In Disney Plus’ double drop of Daredevil: Born Again episodes this week, the first one, “With Interest,” stands out as a great one-and-done superhero adventure that displays the pros of an interconnected setting and none of the cons. But episode 6, “Excessive Force,” deserves a nod, too, for introducing one of my favorite subplots of modern Marvel Comics: The hyper-rich running rings around Wilson Fisk.

Through its season, Born Again has built a steady drumbeat out of Wilson Fisk clashing with the usual mayoral way of doing things — but this week’s episode is the first one where he doesn’t manage to bulldoze over the hurdles within the same scene that they’re introduced. Hobnobbing around at a high-class event, the Kingpin finds that there’s nothing in his reputation, his pocketbook, or even his imposing physical presence that can earn him the respect of the truly wealthy.

The realization leaves him flustered, backfooted, and impotent in a way that we’ve rarely seen from Vincent D’Onofrio’s version of the character, and it rings true to one of Born Again’s primary influences, Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s 2019 run on Daredevil. Their story gave the Marvel Universe the Stromwyns, a villain to oppose Daredevil’s worst villain, who gave Wilson Fisk a test of character in more ways than........

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