Daredevil: Born Again Raises a Big Question – Who Are the MCU’s Vigilantes?

Daredevil/Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) in Marvel Television's DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Giovanni Rufino. © 2025 MARVEL.

Daredevil: Born Again has fleshed out the concept of vigilantes in an interesting way that the MCU hasn’t really tackled before. The distinction between a well-funded, world-saving organization like the Avengers and a one-man operation like Daredevil has always been clear, but this story begins to show how individuals and the general public feel about this trend. It also implies that there are many other people who fall under the category “vigilante,” especially as people like Wilson Fisk see it.



That leaves it up to fans to speculate on who qualifies as a vigilante, and who might be in the crosshairs of people like Fisk in the future.It’s pretty clear that Matt Murdock is the chief example of a vigilante in the MCU, especially as far as Fisk is concerned. We can safely assume that his fellow Defenders fit this bill as well — Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Frank Castle.

Of course, Born Again has firmly placed White Tiger in the vigilante category, and we should probably assume that Defender-verse side characters like Elektra and Stick would be regarded that way as well.At the same time, the serial killer Muse is an example of how this anti-vigilante sentiment can be manipulated by public figures like Fisk. Muse is most definitely not a hero or a vigilante, but he’s a perfect scapegoat for the mayor.

[RELATED: Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Set Photos Spoil Major Marvel Villain’s Return]Beyond that, the field is pretty wide open, and there are some interesting debates to be had about who is a vigilante and who is a hero. In many cases, receiving orders from someone with authority is definitely not heroic, even if it does grant some legitimacy. Read on for some of the MCU’s top “vigilantes” at the time of this writing.

Spider-ManFirst and foremost, fans have begun to theorize that the anti-vigilante sentiment in Daredevil: Born Again will become important the next time we see Peter Parker in the MCU. At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange successfully wiped Parker from the memories of everyone on earth, recontextualizing all of Spider-Man’s actions as those of a mysterious vigilante. We’ve already gotten a taste of how J.

Jonah Jameson feels about this, and he could be a welcome personality if the MCU continues to explore the anti-vigilante agenda.SwordsmanImage courtesy of Marvel StudiosBorn Again has neatly folded Jacques Duquesne’s Swordsman persona into the conversation about vigilantes, and the effect that wealth and privilege may have on this discourse within the MCU. First introduced in Hawkeye, Swordsman is a wealthy socialite whose integrity is still a bit of a mystery at the time of this writing.

The season finale may give us a better idea of where he stands, but in the meantime he’s definitely a question mark.EchoEcho had a happy ending that seemed to take Maya Lopez out of the vigilante game for good, but Marvel Studios has stated interest in bringing her back into the franchise at some point as well. It’s not clear what might pull her back into the action or when we might see her again, but she’s worth discussing because she is definitely a target for Fisk.

The mob boss-turned-mayor can hold a grudge, and it’s not beyond him to lash out unfairly at Echo in his war on vigilantes.Yelena BelovaAnother interesting case fans have been discussing online is Yelena Belova, the younger sister of the late Black Widow. Yelena has been trained as a spy and assassin since childhood, and without the organization that indoctrinated her, she is technically now a free agent.

However, we know that she’s been taking assignments from CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, which might seem to legitimize her work in some eyes. If her jobs seem unethical, should the blame fall on Val? Or is Yelena responsible for her actions?There’s also the question of whether Val might leave Yelena holding the bag and use her as a scapegoat. If so, it only seems natural to employ some of Fisk’s anti-vigilante rhetoric.

It looks like this is a question we’ll see explored in Thunderbolts* next month, which might be our first sign of the vigilante plotline moving forward.RoninIf anyone in the MCU embodies the real danger of vigilantism, it’s Clint Barton during his Ronin phase. Barton had a meteoric rise from eccentric S.

H.I.E.

L.D. agent to an Avenger, then a catastrophic fall from grace after the Snap when he became Ronin.

During this time, Barton waged a one-man war against criminals, enraged that these people had survived the cataclysm while his family had not.Ronin focused particularly on organized crime, and he did not hesitate to kill. However, in his grief he didn’t exactly use his due diligence, either.

At one point, he was fed information by Fisk, essentially driving him to take out a rival for the mobster. His activity became so bloody that the Avengers had to investigate it themselves, and eventually, Black Widow tracked him down. We even learned later that Ronin’s true identity was never revealed to the public, raising the possibility that there was some kind of coverup at play here.

Depending on how your definition, there are many other characters in the MCU that fit the description “vigilante” — some heroic, some villainous. If this public outcry extends beyond Daredevil: Born Again and influences other titles, we may have the start of a very nuanced story on our hands. The season finale of Daredevil: Born Again premieres on Tuesday, April 15th on Disney+.

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