Did Daredevil: Born Again Just Drop A Huge Spider-Man Easter Egg?
Is that the Officer Morales we think it is?
Daredevil and Spider-Man have long been inextricably linked, and for good reason. Each is a street-level hero who’s laid claim to an iconic New York neighborhood, so their paths cross often. They’re also governed by a similar moral compass, committing to defend the innocent and never purposely take a human life. For these and other reasons, the two heroes always seem to play well together: Spider-Man makes occasional appearances in Daredevil comics, and vice versa for the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.
Their rapport is even beginning to take shape in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Charlie Cox — who’s played Daredevil in live-action for the past decade — has cameoed in Spidey stories like Spider-Man: No Way Home and the alt-universe cartoon Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker hasn’t yet returned the favor, but with Daredevil getting his own MCU series, Born Again, there may be room for a different wallcrawler to make an appearance sooner or later.
Spoilers ahead for Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3.
Daredevil is now a part of the MCU, and he could be bringing more comic characters with him.
The latest episode of Daredevil: Born Again sees Matt Murdock (Cox) launching a defense case for Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes). Matt makes makes a risky move in the final hour, revealing that Hector moonlights as the vigilante White Tiger. It puts his client in major jeopardy, especially when it comes to the dirty cops who want to frame him — but it also allows Matt to showcase Hector’s upstanding character. Matt uses written testimonies from the people White Tiger helped in the past, including the cops he saved. And it’s here that Born Again seemingly references a character that may be familiar to Spider-Man fans. One testimony was written by one “Officer Morales,” and though we never see their face, many are wondering if this character could be related to Miles Morales, Brooklyn’s one and only Spidey.
Miles is the son of Rio Morales, a nurse, and Jefferson Davis, an NYPD police officer. He’s given his mother’s surname in the comics, and the reasoning behind that choice was a frustrating mystery until very recently. As Jefferson explains in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #10, his own father was a notorious criminal. He chose to give Rio’s last name to Miles so that he’d have “a clean start” — and in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #22, he changed his own surname to Morales to distance himself from the Davis legacy. (Jefferson Davis is also the name of the real-life President of the Confederate States, so the change made a lot of sense behind the scenes, too.) It’s a little confusing, but Miles’ dad is now, officially, a Morales. That means that the officer mentioned in Born Again could actually be the NYPD officer Spidey fans know and love.
Jefferson Morales (née Davis) just got namedropped in Daredevil: Born Again.
Morales is a relatively common surname, but Marvel never does anything without weighing its implications. The question is not whether the Officer Morales in question is Miles’ dad, but whether his namedrop is setting the stage for a Miles cameo down the line. The MCU has been quietly teasing Miles for years now, and after casual mentions in both Spider-Man: Homecoming and No Way Home, we know that the character already exists in this universe. Hopefully, it’s only a matter of time until he appears, and maybe he’ll be the Spidey who appears alongside Daredevil someday.
