"Into the Ring" has Matt and Foggy's conflict over the direction their law firm is taking, which is just like in the movie, short of being paid in fluke.
In Episodes 12 and 13, Matt states "I'm not the bad guy," a line from the 2003 film. He even says it the second time after defeating Wilson Fisk, which is also when he said it the second time in the movie.
Father Lantom's role as a priest Matt confides in and a Secret-Keeper, and is similar to Father Everett from the 2003 film.
At the beginning of season 2, some of Nelson & Murdock's clients are paying in pastries and baked treats, just like the film's Nelson & Murdock had a client who paid in fluke.
We have a scene of Matt picking out his clothes in the morning as he gets dressed for Grotto's funeral, which is shot very similar to a scene in the film.
"Penny and Dime" ends with Matt and Karen sharing a first kiss in the rain. It's very similar to Matt and Elektra's rain kiss in the movie. Rather than have Matt “see” Karen by the sound of the rain drops, though, the writers play with the imagery of the drops falling on Karen’s skin and Matt slowly brushing them off her arm.
It is revealed that Matt first met Elektra at a fancy party, and the flashback is staged very similar to a scene where the film's Matt finds Elektra at a formal event. While it doesn’t use the same blue radar effect as the original, the sounds and other effects are very similar, as is the camera position and general sequence of events.
The flashback depicting Matt and Elektra's sparring-turned-foreplay in the ring at Fogwell's Gym is the infamous "Matt and Elektra fight in a playground" scene done right. Like there, it's in this scene that Matt reveals his abilities to Elektra. Although it's more that she tricked him as she had been sent as a plant by Stick.
Karen's line to Matt after Frank's trial goes down in flames - “Maybe you are an alcoholic, maybe you’re in a fight club, maybe you are sleeping with a whole harem of women, I don’t care, I’m done.” - echos a line improvised by Jon Favreau's Foggy in the film.
Wilson Fisk is trying to rebuild Hell's Kitchen after the Chitauri Invasion. In the comics, he was the co-owner of Damage Control, a company that repairs damage done by battles involving superhumans.
Matt starts out wearing an outfit based on the black prototype costume he used in the Daredevil: Man Without Fear limited series, and the TV movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, before upgrading to his usual red costume.
In a flashback in "Nelson v. Murdock", the outfit Matt wears in his outing against a pedophiliac father includes the sneakers, sweatpants and hoodie of his Man Without Fear outfit.
Tonally, the Netflix show takes a lot of inspiration from volume 2 – Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker’s runs in particular, with shades of Andy Diggle, Kevin Smith, and late Frank Miller mixed in. The runs in volume 2, for the most part, are Daredevil comics at their darkest. Matt abandoned a lot of his swashbucklyness during this period, and was brought down into the dirt as the most brutal and haunted version of himself. Most of volume 2 is bloody and gritty and noir, and while it doesn’t abandon the superheroics entirely (it’s still a superhero comic, after all), it emphasizes more down-to-earth storylines. The Netflix show's stories, characterization, and even its color palette, go for that sort of vibe.
Before Claire learns Matt's real name, she calls him "Mike." In the comics, Matt's full name is Matthew Michael Murdock, and in a Silver Age comic storyline, Matt posed as a fictional twin brother named Mike Murdock.
Matt briefly dated a Greek woman in college. This becomes foreshadowing, since season 2 introduces Elektra. Though it's still a mythology gag, since Elektra's first appearance reveals that she and Matt met in college.
A fictional European beer called "Hochkalter" can be seen. In the comics, Hochkalter is the mountain where Black Panther's father was nearly assassinated.
Madame Gao's brand of heroin is called "Steel Serpent", and is marked with the emblem of the Iron Fist villain of the same name, long before it reappears in Iron Fist (2017).
Wilson Fisk's gala is held in a building owned by a Van Lunt, who is mentioned to be keen on astrology. In the comics, Cornelius van Lunt ran a zodiac-based supervillain group. Also, the legend, "Van Lunt Real Estate" can be seen on the frosted glass of the Nelson & Murdock entry door for the duration of season 1, covered up by a temporary paper sign.
The office across the hall from Nelson and Murdock is a company called Atlas Investments. Atlas was one of the previous names for Marvel comics, and the logo on the door is a close match for the old Atlas logo.
When Daredevil is interrogating the Russian guy on the roof, Claire wears a white hoodie with the hood up. In the comics, Night Nurse's "costume" was a white cloak with the hood up. Amusingly, Claire also ends up resembling Spider-Gwen.
Melvin Potter briefly uses a buzzsaw blade as a shuriken, echoing his comic book counterpart's main weapon as The Gladiator. Later, when he shows Matt the red suit, a blueprint for his spring-launched buzzsaws can be seen. In fact, Melvin's garage is full of many Easter eggs.
He has a poster for the Italian B-movie Revenge of the Gladiators, which sports the same color scheme Gladiator wears in the comics.
In the back of his workshop, Melvin has a chest piece that appears to be an unpainted version of the one his comics counterpart wears.
When Matt first enters Melvin's workshop, a drawing board with the logo and color scheme of his Gladiator costume can be seen behind him.
In "Penny and Dime," a pair of armored leggings that resemble Stilt-Man's stilts can also be seen in the shop.
On her first date with Fisk, Vanessa mentions being approached by a man in a white suit with an ascot, which catches Fisk's attention. That's his traditional comic book attire.
Fisk is eventually revealed to be the one responsible for his own father's death, just like in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
Wesley's death scene is basically recreating Karen’s death scene from the "Guardian Devil" comics storyline, where she grabs Bullseye’s gun and tries to shoot him, but discovers that it’s out of bullets. A similar situation occurs in the show, but this time, the gun is loaded, and Wesley even tries to bluff her, arguing, "Come on, do you really think I would put a loaded gun on the table where you could reach it?" But in this instance, Karen’s courage and initiative is rewarded, and she is able to defend herself.
Overlapping with Bilingual Bonus, the shipping crate the Black Sky kid arrives in in "Stick" says "Asano Robotics" on the side in Japanese (アサノ ロボティクス), a reference to an obscure Iron Man villain. In season 2, Asano is revealed to be a Japanese branch of Roxxon.
Owlsley starts wearing a bulletproof, dark green coat designed by Melvin Potter for protection. His comics' counterpart, the Owl, wears a similar coat.
In "The Ones We Leave Behind", after killing Wesley, and Drowning Her Sorrows, Karen jokes to Foggy that she's thinking of quitting drinking in favor of "the hard stuff" (drugs). A bit dark, considering Karen's biggest comic story was Born Again, where she becomes a heroin addict who sold Matt's identity out to Wilson Fisk for a fix.
Showrunner Steven De Knight mentioned in an IGN interview that in the comics, The Owl had a father who was in high finance. Hence it's possible that the Leland Owlsley in this series is not The Owl himself, but his father.
Nobu's name might give comic-savvy fans a hint as to his true allegiance, as it's taken from Kagenobu Yoshioka, the canonical founder of the Hand.
In "Daredevil", Wilson Fisk makes his getaway in an Atreus Plastics freight truck which takes him to a garage where he makes a switch to a Summerville Department Stores freight truck. In Daredevil issue #184 first printed in July of 1982, Atreus Plastics is a nefarious organization that is involved in the creation of high-grade plastic explosives. This same issue is part of a story arc that involves Daredevil in opposition of The Punisher. In standalone Punisher comic issue #49 first printed in June of 1991, The Punisher goes on a rescue mission to save the kidnapped heiress of Summerville Department Stores. On the Summerville truck, the tagline below the logo says "Proudly serving America for over 75 years!" a nod to Marvel's 75 years of existence.
When Elektra first starts using her sai after attaining them, the person she stabs' shirt is not ripped by it, instead the sai pushes his shirt outwards. This is what happened when Bullseye killed Elektra with her sai.
The ultra-light body armor Melvin is shown wearing under his clothing is similar to the shirt he wears as part of his Gladiator costume in the comics.
Finn is killed when Frank shoots him point-blank with a shotgun. In the "Kitchen Irish" story from the Punisher MAX comics, Finn had a disfigured face as the result of a grievous injury. "Kitchen Irish" revolved around a group of gangs all trying to kill one another over money belonging to a long-retired Irish gangster named Nesbitt; in the show Finn comes to America seeking money that Castle stole after killing Nesbitt and his inner circle.
At the end of Season 2, Frank Castle burns down the Castle family home, similarly to how Nick Fury did at the end of the Homeless arc in The Punisher MAX. It's also similar to Castle forcing Rachel Cole-Alves to burn photos of her and her husband to sever her connection to her past in Greg Rucka's run on The Punisher.
Elektra's death involves her being impaled by her own sais. The end of Season 2 implies she will soon be resurrected. It also mirrors how Karen died in the comics, who in the comics stepped in front of an attack meant for Matt.
Matt calling out Frank Castle's Motive Rant of having lost his family in "New York's Finest" recalls his Shut Up, Hannibal! speech to the Punisher's protege Rachel Cole-Alves in the "Omega Sanction" crossover.
Frank shares a friendly conversation with a Marine vet from Vietnam, an allusion to Castle's original origin before the timeline slid too far.
Characters refer to Frank Castle's vendetta as turning New York City into or creating a "war zone" at least once an episode, referring to the series, miniseries, and movie Punisher: War Zone.
When talking about Fisk's gala, Leland Owlsley says "Make sure Richmond's on the guest list. He won't come, but he'll get pissy if he isn't invited". It could just be a throw-away name, but given that it's referring to a high-class party, Leland is probably talking about Kyle Richmond, AKA Nighthawk, being in attendance.
Frank Castle's liking of Earth, Wind & Fire: His first appearance in the comics was in 1974, around the time that the band was gaining mainstream popularity and the time that Jon Bernthal was born. The specific song used in the series, "Shining Star", comes from their first number one album that was released the following year.
As in the comics, Karen is from the tiny rural town of Fagan Corners, Vermont, and comes to New York City in search of a new life. In the “Death’s Head” arc (Daredevil vol. 1 #56-57), she returns home and is confronted with chaos and pain related to her family. While the circumstances are much different in the show (in the show, Karen had a brother; in the comics, she was an only child), Karen’s past and family are upsetting topics for her.
The scene where Matt visits Fisk in prison is visually reminiscent of Ed Brubaker’s Daredevil Vol. 2 #93. The fact that Fisk is being held in cell block D is another Brubaker reference, invoking the “Devil in Cell Block D” arc in which Matt and Fisk end up in prison together.
Fisk’s story in Season 1 contains shades of Chichester’s “Last Rites” (DD vol. 1 #297-300). In that arc, Fisk takes major steps to bolster his reputation as an honest businessman, thus strengthening his influence over the city. Matt responds by taking him down once and for all (…for the first time, anyway) by exposing his criminal deeds and, essentially, “Born Again”-ing him by ruining his life.
Fisk’s mini arc in Season 2 is reminiscent of his post-”Last Rites” life. In both situations he loses his status, his power, his reputation, and his resources. Despite these dire straits, having been stripped of everything, he reveals his innate shrewdness by rebuilding his empire on a minor scale, clawing his way back toward his former might, and patiently waiting until he decides the time is right to reassert control.
Between the back part of season 2, The Defenders (2017), and the start of season 3, the show follows a repeating trend from the comics of Matt and Foggy separating. They go their own ways several times, but the scenario most like the show is in early volume 1, when Matt and Foggy have a falling-out and Foggy is elected District Attorney. This is the arc in which he comes to realize his own self-worth and skill as a lawyer, via working on his own and having a job that is much more high-profile than Matt’s; in fact, Matt actually works as Foggy's assistant for a while. MCU Foggy does the same thing, just swap out the 'district attorney' job with a job at Hogarth, Chao & Benowitz.
The show doesn't adapt the tedious love triangle between Matt, Karen, and Foggy (…and sometimes Mike) from early volume 1, but still makes sly little references to it, such as when Karen is serving her lasagna to Matt and Foggy and says "So I know it's not much in the form of repayment, but it is my grandmother's recipe and she made me promise only to serve it to my future husband." Along these same lines, the show also embraced the source material’s slow development of Matt and Karen’s initial romance, with them not even going on a date until partway through Season 2, their romance being put on the backburner during the back half of season 2 and The Defenders as the Elektra storyline ran its course, and then going back to friends in Season 3.
Season 3
As the Sequel Hook at the end of The Defenders established, "Born Again" would be a source of some material for season 3's storyline. Among things from "Born Again" that happen in season 3 are: Maggie nursing Matt back to health, Matt battling the Kingpin after losing everything, an imposter dressed as Daredevil whose costume is provided by Melvin Potter,note Although in the original story, the imposter wasn't Bullseye, it was some random guy Fisk broke out of an asylum; the storyline where Bullseye impersonated Daredevil was an unrelated arc that happened later on Fisk attempting to kill Matt with a taxicab driven into a river, and Matt spending a significant period of time out of the Daredevil suit. In this arc, Foggy unknowingly takes a lucrative job working for Wilson Fisk. Foggy's run for District Attorney, and Fisk looking to gather pawns and allies, allows for a similar take.
Like in "The Murdock Papers", Fisk makes a deal with the FBI to give up information in order to get himself out of prison. However, he doesn't give up Matt's identity here. Instead, he gives up information on the Albanians in exchange for charges against Vanessa being expunged.
Ray Nadeem is an all-new character created just for the show, but he combines elements of two characters from "Born Again". His financial struggles (which were orchestrated by Fisk) are borrowed from Matt. His going into debt to pay for his sister-in-law's cancer treatments, are borrowed from Nick Manolis (an honest cop who Fisk was able to convince to give perjured testimony against Matt in exchange for his son Anthony getting a life-saving operation).
Fisk forces Melvin to create a Daredevil suit for Dex, who then goes out committing crimes to discredit Matt's name. In "Born Again," Fisk did this with an insane patient broken out of an asylum. Dex doing it here is itself a reference to vol. 1 #285 from the Ann Nocenti run where Bullseye, of his own accord, impersonated Daredevil to destroy his reputation, and got way too invested in the impersonation. The real Daredevil's way of snapping him out of his delusion was to dress in Bullseye's normal costume.
Like vol. 1 #48-130, Foggy is running against Blake Tower for District Attorney, much like he did in the 1970s comics. A big difference is that Marci Stahl is taking the role of Deborah Harris, Foggy's longtime girlfriend (and wife). Foggy's attire in season 3 actually is very much reminiscent of stuff Foggy wore during that time period.
Foggy actually had a brother in the comics for a bit, before the brother ultimately disappeared never to be seen again. Theo is clearly filling that role.
After Dex's attack on the Bulletin, we see Fisk sitting in a room surrounded by numerous TV screens reporting on the attack. This is very reminiscent of a panel at the end of "Born Again" after Fisk is exposed for his role in Nuke's attack on Hell's Kitchen and his empire begins to crumble.
Season 3 Episode 4 ends with a reinvented version of the cab scene from "Born Again", where Fisk tries to kill Matt by putting him into a taxi that's then driven into the river. Here, it's done more realistically, as rather than try to make it look like Matt went on a blind joyride (as the original version went), Fisk just pays a driver to get the cab up to speed, then has the driver jump out of the cab before it flies into the water.
The church fight from "Guardian Devil" is incorporated into season 3. It even starts the same way as before, where you think that Karen's going to die the same way she did in "Guardian Devil", only for Dex to instead kill Father Lantom. At the end of the fight, after Karen knocks Dex off the balcony to stop him from finishing off Matt, the episode ends with her crying and cradling a lifeless Matt in her arms, staged to look exactly like Karen's comics death panel, but with Matt and Karen switching places.
Dex's backstory reveals that he was a baseball player as a kid, and ultimately snapped and killed the coach with a baseball when the coach tried to pull him. It's a spin on the origins of his comics codename:
"... Bullseye was placed in a foster home, and became a baseball player in high school. Bullseye was an extremely talented pitcher, and was offered a scholarship, but instead opted to enter the minor leagues. After three games, he was called up to play a sold-out Major League game. He had surrendered no hits the entire game, and in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, he became bored and requested the coach pull him from the game. The coach refused, and insisted that he finish the game. The opposing team's batter mocked him, accusing him of cowardice. Bullseye threw the ball at his head, killing him. As the ball struck, he said only one word: 'Bullseye.' He was barred from professional baseball and convicted of manslaughter."
Dex is suggested to have some mental issues, which is possible nod to Daredevil vol. 1 #169 where it was revealed Bullseye had a brain tumor.
At the end of the season, we see Dex being operated on in a hospital and getting the metallic spine that he got in the comics, after Fisk had shattered it in the climax. The doctor in charge of the operation is named Oyama, like the supervillain Kenji "Lord Dark Wind" Oyama (father of Daredevil and Wolverine enemy Lady Deathstrike) who orchestrated the procedure in the comics.
Expanding on the "Mike" gag from Season 1, this time Matt actually does pretend to be another lawyer who's not blind, stealing Foggy's Bar card to get into the prison.
Perhaps the most controversial part of "Born Again" is Karen selling out Matt's identity to Fisk for a shot of heroin. When she was initially cast, Deborah Ann Woll was promised upon taking the role that this wouldn't happen on the show, and that promise is kept, though she does still end up giving Fisk the final confirmation of his suspicions from a You Just Told Me trick. And the bit of Karen being an addict is relegated to her backstory in Fagan Corners.
Dex's apartment number is 131. Bullseye’s first comic appearance was in Daredevil #131 in March 1976.
Sister Maggie's backstory and her post-partum depression are lifted from the "Original Sin" arc of the Mark Waid run.
One of the reporters killed in the Bulletin attack has the first name Amber, as indicated by dialogue when Karen visits Ellison in the hospital. A last name is not given, but this is likely Amber Grant, a freelance photographer at the Daily Bugle in the comics.
Felix Manning, Fisk's new fixer in season 3, is responsible for delivering Dex to Melvin Potter's workshop so Dex can be outfitted in a new Daredevil suit. He did the same thing with a random asylum patient in "Born Again". Unlike in the comics, though, Felix isn't killed by Dex. Felix is much like James Wesley as well, being a minor underling of Fisk's who got promoted by the show to being a Number Two (Wesley also having only ever made a brief appearance in "Born Again" prior to the movie and the Netflix show).
. In season 2, Asano is revealed to be a Japanese branch of Roxxon.