In Marvel’s latest TV spin-off, the mega villain is a criminal businessman turned populist politician who bullies his way into power and threatens to destroy those who oppose him. Thank goodness for the escapism of comic books, eh?
The bad guy is Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, and his centrality to the excellent Daredevil: Born Again (Disney+ from Wednesday) is part of an ambitious attempt to make Marvel great again. Of enormous assistance to that mission is the fact that Fisk is portrayed by Vincent D’Onofrio, a thumpingly watchable character actor who brings a sharp edge of menace to Fisk, the ruthless crime-lord turned newly elected mayor of New York.
Daredevil: Born Again also showcases Fisk’s sworn enemy – the eponymous superhero Daredevil, aka blind Hell’s Kitchen lawyer Matt Murdock. He is played by Charlie Cox, who takes up the Murdock mantle six years after the original Daredevil on Netflix was cancelled amid an escalating turf war between the established streamer and upstart Disney+ (which was putting its Marvel franchise front and centre of its new service).
Cox is in his element as Daredevil. So much so that he has erased all memories of the atrocious Ben Affleck Daredevil movie from 2003 – a low point for Affleck, which is saying something considering he made Gigli a few years later.
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Daredevil comes at a fraught moment for Marvel, which is desperate to regain the momentum it demonstrated up to Avengers: Endgame. Its mojo has since evaporated – and the faintest hint of desperation underpins this noir-ish, ultra-violent new series.
A lot is riding on Born Again, and it struggles for momentum in its early episodes, as a violent event throws Murdock off his game and forces him to reconsider everything he believes in – particularly his extracurricular career as a vigilante.
Happily, the show locks into a groove several instalments in and the renewed rivalry between Daredevil and Kingpin showcases two fantastic performers. An early meeting between the pair comes off like the comic book equivalent of Pacino and De Niro facing off in that coffee shop in Heat – a scintillating showdown in which the antagonists scarcely raise their voices, much less trade blows.
In a recent interview with The Irish Times, Cox talked about similarities between Murdock and Michael Kinihan, the black sheep gangster he played in RTÉ mob thriller Kin. He brings the same nuance to Daredevil as he did to Michael. Both are deeply traumatised by their capacity for violence but find themselves in a world where their ability to harm others is their only means of agency.
Some comic book heroes would struggle under that sort of existential weight. Daredevil is the equal to it, and in Born Again, the character lights the way for Marvel and suggests that, after dying a slow death since Endgame, a long-overdue resurrection might well be on the cards.
