The Devil of Hell's Kitchen has had a renaissance as a character in the past few years. With the success of the Netflix series Daredevil, the man with no fear has been very popular among new and old fans alike. The character is one of Marvel's most recognizable—not only for his intriguing origin, religious background, and cool nunchucks but also because of his iconic look.
Daredevil has had many different costumes over the years, some of which are truly memorable. He has had dozens of iterations and interpretations, all of which are unique in their own way. Whether it's on the big or small screen, in the pages of comics or as part of a video game, the costumes of Daredevil have almost always been visually interesting. Here are his 10 most iconic costumes ranked.
10 10. THE TRIAL OF THE INCREDIBLE HULK TV MOVIE
Number 10 on this list may be unknown to some, but it's a classic to those who are familiar with the 1989 television movie. The film paired the two Marvel heroes to take on the Kingpin, and a suit had to be created for the on-screen appearance of the masked lawyer.
Taking inspiration from his origin costume of sorts, the crew dressed Daredevil in all black, evoking an image of a ninja. The costume looks strangely similar to a later addition to this list and was complete with the trademark nun-chucks and a huge 80's style belt. It's no looker, but it's certainly an interesting way to adapt the character to the screen.
9 9. FLYING BLIND
Another look that is maybe iconic for the wrong reasons decided to play upon the blindness, or lack thereof, of Matt Murdock. Traditionally, the face of Daredevil is covered to hide his secret identity, but the team behind the comic run decided it would be better to unveil the face during combat and bring out a brand new suit for the hero.
The result was mixed, to say the least. Whilst he is working for S.H.I.E.L.D., this costume was a stealth suit of sorts, playing on a mostly-black design with some red highlights. It's a far cry from anything that had been seen before that point and was certainly innovative, if not a little impractical.
8 8. DAREDEVIL THE MOVIE
A costume on this list that gets a lot of love and a lot of hate for a variety of reasons. It belongs to the only cinematic film version of the Devil, courtesy of Ben Affleck's 2003 feature. The team working on this blockbuster film decided that to have the best on-screen effect, they would create an entirely leather suit.
It's shiny, sleek, incorporates the iconic elements of the comics costume, and isn't a bad attempt to represent the suit in real life. It was certainly a better choice than straight spandex. Maybe the best thing the costume did was capture the color of the comics iteration. While in other adaptations the colors have become muted, the Affleck version managed to bring the brightness that's needed for a suitable Daredevil costume.
7 7. ARMOURED
Adding armor to a traditional Daredevil look was definitely a unique idea that, for the most part, paid off. The suit elicits a military tone and fits with a slighter harder 90's vibe. In an era with a lot of crazy costume designs, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen had to step up.
The costume is all black with a red chest plate and armored shoulders and knees. The color palette works incredibly well on the character, especially with the addition of the silver along the shoulders and legs. It was a more practical look which served a couple of functions, with the main one being to, of course, protect its wearer to the best of its abilities.
6 6. SECRET WARS
The Secret Wars event in Marvel Comics required a lot of traditional heroes to gain brand new costumes that were edgier, stealthier, or more fitting the situation. We've seen a lot of great examples of how this event worked well for various characters, and the horned hero is no different.
The Secret Wars costume that Daredevil was given featured an all-red torso, with black legs and arms. The color contrast is one that should be familiar on this list by now, but one that worked so well in this form. The color blocking made the costume stand out compared to others in the series and matched the slightly edgier vibe.
5 5. TV SHOW BLACK
There are some back-to-back TV show versions of these costumes at number 5 and 4 on this list, but there's a good reason for that. The Netflix series has managed to do something very interesting with the look of Daredevil, taking designs from the comics and adapting them to live action.
The black Netflix costume brings back memories from the TV movie version, although with a far more intelligent design that incorporates soft and hard elements to create something practical in movement, although not so much in defense. It's an origin suit that serves its purpose well and looks pretty great on the screen.
4 4. TV SHOW RED
The red version of this costume managed to push the design further, bringing in elements from both the armored and classic costumes seen in the comics. This iteration of the suit managed to be far more defensive and added some of the iconic Daredevil imagery that we've come to be familiar with, including the horns and a better mask.
It's not universally loved, but it will certainly go down as one of the best on-screen adaptations of the costume, working to pay homage to a lot of comic runs.
3 3. ORIGINAL YELLOW
Nothing stands out more on this list than the original yellow costume of Matt Murdock's alter ego. The red and yellow are bright and standoffish. They make a statement, and the costume brought in so many elements that have been carried forward into every other design of the masked hero.
Looking back on this costume, it's a breath of fresh air from what we've seen from recent Daredevil. While it doesn't make much sense for a character that spends a lot of his time brooding at night, if the character was ever to take a slightly lighter turn, this would be a fantastic costume to be updated and brought into the modern mythos.
2 2. SHADOWLAND
A newer design and one of the most iconic of all the Daredevil costumes. This costume comes from a story that is certainly memorable, where the core character of Matt Murdock shifted to something much more sinister. To reflect the change, the costume was transformed.
No longer red and black, it was inverted to a mostly black costume, although far-removed from the origins costumes we've seen. This featured the classic Daredevil elements, including a striking red double D in the center of the chest of the Devil. It was dark and different as well as serving its narrative purpose.
1 1. CLASSIC RED
Number 1 couldn't really be anything else, as every iconic costume on this list all comes back to the true Daredevil look. The nearly all red suit with horns, two D's, and nunchucks is the look that people associate most with the Marvel hero.
Every other costume continues to play on the ideas that this one has set out, as it is nearly flawless in design. It's difficult to create costumes this iconic. While other characters have gone through a variety of other options of clothing, Daredevil has remained pretty consistent through his history because of how good this one suit is.