To finish! After being teased with a glimpse of a certain horned helmet (now gold, rather than dark red) at the end of She-Hulk: Lawyer Episode 5 saw audiences wait a few weeks while Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters traveled to an ill-timed wedding (she even says so herself) and Emil Blonsky’s meditation retreat. But with Episode 8, the wait was over – properly reintroducing us to Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock. Aka Daredevil, aka the best bespectacled lawyer in all of Hell’s Kitchen.
It had, of course, already arisen briefly in Spider-Man: No Coming Home to huge multiplex cheers – dropping all charges against Peter Parker and catching a flying brick in the process. But Daredevil’s appearance in She-Hulk was our first extended look at the character as he officially enters (or re-enters?) the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When Kevin Feige and co. made the choice to bring Cox back in the role, fans were thrilled – with such a perfect cast, why change it? But given that the multiverse has become an integral part of the latest MCU saga, we still don’t really know if this Earth-616 Daredevil is the same Daredevil we saw in the Netflix-produced series. Is it Matt Murdock, who faced She-Hulk in court and saw Leapfrog’s henchmen (not henchmen; very important distinction) the same one we saw defeat Kingpin, mourn Elektra and romance Karen Page ? Or is he a variant, living in a parallel universe, who also has the face of Charlie Cox? There’s plenty of ammunition for every argument.
The first damning piece of evidence that the MCU’s Daredevil is the same as the so-called “Defenders Saga” (as older Netflix series are now labeled on Disney+) is that it is, of course, late. When did Matt Murdock show up to court on time? Or anywhere, for that matter? We love him, but all that serving justice can make him unstable and unreliable – we’ve seen his delays repeatedly affect his legal partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson in daredevil. And while Elden Henson’s Foggy has yet to be seen in the MCU, there has at least been a brief hint of his existence in She-Hulk: When discussing his firm in New York, Murdock used “we” when sharing how they take on a lot of pro-bono work — an implication that he’s not running this business alone.
The MCU’s Matt Murdock feels largely consistent with Defenders-Matt when it comes to his legal philosophy as well. On his own show, he wasn’t interested in taking on wealthy, empowered clients — he wanted to portray people who really needed it. Even though this approach got Nelson and Murdock into tough places, Matt never wavered. MCU-Matt clearly feels the same way, but perhaps with more wiggle room. He talks about the idea of ’one for them, one for us’ to Jen, and how he balances volunteer work with paying the bills – but, more importantly, he explains why she is so well placed to do good (and, like us, the public, know why it is too). “The way I see it,” he says, “Jen Walters can use the law to help people when society fails them, and She-Hulk can help people when the law fails them.” While this attitude that generally resonates with Daredevil as a character, it’s particularly consistent with his vision of daredevil.
But despite all the familiarity, there’s a lot new to this Daredevil. For one thing, its return comes, of all places, from LA – and it just doesn’t feel like classic Daredevil without the Hell’s Kitchen backdrop. There’s a two-way argument here: We never saw Matt leave New York in the original series — but, as we hear in his conversation with Jen, that’s not a permanent move or re-establishment of one’s home. The MCU Daredevil still lives in New York and has only flown to the West Coast to defend Luke Jacobson, the supersuit specialist and tailor he and She-Hulk share.
The MCU’s version of Daredevil might be a little less bloody, but it still has plenty of room to be brutal.
Another interesting wrinkle is the fact that Matt has found a new guy to source yarn for. In daredevil, Matt’s suits came from Melvin Potter (Matt Gerald), an inventor whom Kingpin coerced into creating protective clothing. So why would he take his business to the West Coast? Well, chances are he and Melvin aren’t on good terms right now – at the end of Season 3, Potter was taken into FBI custody after Kingpin had him replicate the Daredevil costume for Poindexter, aka Bullseye, to try and frame our horned hero. Maybe superhero clothing specialists are hard to come by – hence the need to go across the country for Luke’s new comic book-inspired “ketchup and mustard” outfit. (And, Damnthis new suit looks good.)
daredevil She-Hulk the episode also marked a major romantic departure for Matt Murdock, whose relationship with Jen Walters went from adversaries to, uh, more than friends, fast enough. Is this really the same Matt who is surely still hooked on Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll, who also really deserves to come back)? Their will-they-won’t-they connection was a big part of daredevil – would he really be sleeping with big green lawyers if he still loves Karen? It’s safe to say that was a while ago now – and if we’ve learned anything else from the Defenders shows, it’s that Matt Murdock, with his devilish good looks (wink) and quietly charming attitude, is a ladies’ man. Not only did he get all hot and heavy with Karen, Elektra and Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) throughout her series, but we permanently heard stories from Foggy about him being successful with the opposite sex. So it stands to reason that he would have such tangible chemistry with Jen. Did someone else’s heartbeat get a little faster?
Delays, locations, and love interests aside, the main sticking point for many Marvel fans in reconciling this Matt Murdock with that of daredevil this is how he assimilated to She-Hulkits light and comical tone. We’re used to seeing Matt as a brooding, tortured soul, drawn into the darkness and depths of the criminal underworld. It’s a little shocking to see it, well, smiling so many. But while Daredevil didn’t spend a lot of time laughing in the original series, he still had a sense of humor. What made Matt so endearing were the times he was allowed to relax – being with friends, focusing on something other than Kingpin, being witty, light-hearted and funny. Think of his date with Karen or the flashback of his first encounter with Foggy in college. Cox’s Matt Murdock had comedic potential the entire time, and She-Hulk proved to be an ideal space to bring out that side of him. Plus, Daredevil’s darkness hasn’t completely gone away in this episode – in its single-player action sequence, the punchy score, moody blue lighting, and heavy hits look like they’re straight from an episode of the original series. . The MCU’s version of Daredevil might be a little less bloody, but it still has plenty of room for it to be brutal.
Despite all the new evidence presented in this week’s edition She-Hulk, the jury is still out on whether this is the exact same Defenders Daredevil saga, or a very close but not quite identical variant. With more from Matt Murdock to come – including his own show, Daredevil: Born Againand a supposed role in the Echo series – a more definitive answer surely awaits us. Maybe the debate over whether this Matt is the same Matt doesn’t matter – what’s really important is that it’s a pleasure to see the Devil from Hell’s Kitchen back on our screen, with Charlie Cox still in costume. And, of course, hearing that iconic melody from the original show’s title sequence… Ok, fine, stick it as another perk in the Defenders–is-canon column.
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