Hey guys, it's Jan here.
As we've come to expect from Marvel's productions, there's a stack of easter eggs and references
in Daredevil Season 2 to the Marvel Cinematic Universe -and the comic books.
With all 13 episodes out now on Netflix, I've put together all the easter eggs and references
I could find in this video.
If you've spotted other ones too, do let me know about them in the comments below!
Just before I kick off, I've got an awesome giveaway from our friends at Entertainment
Earth.
For a chance to win this cool set of Daredevil collectibles, including a Daredevil action
figure, Daredevil watch, and Daredevil villain Bullseye piece plus Collector magazine, make
sure you subscribe and comment about your favourite Season 2 easter egg on this video.
For more details and ways to enter the comp, check out the Gleam link in the video description
below and also the links to the prizes on Entertainment Earth!
And just a quick reminder, there will be spoilers ahead, so if you're not ready for that, check
out my non-spoiler review of season 2 here!
Kicking off with the costumes, this season Daredevil gets various upgrades starting with
the addition of some creepy red eyes that recall the time in the Shadowland comics,
where Matt Murdock was corrupted by the Hand and later possessed by the demon the ninja
clan serves.
And Daredevil's costumer Melvin Potter also gives him new billy clubs that double as grappling
hooks, just like Daredevil has in the comic books.
Elektra's costume isn't as revealing as she's often dressed in the comics or when Jennifer
Garner played her in the 2005 movie, but there are nods to her classic red colours under
her more practical black gear.
And it's interesting that after The Hand recovered Elektra from her grave that she was clothed
in a red sash or dress that's much closer to her comic book look.
Elektra also got to wield her classic sai from the comics after she took them from Jacques
Duchamps who Stick sent to kill her.
There were loads of teases to The Punisher's iconic white skull from the comics throughout
the episodes too, with x-rays of Frank Castle's skull and when Castle spray-paints his armoured
vest in the finale it's a reference to a draft of the 1989 Punisher movie with Dolph Lundgren
in which Castle spray painted the iconic skull onto his Kevlar vest.
The scene was cut from that movie by a producer as it was considered too comic-booky.
But in Daredevil, we do get a proper shot of Castle in his final uniform with skull
symbol clearly showing in that final rooftop scene.
Frank Castle's story of losing his wife and children to the mob is an echo of his origin
story in the comics where his family was gunned down in Central Park.
The x-ray of Castle's skull also shows a dark circle to the left and Karen mentions that
Frank was also hit in the head, a reference to the bullet wound Frank Castle took to the
head in the comics during the mob attack.
Numerous other storylines from the Daredevil and Punisher comic books have been adapted
for season 2.
For example, the botched sting operation organised by Reyes for which she decided not to clear
Central Park is a reference to the comic Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe.
In that comic, the Avengers and the X-Men accidentally kill Frank Castle's family in
Central Park while thwarting an alien strike force.
Captain America admits they didn't have time to clear the area.
The scene in which Castle chains up Daredevil on a rooftop is an homage to the Punisher
comic The Choice in which the Punisher is about to assassinate the criminal Dino Gnucci,
and he gives Daredevil a gun telling him the only way to stop him shooting Gnucci is to
kill the Punisher himself.
The TV show finds an interesting resolution with Matt shooting his chains off rather than
trying to shoot the Punisher as he does in comics.
The fight scene between the two which follows also has shades of Daredevil #257 where Punisher
and Daredevil fight and argue on a rooftop about what justice the criminal Alfred Coppersmith
deserves.
By the way, the Punisher's line to Daredevil "you're one bad day away from being me" goes
back to the Daredevil comics and also reminds me of The Joker's "one bad day" line in the
Batman comic The Killing Joke.
And Castle's line to Daredevil that he's a half measure is a callback to Daredevil's
first season when Stick criticised Matt for not going far enough in taking out bad guys.
When Daredevil asks the Punisher if he's a Catholic and Frank replies that he used to
be, it's a nod to the What If?
comic where Castle visits church for confession and to light candles.
The dog Frank Castle picks up after massacring the Irish mob is a reference to the Punisher's
dog Max in the comics who Castle takes care of after taking out a drug dealer.
And the Irish leader Nesbitt is based on the Irish mob leader of the same name from The
Punisher volume 6 comics, who gives a similar rousing speech to his mob associates.
The Irish mob boss Finn who turns up in episode 4, tortures Castle, and is ultimately blasted
in the face by Castle's gun is likely based on the comic book character Finn Cooley.
Finn Cooley is an Irish terrorist in The Punisher Max comics and has a facial disfigurement
after he accidentally set off a bomb in Belfast.
Melvin Potter, Daredevil's costume-maker, returns again for season 2 with new easter
eggs in his workshop to his origins in the comics as the villain Gladiator.
In the second episode, he gets nervous and picks up a circular saw, which is a nod to
the weapons Gladiator uses.
Melvin also reveals some body armour in episode 4 which teases a little of the symbol he wears
as Gladiator.
The Spanish poster for the film "Revenge of the Gladiators" is still there from season
1.
And there's a page on his wall with the words Giant Frogs on it, which is a reference to
the villain Leap-Frog who Gladiator teams up with alongside Electro to form the group
Electro's Emissaries of Evil.
And by the way, Stilt Man's legs and armour from the first season are still in Melvin's
workshop which might come in handy for Turk who just got his leg cut really badly by the
Hand.
In the comics, the small-time crook Turk steals Stilt Man's legs, which could be a hint that
we'll see Stilt-Man on the show in the future.
Nobu comes back from the dead this season suggesting his character is based on the ninja
Kirigi who works for The Hand in the comics and can recover from death through meditation.
And when Stick slices Nobu's head off after Daredevil throws him from the roof, it's a
nod to the way Elektra appears to finish off Kirigi in the comics by decapitating him.
But interestingly there's a second character that Nobu could also be based on as it was
revealed this season that Nobu's full name is Nobu Yoshioka.
In the comics, the character of Kagenobu Yoshioka was instrumental in bringing the Hand together
in the 16th century.
When Nobu kills Elektra with a sai on the rooftop it feels similar to the way Bullseye
also killed her with a sai in the Daredevil comics.
And seeing her body dug up again by the Hand hints at the way she was resurrected by the
Hand in the comics where the Hand's ninjas are ordered to give their blood for Elektra.
Bullseye still hasn't made an appearance on the TV show but like in season 1 we get another
tease for him in the coffee cups at Metro-General which have playing cards printed on them.
Bullseye often used playing cards as weapons in the comics.
The coffee cups also look like the Wildcard Poker coffee cup from Terminator 2.
We also get more hints that Madame Gao may be based on Crane Mother from the comics.
In season 1, Gao said her homeland was considerably farther than China, and this season she stated
that New York is only one of her territories.
In the comics, Crane Mother rules over one of the Legendary Cities of Heaven, Ku'n-Zi,
and she also has links to Iron Fist.
The opening scene after the first episode's credits, which shows kids playing by a leaking
fire hydrant in the street may be a nod to the The Man Without Fear comics in which a
young Matt Murdock steals a baton from a police officer who is lecturing a bunch of kids about
playing with a city fire hydrant.
When Elektra and Matt take off in a fast sports car, it's a little callback to when Elektra
speeds off in her car with Matt in The Man Without Fear comics.
The Punisher War Zone comic book series gets a big nod throughout the season with "war
zone" mentioned multiple times in regards to The Punisher's activities.
Colonel Ray Schoonover, who turns out to be the Blacksmith smuggling drugs into New York,
has a similar story in the Punisher War Journal series in which Schoonover smuggled drugs
out of Vietnam hidden in body bags.
By the way, Blacksmith in the comics is the name of a Skrull alien.
And in the episode finale, after Punisher kills Schoonover, he returns to his own home
to recover a disc with the word Micro on it.
In the comics, Micro is a nickname for David Linus Lieberman aka "Microchip", a computer
programmer who helps Castle with weapons and technology.
Pier 81 where Blacksmith's drug shipment comes in, seems to be a regular criminal haunt in
Daredevil's New York, as it was a Pier 81 warehouse in season 1 where Daredevil went
to find Fisk and ended up fighting Nobu.
The way the Punisher took out the Mexican cartel and hung them to die in a meat storage
plant is a nod to how the Punisher used equipment like meat hooks and grinders or even meat
itself to deal with opponents in the Streets of Laredo comics, the 1989 and 2004 Punisher
movies, and the 2005 Punisher video game which features a meat packing plant.
Like Will Simpson from Jessica Jones, Frank Castle's military background in the comics
has been updated to serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But there's still a nod to Castle's comic book history in Vietnam when he talks to the
Vietnam War veteran on the roof in episode 3.
And, as well as being an obvious reference to his daughter's favourite book and Castle's
feelings of guilt, "one batch, two batch" might also be a subtle nod to the similarities
between Frank Castle and Will Simpson whose medication consists of one red pill to get
him going, two white to keep him even and one blue to bring him down.
There's a nod to Wilson Fisk's alter ego of "Kingpin" when Dutton tells Fisk, "I'm the
kingpin of this bitch."
And when Dutton's dying in his prison-hospital bed, Fisk visits him and says, 'In prison,
there's only room for one kingpin.'
Fisk's lawyer, Mr Donovan, is likely inspired by the character "Big" Ben Donovan, a Harlem-based
lawyer who appears in the Luke Cage comics; so there's a good chance we'll see him back
in the Luke Cage series.
And just before Punisher escapes from prison he says to Fisk "next time I see you... only
one of us walks away".
This might be a nod to the PunisherMAX series where Punisher and Fisk have a brutal, bloody
showdown in which the Punisher finally kills the Kingpin.
Blake Tower's comic book counterpart is New York's district attorney and helps Daredevil
catch various criminals.
In the show, we get to see him help Karen Page who does most of the detective work this
season and seems to have taken on the role of Ben Urich who was killed in season 1 by
Fisk.
Page has taken his car and she later takes his job and desk at the New York Bulletin.
Karen Page's past gets explored a little further this season and we find out she had a brother.
When Karen opens up the file on her in Ben Urich's old office, there's a glimpse of a
newspaper cutting with the headline "Mystery Accident Causes Teen Fatality".
The whole article isn't visible, but one part of it reads that a "young man, Kevin Paxton
Page, of Fagan Corners" veered off the road for an unknown reason and the man was killed.
Further down, there's mention of a little old man with a grey military moustache limping
away and something about a girl of eight or nine crying and mention of a brother.
There's no record of Karen Page having a brother in the comics, however she does have a father
called Paxton Page, a scientist who exposed himself to too much cobalt radiation and became
a Daredevil villain called Death's Head.
When Frank says to Karen she looks like she knows how to use a gun, it's a neat callback
to when Karen shot Fisk's right-hand man Wesley last season.
And there's another nod to that moment when one of Foggy and Matt's clients Mr Maxwell,
says "Your girl's a bad-ass!" and Karen replies "you've no idea."
There's more hints in season 2 to Claire Dawson's alter ego of Night Nurse in the comics when
we find out she works the night shift at Metro General Hospital.
And there's a reference back to Luke Cage and Claire's appearance in Jessica Jones when
she talks about getting into trouble after looking after a big guy at the hospital.
Jessica Jones herself got a direct mention when Foggy's ex-girlfriend Marci reveals that
the super-powered private investigator is already under scrutiny.
There's also a cool cameo by Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth, the tough lawyer introduced
in Jessica Jones.
And while Foggy was trying to find Claire at Metro General, one of the nurses mentions
a Mr Carver, which could be a nod to William Carver who once worked for Foggy in the comics,
and also became Thunderbolt in the Luke Cage and Iron Fist comics.
When Foggy jokes about a codename for Frank Castle, he suggests Killdozer or Dumbass With
A Gun, which is a funny link to when Jessica Jones who taunted Kilgrave about his name!
Killdozer is also the name of a minor Marvel villain who appeared in a Marvel Super-Heroes
Summer Special.
And when the Dogs of Hell gang member says to Foggy "You got guts, Harvard" it's a nice
nod to the alias Foggy creates for himself in the Daredevil comics when he tries to infiltrate
a gang as "Guts" Nelson.
Sgt Mahoney compares the Punisher to Charles Bronson from the 1974 movie Death Wish which
is about a man who takes up vigilantism after his wife is killed and his daughter is raped,
a parallel to Frank Castle's personal family tragedy.
And Mahoney makes the first reference to the current theme in the MCU and specifically
Captain America: Civil War of whether the public supports superheroes or whether their
powers should be controlled.
And this theme keeps cropping up throughout the season, for example, when Brett quips
that someday he's gonna tell Daredevil how to do his job, a little nod to Civil War's
Sokovia Accords.
Mahoney's foreboding that somebody's going to get caught in the crossfire sooner or later
likely foreshadows the death of an important character in Civil War.
And there are plenty of easter eggs to the rest of the MCU.
The Roxxon corporation returns, having appeared previously in season 1 and also the Iron Man
movies, Agent Carter and Agents of SHIELD.
The name of Roxxon boss Hirochi is likely a nod to Lord Hirochi in the comics who led
a faction of the Hand.
Agents of SHIELD also gets some specific easter eggs.
The motorcycle club Dogs of Hell appeared in the first season of SHIELD when they were
mind-controlled.
By the way, when the Dogs of Hell gang are hosing down the blood off a stolen truck,
it's a callback to Daredevil season 1 when Wilson Fisk's car was being hosed down after
he smashed Anatoly's head in with his car door.
And the stolen truck here belongs to Redfield Electronics owned by Jim Redfield who appears
briefly in the Thunderstrike comics.
There's a flashback moment in episode 3 with a nun's habit and female voiceover that seems
a likely hint to Matt's mother who in the comics becomes a nun called Margaret.
And the orphanage, Matt Murdock stayed in for a time is called St Agnes, the same orphanage
that Skye from Agents of SHIELD grew up in.
And at the New York Bulletin, there's a newspaper headline "Cybertek Settles", which is a reference
to the tech company that created the cyborg Deathlok on Agents of SHIELD.
There are also more headlines around the office such as "Harlem Terror" referring to the Duel
of Harlem between Hulk and Abomination in The Incredible Hulk film; "Battle of New York"
referencing the Chitauri invasion in The Avengers; and when Mitchell Ellison says the newspapers'
servers were wiped out in the Incident it could be another connection to the first Avengers
movie or possibly Avengers: Age of Ultron when Ultron affected the internet.
There's a Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back reference when we see a drawing by one of
Frank Castle's kids of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker duelling with lightsabers.
And the show continues in the tradition of Marvel's Phase 2's homage to Star Wars limb
loss, with the Irish mobster who loses a hand when he's gunned down by Castle, and with
Stick cutting off a ninja's hand hand when he arrives to rescue Daredevil and Elektra.
Matt's romantic moment in the rain with Karen is a callback to the kiss scene between Ben
Affleck's Daredevil and Jennifer Garner's Elektra in the critically-panned 2003 Daredevil
movie.
The Yakatomi Building that Elektra and Daredevil infiltrate feels like a little twist on the
Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard.
And Daredevil's corridor and stairway fight scene with the Dogs of Hell is a call-back
to Season 1 and draws on the movies Oldboy and The Raid.
Foggy's line about the Punisher that "it's not like our boy was out collecting for the
Red Cross" is a nod to a similar line Dirty Harry says about a rapist he shot.
The billboard for Standard Heating Oil, which appears at the location of the trap Reyes
set for the Punisher, is a reference to the film "A Most Violent Year" in which Oscar
Isaac's character has to deal with truck hijackings, and it's funny because the Punisher had just
hijacked a truck in the previous episode.
There's a nod to Michael Mann's movie Manhunter and Hannibal Lecktor when Daredevil says to
Castle "I'm never gonna stop coming for you, until I take you down […] Because you're
insane" an echo of how Will Graham says to Hannibal Lecktor that he caught him because
he's insane.
Lecktor also tells Will that they're alike, as Punisher does with Daredevil.
Props to "Fire Power" who suggested this reference on my Daredevil review!
The Daredevil production crew and some Marvel artists also get some sneaky shout-outs.
The name Sheila Iniego, who's the show's Assistant Accountant, is used for the pastor at the
church where Daredevil faces off against the masked gunman in the opening episode.
The name Ricky Wex, which Foggy mentions at the Dogs of Hell club, is a nod to David 'Wex'
Wechsler, one of the show's first assistant directors.
The assignment board at the New York Bulletin has a list of reporters' names that are references
to more crew.
There's Dave McAllister the key rigging grip, Alex Foreman a production assistant, cameraman
Quenell Jones, and set decorator Caroline Ghertler.
A second version of the board shows set decorator Stephanie Q. Bowen, stuntman Kevin Michael
Murphy, and Daredevil: Road Warrior comic book artist Peter Krause.
At Fogwell's Gym, there's a poster with Ellison and Zirlin, nods to Daredevil art assistant
G. Garrett Ellison and graphics designer Zachary Zirlin.
And there's another poster with Little and Hardenburg, which are references to production
assistants Ryan Little and Ashlei Hardenburg.
And the newspaper cutting detailing Paxton Page's death is written by Tyanna Lazauskas,
who's a construction PA on the Daredevil set.
So, guys, what other Easter Eggs and references did you spot in Daredevil Season 2?
Which ones were your favourites and how do you think this season compared to season 1?
I'm looking forward to reading your comments below!
If you're a fan of comic book TV shows, check out my Jessica Jones, Daredevil and Iron Fist
videos here, and also 10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Flash.
And don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment about your favourite Season 2 easter
egg on this video for a chance to win this fantastic set of Daredevil collectibles from
our friends at Entertainment Earth!
For more details and ways to enter the comp, plus links to what you can win, check out
the Gleam link in the video description below!
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, superhero lovers!