Daredevil: Born Again Just Explored A Major MCU Blindspot
Whatever happened to the Sokovia Accords?
Marvel has a bad habit of introducing events with major repercussions, only to forget about the consequences later. Half of the universe disappeared and came back in Avengers: Endgame, but subsequent Marvel stories have largely ignored the chaos of the Blip. The massive Celestial jutting out of the Earth remains a half-hearted plot device, even in Captain America: Brave New World. But few events are more confusing than the Sokovia Accords, the murky legal document that nearly broke the Avengers in 2016.
Beyond its capacity to drive a wedge between Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the specifics of the Sokovia Accords have never been all that clear. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross wanted to regulate the actions of the Avengers and other enhanced individuals, bringing them under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. But other than that, what were the Accords designed to do? Were they ever enacted? Would heroes and vigilantes have to register their identities after its ratification? We may never truly find out: the last we heard of the Accords was in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, when Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) explained that they’d been repealed. They didn’t seem to matter much to Marvel’s cinematic universe. That said, their effects can still somewhat be felt, especially as Matt Murdock’s adventures in the MCU continue.
Spoilers ahead for Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3!
Matt Murdock moves heaven and earth to exonerate Hector Ayala.
For a show all about vigilantes and the laws they flout, Daredevil: Born Again hasn’t made any mention of the Sokovia Accords. There have been conversations about registering vigilantes like White Tiger and Spider-Man, but none have borne fruit. Mayor-elect Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), meanwhile, has an even more extreme plan for the masked heroes running around New York: eliminating them completely. The crux of his campaign has to do with cleaning up the streets, prosecuting unsanctioned heroes, and reestablishing “law and order.” The police force may be underfunded, but a group of dirty cops are unwittingly aiding in Fisk’s crusade. When Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes) gets into a brawl with two undercover officers and one of them is murdered, a corrupt branch of the NYPD spins the tragic accident as an intentional assassination.
Hector’s trial takes center stage in Born Again Episode 3, and it’s admittedly a complex one. While Hector was unjustly framed for murder and the cops he fought are definitely corrupt, his alter ego, White Tiger, could tarnish his reputation. Matt fought hard to keep his secret identity under wraps in Episode 2 for fear that it’d unfairly bias the jury hearing his case. When his key witness fails to testify in Hector’s favor, though, Matt is forced to throw that strategy out the window. He outs Hector as White Tiger in the middle of his testimony, and later uses reports from civilians and cops to build an iron-clad case around his character. That new strategy does help him win the case, saving Hector from life in prison — but it also puts him in even greater peril. Once it’s revealed that Hector is also White Tiger, it’s that much easier for someone to find, and murder, him.
The Sokovia Accords are no more, but that doesn’t make things any better for vigilantes.
Hector’s murder is a tragedy, but could Matt have done anything differently to save him? The odds were stacked against the character from the moment he chose to do the right thing and stand up to those cops in Episode 2. Revealing his secret identity was the only card Matt had left to play, and though he played it brilliantly, it was later weaponized by a system that wants vigilantes off the map for good. The Sokovia Accords may no longer be in effect, nor are they expressly mentioned in this episode — but for all his good intentions, Matt’s strategy echoes their effects on a smaller scale.
Superheroes had no true autonomy under the Accords: they would have been used as tools to do the feds’ dirty work, or even as scapegoats to justify breaches in jurisdiction. Their safety, and the safety of their loved ones, would have been an afterthought. Their secret identities might have been shared at any time. But is that any different than the current reality? Repealing the Accords isn’t enough, especially with anti-vigilante sentiment gaining more traction in Born Again. Earth’s enhanced individuals aren’t above the law, but they are here to stay, and they deserve some form of protection. Otherwise, the Fisks of the world will always win.
