As one of the grittier, more noir-inspired superheroes in the Marvel Universe, many of Daredevil's adventures have Matt Murdock take on more street-level threats rather than the more fantastical supervillains confronted by his counterparts. However, one showdown during the 1989 comic book crossover storyline Acts of Vengeance pitted the Scarlet Swashbuckler against one of the Avengers' most enduring, terrifying foes: Ultron. Even more surprisingly, it was Daredevil who emerged from the ensuing battle victorious, despite the significant discrepancy in power levels.
Acts of Vengeance had the supervillains of the Marvel Universe rally behind a mysterious figure later revealed to be Loki. After staging a massive breakout, the assembled villains decided to fight different superheroes to keep heroes who had developed effective strategies against them off-balance. Taking place across much of Marvel Comics' publishing line at the time, one such match-up involved Doctor Doom deciding to create his own version of Ultron and unleash it on Hell's Kitchen and kill Daredevil, drawing the Man Without Fear into the wider conflict.
For much of Frank Miller's universally acclaimed run on the title, Daredevil had largely been kept to threats within Hell's Kitchen. His focus and street-level nature kept him out of bigger Marvel events like Secret Wars or Mutant Massacre. Ann Nocenti and John Romita, Jr.'s run maintained Murdock's tortured outlook while weaving him back into the wider Marvel Universe tapestry, with more superheroes and villains appearing throughout the creative team's run. Their tie-in issues to Acts of Vengeance -- Daredevil #274-276 -- were no different, featuring not only Doctor Doom and Ultron but also the Inhumans, including Karnak and Gorgon.
While Karnak and Gorgon provided timely assistance to Murdock, the following battle was largely between Ultron and Daredevil. Like most models of the killer android, Doom had constructed his model to be mostly housed within an adamantium body, making a conventional assault against the robot fruitless. However, Daredevil noticed Ultron's neck was not made from the same virtually indestructible material and decided to focus his attacks on that glaring weak point. Murdock's desperate ruse paid off and, after repeatedly striking Ultron's neck with his signature billy clubs, eventually, the robot was decapitated. Daredevil emerged from their high stakes battle victorious, if not completely exhausted from the mismatched exchange.
Ultimately, the villains began to turn on one another, as they often had in such team-ups in the past. The strategy of sending villains to menace heroes not accustomed to them largely backfired, with Daredevil's triumph over Ultron being a prime example. An increasingly desperate Loki finally revealed himself as the mastermind behind the villainous uprising and merged three Sentinels together in a last-ditch effort to destroy New York City. He was stopped by Spider-Man, who had temporarily gained the cosmic powers of Captain Universe to turn the tide of battle.
Daredevil is certainly no stranger to punching above his weight, but his confrontation with Ultron is one of the most seemingly one-sided showdowns in the character's lengthy history. Despite this mismatch, Daredevil's heightened senses, quick thinking, and unwillingness to ever back down led to him pulling out a surprise win -- with some much-welcomed help from the Inhumans -- against the longtime Avengers villain. In emerging triumphant, Nocenti and Romita, Jr. solidified Daredevil's place amongst his fellow superheroes, no matter what level of threat he was more accustomed to confronting.