I step into the ring like a kingpin, giving all I got. Gonna take my shot; let’s go. I hit ‘em like a kingpin. Going hard non-stop. Coming out on top.” From Kingpin, written by EDVN, Sam Tinnesz and Deane.

“The older the habit, the harder it is to break.” Yeah, well I think I just broke a habit I’ve had for 65 years. I’ve got habits that are old enough to collect Social Security.

Back towards the end of the Eisenhower Administration (google it), one of my local teevee stations started airing old — even then — Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials. Great, great stuff. All three of them, although the first is the best. The villain, Ming the Merciless, was played by the great 1930s character actor Charles Middleton, who also performed in Gone With The Wind, Duck Soup (He was Chico Marx’s prosecutor.), Show Boat, and the original 1943 Batman serial. He immediately became my favorite film villain. In my unreasonable mind, he beat out brilliant performers such as Roger Delgado, Bette Davis, and Christoph Waltz.

Until now.

Vincent D’Onofrio has been playing Marvel’s Kingpin Wilson Fisk for ten years — ten years next week, in fact. A brilliant performer, he’s one of those guys I’d watch in anything. He even played Robert E. Howard. And he was at the top of his game the first five times he did the role: on all three Daredevil series on Netflix, on both Echo and Hawkeye on their respective Disney+ series. Now he has returned to the role in the current Daredevil: Born Again series based upon the Frank Miller / David Mazzucchelli storyline back in 1986. But the Kingpin has evolved over the course of all of those previous episodes: he still has his ego and his charm, but now he’s successfully run for mayor of New York City and he wants to clean up the city… his way. To do this, he must discover how to fake humility.

D’Onofrio’s performances excel in a sea of top-rank actors. Charlie Cox returns to the lead role after a series of pop-up appearances in recent Marvel Studios movies and television shows, and, no offense meant to his two predecessors, he remains stellar in the part. He balances his Catholic greek chorus of guilt that is central to Daredevil’s self-identity with humility, charm, and dedication. His scenes early on with D’Onofrio create an emotional standoff between a hero who is uncertain about his role and a villain who thinks he’s doing New York City some good, and these scenes alone are worth the price of admission.

In fact, episode 5 (“With Interest”) is something of a stand-alone in which Matt Murdock applies for a bank loan and the official who has to deliver the bad news is Mohan Kapur, returning to his role of Ms. Marvel’s father Yusuf Khan after a season of the Ms. Marvel teevee series and its sequel, The Marvels movie. I am quite fond of the Khan family, and I wish they’d adopt me. Kapur excels doing a great deal heavy lifting in Born Again.

Being Marvel, other costumed characters appear as necessary. The White Tiger ponies up to the plate at the very beginning, I think another White Tiger is gestating before our very eyes, and The Punisher is back. He kept his attitude but traded his t-shirt in for a design they could trademark so that they can sue the Proud Oath Nazi Boys the next time they rip off Marvel’s un-trademarkable skull-and-bones design. Marvel heroes tend to be antifa.

This story was supposed to run 16 episodes, give or take. The Masters of Mouse Mesmerizing deemed that too much cool shit for our subscription dollar and revised the story (evidently for the better) while splitting it in two. The second season of Daredevil: Born Again is in production as I type.

Of all the Marvel comics-to-film affairs, Daredevil is my favorite — with the possible exception of Doctor Strange. Strong performances keep the plot moving while the remarkable fight sequences I enjoyed from the Netflix shows are at least just as remarkable here, and Daredevil: Born Again has made terrific use of their Manhattan locations. In fact, of all the filming done in the Big Apple these days, Daredevil shows the city at its best. It’s not just a city of the night with their just-hosed down street glow, it is Manhattan in all its brightest, most opulent glory.

Surprising no one, Marvel decided to do another hardcover reprint of the original Miller / Mazzucchelli Born Again storyline. It sports a new introduction from Frank — and it also has a foreword from Charlie Cox.

I’m waiting to see which Kingpin storyline gets reprinted with a Vincent D’Onofrio forward. I think the Wilson Fisk Diet Guide should sell nicely.