In 1993, Marvel Comics released Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.'s Daredevil: The Man Without Fear. The comic put a new spin on the hero's origin story and was ultimately a key source of inspiration for the first season of Netflix's Daredevil.
Exploring Matt Murdock's childhood and college years, the comic introduced several key figures in his life. Much of the series finds "Daredevil" fighting crime in a homemade black suit, rather than his classic yellow or red costume.
During a recent interview with the Word Balloon podcast, Miller revealed that Daredevil: The Man Without Fear started life as a treatment for a TV pilot. The lack of a superhero suit and grounded action likely made it an appealing prospect at the time to studios that simply weren't interested in bringing spandex-wearing do-gooders to our screens, though it was ultimately rejected and turned into a five-issue limited series.
"It was originally going to be a TV pilot, and I wrote a treatment," Miller explained. "It was my first attempt at doing anything of the sort. And the main reaction to it was, 'Oh my god, we didn’t ask for War and Peace.' That’s not an exact quote, but that’s pretty much what it was. It was so complex and involved, and it would be so lengthy."
"But I showed it to Ralph Macchio at Marvel Comics, and I said, ‘This might be fun to do.’ And we hooked up with [John Romita Jr.] and just got rolling on it."
"Mostly what I did was I added things. I started sending John, here’s an addendum, here’s an addendum, here’s an addendum, which ended up adding about half a den as much material as what the original story was," The Dark Knight Returns writer continued. "And he just kept rocketing through those pages, just doing gorgeous artwork. And it ended up being a massive piece of work.
There's been some chatter over the years about this being a movie, too, though Daredevil didn't make his way to our screens until the 2003 blockbuster starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. After a few failed attempts to reboot the property, 'ol Hornead returned when the rights to the character reverted to Marvel Studios. Daredevil later premiered on Netflix in 2015.
That lasted for three seasons, and the Man Without Fear later made his official MCU debut in Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. Cameos in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Echo followed before Daredevil: Born Again's premiere on Disney+ last March.
In Season 2, Mayor Wilson Fisk crushes New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil. But beneath the horned mask, Matt Murdock will try to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and redeem his home. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.
Daredevil: Born Again returns to Disney+ on March 24.