Reading comics can be fun….as long as nobody interrupts you.

It’s a great way to kill time during a commute. Just ask Daredevil. When Charlie Cox was first cast as Matt Murdock for the 2015 Netflix series, he quickly dove into the reference material. Speaking to a crowd at Indiana Comic Convention 2024, Cox reminisced about the research he undertook after landing the role.

“When I first got the job, it was a lot of work for me to do to prepare for the role. He’s visually impaired, he’s a martial artist, he’s much bigger than I was, he has an American accent, and he’s a lawyer. There were so many things that I had no idea about anything.”

When Marvel Television hooked him up with a trainer, Cox used the subway commute to binge Daredevil comics.

“I found an apartment in Fort Greene, but they hooked me up with a trainer at a gym in Manhattan, which is like a 40-minute subway ride. What I would do is I would use those subway rides to read comics. I would get on the subway, and I would read two comics to get there, and then two comics to get back. I would get four comics a day, and just get through as many as I could.”

Unfortunately, this ritual didn’t last. The price of fame meant he was no longer able to read comics in peace.

“It was fine until we got to the second season, because by the time we got to the second season everyone knew who I was. Now I was on the subway trying to read comics and I couldn’t do it.”

However, that didn’t stop him from finding other places to enjoy the comics.

“The one that I always read before each season is the Bendis and Maleev stuff. I always go back to that. There’s a few on my list that I think is iconic for the show we’re trying to make. Frank Miller’s runs, the Brubaker stuff, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Daredevil: Yellow, and there is stuff that Joe Quesada did that I really like. There’s a few, but the Bendis and Maleev stuff I think in terms of tone is hard to beat.”

Charlie Cox will return as Matt Murdock in Daredevil: Born Again, which premieres on Disney+ in March 2025. 

Fear not, we have the essentials when it comes to Marvel's Daredevil. From the best Daredevil stories of all time, to a guide to watching Daredevil, a comprehensive guide to Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+, Marvel's Daredevil actors, ranked from Charlie Cox to Ben Affleck and even Rex Smith, how Frank Miller accidentally killed a Daredevil cartoon (and Marvel killed a book to avoid pissing him off), and even that time we caught Daredevil actor Charlie Cox sneaking into New York Comic Con as Bluey.