TELL ME YOUR SIGN
In her enigmatic farewell to Leland Owlsley, Madame Gao notes, "the wheel constantly turns" (to Owlsley's great perplexity). That's probably a reference to the Buddhist concept of the wheel of life, the constantly turning cycle of birth and death, given that Buddhism underpins a lot of K'un-Lun mythology. But there is another great wheel in the Marvel Universe, and the show drops another hint to it.
In Jonathan Hickman's
Secret Wars and
SHIELD stories, the Great Wheel is a circle of espionage heads who crossed partisan lines to work together against exceptional threats. One of their members was Taurus, aka Cornelius Van Lunt, who earned his place at the table as the head of the Zodiac criminal cartel.
Van Lunt was an astrology obsessive who made his fortune in real estate, and he's namechecked by Owlsley as one of the beneficiaries of the building boom that followed the Battle of New York in the
Avengers movie. But he must have started from humble beginnings, because we see his name in one other conspicuous place; 'Van Lunt Real Estate Co' is the name on the door of Nelson and Murdock's law office, underneath their hand-written sign.
It's not guaranteed that either the Great Wheel or the Zodiac Cartel will make an appearance in the Marvel shows, but we know for sure that Cornelius Van Lunt is out there in this world.
(The office across the hall from Nelson & Murdock carries the name '
Atlas Investments'; that's not a company from Marvel comics, but a reference to an old name for Marvel, Atlas Comics, which boasted a similar logo.)
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
We've known since early casting announcements that the villain Gladiator would make an appearance in Daredevil — or, more precisely, his alter ego Melvin Potter. In the comics, Potter is a costume designer who built his own armor to take on costumed heroes, though the love of his social worker Betsy Beatty inspired him to make a face-turn and fight alongside the heroes.
In the show, Potter designed Wilson Fisk's protective armor and Daredevil's red suit, so he's already playing both sides — and Betsy is still the key to his redemption. The Gladiator suit in the comics is notable for having buzzsaws on the gauntlets, so buzzsaws feature prominently in Potter's workshop, and in Potter's fight with Daredevil, and in the blueprint briefly spied on Potter's bench. The insignia on Gladiator's costume also appears on a board in the workshop. Though Gladiator never makes a full appearance in Daredevil, all the work has been done to set him up for the future. (A 'Rise of the Gladiators' poster is even visible in Potter's workshop.)
Viewers will have noticed another superhero costume in-the-making in Potter's workshop; Stilt-Man's stilts. Dare we dream?
ELEKTRA COMPANY
Two of the most significant characters in Daredevil's stories were conspicuously absent from the TV show, perhaps because they played such major roles in the 2003
Daredevil movie; Elektra and Bullseye. But the show did pay necessary lip service to the possibility of Elektra and her canon back-story, with reference to Matt's Greek girlfriend at law school. Not only did that relationship not work out, but we're told that Matt has struggled to hold down a relationship ever since. Elektra is out there, and she may be the love of his life.
As for Bullseye, well, the assassin who can turn anything into a weapon doesn't merit a mention, but some fans have noted that the sniper who takes down several cops in episode six seems to have a deck of cards in his bag. That may be a conspicuous reference to one of Bullseye's favorite weapons.
But can that really be Bullseye when he missed Ben Urich and failed to kill the detective behind him? A sniper who misses doesn't sound like Bullseye to me.
THE OWL FLIES AT MIDNIGHT
Another character revealed in casting notices was Bob Gunton as Leland Owlsley, known to comics fans as The Owl, an ex-Wall Street investor turned crime boss. In the comics he has a green cloak that allows him to glide, and big-tipped Wolverine hair and strap-on Wolverine claws.
In the show, he has none of these things. He comes close to getting a suit in his trademark shade of green courtesy of Melvin Potter, but he's never once even referred to as 'The Owl', and by the end of the first season, he's dead.
So, no Owl, right?
Not so fast. I don't think this
was The Owl. Leland makes repeated reference in the show to his son. His son's name? Lee.
The comics Owl doesn't have a son, so why does the show invent one? The answer is obvious; the son must be Leland Owlsley Jr. and
he is The Owl. He has a father's death to avenge, and a legitimate gripe with both Kingpin and Daredevil, plus quite a bit of cash squirreled away. Now all he needs to make him the Kingpin's rival is that green suit Melvin Potter was building. And maybe a set of claws.
THE STORY CONTINUES?
Netflix has yet to announce a second season for
Daredevil, and the scale of the broadcaster's initial commitment to Marvel — four thirteen-episode shows and a mini-series — was plenty ambitious, even for a broadcaster that happily makes two-season commitments.
But demand for
Daredevil was so high that it seemed to crash Netflix's servers, and the reviews have been phenomenally positive, so it must meet Netflix's opaque criteria for success. I would be shocked if a second season — and a third — weren't announced soon, to air over the next couple of years. Given Daredevil's success, and all the material still left to explore, why wait for the other
Defenders shows to air before going back to this well?
So what would the show do with a second season? Well, there's a lot more ground left to cover in the fight between Daredevil and Wilson Fisk. Elektra, Bullseye, and Typhoid Mary all spring out of that fertile ground and could provide a couple of seasons' worth of material. And we have the wedding of Wilson and Vanessa to look forward to.
There are a lot of other Daredevil foes I'd love to see brought to the screen. The Enforcers — Fancy Dan, Ox and Montana — are fun characters with relatively grounded gimmicks that would make them an easy fit for this world; Bullet is an obvous choice; and there's room for weirder villains like Death-Stalker and Mister Fear. And we're not giving up on Stilt-Man yet. More Daredevil should mean more villains.
I have a hunch that we won't see much of Rosario Dawson's Claire Temple in subsequent seasons; I think we're more likely to see her as a recurring presence across all the Marvel Netflix shows, as the night nurse tending to wounded street-level heroes of New York. I wouldn't be surprised if she plays the same unifying role for the Defenders that Phil Coulson and Nick Fury played for the Avengers.
Claire Temple; the Hand; K'un-Lun; the Owl; Elektra. There is so much more for Daredevil and the other Marvel Netflix shows to explore and build upon. Daredevil not only opened a door to another side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it showed how much is waiting for us on the other side. These thirteen episodes are just the start.
That said, Marvel did close one door in
Daredevil. Ben Urich, a major supporting character, presumably won't be returning. It's sad to think that the Sony/Marvel deal to reintegrate Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe came along too late to allow Ben to take his rightful place at the Bugle. The Marvel Universe is full of promise, but we'll never get to see everything we'd like to see.
Read More: 'Daredevil': Mysteries, Easter Eggs and Theories |
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