With great power comes great possibilities.
The superheroes of the marvel universe are showing up on the screen more and more, most notably the show Daredevil on every students’ beloved Netflix. The rising popularity of superheroes is proving to be the perfect time for a partnership between Marvel and Netflix, a leap of faith for the latter company, who signed the deal without seeing a frame of the series.
Three more shows are to come from this, each following a different hero: Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage. Afterwards, there will be a mini-series called “The Defenders,” totaling about 60 hours of screen time.
“I think it’s a good idea ‘cause you get more of a variety of shows and different characters and you get to fully see them played out instead of just one sided like in movies,” said junior Kennedy Struck.
Daredevil has managed to completely erase any preconceived notions of a set “Marvel product,” as it turns away from flashy and family-friendly to understated, bloody, and violent.
“The fight scenes can get pretty bloody, but it only adds to the action,” said sophomore Larissa Pawlowski. “Normally, Marvel doesn’t show a lot of blood from hand-to-hand combat scenes; it’s normally a one-punch-knockout or blood off screen.”
There are far fewer CGI effects in comparison to other Marvel products, relying instead on subtle audio cues that provide much more grim and realistic fights. Had it been given a theater rating rather than the British Board of Film Classification’s “15”, it most likely would’ve been on the edge of earning an R rating.
“It focuses on more adult audiences and older teenagers, but that’s a good target audience,” said Struck. “It’s dark and it’s just rough and it’s different from more upbeat superhero movies.”
Daredevil is a show that goes beyond crime-fighting. It includes a handicapped protagonist who isn’t a billionaire like Tony Stark and has to actually work to live. More than any other superhero, Matt Murdock is the one who lives the most realistically, with a regular job and no special powers. The series took the time to develop Murdock as a character, and rather than boring the audience, they are entertained by various, interesting stories. It isn’t just two guys knocking each other around who have nothing better to do: one is a crime boss who wants to replace the apartments in the city Hell’s Kitchen with condos, the other is a blind lawyer who works to help those who can’t afford it.
“The action and the thought that a blind man can do all the things a person who can see can do, and even more, [is really appealing],” said Pawlowski. “The backstory for Matt Murdock and how he became who he is [tugs] at the heartstrings when you think about what happened to his father and you just want to pity him and continue watching just to know how it all works out.”