Daredevil is coming to Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and some fans are mad they have to wait longer. From the beginning, the series has made comments about how “fans” react to things in the “M-She-U,” and they’ve made it clear that they’re going to call out the more toxic views present in the fandom of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So it’s no surprise that the outrage over having to wait for Matt Murdock’s Daredevil to show up is feeding right into that commentary the show is making and going over the heads of some “fans” of the franchise.
In episode 5, we got a tease of Daredevil’s new helmet when Jen was picking up her own clothes, and that, to some, meant he would show up in episode 6. When that episode, “Just Jen,” aired and it was a standalone episode of Jen going to her childhood friend’s wedding, many erupted online complaining about the show “baiting” them into thinking that Matt was going to appear, as if this is his show!
One of the things that has been made abduntantly clear with She-Hulk is that this is Jen’s show. She has said as much, and the series continues to remind us that it is hers and hers alone. So, people being angry online that the show is “baiting” us with Matt are completely missing the point that the show is making about them.
Waiting is good, actually
Daredevil was briefly in a trailer for the series, and we’ve had hints that our other fave superhero lawyer would show up. They didn’t force Daredevil down our throats or go out of their way to make it seem like he was a bigger part of this series than he is. In fact, Jen says that this isn’t a cameo-every-week show within the first few episodes of the season, so expectations should have been set then for how much of Matt Murdock we were going to see. And yet, TikTok and Twitter exploded with what I can only describe as crybabies yelling because they didn’t see their Matt.
Now, I love Daredevil very much. I also want to see him. But if you’re watching this series in order to see Matt Murdock and only because of that, then you’re part of the problem. You don’t have to love Jen or this show, but this trend that I’ve noticed is that those the show is calling out are those who are the loudest about things the show makes obvious are problematic—and one of those things is the reaction to waiting for Daredevil.
The show didn’t bait us. It didn’t sell us that Matt was going to be the second lead. What it did do was tell us that he was coming and then make a commentary on how sometimes something unexpected happens and you have to wait, and it was glorious to see the reaction to that and the whiny men saying it’s the show’s fault instead of their own for thinking they knew what was coming next.
Matt Murdock will show up. You thinking that he should have shown up in an episode and being mistaken is not the show’s problem. It’s yours.
(featured image: Marvel Entertainment)
