Daredevil 2026
One of the most compelling aspects of superhero comics is the characters are somehow eternally the same and constantly being reborn/rebooted (sometimes the "reborn" is literal).
In 2025, Marvel’s Daredevil was resurrected from the Netflix graveyard in the appropriately titled Disney+ series reboot Daredevil: Born Again.
While Daredevil’s origin sits in the earliest cycle of Marvel comic books—volume 1 first issued in 1964 by legends Stan Lee (writer), Bill Everett (pencils), and Jack Kirby (cover)—the character has been both enduring and hovering at the edge of being an A- or B+ list character in the Marvel Universe (MU) dominated by Spider-Man and teams such as the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men.
More recently (2015-2018), in the shadow of the blockbuster successes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Daredevil gained a devoted audience and critical acclaim for three powerful seasons as an Netflix series.
One of the most anticipated events for Daredevil in 2025 was the Disney+ reboot, Born Again, although the new series was fraught with re-shoots and mixed responses from fans and critics. This past year also included yet another print comic book volume ending—with a whimper and not a bang as many people were at best lukewarm on Daredevil volume 8.
Print-comics Daredevil has been notable for strong writer/artists runs over the years, including iconic work from Frank Miller, whose reboot of Daredevil has strongly influenced both the original Netflix and current Disney+ series. A bit unusual, then, the likely high point for Daredevil in 2025 was not the main title but the 3-issue run, Cold Day in Hell, an excellent old-man tale of Daredevil being resurrected in decrepitude by the creative team of Charles Soule (co-writer) and Steve McNiven (co-writer/artist).
Late 2025 and early 2026, however, left Daredevil on hiatus as volume 8 of print comics ended (and announcements for volume 9 were slow to materialize with a possible release by late March or early April) and Born Again S2 isn’t releasing until March 4, 2026.
As both Daredevil and fans sit here in limbo, this superhero is poised for yet another rebirth.
One of the most compelling aspects of superhero comics, I think, is that the characters are somehow eternally the same and constantly being reborn/rebooted (sometimes the reborn is literal).
Many fans seem excited about the possibility that Born Again S2 and print Daredevil volume 9 will achieve that dual status—give us the core Daredevil we love (and in this case, that may well be a return to foundational elements of Matt Murdock) while also providing us something new.
My mother introduced me to mid-twentieth century science fiction films, often infused with a strong doses of horror (such as The Fly and her favorite film, The Day the Earth Stood Still) as a child, but in 1975 at the pivotal age of 14, I was diagnosed with scoliosis, began wearing a full-body brace 23 hours a day, and fell in love with reading, collecting, and drawing from comic books—all Marvel titles.
Comic book collecting was the foundation of my life from grade 9 through 12, but gradually in college, I lost touch with something I genuinely loved.
I tinkered with collecting again in the 1980s when the Batman film dominated pop culture and I had students who loved comics, but it wasn’t until I moved to higher education in 2002 when I began doing comic book scholarship and also slowly returned to collecting.
By late 2022, I achieved something I really didn’t think was possible, a full run of Daredevil.
In the 1970s when I was collecting and reading, I loved Daredevil but associated the character with Black Widow, who was co-title from issue 92 until issue 107 (although actually teamed with Daredevil issues 81-124):
Concurrent with and finishing before my effort to collect all the Daredevil issues, I completed a full run of Black Widow, which led to my writing a series on that character before developing those posts into a book, Black Widow underestimated and hypersexualized: “I am what I am.”
Superhero comic books, films, and series generally—and Daredevil specifically—represent the good, the bad, and the ugly of pop culture as well as why I love that pop culture with a strong dose of a critical lens (which is reflected in my Black Widow series and book linked above).
Superheroes and Daredevil will again be reborn across media in pop culture in 2026, and we mere mortals, I think, will have many opportunities to reconnect not only with our imaginations but also our own humanity through universes imagined and re-imagined.
Recommended
A New Villain Targets Matt Murdock in ‘Daredevil’ #1 Preview | Marvel
Stephanie Phillips - Interviews - Daredevil: The Man Without Fear
Thomas, P.L. (2019). From Marvel’s Daredevil to Netflix’s Defenders: Is justice blind? In S. Eckard (ed.), Comic connections: Building character and theme (pp. 81-98). New York, NY: Rowman and Littlefield.
Thomas, P.L. (2012). Daredevil: The man without fear; Elektra lives again; science fiction. [entries]. In Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Heroes and Superheroes. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press.
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