In the pantheon of Marvel Comics villains who have made their way to the big screen, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin has to be the most successful. Not only has he consistently been a thorn in Daredevil’s side (if he was a movie villain he’d have met his demise by now), but he frequently achieves his goals in a way few others do — Netflix’s Daredevil Season 3 saw him completely manipulate the FBI into helping him erase his legal troubles, and the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again has him successfully be elected to the office of the mayor, enacting legislation against costumed heroes and punishing vigilantes like White Tiger or the Swordsman. He’s an omnipresent immovable object whose corruption knows no bounds and reaches the furthest corners of Hell’s Kitchen.
Of course, Kingpin on-screen has never truly been alone. In the first season of the Netflix show he had James Wesley (his bodyguard, friend, and close confidant), who was fatally shot by Karen Page. There’s of course, always Vanessa, his beloved wife, muse, and partner-in-crime who encourages all of his baser tendencies. But Daredevil: Born Again has introduced a new trusted collaborator within the Fisk administration: Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan), a character who, despite his humble appearances, does in fact have a history rooted in Daredevil comics.
Warning! Spoilers ahead.
Who is Buck Cashman In The Comics?
In the comics, Buck Cashman makes his debut in the pages of Daredevil #250, as part of Ann Nocenti’s ‘90s run on the character. Unlike his television counterpart, he’s a super-powered government operative (super-strength, inhuman speed, and enhanced durability) with supremely high clearance, sent in by the United States government to take care of any unsavory or particularly covert missions that should never be traced back to them. The first time he encounters Daredevil, he’s been loaned out by the U.S. Army on contract to none other than Wilson Fisk, as part of a scheme designed to frame a grassroots environmental protection organization for an act of domestic terror.
Since his debut in the ;90s, Buck (also known as Bullet due to his abilities) has frequently been spotted in the company of the Kingpin or assassins employed by him, such as when he teamed up with the telekinetic assassin Typhoid Mary to finally end Daredevil once and for all. Recently, however, he was coaxed by Matt Murdock into making a turn towards heroism, joining Daredevil’s crusade against the ancient ninja clan The Hand in Chip Zdarsky’s acclaimed run on the character (the same run from which Daredevil: Born Again borrows a huge portion of its driving narrative). Most of his pathos is connected to his young son Lance, a paranoid adolescent terrified of the potential of nuclear war and forced into a difficult situation by his father’s frequent criminal activities and the many times he’s forced to cover for him.
The Biggest Changes to Buck in Born Again
Naturally, comparing Buck on the page to Buck’s presence in Born Again exposes just how little they have in common — Froushan’s depiction of the character lacks any sort of metahuman abilities, and is instead a calculating and endlessly loyal bodyguard and right-hand man to Wilson Fisk, willing to do anything to keep him protected and in power. Although he lacks a son in the television series, his somewhat kindly relationship with Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini) could be viewed as a bit of a father/son dynamic. Curiously enough, Buck’s government operative backstory in the comics shares a lot in common with the mysterious Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard) in Born Again: a well-connected government agent given carte blanche to fulfill his mission who ends up in the orbit of the Kingpin, this time to deliver oversight to the unruly Mayor of New York City.
Buck, like quite a few characters over the course of the original Netflix show and the revival, is another example of the MCU twisting a more fantastical Daredevil villain into something that fits within the grounded, crime-thriller context of the series. Even though it seems like the character will just remain as Fisk’s faithful and extremely capable right-hand man for now, there’s always the possibility that somewhere down the line Buck might become a more formidable foe for Matt Murdock — or considering how much they’ve borrowed from Zdarksy’s run on the character, we might even see him make some sort of last-minute turn against Wilson Fisk later in the season.
With the Kingpin’s grip on New York steadily tightening, Matt certainly needs all the help he can get, and a turncoat from within the mayor’s office might just be the trump card he desperately needs.
