A Daredevil Video Game Is Long Overdue, You Cowards
Lawyer by day, devil of Hell's Kitchen by night? I'm sold.
Minor spoilers for Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home follow!
For reasons you’ll no doubt understand if you’ve been following recent Marvel news, I’ve just watched through all of Netflix’s Daredevil for the third time. Because who needs Disney Plus when you can watch Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio knock seven shades of shit out of each other?
Season three of Daredevil, in particular, is truly excellent, and deserves to be regarded as one of the greatest comic book adaptations ever made. It really is up there with The Dark Knight and Marvel’s Spider-Man in terms of the way it offers a fresh take on an iconic character without losing sight of who they are at their core.
I’d avoided rewatching Daredevil for a while, if only because I was properly heartbroken after Netflix cancelled the show, along with the rest of its Marvel output. I’d assumed that when the MCU reintroduced the character, it’d be with a different actor. I didn’t want to remind myself how good Charlie Cox was as Matt Murdock knowing we’d never see him again.
Except of course we now know the MCU’s Daredevil will be none other than Charlie Cox. The Netflix incarnation of Matt Murdock appeared as Peter Parker’s lawyer in Spider-Man: No Way Home, just days after Vincent D’Onofrio reprised his role as Kingpin on Hawkeye. These were smaller parts, yes, but it’s obvious bigger things are coming for Daredevil and Kingpin in the MCU.
Which is why I think it’s high-time we finally get a Daredevil video game. Or to be more accurate, it’s high-time we finally get a good Daredevil video game.
Despite being one of Marvel’s more popular heroes, the Man Without Fear has actually only starred in one game: an easily forgettable Game Boy Advance adaptation of the rubbish 2003 Ben Affleck movie. He’s appeared in a string of Marvel games since then, and there’s at least one project we know of that was ultimately cancelled, but it’s time to put some more respect on our vigilante lawyer.
Marvel is currently enjoying a successful foray into the world of video games (Avengers notwithstanding). Marvel’s Spider-Man and its sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales are best-in-class action adventures packed with heart and charm. Insomniac Games is already hard at work on a sequel, and a Wolverine video game. There’s no universe in which these upcoming releases disappoint.
And while it hasn’t been talked about as much as it deserves, last year’s Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy is also a damn fine game. Like Insomniac did with Spidey, Eidos-Montréal wisely cherry-picked the best parts of the Guardians’ comic book and movie history to create a new version of the heroes that felt properly authentic.
Daredevil could massively benefit from that same love and care. I mean, a lawyer by day who dresses up as a devil at night to slap criminals around? That right there is a concept with a ridiculous amount of potential for a very different kind of superhero game.
If we’re being really unimaginative, an Arkham-style Daredevil adventure would obviously work. I’d be first in line to play it! But when you consider the fact that Matt Murdock is a lawyer whose heightened senses essentially make him a human lie detector, you open up a whole new world. I’m talking LA Noire-inspired interrogations. Courtroom battles where Matt has to use what he’s learned while out as Daredevil to piece together the truth, trip up the bad guys, and win his cases. A game that’s 50% Arkham Asylum, 50% Phoenix Wright, if you will. Or maybe 60/40 in favour of whichever game you prefer. We’re only dreaming at the moment, after all.
Matt Murdock the lawyer is every bit as interesting as Daredevil the superhero. The Netflix show understood that, and any video game adaptation worth its salt will understand that too. I’m all for another superhero game that mixes in stealth and action-based combat especially since you can’t really have a Daredevil game that doesn’t do that, can you? But the Matt Murdock of it all affords any potential developers out there a chance to really change up the formula in a major way. To change and enrich how we engage with the smashy bashy superhero side of it with jigsaw puzzle cases and dramatic court clashes.
Then again, I’ve more or less just described Lost Judgment, so maybe I should go play that instead.
Featured Image Credit: Marvel/NetflixTopics: Marvel