Three Reasons to be Excited about Netflix’s Daredevil

Daredevil is coming to Netflix and I'm pretty pumped for it. It's hard to tell exactly what it's all about, I mean we only have a single full trailer. But what a trailer it is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdNK8L3ZdmE Still need convincing? What-- really? Oh, okay, sure. Well, there's a lot of cool stuff here, but here are three main reasons you should be excited for Daredevil.

Darker, ugh, Gritty Storytelling That Actually Works

After The Dark Knight everyone wanted their superhero adaption dark and gritty. To a point were I now loathe the word gritty. Which is why I hate using it here, but, there's one real difference that sets it apart from others. The gritty treatment was applied to almost everything, from Superman and even today with Fantastic Four. The thing they're forgetting, is that Batman naturally lent itself to gritty storytelling. A dark, gritty (ick), grounded story didn't betray the tone of its source material like it did for Man of Steel, or (maybe, it's too early to tell) Fant4stic. BUT! Daredevil's source material lends itself to DG&G storytelling almost better than Batman. It's just through-and-through crime drama, except that some of the criminals have power armor, are ageless ninjas, or stilt-men. And there's a blind guy in spandex involved. See? Gritty! [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="510"] Black and white! Grit![/caption] In all seriousness, the tone to this feels very right. Daredevil's world is grimy, it's dark (heh), it's full of languish and struggle. Netflix's take seems to portray all that really well (if this trailer is to be trusted). Which is kind of novel for the MCU. Most of the Marvel movies, even Agents of SHIELD, have a coating of airy, bright comedy painted over even its darker parts. It seems that Disney did actually make good on their promise to allow the Netflix shows more freedom. Which bodes well for the Luke Cage show that is said to be aimed for adult audiences. So I don't think there's much of a chance of the Daredevil stories getting watered down for family appeal.

Old School, Street-Level Heroics

Movies have to be events. Especially summer blockbusters. So, by that necessity, pretty much all of our superhero fare so far has been giant battles with the entire world at stake. Battles with aliens, genetically engineered superhumans, beings from before time, etc. It's fine, it's expected, but something feels missing. Where are our classic superheroics? Where are the guys stopping bank robberies or heists? I miss the days of just saving the city. Fighting crime like the police could not. Smaller, intimater stories. Where are those? Well it appears here. At least from what we've seen, the story seems to be a standard Kingpin storyline. Tons of crime, one guy at the head of it, gotta clean up those streets. No doomsday device, no otherworldly threat. Just street-level struggles for the soul of one city. Finally. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Real struggles[/caption]

Finally, a Real Look at the MCU

My biggest hope for Agents of SHIELD is that we could see what the world was like post-Avengers. Which it accomplished to a degree, I guess. A small degree. Mostly just small references here and there. It doesn't really give me a feel for the world. And it's not really the show's fault. It's about super spies and their super adventures. Not really Johnny On The Street. With Daredevil, though, we get to see the real consequences. Maybe crime is raised due to the devastation of the Battle of New York? Maybe characters in the show have lost people to that event? These are openings the Daredevil can fill and as a small street-level story it'll feel natural. Not only that, but we'll get to see how normal people regard the Avengers. We've seen them in fight and their own self doubts, but we've never really gotten a good look at them from the outside in. It could make for a really cool change of pace. After all, like anything, it can't be all positive or all negative. It's a dimension we haven't seen yet! [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Hours and hours of this[/caption] So there you have it! Three solid reasons you should be looking forward to Netflix's Daredevil. If you can think of any reasons I missed, or if any of my reasons are ridiculous farces, let me know in the comments below.