Daredevil appears in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 with his costume already painted black, where the only red accents are his cowl lenses and the comic book iteration of the character’s iconic double-D chest insignia. We know that it will gradually suffer wear-and-tear battle damage, exposing more of the red that was painted over.
Nonetheless, it is more or less the same padded, armored suit he had in Season 1. The red version is great, too, but it and every other horned, armored suit that Daredevil has worn so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe arguably pales in comparison to the black cloth suit he wore for almost the entirety of the Netflix TV show’s first season, and this series also gave its Daredevil a layup that it never sunk: a spandex version of the classic Daredevil costume.
Daredevil’s MCU Costume Is Great, But It Could Be Greater
From Netflix to Disney, the MCU Daredevil’s costume catalog is eclectic and not altogether phenomenal. Some costumes we have only seen teased via a row of colored cowls, for instance, while She-Hulk: Attorney at Law debuted his full yellow-and-purple suit. The Netflix show’s costumes arguably never excelled beyond Matt Murdock’s homemade, black cloth costume, either, with purple/magenta-and-black suits that were basically patchwork quilts of armor and padding.
Daredevil: Born Again finally gave us a vibrant red suit in its first season, with red being the costume’s predominant color, but it is still a suit of armor. This is ultimately a great costume, especially painted black with the double-Ds in red, and yet so many of Daredevil’s best comic book suits are made of spandex or a similar, more street-level-appropriate material.
Charlie Cox’s incredible physique is also wasted in a suit that is bulky and padded, whereas the actor’s muscle definition was visible in the Netflix show’s black spandex shirt. This might mean that there would be a greater obligation for him to sustain his lean muscle mass, though, which would be a high cost for a costume that is as close to the character’s source material iterations as possible.
To be fair, the MCU’s Daredevil has certainly taken enough near-death beatings to justify enveloping him in defensive layers. Still, there is no reason why Daredevil cannot have a cloth-like fabric costume that provides the same amount of health insurance.
Netflix Gave Daredevil The Perfect Excuse
As early as in Netflix’s Daredevil TV show, it is explained that Melvin Potter can tailor suit jackets and pants for Wilson Fisk that are lined with protective material, ensuring these garments are virtually lightweight pieces of bulletproof and stab/slash-resistant armor while also being unassuming in their appearance. For Daredevil to receive padded armor instead of a spandex-esque ‘armor,’ then, is disappointing.
A spandex Daredevil costume would have been completely believable and immersive, with Kingpin’s luxurious suits being made of the same material. Thankfully, this is still canon, with Daredevil: Born Again exhuming the Netflix show and inheriting its lore, and thus, there is always hope that the pads and armor will be abandoned for something in the same vein as David Mazzucchelli or Marco Checchetto’s Daredevil designs.
For now, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is reveling in the allure of its black Daredevil costume. And, if the rumors of Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 adapting or taking inspiration from The Devil in Cell Block D and Chip Zdarsky’s run are true, we could be seeing an orange inmate jumpsuit costume sooner rather than later.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.
- Release Date
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March 4, 2025
- Network
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Disney+
- Showrunner
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Dario Scardapane
- Directors
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Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, David Boyd, Jeffrey Nachmanoff
- Writers
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Jesse Wigutow, Jill Blankenship, Thomas Wong, David Feige, Grainne Godfree