Marvel’s Daredevil has taken the televisual world by storm as the series has garnered rave reviews and has ushered in a new tone of superhero storytelling from the studio. Our sister site Bam Smack Pow loved it! Check out their six reasons why you should watch it to see what everyone’s raving about!
But for Spider-Fans like myself there’s a few more reasons to watch the show other than the fact it’s one of the best television series I’ve watched in some time and that’s because some prominent and some not so prominent Spider-Man characters have starring roles in the series.
Don’t get too excited obviously Spider-Man himself doesn’t show up (or does he?) and we don’t see Daredevil squaring off against the Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus in episode four but fans of the recent Spider-Woman comic book, or of the Superior Foes of Spider-Man comic book will have a vested interest!
Just click next to find out the first!
(WARNING: There are a few small spoilers for the show ahead, but nothing significant)
This is the most obvious one. Anyone that has seen the previous Daredevil film, or read a Daredevil comic will know that when Wilson Fisk isn’t tangling with everyone’s favourite webhead he’s making life hell for Daredevil.
There are one or two differences between Marvel Comic’s Kingpin and Daredevil’s. For a start his appearance is completely different, with Fisk wearing a series of dark black body armoured suits instead of his iconic white suit jacket and purple ascot. Although the classic appearance of Kingpin is referenced in the show by Fisk’s love interest Vanessa.
Another slight difference is that unlike Michael Clarke Duncan’s out-and-out Kingpin in the film, Vincent D’onofrio’s Wilson Fisk is an intelligently crafted and well-rounded three dimensional character who portrays a Kingpin we’ve never seen before. He’s actually a real human being.
He has a tragic past, falls in love with a woman and truly believes that he’s doing the right thing. Essentially he’s on the other side of the coin that Daredevil is on. I truly believe that this nuanced fully-formed approach makes Daredevil’s Kingpin Marvel’s best villain to date (even better than Loki)
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However he’s still every bit the cold-blooded ruthless killer and criminal underworld boss that we see him as in the comics as he goes about most of the season brutally dispatching the people that get in his way. There’s a particularly memorable scene involving a car door and a Russian gangster’s head that still haunts me.
I’m so pleased that Daredevil’s Kingpin is such a success because it opens up the door for him to interact with Spider-Man. Vincent D’onofrio himself has stated that he hopes Kingpin gets to kick Spidey’s butt and I agree, especially after seeing Daredevil!
The Owl is a fairly obscure villain who started his criminal career facing off against Daredevil before coming to blows with Spider-Man and Black Cat. He was a successful financier nicknamed ‘The Owl of Wall Street’ but he was exposed by the IRS and then turned to crime using his sizable fortune to create a supervillain enhancement that enabled him to fly as well as increased his strength, speed and hearing.
Fans of the Spider-Man comic books will have most recently seen the Owl appearing as somewhat of a joke-character in the Superior Foes of Spider-Man, first tangling with the all-new Sinister Six and then forming the Sinister Sixteen.
This isn’t exactly what we get in Daredevil as the Leland Owlsley of the show is an aged devious man devoid of super-powers (most notably the ability to fly) who appears to be running the financial side of Kingpin’s criminal organisation. He’s a slippery, scheming character and also one of the only ‘bad-guys’ in the series to beat Daredevil in a fight!
It’s unclear whether or not Marvel are deliberately avoiding the Owl supervillain and just including the character as a nod to the supervillain whilst keeping him grounded in firmly real and non-super-powered roots. However they did mention Leland’s son several times so perhaps he’ll become The Owl supervillain later in the show?
Ben Urich can currently be seen helping Jessica Drew’s Spider-Woman in the pages of her comic book and most recently he used his savvy journalistic nous and excellent criminal knowledge of prevent her from getting blown up in a trap.
Before that he was a reporter for the Daily Bugle and worked there at the same time as Peter Parker. His nephew Phil Urich also became the fourth Green Goblin and would later go on to become the Goblin Knight, helping Norman Osborne in the Superior Spider-Man story-arc.
However he’s also in Daredevil excellently played by Vondie Curtis Hall. Urich’s presence in Daredevil was a pleasant surprise as I completely wasn’t expecting it but his character is as savvy and smart as the Urich of the comic books.
He’s set up as a masterful crime journalist exposing several huge criminal undertakings after forging dangerous contacts. On several occasions he saves Karen Page from stumbling into danger with his wealth of experience as they both attempt to expose Kingpin’s criminal organisation.
Another great element of Urich’s inclusion are the many Easter Eggs that are secreted in his newspaper headlines that he proudly displays in the background. In one scene there’s a reference to both the Avengers film and the Hulk fighting Abomination in Harlem.
Yes, Spider-Man himself! Don’t get too carried away he doesn’t appear in person, he isn’t seen web-slinging in the background. In fact he’s not even mentioned in a background news report. But there is a potential Easter-egg for Spider-Man in the show!
Spider-Man is Peter Parker, who works/worked at the Daily Bugle alongside Ben Urich. So it stands to reason that Urich will be aware that there’s a masked vigilante web-slinging around the streets of New York. Which means that the following image of a newspaper clipping in Urich’s home could be Spider-Man from a prevous news report Urich wrote up about the Webhead.
It sure does look like him! What do you guys think?