Netflix and Marvel promised that Daredevil, a new series based on the popular comic-book character, would be something different. But, after watching the 13 episodes that debuted over the weekend, it’s genuinely impressive how well they committed to that promise, and genuinely exciting how that “something different” might herald a whole new era of comic-book appreciation.

Plunged “deep into the gritty world of heroes and villains of Hell's Kitchen, New York,” Daredevil—the first in a planned four-part “Defenders” series—is as far away as you can get from the talking raccoons, green rage monsters, and hammer-toting Norse gods who have defined the wildly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe. The grim, violent world inhabited by Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and his foes has more in common with that of The Wire and True Detective than it does Captain America or Iron Man—unlike ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s departing from the Marvel house style in a way that might pique the interest of those who still have no idea what the Tesseract is. Here’s how Daredevil managed to emerge from the overcrowded superhero scrum as something wholly new, grounded, and groundbreaking.

Big Battles Have Big Consequences: ] Man of Steel may have faced all the pushback for the way it beat up New York City in the final fight between Superman and General Zod, but The Avengers broke the windows of Grand Central first—and Daredevil directly deals with what happened next. The 9/11 parallels are clear (as they were in Iron Man 3), with references to “half of New York being destroyed.” But there is definitely a Man of Steel jab or two when a scheming land developer says: “Heroes and their consequences are why we have our current opportunities. . . . Every time one of these guys punches someone through a building our margins go up three percent.”

That premise alone does so much to bring Daredevil out of the rarified air that superheroes breathe and down into the everyday lives of those who suffer even in the aftermath of a rescue. It not only gives very real stakes to this show but, retroactively, to every Marvel property that has come before it.