Daredevil Comics Originally Had a Much Stranger Version of the Daniel Blake Storyline

This article contains spoilers for episodes one and two of Daredevil: Born Again.

Midway through the premiere of Daredevil: Born Again, we see something we rarely ever see in the series: Wilson Fisk looking small. Shot from behind in his headquarters, Fisk appears to be dwarfed by his campaign director Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara) and his right hand man Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan), who squabble over his tactics in the mayoral race.

Just when Rivera seems to have gained the upper hand and can push Fisk toward traditional means, she gets interrupted by a young, energetic staffer named Daniel Blake. Obviously, Blake is ambitious and knows what he’s doing by one-upping Rivera in front of Fisk. But Blake is something else, something that Fisk desperately needs as he enters into the realm of politics. Blake is a true believer.

Played by Michael Gandolfini, son of The Sopranos star James Gandolfini (which places Born Again over The Penguin as the superhero heir of the seminal mob show), Daniel Blake is easily one of the most exciting characters in the first two episodes of Born Again.

Blake was invented for the show, but the Mayor Fisk storyline does come from the pages of Marvel Comics. In the comics, Fisk had someone very different in the Deputy Mayor position, someone who wasn’t quite so much of a true believer: Matt Murdock.

Devil’s Advocate

“But wait!” you shout. “Why would Fisk ask Murdock to be Deputy Mayor? Doesn’t he know that Matt Murdock is Daredevil?”

The answer to your question, as with almost every question of this type, is “Comics.”

Yes, Fisk learned Daredevil’s secret identity long ago, as did everyone else in the world. But as a thank you for rescuing them, the children of Kilgrave the Purple Man (David Tennant’s character from Jessica Jones) used the mind-control powers they inherited from their father to wipe Daredevil’s secret identity from the world. So when the newly-elected mayor needed someone, in his words, “above reproach” to help convince New Yorkers that was sincere in his efforts to serve the city, he had no qualms about calling Murdock.

The first part of the Mayor Fisk storyline ran through 2018’s Daredevil #595 – 600, written by Charles Soule and illustrated by Stefano Landini and Ron Garney. As in Born Again, Mayor Fisk finds the former Kingpin of Crime using his new position to outlaw vigilantes, which handcuffs Murdock. As Daredevil, he’s seen as a criminal threat. As Murdock, an assistant district attorney when the arc begins, he has to build a case against Daredevil.

So when Fisk asks him to join the staff as Deputy Mayor, Murdock think’s he’s found a way to fight back. Now, even viewers of the show realize that Matt Murdock, charming and well-meaning as he is, often makes very bad decisions. That’s even more true of comic book Matt, which he hears immediately from Foggy Nelson (who has also died in the comics, but comics being comics, gets to come back to life… sorry TV fans). “If there’s one thing I know about Wilson Fisk,” Foggy warns Matt; “it’s that if you think you’re playing him, he is definitely playing you.”

Sure enough, that’s exactly what Fisk’s plan is, to bury Murdock under so much red tape that he can’t do any work in the DA’s office to undermine the administration. And it seems to work… until Fisk gets attacked by Hand Ninjas and incapacitated, which puts into effect an arcane rule change that Matt and his associate in the Mayor’s office Steve uncovered while going through that red tape. This rule means that the Deputy Mayor takes over when the Mayor cannot serve. In other words, Matt Murdock becomes Mayor of New York City.

The Electorate From Hell

It’s unlikely that Daniel Blake will get to follow a similar arc. First of all, he’s not Daredevil. Second, the series is more interested in using Blake to show how Fisk wins over the electorate. The “man on the street” segments from the first two episodes, produced by Ben Urich’s neice B.B. Urich (Genneya Walton), show the community response to Mayor Fisk, people who have lost faith in the system but aren’t willing to throw it all away.

Daniel Blake represents something different. He sees Fisk’s disruption of the political system as an opportunity for guys like him, guys who want to have power and don’t have to deal with people holding them into account. Blake shows how Fisk’s brutality and disregard for law and order isn’t a problem among some voters. No, it’s his very cruelty that makes him an attractive leader.

Thus, Blake joins the Fisk administration for the exact opposite reason as Murdock. He doesn’t want to find ways to stymie Fisk’s over-turning of law and order. He wants to help Fisk brutalize others, in the hopes that he too will get to brutalize people.

Matt Murdock may be Daredevil, a man whose baser instincts drive him to put on a devil costume and beat up bad guys. But Daniel Blake is a sinner, someone who sees the evil that Fisk does and embraces it. That’s bad news for New York City, because Daniel Blake is far from alone. Will Daredevil be alone in opposing Fisk? That’s what we’re going to find out this season on Daredevil: Born Again.

New episodes of Daredevil: Born Again stream every Tuesday on Disney+.

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