As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, we finally have an officially confirmed release date for the second season of Marvel’s Daredevil. It’s not the March 25 date that was circulating a few days ago, but March 18! I’m definitely taking the day off from work, just as I did the last time around. To go with the announcement were a gorgeous teaser trailer and two new promotional posters. We also have a synopsis for season two:
Just when Matt thinks he is bringing order back to the city, new forces are rising in Hell’s Kitchen. Now the Man Without Fear must take on a new adversary in Frank Castle and face an old flame – Elektra Natchios.
Bigger problems emerge when Frank Castle, a man looking for vengeance, is reborn as The Punisher, a man who takes justice into his own hands in Matt’s neighborhood. Meanwhile, Matt must balance his duty to his community as a lawyer and his dangerous life as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, facing a life-altering choice that forces him to truly understand what it means to be a hero.
Both the teaser and the promotional images, as seen below, borrow their imagery from the interior of the Sistine Chapel. The first poster is essentially a reimagined The Last Judgment, i.e. the art which decorates the altar wall of the chapel, but with considerably more Punisher spookiness. The teaser, which also doubles as a great recap of the first season, references the art from the ceiling, as is also reflected by the second image. This is obviously meant as a reference to the title character’s Catholicism, but is – of course – also an effective way to highlight the age old dichotomy of good versus evil, as well as general issues of morality.
One thing that I find interesting about all of this is the role of the Punisher. While his methods and tactics have always been different from Daredevil’s, a common source of conflict in many of the story arcs which feature both characters, he’s not usually seen as a villain. I wonder how the upcoming series is looking to balance this larger than life threat that Frank Castle is made out to be against the more human aspects of a man tormented by the loss of his family. Considering how far Matt was allowed to go in the last season, there is perhaps less room to maneuver for season two, compared to the comics, when it comes to placing the Punisher somewhere between Daredevil and outright villainy. I will leave this for people more acquainted with the Punisher to speculate on!
While Punisher isn’t necessarily the villain, he is the antagonist in many Daredevil stories. Child’s Play (the Frank Miller story with drugs in school) is the perfect example. Yeah, there’s a bad guy selling drugs to children and murdering people, but the conflict is over Daredevil’s desire to make the process work and The Punisher’s desire to just kill the person he feels is responsible so the city doesn’t have to waste time with a trial or spend money feeding the person convicted.
I have no doubt Frank Castle will be morally ambiguous and there will be reasons to root for him. But I don’t think it’s surprising that he could be the antagonist of the story. Their views are different in the ways it matters. Matt may have been on that edge before but, with all due respect to Steven DeKnight, he hasn’t had that one bad day that turned him into Frank Castle.
I’m wondering if he’s actually going to be the big bad for the season or if they’ll do the usual “heroes start in conflict but end up respecting each other and team up against a common enemy” storyline.
By the way, thanks for the larger image of the ceiling. I caught a lot more than I had in the preview. However, does anyone know what is in the triangle on the top right? (To the left of Foggy discovering Matt is Daredevil at the end of episode 9.) Hanging upside down and enlarging it didn’t help.
I’m expecting a violent and dramatic take on both Punisher and Elektra. Like you said, with the extremes and methods they allowed Matt to go to in Season One the only way to do Elektra or Castle is to approach full on villain territory. I’m fine with that personally, but I guess we’ll see.
I hope they hit the right balance between Matt and Frank as far as who comes out on top in their confrontations and why. They were hopefully careful and aware of how most audiences do typically want to see the bad guys get taken out, and not make Matt look weak or incompetent while holding to his ideals. ::cough::bullsyeshouldhavebeentakenoutlongago::cough:: I mean you can take Punisher out of the equation, Matt’s the only Marvel hero in their films and shows who won’t pull the trigger on a bad guy and sleep soundly.
Thats why I betting/hoping we get a much more extreme Punisher than we have in past adaptations so Matt won’t look weak in his own show. I actually don’t like that image they released of Matt tied up at the Punishers mercy. Just from a marketing standpoint, the first image you show is the hero defeated and at the mercy of the antagonist, an antagonist who again, a lot of the audience is going to be rooting for? This may be my bias, but I also hate the story that inspired that moment too.
Matt being tied up is from Punisher #3 or the Garth Ennis limited series Welcome Back Frank. In that issue Frank puts a gun in the hand of Daredevil and tells him he will have to shoot him to keep him from killing someone with a sniper rifle. Punisher kills the guy and Matt actually pulled the trigger. He had no choice or Frank would kill. It was a really great scene that challenged Daredevil views against Frank. If that scene is taken straight from that story than I have no doubt that this will be a great psychological season of Daredevil.
Also when Matt pulled the trigger the gun was empty. Great scene!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@castlebanner It’s been forever since I read that issue, but I will definitely have to devote a post to that scene. Thanks for the tip! 😉
http://www.dorkly.com/post/73625/the-5-most-embarrassing-moments-in-daredevil-comic-book-history/page:2
I wholeheartedly agree with this.
@castlebanner, they absolutely seem to be paralleling that scene. There’s also the scene from Good Guys Wear Red (DD #184 and one of my favorite story titles) where Daredevil and Punisher are having a standoff with guns. DD knows Punisher won’t shoot him since he’s innocent and Punisher doesn’t think DD will shoot him. I’ve always interpreted what comes next as DD shooting him in the shoulder, although I just looked it up and I’m not sure if he fired the shot or the kid did.
Anyway, both are great scenes and a good demonstration of their dynamic.