Some spoilers follow for Daredevil: Born Again Season 1.
There’s a moment in Daredevil: Born Again’s third episode where White Tiger (the late Kamar de los Reyes) suits up and walks the streets of Manhattan, patrolling as only a street vigilante in the world of superheroes can do. He’s got his magic amulet, his black-striped white costume, and his appetite for righting the wrongs of the city, no matter the cost. No flying, no uru hammers, no gamma powers. He’s just a dude doing the right thing.
And while White Tiger is killed in cold blood in that very same scene, his death only serves to prove the point that a street-level crusader like him is ultimately more hero than super. There he is, doing what he’s got to do, to the bitter end.
This is the grittier side of the Marvel Universe, a place where, yes, superpowered heroes and freakish bad guys do exist, but also where the cosmic and world-changing dilemmas that face the big guns like the Avengers are of less concern than the more basic problems everyday citizens face. The street-level heroes exist to shut down some drug-dealing operation, or stop a robbery, or, in the case of White Tiger (in a situation that would ultimately lead to his demise), save a guy who’s getting roughed up on the subway. (These are also the type of heroes who rely heavily on that old chestnut known as the grappling hook. And we love them for it.)
The MCU often doesn’t have time to focus on these stories because it’s dealing with Infinity or Multiverse Sagas or what have you. And while the recently canonized Netflix Marvel shows were designed to deal on the street level, the fact is there’s actually more going on in Hell’s Kitchen and beyond than is generally seen in your average MCU movie or show.
Let’s take a look at the heroes who we know for sure are working the streets of Manhattan – which is, after all, essentially Marvel’s capital city – and the ones who we suspect are out there too.
Daredevil
This is the most obvious player on this front, of course, since Charlie Cox’s version of Matt Murdock has been in action as far back as the Netflix show which debuted in 2015. Indeed, that incarnation of Daredevil was even less superhero-ish than Born Again in so far as Matt didn’t really don his traditional red costume until Season 2 and he definitely didn’t do obvious CGI acrobatics until the new MCU show. (His billy clubs are basically also grappling hooks now, right?) What he did do was fight crime, often in wet, dark alleyways, with his main opponent of course being the literal Kingpin of Crime. Yes, eventually the Netflix shows got more mystical – a freaking dragon skeleton or something buried under New York City was key to the Defenders’ plot – but even then, it was all rooftops and fistfights… and angst. So much angst.
Grappling Hook Potential: 100%, even he calls them billy clubs
The Punisher
Speaking of angst, Jon Bernthal’s Punisher is the second hero to jump over from the Netflix period to the current Disney+ era. Unlike Daredevil, he doesn’t even have any superhuman abilities. Just guns. Lots and lots of guns. Of course, his tragic origin is well known by fans, and it’s those events which put him on a lifelong mission to wipe the streets clean of the scum of the Earth. That he seems to have seen better days at the moment, based on his appearances in Born Again, only makes Frank Castle an even more perfect example of the street-level vigilante in all of his pill-popping, unkempt glory.
Grappling Hook Potential: Very likely
White Tiger
Yes, the Hector Ayala incarnation of White Tiger met his end at the hands of the Punisher-worshipping cops who are working for Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). But his legacy, and that magic amulet that is alluded to in Born Again, continue on. Camila Rodriguez plays Ayala’s niece, Angela del Toro, who became the White Tiger in the comics. Don’t be surprised if the same thing happens in the MCU sooner or later as well.
Grappling Hook Potential: The OG White Tiger is gone now, but you can be sure he had one.
Swordsman
Tony Dalton first showed up as Jack Duquesne in the Disney+ Hawkeye series, where he was portrayed as a wealthy playboy type. The character’s history in the comics is tied to Clint Barton/Hawkeye’s, but the show jettisoned that and didn’t really get into Duquesne’s vigilante persona, Swordsman. That’s no longer the case, however, as Born Again has brought back Duquesne, and also seemingly given us Swordsman as well, who is seen briefly in Episode 6 (on an iPhone video) dispatching some ne'er-do-wells. In broad daylight, no less! As the man said, “Like, where do you learn that!?”
Grappling Hook Potential: Probably not, since it seems somewhat uncouth for a guy like Duquesne
Hawkeye
We’re talking the Kate Bishop variety here. Hailee Steinfeld’s Hawkeye is a New York City girl, of course, and while she was last seen at the end of The Marvels apparently being recruited by Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan to join whatever the MCU’s version of the Young Avengers is eventually going to be, there’s no reason she isn’t off shooting exploding arrows at some tracksuit mafia nitwits in the meantime. (And hey, Kamala may be on the more cosmic/mutant side of the superpowered world, and she’s in California at the moment according to Born Again, but she’s also from Jersey, so she pretty easily hop over to the city for some adventuring here or there too.)
Grappling Hook Potential: Absolutely there are arrows with grappling hooks attached in that quiver of hers.
Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Colleen Wing and the Other Netflix-Era Heroes
If we take it as MCU gospel now that Born Again’s Daredevil and Punisher are the same characters from their Netflix shows, then that means the other Netflix Marvel heroes are presumably still out there as well, smashing bad guys and feeling glum and glumly smashing bad guys. There’s Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, Mike Colter’s Luke Cage, and Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing (who took over as Iron First from Finn Jones’ Danny Rand), but then there’s also the supporting characters from the Netflix era who would also count here, like Simone Missick’s Misty Knight, Rachael Taylor’s Trish Walker/Hellcat, Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple/Night Nurse, and even Élodie Yung’s Elektra (is she alive or dead at the moment, I can't keep track?).
Grappling Hook Potential: Some of these characters have surely grappled a hook or two in their time.
Moon Knight
Now we’re getting a little more out there. Oscar Isaac’s Marc Spector/Moon Knight did visit the afterlife at one point in his 2022 Disney+ series, didn’t he? That’s pretty far from street-level. And the show’s producers actually set the show mostly in London rather than New York City in order to differentiate it from the other Marvel titles that were taking place in the Big Apple around that time. But hey, if Tony Stark could move to Manhattan, then surely Marc Spector or one of his other personalities could as well. And as far as the comics version of Moon Knight goes, he fits nicely into this category of hero.
Grappling Hook Potential: We've seen it!
Ironheart
The Disney+ series Ironheart will finally debut in June of 2025, bringing back Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, who made her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In that film, Riri was introduced as a genius-level college student who built a homemade Iron Man-like suit of armor before winding up in the very high-tech environment of Wakanda. But with the character back in the United States in the show, all signs point to Ironheart featuring a much more DIY version of the armor again. So she kind of falls in the semi-street level category for now.
Grappling Hook Potential: Nah, she doesn't need one.
Spider-Man
And that brings us to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, who is essentially the bridge between the “I’m knocking out muggers on the city streets” type of hero and the “I’m heading to outer space with the Avengers” type of hero. The MCU version of Spidey hasn’t actually spent that much time in Manhattan (and Queens!) considering how many movies he’s appeared in, but now he’s essentially getting a soft reboot with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, where he’ll apparently have a new cast of supporting characters (including Sadie Sink in an undisclosed role) to play off of. Rumors have pegged this as a more street-level Spidey adventure too, and certainly the ending of his previous film, No Way Home, gave us a Peter who was primed for some good old friendly neighborhood webspinning. And besides, we need a way to get all of our favorite non-super vigilantes over to Secret Wars, and who better to invite them than Spider-Man?
Grappling Hook Potential: I mean, he has webs instead!
But what do you think? Is the street-level side of the MCU bustling with crimefighting vigilantes in tights? Or is it quiet on them thar streets? Let’s discuss in the comments!
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