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I was born to love Daredevil - he’s a character tailor-made for my sensibilities. I’m an Irish Catholic with single-sided hearing loss from the West Side of Manhattan, who spent his adolescence verbally sparring with Jesuit priests about Catholic doctrine. So generally, when anything Daredevil-related happens, I take it personally. I don’t even mean for it to happen that way, he just has that unique effect for me. 

If you’re looking to get into the Man Without Fear in anticipation for Daredevil: Born Again, I’m glad you’ve come to this place. Being a Daredevil fan is a lot like being Daredevil himself: you’re going to have a lot of strong feelings, and you might even smite a higher power (if you believe in one) for making you this way, but ultimately, you’ll feel a lot more human because of it. Without further ado, here’s a small collection of my favorite Daredevil things, from comics, to TV, and beyond. 

Popverse Picks: Daredevil by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr. 

Most conversations about Daredevil comics end up circulating around Frank Miller’s run, and I think it’s time we move on. Don’t get me wrong, the Miller run is fine, and Daredevil certainly wouldn’t have the level of prestige that he does without Miller and Klaus Janson’s work. But the run we should really be talking about is Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr.’s, which succeeded Miller’s run in the late '80s. Nocenti was an editor at Marvel at the time and took on writing duties for Daredevil when everyone else was too scared to do it in Miller’s wake. And boy, she hit it out of the damn park. Forget the random ninjas and Greek assassin ladies, Nocenti brought Daredevil back to face the real villains terrorizing New York City at the time: corrupt landlords, environmental racism, misogyny, and income inequality. To read Nocenti and Romita Jr.’s run is to get an unflinching look at the roughness of Manhattan in the late '80s. The duo also created my favorite Marvel villain, Typhoid Mary, who functioned as a refutation of the sexist tropes that permeated Miller’s work on Daredevil. 

Let it also be known that this is John Romita Jr. at his strongest. His signature blocky shapes had a breathtaking sense of elegance here that his more recent work lacks. Coupled with the flat coloring style of the day, Romita Jr.’s work shines. No one draws Matt Murdock’s swoopy hair better than JRJR. You can take in the first part of Nocenti and Romita Jr.’s Daredevil run in an oversized format with their upcoming omnibus. 

Popverse Picks: Kevin Smith

What specifically about Kevin Smith merits a place on this list, you might ask? Well, a lot. Let’s start with the obvious: the auteur played a forensic technician by the name of Jack Kirby in the Daredevil movie from 2003. In a movie chock full of name-drops to other Daredevil creators (Ann Nocenti being suspiciously absent, to my chagrin), Smith’s sudden appearance as a charismatic morgue guy is an absolute delight. It would be great to see Smith’s unpretentious and natural presence onscreen again in a Daredevil-related project. 

And now, the real reason why Kevin Smith is on this list: he writes a damn good Daredevil. I’ve read every issue of every Daredevil series, and in my opinion, Smith, with artists Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada, rescued the character’s reputation after a forgettable string of stories from earlier in the '90s. Smith, Palmiotti, and Quesada’s series started with a new Daredevil #1, and its expressive artwork and soulful writing kicked off the most creatively adventurous era for the character. The story, called Guardian Devil, never felt edgy for the sake of being edgy. Its emotional journey felt earned and real. Without Smith, Palmiotti, and Quesada, we wouldn’t have Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack, and Alex Maleev’s explosive run on the character. If you’re a fan of Daredevil today, you have Kevin Smith, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Joe Quesada to thank for making him a star again. 

Popverse Picks: Daredevil season 3

I love the whole of the Daredevil Netflix show, but season 3, in my eyes, is when the show became the best version of itself. From the nail-biting prison one-take scene, where Matt has to fight his way out of a prison, to the transformation of one Special Agent Benjamin Poindexter into a horrifying villain known as Bullseye, to the revelation that Matt Murdock’s mother is a nun named Sister Maggie, and to an utterly cathartic final fight between Daredevil and Kingpin, Daredevil season 3 was firing from all cylinders. One of the highlights of the season is a new character named Special Agent Ray Nadeem, played by Jay Ali. Ali’s nuanced performance and the show’s writing gave Agent Nadeem a sense of humanity that was missing from the show’s previous handling of Asian and Asian American characters (Madame Gao, Nobu, the Hand at large). 

Popverse Picks: This Janky Daredevil Plushie From 2003 I Bought at SDCC Last Year

We the People Without Fear aren’t spoiled when it comes to merch for our favorite guy. While X-Men and Spider-Man fans are rolling around in the sheer amount of Marvel Legends figures that exist, the Hornhead Community is left scrounging in the dusty back corners of comic shops in search of vintage plastic totems. And this is what led me to picking up this rather silly-looking Daredevil plushie at a booth at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024. 

He looks ridiculous. His face has a rather odd and unreadable expression, and the shape of his body is so committed to the proportions of human anatomy that he isn’t exactly cute either - just stringy. But when I passed by a booth and saw him zip tied to the wall, I knew I had to have him. I haggled to get him for $15 (what kind of New Yorker would I be otherwise?) and he sits at my desk now. The tag attached to him says he’s from 2003, making him a product of the movie.