Netflix’s Daredevil Season 4 & 5 Plans Revealed By Former Marvel Showrunner

Mary debuted in 1988’s “Daredevil” #254, created by writer Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr. Her name is taken from Mary Mallon, a late 19th/early 20th century Irish-American immigrant and a carrier for typhoid fever. Mary Walker’s very first appearance, a body shot on page 1 of “Daredevil” #254, refers to her as an “invisible poison” like the disease her namesake carried.

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Mary’s debut storyline, “A Touch of Typhoid,” runs until “Daredevil” #263. She’s hired by the Kingpin to first seduce Matt Murdock and then kill him. Superheroes hooking up unbeknownst with super-villainesses is nothing new, but there’s an extra layer to Mary’s secret identity. She has dissociative identity disorder, with three alternate personas: the innocent Mary (who romances Matt), the thrill-seeking Typhoid (who prefers Wilson Fisk), and the murderous Bloody Mary. 

In-costume, Mary paints one half of her face all-white, reflecting her split personality. Her different personalities also all have different heart rates, EEG patterns, etc. which means that Daredevil’s enhanced senses literally read Mary as separate individuals depending on who’s in control. The very reason Kingpin chose her for her assignment was for the poetry of another split soul destroying Matt Murdock/Daredevil.

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Typhoid Mary fights with swords, but she has mind-over-matter superpowers too, including low-level telepathy, telekinesis, and pyrokinesis. Now, Mary is admittedly derivative of Elektra Natchios (who may yet return in “Daredevil: Born Again”). Like Elektra, she’s a female assassin working for the Kingpin who has a relationship with Matt Murdock. But Mary is distinct enough from Elektra to work on her own, and the drama of Daredevil and Kingpin being involved with the same woman is delicious. (During Chip Zdarsky’s 2019-2023 “Daredevil” run, Mary got hitched with the Kingpin and became Mary Fisk.)

I can’t see how Mary and Fisk would become an item in Oleson’s “Daredevil” season 4, though. D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is ride or die for his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zuerer). Season 2 of “Iron Fist” ended with Mary (reimagined as a soldier who developed DID during torturous captivity) awakening her Bloody Mary side, who was spending her night as a vigilante. Presumably, Oleson’s “Daredevil” season 4 would’ve picked up there.

It’s a little surprising that Oleson planned to keep Bullseye benched, but then again, you can’t have the same main villain twice in a row without being repetitive. “Daredevil” season 2 kept Fisk in a reduced role in between him being the big bad of seasons 1 and 3.

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“Daredevil” seasons 1-3 are loosely based on Frank Miller’s “Daredevil run. By season 4, it was time to move onto Nocenti’s stories. Ultimately, almost every modern “Daredevil” story is a riff on or response to Miller, Nocenti, or Brian Michael Bendis, the TV series included.

“Daredevil: Born Again” is streaming on Disney+.