The MCU Revealed Who Daredevil Would’ve Fought For In Civil War

While Matt Murdock will soon return to the MCU with his own series, Daredevil: Born Again, his appearance in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law helps confirm whose side he would have been on in Captain America: Civil War. Netflix’s Daredevil season 1 aired just a year before the team-up movie. This means that Matthew Murdock (played by Charlie Cox) could have had a cameo appearance in the third Captain America film.

In She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Matthew Murdock is introduced during his day job as a lawyer, representing superhero costume designer Luke Jacobson who’s being sued for a suit that is allegedly faulty. Jacobson had already made costumes and gear for a variety of heroes including She-Hulk and Daredevil, and during the trial Jennifer Walters requests a list of Luke’s clients in order to cross-reference and discover if anyone else has been injured from malfunctioning merchandise. However, Matt convinces the judge to deny the request with the confirmation that the Sokovia Accords have been repealed, allowing superheroes to retain more of their anonymity and personal freedoms.

Why MCU Daredevil Would’ve Been Team Rogers

Using this court argument as evidence, it can be inferred that Daredevil would have been on Captain America’s side during Civil War, just as he was in the original comic. Naturally, Matt Murdock believes every hero (such as himself) has a right to their own secret identity, protecting themselves and those they love. The right to choose and retain personal freedoms was everything Captain America and his allies fought for in Civil War, and it would have made a lot of sense to recruit Daredevil as well. Likewise, the dichotomy of Daredevil in which he works both in and outside the bounds of the law would have been perfect in the context of Civil War.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of connective tissue between Marvel’s Netflix series and the MCU films, save for a handful of brief references. In hindsight, the opportunity to bring in such a grounded and street-level hero who’s also well-versed in the legal world would have been very dynamic. That being said, Captain America: Civil War was already quite crowded with the debuts of Black Panther and Spider-Man along with all the other Avengers who chose sides in the film.

The MCU Missed A New York Superhero Battle

While the Sokovia Accords gave authority to a United Nations panel that would decide when and if superheroes could intervene in crises, it would have also required registering with the government which was much more of a focus in the comics. While Mark Millar’s Civil War was very focused on the potential loss of the secret identity, that concept was difficult to translate for the MCU seeing as how the public already knew almost every Avenger’s real identity. As such, Spider-Man was the only hero in Civil War whose identity was truly secret (at the time). However, the addition of Daredevil could have helped make the secret identity factor more of a point of controversy.

Just like the comics saw Peter Parker joining Iron Man and the historic moment that was his public unmasking, the MCU’s Civil War could have seen Daredevil fighting Spider-Man over superhero anonymity. That being said, a conflict between the two New York vigilantes would have definitely altered the trajectory of future Spider-Man movies, especially if Peter had unmasked during his MCU debut as opposed to a few years later where he was outed by Mysterio, a scenario which led Murdock to become Peter’s lawyer in Spider-Man: No Way Home. At any rate, it seems pretty clear which side Daredevil would have been on in Captain America: Civil War.