What You Missed-Daredevil Season 1

Matt starts out as the Masked Man

I thought it might be time to start a new series I'll be calling What You Missed, where we'll go into explaining some of the parts of geekdom that doesn't keep to the PG rating. Basically, think of this as Clean Flicks, the blog.

Let's start with Daredevil

The Dark Marvel

The Marvel Universe isn't always family friendly. Some of these characters though have fan followings of their own and the characters are part of the same universe as the family friendly Captain Marvel and Iron Man. Disney has taken to telling the darker stories as episodic series on Netflix and tend to keep them separate from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe-at least for now. Rumor has it that the Netflix heroes will make a cameo in the upcoming Infinity War movies, so its best to get familiar with the characters just in case.

The Man Without Fear


Most of Daredevil's story lines take place in New York's Hell's Kitchen, a small district in New York City. I won't bother explaining what they changed from the comics or not because with all the ret-cons and alternate tellings it's just a waste of time.

Matt and Foggy-BFFs

Once upon a time a young Matt Murdock lived with his dad, a professional boxer because when you're Irish and in New York it's either that or mob boss according to popular fiction. One day while walking down the street Matt pushed an old man out of the way of an out of control truck and accidentally fell into the trucks cargo of toxic chemicals. This resulted in Matt becoming blind, but since it was toxic waste it also gave him super senses because that's how comic books work. Matt's father is killed around a year later because he wouldn't take a fall during a boxing match for the mafia, and Matt is left orphaned.

Matt meets another blind man, named Stick, who teaches him martial arts for about a week before disappearing mysteriously. We find out later that Stick is in some sort of war that comes up more in the second season.

Years later Matt graduates top of his class and becomes a lawyer with his buddy Foggy and starts a law firm called Nelson and Murdock in Hell's Kitchen in order to help their former neighbors, all the while Matt is running around the streets at night wearing black Under Armor and a mask. Foggy is the comic relief of the show, except for an episode where he finds out Matt's secret and he's shown to be one of the emotional cores of the piece, representing the damage Matt's secret life and the lies he has to tell to maintain it causes to the people he loves.

Enter Kingpin

Bad guys are scarier when they're bald. 

The villain of the first season is Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin to comic fans. He's working with the Chinese and Russian mafias as well as the Yakuza to take over Hell's Kitchen (Okay what is in this town that is worth fighting for exactly?). Wilson is a fearsome business man with a cool calm demeanor that hides a massive temper that leads him to eliminate anyone in his way. He's an effective villain not for his vague motivation but for his intimidating presence and the actor's skill with the character. Throughout the season he courts the beautiful art dealer Vanessa, who despite showing trepidation at first to dating a crime lord, eventually warms up to the idea and even becomes his fiance by the end.

Law and Order: Super Heroes

The first season has Matt and Wilson butting heads indirectly through a series of superhero fights and court cases that crosses Matt's desk. The first case gets us Karen Page, a sweet young lady who finds out the company she's working for is secretly corrupt...somehow... and she exposes them to the press which puts her in danger. If this part gets a little vague it's because, to be honest, a lot of the story line in the first season is about Matt and his buddies trying to stop Wilson through the legal system and Matt putting on his mask and beating up his goons. A lot of the lawsuits are about trying to force people out of their homes and trying to trace money back to Wilson, but it's honestly just an annoying complicated mess. Suffice it to say that the series emphasizes the need for both the legal system and vigilante justice.

Claire- The Hero Doctor

Claire-one of the best characters in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. 

At one point Matt finds himself unconscious in a dumpster and bleeding to death (something Batman has probably had to do early in his career) and is rescued by Claire, a nurse from a local hospital. Claire becomes Matt's on-call doctor whenever a battle has left him particularly injured, and they try to start up a romantic fling for an episode only for Claire to decide that she's better off not becoming someone else's Lois Lane.

Claire is an interesting character to bring up because she appears in all the other Marvel Netflix shows, tying all the shows together. She becomes an audience surrogate character since she is just a normal person in a normal person job.

And The Winner...

Daredevil gets a snazzy new suit-complete with horns. 

After all the fighting and legal maneuvering, by the end of the season Matt gets Wilson arrested, but not before finding Wilson's secret tailor who makes him his snazzy red Daredevil suit. I called him Matt through the piece because it's not till the end that he actually becomes Daredevil by name and outfit, which is a nice touch since few self-respecting human beings would try to go around town calling himself something from an Evil Kanevil ad. In the process Matt also managed to drive the Chinese, Russians and Yakuza out of Hell's Kitchen, keeping it safe for all the crack heads and purse thieves already living there.

While being the first attempt at bringing the cinematic universe into a darker world, the show isn't that bad considering how bad it could've been. The violence is over the top which keeps it out of the kid friendly zone, but despite that and the long courtroom drama stuff, the show is a good start to the Marvel Netflix series.

-JOE