Daredevil Is Joining The MCU, Here's Where Netflix Left Him Off
Now that the statute of limitations for discussing Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers is safely over, we can talk about the movie's most unexpected cameo: not Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, or Stan Lee's ghost (he's in every scene, and also in our hearts), but Daredevil from Marvel's Netflix shows. That moment got effusive reactions in cinemas and living rooms worldwide ... even though, let's face it, most of us didn't finish watching the show. So, given the confirmation that there will be more Daredevil in the MCU's future (and less Daredevil in Netflix's future, since they're removing the shows), allow us to very briefly catch you up on what's happened to the character:
Season 1: The One You Watched (But Here's A Refresher Anyway)
The first season introduces us to Matthew Murdock, a lawyer who was in a childhood accident that took away his sight but, uh, the opposite of "took away" his other senses. Now he uses his heightened senses to fight crime under his heroic identity: The Nose Detective. Wait, no, Touchy Barry. Captain Tastebuds? Actually, he has no superhero name yet. Also, he wears a pretty basic black suit because, again, dude's blind, so what does he care.
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We also meet his best friend/law partner Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, a woman who can't pay them after they clear her of murder, so she becomes their secretary (this is why the big law firms have rooms full of secretaries stacked on top of each other). The one behind Karen's misfortunes, and most bad things in general, is a mysterious crime boss called Wilson "No Nickname Because They Thought 'Kingpin' Was Too Silly And Yet 'Foggy' Somehow Wasn't" Fisk -- a basic b-word who looked at a painting once and decided to base his entire wardrobe on it.
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By the end of the season, Matt and friends have managed to gather enough incriminating evidence to get Fisk sent to jail ... but not before Matt, now wearing a more comics-accurate red suit, defeats him in combat. It's an incredible scene, probably the best in the series. Here it is.
After that, the media gives Matt his superhero name: Mr. Mega-Ears.
Season 2: Punisher Season 0
The second season presents the Punisher, a dangerous maniac who dresses in black and kills bad people, and Elektra, a dangerous maniac who dresses in black and kills bad people ... and has had sex with Matt. So she's even more of a maniac. Anyway, after spending several episodes trying to stop the Punisher, Matt spends the next ones trying to get him to go free as his lawyer. The trial gets pretty intense, but not as intense as the time Matt defended Dr. Banner and made him Hulk out in the stand.
The case causes Matt and Foggy to break up their firm and friendship (now they must call each other Matthew and Foggopher). After all that trouble, Punisher ends up escaping from jail after like one day in there anyway. Meanwhile, Elektra is being stalked by some ninjas who think she's a mystical weapon. She sacrifices herself to save Matt, and also to get those ninjas off her back ... but it doesn't work. They continue pestering her, even in the eternal slumber. They steal her body and place it in a device, and ...
Interlude: Defenders Season 1
Elektra lives! And then she dies again when a building falls on her and Matt.
Season 3: Poindexter Rising
Matt survives the building fall and basically becomes a hobo. An angry one, too. Meanwhile, Fisk, technically still in jail, manipulates the FBI into giving him a penthouse and becoming his personal servants so gradually that they don't even notice. This season also features one of the most fearsome Daredevil enemies ever: Benjamin Poindexter. That sounds like an accountant, but "Dex" is actually an FBI agent with ... let's say "mental issues" who is manipulated into becoming a supervillain (more specifically, Bullseye) by Fisk. His transformation is hard to watch.
Matt, who is having a personal and vocational crisis, at one point announces he's gonna kill Fisk, but ultimately decides not to do it -- he simply turns Dex against Fisk and sends him, a dangerous psychopath, to Fisk's wedding, where he comes close to killing his new wife.
At the end of the season, Fisk goes back to real jail and promises to leave Matt's friends alone if Matt won't go after his wife (legally; they say nothing about approaching her in other ways). Matt reunites with Foggy and Karen, and they restart the law firm, setting the stage for Matt's cameo in No Way Home. As for Fisk, it's unclear why he's out of jail in Hawkeye or why he's suddenly cartoonishly strong, but we're glad to see him anyway.
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Top image: Marvel Studios
