Luke Owen looks back at the evolution of Daredevil’s costume…
Ahead of The Man Without Fear making his re-debut on TV/laptop screens this Friday with Netflix’s Daredevil, there has been a lot of talk about his costume. Many were surprised when they revealed they would start things off with the Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.’s 1993 look from Man Without Fear, but Charlie Cox himself has confirmed that we will see the iconic red suit at some point. So with all this talk of Daredevil’s costume, lets see how it has changed over the years.
1964 – And it was all yellow
In his humble beginnings, Matt Murdock wore a yellow and black costume with a single giant D in the middle of it, however this would only last for six issues and would be changed by Daredevil #7. We would see this yellow suit again during a short run named Daredevil: Yellow in 2002, which explored the Man Without Fear’s early years.
1965 – A deeper shade of red
Without a shadow of a doubt, this is now the iconic look of the character: the deep red costume which first debuted in Daredevil #7 from 1965 when he battled Namor. In the comic, it was explained that Matt Murdock’s heightened sense of touch meant that he knew how to change the colour of his costume simply by touching it. A bit of a stretch. Even when Daredevil would change up his look every now and again, it would always come back to this suit.
1975 – The Man Without a TV Show
Prior to Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno wowing audiences with The Incredible Hulk, there were plans to bring Daredevil to TV screens with an untitled Daredevil/Black Widow team-up. The series was a passion project for Angie Bowie, who got the rights to the character for a year from Stan Lee and did a photoshoot in London with Ben Carruthers as Matt Murdock. However, Bowie explained later that the show was too expensive and no networks would touch it. But we do have this very grainy photo to see what the suit would have looked like.
1989 – The Trial of The Incredible Hulk
The 1977 TV show The Incredible Hulk had a few spin-off movies to act as a revival to the series that included The Return of The Incredible Hulk and The Death of The Incredible Hulk. The first movie, The Return of The Incredible Hulk, was intended to act as a backdoor pilot for a TV series based around Thor, which sadly never came to pass. Its second movie, The Trial of The Incredible Hulk, was to serve the same purpose, only this time with Daredevil. Over the years, this costume has been deemed rather silly by fans and the Daredevil TV series also never came to fruition.
1993 – The Man Without…. whaaaaat?
The 90s was a mixed bag of creations and designs for Marvel Comics. While some of their designs for Spider-Man and Iron Man were excellent, their new run of Daredevil was a little bit off centre. This armoured costume was implemented in Daredevil #319 as a way to explain why he could battle more powerful supervillains. He seemed alright before. Despite the suit worn in The Trial of The Incredible Hulk being rejected by fans, this is seen as a low point for the character.
Originally published April 8, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
