In Daredevil: Born Again season 2, the city of New York is "born again" under the tyranny of Mayor Wilson Fisk. This latest season is something of a fresh start, and a marked improvement on Born Again's hit-and-miss first season. Like Mayor Kingpin, however, the show can't shake off the past, and this new batch of episodes is still struggling to bloom in the shadow of Netflix's Daredevil, an unfavorable comparison that only becomes more stark with the return of some familiar faces. Season 1 lacked the shine of the original show and, while season 2 doesn't quite have it either, Born Again has polished up for its sophomore installment.
The Man Without Fear has not had a particularly straightforward journey on the small screen, to be fair. The Disney Plus reboot came almost six years after the Netflix show was canceled, and season 1 of the revival was plagued by rewrites and behind-the–scenes switch-ups. This resulted in some big narrative swings that didn't always pay off. What made Born Again's predecessor work so well was the dynamic between its core trio: blind lawyer Matt Murdock, his best friend and legal partner Foggy Nelson, and new recruit Karen Page. When Foggy was killed off in the opening of the first episode, it became clear that Born Again was going to be a different ball game entirely for the vigilante of Hell's Kitchen.
