For many Christian superhero fans, Daredevil’s third season, which premiered in October 2018, hit a high-water mark for religious representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The final season of the Netflix run featured Matt Murdock (Daredevil) wrestling deeply with a crisis of faith and the goodness of God, which culminated in a triumphant restoration of his soul. As Christ and Pop Culture’s previous review put it, the show was “unapologetically religious,” a rare find in today’s media landscape.
When Disney continued Murdock’s story in Daredevil: Born Again, the new showrunners seemed to have less interest in this side of the original series. Murdock was still Catholic and we got some religious easter eggs throughout the first season. But the intense religious debates and faith-fueled soul searching had just about disappeared. A viewer would be forgiven for believing that the new owners had left Daredevil’s religious core behind in favor of a more inclusive audience appeal.
The boldness of Daredevil’s choices in the climax may lead some viewers to ask if this is really what Christian grace demands of us.
Given that, the climax of Daredevil: Born Again’s second season may surprise viewers with the sudden emergence of some very Christian imagery. The themes of Disney’s run may have been far more biblical than viewers realized, even if their treatment was more subtle than Netflix’s take. And the showrunners, it turns out, have quite a bit to say about the nature of Christian grace. Yet the boldness of Daredevil’s choices in the climax may lead some viewers to ask if this is really what Christian grace demands of us.
The following contains potential spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again’s second season.
The thematic center of Daredevil: Born Again’s second season begins to emerge in episode five (“The Grand Design”), a turning point for the season in more ways than one. Dex (Bullseye), a villainous hitman who murdered Murdock’s closest friend, Foggy Nelson, has just delivered a killing blow to Wilson Fisk’s (the Kingpin) wife. As Fisk’s forces hunt him down, the gravely injured Dex asks Murdock to leave and let him die, something Murdock is all too happy to do after the trail of bodies Dex has accumulated. The hitman has displayed few redeeming qualities, his misguided attempts to “redeem himself” aside. It’s hard not to see his approaching death at the hands of Fisk’s men as a justified killing.
But after remembering Foggy’s generous, selfless behavior toward others, Murdock has a change of heart. He decides to save Dex, shuttling him away before Kingpin’s men can catch him, and nurse him back to health. But Murdock doesn’t stop there. He eventually lets Dex go so he can save New York’s governor from Fisk’s targeting. One of Murdock’s allies pushes hard against this. “You keep choosing the wrong people! Fisk! This thing over the people who love you! […] You let them live and people die.” Yet Murdock defends his decision by claiming Dex’s recent kill was an accident. (Which is technically true, though it was done while Dex was trying to kill Fisk.)
This surprising extension of mercy ends up foreshadowing the season finale, where the manipulative Fisk is swarmed by a crowd of angry New Yorkers intent on beating him to death after his murderous actions are exposed. As a viewer, it’s hard not to root for the crowd—we just watched Fisk murder dozens of unarmed civilians. But Murdock instead chooses to step in, pushing the civilians aside and saving Fisk’s life while pushing him to take a plea deal and walk free in exchange for leaving New York forever.
“This is your so-called retribution?” Fisk snarls. “It means nothing to me.”
“What about grace?” Murdock asks in return. “I believe you love this city, same as me. We have the opportunity to give it peace, even if we have none. That’s grace.” It’s a striking statement. The series previously drew similarities between Murdock and Fisk. But now, Murdock owns those similarities with his new understanding that, because he shares a similarly conflicted heart, he can now extend grace to his sworn enemy.
The season ends with a bold set of visual contrasts: Fisk stands free on a vacant Caribbean beach while the heroic Murdock is put behind bars.
Netflix’s original run culminated in the bold picture of Murdock realizing that Christian grace forbids him from taking someone’s life into his own hands. Disney’s newer run proposes a potentially bolder idea: that Christian grace requires us to not just spare the lives of the wicked, but to actively fight to preserve them, even at great personal cost to ourselves.
But is this picture of Christian grace accurate?
Some believers would argue that is the case, pointing to instances like David sparing Saul’s life, not only from himself but also from his men. With a bit of squinting, one could draw several parallels between David and Daredevil, Saul and Fisk. Both picture noble heroes forced into rebel identities because of a tyrannical ruler.
Yet Saul was uniquely God’s anointed. The idea that unrepentant evildoers should be spared from the consequence of death is foreign to the narrative of Scripture. One doesn’t see Ehud striving to spare Eglon’s life or Elijah sparing the child-sacrificing prophets of Baal. David’s reluctance to kill is portrayed favorably with Saul, but proves disastrous with Amnon. Turning a blind eye to destructive people when we can step in is far from the picture we receive of Christian grace.
Perhaps the irritation we feel at Daredevil’s actions is a reminder that we are too often like the characters in Christ’s parable of the workers who complain about the grace others receive.
Within Daredevil: Born Again, one fears the consequences that will stem from Murdock’s well-intentioned efforts to protect murderous individuals. While Dex has expressed a desire to change, the glee he continues to get from killing makes it hard to buy that he fully means it. Saving Fisk goes a step further as he explicitly refuses to change, and one suspects he’ll be back in the third season to manipulate, hurt, and murder even more characters. As a civilian, Murdock may not have the right to murder them. And perhaps there’s value in protecting them from unauthorized killings. But protecting them from any legal consequences puts him far outside a healthy understanding of Christian grace.
One wonders, however, if the showrunners might be pointing to something deeper. Films convey meaning not just through words but through visual symbols, as well. And as we see the contrasting shots of the righteous Murdock being falsely imprisoned and punished while the wicked Fisk walks free, one can’t help but think about our Savior. In many ways, the season closes with one of the most powerful visual allusions to Christ that the various television runs of Daredevil have portrayed to date.
In this regard, the brazenness of Murdock’s grace works to its advantage. As viewers, perhaps we’re meant to gawk at him sparing Dex and Fisk and feel like neither deserve such unearned favor because—perhaps—our unregenerate hearts are more like these murderous villains than we’d care to admit. Christ didn’t wait until we were penitent to deliver us. Perhaps the irritation we feel at Daredevil’s actions is a reminder that we are too often like the characters in Christ’s parable of the workers who complain about the grace others receive.
The beauty of the Gospel is that it is given to the wicked, the unrepentant, and the degenerate. And that it can truly transform us into the people we were originally meant to be.
The difference between Christ and us is that Christ’s grace has transformative power in the heart of the recipient. Our grace lacks that power, and so we must beware in our personal lives of giving cheap grace to those who would use a lack of consequences to destroy themselves and others. Murdock’s example works to the extent that he’s supposed to be a veiled image of our Savior. It falls flat to the extent that he’s supposed to be a practical model to emulate.
I still miss the deep religious debates that Netflix’s run portrayed. The religious themes of Disney’s run are far more veiled. But when we look deeply, those themes are still there. Daredevil: Born Again may not present a perfect picture of how fallible humans ought to extend grace. But it still helps us consider how we balance grace with consequences in our own lives, while better appreciating the brazenness of Christ’s grace.
