Born Again Episode 3 Name-Dropped A Huge Spider-Man Character

This article contains major spoilers for the third episode of “Daredevil: Born Again.”

If there’s one thing that would satisfy fans of Marvel Studios’ latest TV series “Daredevil: Born Again” more than watching Charlie Cox bend henchmen like warm pastries, it’s throwing in major Marvel names to get us into full “Buddy the Elf mode” and frantically crying out, “I know him! I know him!” The third episode of Matt Murdock’s massively violent new story sees him do just that while defending his new client, Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes), and explaining to the court just how much of a hero he truly is.

After revealing to the jury that Ayala is the vigilante known as White Tiger (nice job keeping that under wraps, Matt), a series of testimonies come from those saved by this new hero in town, demonstrating that the incident at the subway station was accidental, after all. To further establish Ayala’s character, Matt cites several police reports from officers who aren’t chomping at the bit to get their hands on this hero on trial. As Murdock presents the various files, he starts listing the names of the authors, including an Officer Morales.

While Matt might not give the full name of the aforementioned officer, it’s safe to assume that it’s none other than Jefferson Morales, father of future wall-crawling menace and Spider-Man, Miles Morales. What’s particularly interesting about this scenario, however, is that, given casual fans’ history with Jeff, this usage of the character actually goes against his opinion of vigilantism that we’ve been exposed to up until now. It also highlights where this Jeff could be personally in the MCU timeline.

Jefferson Morales (formerly Jefferson Davis, after a name change in 2011) has a fascinating history in the Marvel universe. As the brother of Aaron Davis, aka The Prowler, Jeff diverted from a life of crime and his outlaw sibling by joining the NYPD, hoping to keep his son and family away from his law-breaking past. Since then, the Morales family has been pushed to the forefront of Marvel’s popularity thanks to 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” What’s intriguing is that the Morales in “Born Again” clearly has a very different perspective on costumed crimefighters compared to the one expressed by the version of Jeff voiced by Brian Tyree Henry in that groundbreaking animated film.

In “Into the Spider-Verse,” Jeff has a problem with the Spider-Man of Miles’ universe before his son receives the life-changing bite. To quote the boy in blue, “I mean, this guy swings in once a day, zip, zap, zop, in his little mask and answers to no one, right?” That’s quite a contrast to the yet-to-be-seen police officer here, whose report supports the good work Ayala is doing for the community as a masked hero. Then again, there’s a good chance that this Jeff Morales could be even more supportive of the vigilantes fighting back against Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), given his close history with the former crime boss and an iconic character from Daredevil’s past.

In the comics, Jeff spent some time on the wrong side of the law (before he swore an oath to protect and serve it) by working as muscle for the low-life criminal Turk Barrett. Unbeknownst to Barrett, Jeff was actually operating as an informant for S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, right up until Turk lost his standing in the criminal hierarchy following the emergence of a new boss who went by the name of Kingpin.

Suddenly, a throwaway name in a routine Murdock-led trial becomes so much more, given that both Fury and Barrett have been a prominent presence in their respective corners of the MCU. In the Netflix run of “Daredevil” and other street-level superhero shows, Barrett was played by Oscar-nominated star Rob Morgan and acted like a crooked Agent Coulson of sorts, flitting in between the adventures of Daredevil and company. Keeping this in mind, it would be great for Morgan to make a comeback and perhaps even allow an opening for Morales himself to appear, too, expanding the MCU even further and getting Miles Morales closer to the real world than ever before.

If we’re being selfish, this would primarily be another great way to bring one more beloved character from the previous “Daredevil” series into the “Born Again” show. Just please, Marvel, do us a favor and don’t brutally kill off this one in the first ten minutes of an episode. Our Foggy-loving hearts can’t take another hit.