I’m Still Amazed That Marvel Took 11 Hours To Introduce 1 Hero’s First Proper Suit In A Major Show

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Years after one Marvel show"s release, I"m still amazed the series took 11 hours to show a hero"s first proper superhero suit - and that this unconventional approach works so well. In the live-action sphere, the topic of superhero suits is a key one. For example, Hugh Jackman"s Wolverine getting his comic-accurate suit in Deadpool & Wolverine was a cause for major celebration in 2024 - but also a reminder of how complicated the road can be when it comes to some heroes donning the suits we most associate with them.
One Marvel show explores this in fascinating fashion by keeping its central hero without their first proper superhero suit for a considerable chunk of the story, first cropping up at just shy of half a day of watch time. While this is a pretty considerable wait, what makes this arguably more impressive is that the decision to hold fire works to such a strong effect in the story, taking what could have been a catastrophic decision and making it into something that feels right for the story - and has even helped strengthen a plotline for one upcoming MCU release.
Daredevil Gets His First "Proper" Superhero Suit In The Season 1 Finale Close Daredevil season 1, episode 13 sees Daredevil finally able to take down Kingpin after the prospect seemed fraught - with the new, more comic-accurate superhero suit he gains beforehand serving as a crucial factor in his victory against Wilson Fisk. Up until this point, the hero had operated in a black shirt, pants, cowl, and bandages wrapped around his hands. While this does draw from the comics - as a similar versions of this costume crop up in 1981"s Daredevil #168 and onwards - it"s not the traditional costume we associate with Daredevil, and also not a superhero suit in the conventional sense.
Daredevil"s iconic red suit was first introduced in 1964"s Daredevil #7, with the suit becoming the default primary costume for the hero.
Instead, the first version of Daredevil"s classic red suit is teased in episode 11, where Murdock learns Fisk has been blackmailing Melvin Potter, a talented designer who makes armor for Kingpin because he fears the villain will hurt a woman named Betsy Beatty who he"s grown close to. After making a deal that he"ll ensure Fisk"s threats don"t come to fruition, Potter agrees to make a suit for Daredevil as well, resulting in a version of the more devil-esque classic suit being made for Murdock to don in the season 1 finale - almost 12 hours into the overall proceedings.
Why Daredevil Waits So Long To Give Daredevil His Superhero Suit Close With most Daredevil episodes being just under an hour, saving the iconic red suit reveal for Daredevil"s season 1 finale was a decision that inevitably pushes it back some considerable way into the show - which may have proved a little jarring for viewers expecting the suit to crop up quicker, since it"s the one most primarily associated with the hero in the modern age. However, holding back on the suit makes sense for the show, since its grittier approach means the more outlandish looking suit arguably needed to be built up to and "earned" by the story itself.
While superhero suits were being experimented with more on-screen at this point in superhero history, it"s also worth keeping in mind that there has historically been a reluctance to use comic-accurate suits because of their often more larger-than-life appearances risking clashing with live-action superhero releases and their efforts to make the stories within them feel close to real life. As such, making sure the narrative justifies the red horned suit was likely a priority for the show due to this backdrop - and this naturally requires time to set up.
Finally, on a bigger picture level, introducing Daredevil"s main comic suit later into the show makes it feel more impactful, and also serves to help Daredevil"s future suit storylines have more weight, since there"s real buildup and pathos in the suit"s origins and what it means for the story. Since the suit plays a key role in later plot moments - like Punisher shooting at it resulting in it being upgraded, or Benjamin Poindexter wearing a replica suit - giving it as much narrative weight as possible from its very first moments pays off significantly over the course of the story.
I Think Daredevil Was Right To Wait So Long For A More Traditional Comic-Accurate Hero Suit Close Handling the matter of Daredevil"s costume is certainly a tricky matter for a character who has some of Marvel"s most grounded storylines, and yet was first introduced in the comics in a bright canary yellow suit. While never introducing Daredevil"s iconic red costume would have seemed somewhat jarring - both because it"s the look audiences are most used to seeing him in, and because the suit itself helps justify Daredevil"s hero name - having Daredevil"s season 1 origin story kick off with the costume risked falling into cliché, or being at odds with the more grounded storyline.
While Daredevil"s suit reveal still wasn"t perfectly received by audiences - with some viewers expressing that they found the look unrealistic - I think building up to this approach over a good chunk of time was the right move when looking at this balancing act. Ultimately, those who found themselves less taken in by the red suit at this point had seen a decent number of hours of the show, and thus could at least rest on the idea that, even if they didn"t like the suit, they did like the story and were invested enough to continue with it.
While 11 hours certainly isn"t nothing, with Daredevil: Born Again on the horizon - and Charlie Cox"s Daredevil story now set to have taken place across more than 10 years, given Daredevil: Born Again season 2 seems almost definitely set to release after 2025 - 11 hours seems a much smaller window of time than it may have at first in context. Indeed, playing the long game with story aspects like the suit reveal certainly seems to have paid off in the long term for the Marvel hero, especially with the Daredevil: Born Again trailer teasing even more suits on the horizon.

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a multimedia superhero franchise that began in 2008 with Paramount's Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. The franchise quickly grew in popularity, with Disney eventually buying out Marvel Entertainment in 2009. The MCU consists of dozens of movies and TV shows, most notably Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, and Loki.
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