"We're not leaving here until you admit your old costume is cooler."
"Elektra? A MOVIE? No, that couldn't have happened. It must have been a dream."
"Hey Matt, it's like we're in the same dating ... pool. Get it, because - where are you going?"
[BROODING SOUNDS]
[ALTERNATE BROODING SOUNDS]
"I'll take the bomb on the left, please."
"You're right, Matt. This Netflix service is actually worth sitting through."
Before Jessica Jones commandeered the discussion with aplomb, it was New York’s spry lawyer-vigilante combo, Daredevil, that stood as a figurehead for a different kind of Marvel adaptation. The new Season 2 images from Daredevil’s imminent return on March 18 are meant as moody promotional shots laying out the premise - What if justice punched you directly in the face? - but in teasing several new characters it’s already taking advantage of that Netflix-ready format. If Marvel was rolling out The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Elektra (Elodie Yung) as foils for a new movie instead, you’d already be cringing about clutter. Heck, even when it was just Elektra in a movie it was impossible to watch.
You’ve likely already seen suggestions of Daredevil Season 2 being a serialized shot across the bow of DC’s Batman v Superman, barreling into theaters in the same week, but it’s more useful to think of it as a light duel between mediums (and it goes without saying that it’ll be easy to watch both). Is a whirlwind of angry capes the better way to settle seething superhero disagreement, or is it better to get down on the pavement for a few hours and watch Daredevil and The Punisher bash out their philosophies with chains and garbage can lids?
The answer is: Whichever has the line “We’re not so different, you and I,” loses.
Daredevil Season 2 hits Netflix on March 18 with Charlie Cox and Deborah Ann Woll returning. Rosario Dawson will also return to bind various Marvel shows I mean the hero's wounds.
[Update: Daredevil Season 2 starts on March 18, not March 25 as this piece stated previously.]