Daredevil is running out of villains. Despite the supremacy of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin since the outset of the Netflix era and so far into both seasons of Daredevil: Born Again, there have been a significant number of villains introduced around him. We’ve seen new takes on Turk Barrett, Gladiator, Typhoid Mary (admittedly off in Iron Fist, and she could be brought back), Elektra, The Hand, Muse, Bullseye, and more, and there aren’t too many of Matt Murdock’s comics rogues’ gallery left to roll out. Perhaps that’s why Kingpin is returning once again, despite Born Again Season 2’s ending sending him into exile. But surely there are other options?
As great as D’Onofrio is – and the prospect of seeing him as a new type of villain is appealing – another season using Kingpin as the main villain risks repetition. The big guy deserves a rest, and even better, in that time, Sony might work out how to bring him into play for a Spider-Man movie. In an ideal world, Marvel Television would turn to other villains to fill the hole left by Kingpin, and while we know he’s back, there’s still a chance to give another bad guy top billing. All it takes is a little imagination. And it’s not just a case of dropping any old villain in: they have to fit the story as it ended in Born Again Season 2. Ignoring the fact that we know Lady Muse is back, here are the best picks for Daredevil: Born Again Season 3‘s big villain…
He might not be a crime boss on Kingpin’s level, but Mister Fear is easily one of the coolest Marvel villains with Daredevil history who hasn’t yet appeared on screen. The Larry Cranston version of the villain – the third iteration of four – also has an intriguing link to Matt Murdock that could be exploited nicely for Season 3’s plot. In the comics, Cranston was a law school classmate of Murdock’s who was jealous of the high-achieving future superhero, and eventually set out to destroy him as revenge. Given Matt is imprisoned, a new lawyer coming in to help clear his name would make sense, and him doubling as a supervillain secretly intent on destroying Matt would add delicious intrigue.
On the supervillain side, Mister Fear is also basically Marvel’s answer to Scarecrow, using a toxin to turn users psychotic, which he used on criminals to overrun New York. That idea works particularly well when you consider how Cranston could use his toxin to punish a helpless Matt by throwing New York into criminal chaos. Without Kingpin or Daredevil to protect it, Hell’s Kitchen is a vacuum and represents an opportunity for opportunistic bad guys. Mister Fear using his toxin to create maniacal supervillains who believe themselves invincible, while Daredevil is forced to watch on from prison, while simultaneously reckoning with Cranston’s secret attempts to condemn him in court, would be poetic.
We already know that there’s a good chance the former AVTF members who Matt’s testimony sent to prison will return in Daredevil Season 3, but this is a call for Marvel Television to make them the main villains of the show. The simple, brutal idea of Matt being locked in prison with the scum and wretched villains he condemned to confinement deserves to be the focus of an entire season. And not only the AVTF: put Matt in the crosshairs of every villain he took down as Daredevil, and we’d have Marvel’s answer to the Arkham Asylum movie everyone thought Ben Affleck was going to make.
A desperate Matt, forced against the wall in what amounts to several episodes that act like endless corridor fight sequences is very appealing, particularly if it’s played off against Karen fighting to get Matt out of prison legally. Add in the returning Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, who has his own ideas of how to bust Murdock out of prison, and you have a compelling, self-contained story that doesn’t really need an overarching villain to replace Kingpin. That would, of course, also give us the chance to see Frank come face-to-face with Hamish Allan-Headley’s Powell, who orchestrated his savage beating at Red Hook in Born Again Season 1.
The recent Punisher special, One Last Kill, actually set up a great opportunity for Daredevil: Born Again Season 3, despite being mostly self-contained. The story focused on Ma Gnucci (Judith Light) seeking revenge on Frank for wiping out her bloodline by killing her husband and three sons (after killing another Gnucci in his Netflix show, which isn’t actually mentioned). By the end of the special, though, her plan has failed, serving only to convince Frank to become the Punisher for the good of the city, and the pair never get a final face-off. Instead, Gnucci simply disappears, which can’t be the end for her: she was ripped apart by her grief, and failure to take Frank out is unlikely to soften her feelings.
With Kingpin out of the picture, Hell’s Kitchen’s criminal underworld has a power vacuum, and Gnucci has already proven her pulling power by sending hundreds of would-be assassins after Frank. Bringing her back into Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 would give her the chance to rebuild her family, taking over Hell’s Kitchen with Daredevil out of the picture, and could bring Punisher back into play. Her attempting to keep Daredevil in prison to ensure her plans for control go uninterrupted is a story that almost writes itself, and adds an even more dangerous edge to him being in prison.
With her family gone, Ma Gnucci will need some more muscle, which could also give another Daredevil villain an opportunity to step up. Former priest and then CIA operative Bushwacker worked for the Gnuccis in the comics, and is the kind of all-action, violent killer Born Again Season 3 will need to fill the hole left by Wilson Bethel’s Bullseye. Bushwacker could also give Punisher a real run for his money in a heavyweight fight, so there’s even more reason to want him involved.
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