Daredevil Season 1 Episode 1: Into the Ring

When Marvel announced that they were making a Daredevil TV series I had mixed feelings. Firstly, Daredevil still had the stink of the 2003 movie starring Ben Affleck. The stink was so bad that when Affleck was cast as the Dark Knight in 2016’s Batman v Superman movie, the internet went crazy. Mind you I have never watched the Daredevil movie but when something has such a bad reputation you have to listen. Secondly, I didn’t know much about the character. My comic book education had been limited to X-men, Superman, Batman, Spider-man and the Fantastic Four. The Daredevil character was always a B or C level superhero in my mind and didn’t warrant any attention. My perspective changed when I watched the 1st trailer and a trailer breakdown by Emergency Awesome.

After the enlightening view of Emergency Awesome I went into research overdrive. What interested me was Frank Miller’s run on the comic and his critically acclaimed, “Man without Fear” Story. Frank Miller is one of the great comic book writers and he made his mark in 80s and 90s. He is writer of the Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year 1. With that type of resume, Daredevil TV series has massive potential. After the success of CW and DC’s Arrow series, I have a feeling that Marvel wanted to have their own TV vigilante and have a superhero team with their vigilante as a key cog. Marvel’s thinking here is to duplicate the success they have had in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Marvel then announced that they would have a superhero team up called The Defenders. The Defenders would be comprised of Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist. The miniseries would run after each of the character’s first season.

After my crash course in Frank Miller’s Daredevil, I was hoping for a better acted, bloodier version of the Arrow in the Marvelverse. Episode one: Into the Ring didn’t disappoint. The show-runner and creator Drew Goddard, doesn’t waste any time establishing some important aspects of the show. We begin with how Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) becomes blind and his family’s relationship with the Catholic Church. Afterwards Daredevil apprehends human traffickers at the port of New York. The fighting sequences and choreography is incredible by the TV standards. Arrow is the current standard when it comes to fighting sequences but sometimes the sequences do not look real. There’s nothing fake about how Daredevil kicks these thugs’ asses. He also gets his ass handed to him but ultimately prevails. The show then moves to Matt Murdock and his partner looks for office space for fledgling law firm in Hell’s Kitchen. This is in the aftermath of the battle of New York in Avengers. I like the acknowledgement of the Battle of New York and how it has affected the city physically (the destruction of a sizable chunk of the city) and psychologically (the appearance of Aliens and super powered individuals, and the potential reaction from the criminal underworld).

Nelson (Murdock’s partner) and Murdock do not have any clients so they use a connection in the NYPD to find their first client. Their first client is Karen Page.  Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) is being accused of murder involving a big construction firm. Matt Murdock gets Karen off and she becomes part of Nelson and Murdock. The importance of the introduction of Karen Page is her connection to the crime bosses in Hell’s Kitchen. This leads us to the crime hierarchy in the city and how the crime bosses are going to take advantage of the battle of New York. The Kingpin doesn’t make an appearance but his presence is felt through his emissary doing his bidding throughout the episode. The heavy hitters in the Hell’s Kitchen crime syndicate meet at a construction site and this shows us the level of thinking amongst them. The street level criminals don’t seem concerned that one of their shipments was hijacked by Daredevil whilst the Kingpin’s emissary can tell that this could be a major problem. By the end of the episode we are at the quiet before the storm. We are intrigued about the Kingpin and what his plans are exactly and his pending with clash with Daredevil.

It was a good first episode. It wasn’t wow and didn’t blow me away but I have a feeling this will be a much better version of Arrow. Kingpin may prove to be the equivalent of Arrow’s Slade Wilson and solve Marvel’s lack of a great villain problem. I hope this series is great and it matches the heights in the MCU.