How Daredevil's Costume Almost Ruined The Series
Let's get one thing straight right out of the gate: the new Daredevil show on Netflix is awesome. It's 13 episodes of well-written, well-acted comic book crime noir, with some of the best fight choreography we've seen in a long, long while. While it's not perfect, Daredevil is still one of the most exciting new shows to grace our screens in quite some time. And that's why the final costume the titular character wears in the last episode's final scenes is so disappointing. Because it sucks. A lot. Spoilers ahead.
Early Hints Of Suckitude
Even before you dive into the show, Netflix offers up a glimpse of Daredevil's eventual costume choice. It's easy to see from the outset that it has elements of what should work—specifically the dark eyes and the devil horns. But then you look at the rest and it starts to look...not great. The helmet looks kind of like a bike helmet. There are weird lines on the chest and rivets on what looks like the shoulder pads. It sure looks like it's two different colors—and neither of them appear to be red. If anything, this costume looks black and...purple? Magenta? Still, without context, it's hard to say for certain what's going on in that costume, so when you start to watch the show, you forget all about it. A big part of that is because Daredevil's season one costume has nothing in common with this image—and that only makes it worse when we finally see it at episode 13.
That Ninja Suit Is Excellent
Throughout all 13 episodes of Daredevil, Matt Murdock has worn a black ninja suit when he's out busting heads. The look is fairly non-descript, except for the black mask that covers the entire top half of his head, including his eyes and nose. It's an extremely simple look that emphasizes the character's blindness as well as his inner-darkness. It doesn't hurt that it looks cool as hell when he's beating up ninjas, and that it looks practically ripped from the pages of The Man Without Fear comics. It's simple, it's streamlined, and it's amazing. If it weren't so impractical in terms of withstanding bullets and knives, we'd want to see it stick around forever. But sadly, it only makes the eventual costume reveal look that much worse by comparison.
Ben Affleck On Top
The 2003 film of the same name, which starred Ben Affleck, earned some pretty bad (and well-deserved) reviews. But even with all of its problems, the movie got one thing pretty right on the money: the costume. In terms of looks alone, Affleck's Daredevil suit looks just like it came out of the comics. Sure, that doesn't need to be the only criteria for a costume's success or failure. After all, there have been countless versions of Batman's suit, not to mention lots of different interpretations for all of Marvel's big screen heroes. But even if fidelity isn't your first priority, one thing should be: make the dude whose superhero identity is based on the devil have a red friggin' suit. It's not that complicated.
So Many Straps
By the time episode 13 of the Daredevil show rolls around, we know the Kevlar-woven suit is on the way. Murdock has already talked with Melvin Potter and asked him to design him something stronger for when he goes up against the Kingpin one final time. It's definitely got an emphasis on function over form. In that regard, we can excuse it. But it's tough. When we finally see the full shot of Daredevil standing on a rooftop in his purple-black-biker suit, full of incomprehensibly placed straps and pads and rivets and whatnot, it's tough not to feel disappointed. It's the visual equivalent of a deflating balloon. It's a major distraction when we should be pumped about the climactic battle that's about to take place. It sucks.
Season Two Redesign?
The good news is that Daredevil's reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, despite his poor fashion choice by the end of the series. That means that there will almost certainly be a second season, and the excuse for a new set of duds. That gives Marvel and its production team enough time to redesign Daredevil's costume so it's less horrifically ugly. We also know Hornhead will show up in the Defenders series set to debut on Netflix before too long. Hopefully Marvel will have intervened and come up with something a little slicker by then. If the producers decide to respond to the costume criticism, here are two great tips for them to follow in the redesign: make it red, and make it simple. We know Daredevil is blind. Don't let his enemies figure it out based on his inability to pick out a costume that doesn't make us want to puke.