruining the season’s overall coherence. But we don’t, because the scene works. And it works because of its character work, because we’re compelled by who Matt is as a person, by Cox and Bethel’s performances. To be certain, a lot of the upcoming Marvel projects will have similar bumps. That’s most true of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, both of which are currently undergoing major overhauls, but also of much-anticipated The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which had to respond with the rest of Marvel to changes in the Kang storyline. But if they can follow Daredevil‘s lead and give us interesting characters, compelling themes, and great acting, we won’t care about the lingering problems in the production. If they can follow Daredevil‘s lead, the MCU can be truly born again. Daredevil: Born Again season 1 is now streaming on Disney+.