THERE’S A LONG, historic lineage when it comes to the bodies of superheroes in comics, in animation, and in live-action. Much has been made in the last 15 years of the bodies depicted on the big and small screens of Marvel superheroes in particular. We saw Chris Pratt go from sitcom sidekick to hunky leading man. Kumail Nanjiani covered this very magazine to show the world his transformation leading up to his role in Eternals. Chris Hemsworth is, well, Chris Hemsworth.
But the last few years of Marvel have been a bit trickier. The movies haven’t quite hit like they did in the 2010s, and, as a result, we haven’t had quite as much attention on the Jacked Superhero Bod of the Moment. The last time we even saw Thor, for instance, was in 2022’s Love and Thunder.
In many ways, this is the result of a humungous superhero movie/show bubble popping. And it’s for the best! We don’t need to see these things every couple of months. Let each release breathe a little bit, and it makes what’s special about them feel that much more special.
Case in point: Daredevil: Born Again. The show, which is a quasi-reboot of the beloved Netflix-produced series about the blind vigilante crime-fighter, is now in its second season on Disney+. And while the first season had some ups and downs (largely due to a complete change in creative team during the course of production), the second season has gotten off to a rollicking start. The villainous Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) is in power as mayor of New York City, and he’s ruling over things and carrying out his agenda using his fascistic Anti-Vigilante Task Force. It’s not often that an MCU project has the opportunity to inspect and make commentary on current events to such a degree, but Born Again‘s parallels with the current moment are undeniable.
Our hero, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, is trying his best, then, to take the Kingpin and his cronies on. And that means working with his friends, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and the unseen-so-far-this-season Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) and Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter). And it also means he need to be in peak physical shape, which he showed off in the third episode of season two, titled “The Scales & The Sword.”
Yeah. Anyone who’s watched Daredevil or read one of his many fantastic comics knows that the man can fight. But good luck to anyone wanting to take that dude on. There’s a reason why Kingpin feels like he needs a whole task force army to do his bidding—because there’s no chance one person along could stand a chance.
It comes back to making these moments special, though. If we were in the middle of a Marvel series or movie once a month, maybe seeing Daredevil so impressively ripped wouldn’t make such an impact. But because our last few Marvel projects haven’t centered a ripped master of fighting—Wonder Man and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, in particular, centered different types of heroes and power—we really see and feel Matt’s physical strength in this moment.
We’ll see a lot of the usual ‘Strongest Avenger’ contenders later this year when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters—and that includes Hemsworth’s Thor, Pratt’s Star-Lord, and even Chris Evans’s Steve Rogers. But for now, there’s no doubt about it—Daredevil is looking like the most ripped man in the Marvel oeuvre. Will it be enough to take d0wn the Kingpin? That much we’ll have to wait and see as the season continues to unfol. But we’re not going to bet against this guy.
Watch Daredevil: Born Again Here
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
