Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Episode 8 of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.Ever since Charlie Cox made his triumphant return as a cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, fans have been waiting for more Daredevil in the MCU. The Daredevil series on Netflix was a fan favorite and the highlight of the Marvel shows made for that service between 2015 and 2019. In this week’s episode of She-Hulk, we finally get Daredevil back in all of his glory, no longer restricted to a brief cameo or a passing reference. The only major difference being that this time around he has a different suit. Instead of his traditional red and black, Matt Murdock is rocking some yellow — or, as Jen (Tatiana Maslany) puts it, ketchup and mustard.
But this new suit isn’t just there to sell more Daredevil toys. These colors hold a lot of significance to not just the plot of the episode, but to Matt Murdock himself.
Matt’s True Colors
This yellow and red color scheme is actually the first suit Matt ever wore in the comics. This symbolically shows that this is Daredevil’s return to form for the MCU. Reverting the character back to his original costume while also retaining the same personality he had in the Netflix show seems like a very clear indication of how Marvel wants to handle the character going forward. If this episode serves as a prelude for whatever happens in the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again, this suit helps show in a literal way that this is Matt’s rebirth.
Beyond the suit being his original comic design, the colors are significant to Matt himself. Matt’s father, Battlin’ Jack Murdock (John Patrick Hayden), was a boxer and the colors he wore in the ring are the same as this Daredevil suit. Matt donning these colors while fighting crime also serves as him making a lovely tribute to his dead father. Jack Murdock was murdered for not throwing a match like he was supposed to, and that experience haunted Matt for the rest of his life. His father attempting to do the right thing and getting killed for it is part of the reason Matt decided to start fighting crime in the first place. So, in both a literal sense and a symbolic sense, this suit is Matt coming full circle to his origins.
A Luke Jacobson Original
The other reason the suit is so different is that it’s not made by the same person who created his traditional red and black outfit. Since he’s not on his home turf of Hell’s Kitchen, Matt can’t rely on the same person who he normally works with. Back in New York, Daredevil’s suits were made by Melvin Potter (Matt Gerald). In the Netflix show, Potter was a former criminal and an armorer who was trying to get his life back on the right path — that is, until Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) stomped into his life and forced him to create armor for his cronies under the threat of hurting his loved ones if he declined. He didn’t want to help the Kingpin, so when Daredevil eventually showed up, they were able to work out a deal that would benefit both of them. Daredevil would protect Potter from Kingpin and his goons, but in return, Potter had to make his super suit. At this point Daredevil was running around in just some black clothes and a cloth mask, he desperately needed more protection.
But now that he’s in LA and presumably needed some better-reinforced armor for this new locale, Matt decides to work with Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews). In She-Hulk, Jacobson is a well-known fashion designer for superheroes. In Episode 5 of the show, Jen hires him to create some clothes that can adjust to her changing sizes between Jen and She-Hulk at will. In the same episode, we can see Leap Frog (Brandon Stanley) pick up his costume from Luke in the background, which comes to play in the show’s penultimate episode. Then, in the final scene of that episode, we see Luke move the new Daredevil helmet away from any potentially prying eyes to keep his client’s identities a secret.
With Matt flying back to New York by the end of Episode 8, it’s unclear if he will continue working with Luke on any future costumes. Maybe when he’s back home he can get another suit from Kate Bishop’s (Hailee Steinfeld) LARPing friends that made her suit at the end of Hawkeye.
Daredevil: Yellow
Additionally, the new yellow suit harkens back to the fan-favorite limited series Daredevil: Yellow. This 6-issue run from 2001 was a simplified retelling of Daredevil’s origin stories. When comics become too convoluted Marvel will often put out limited series like this that retell the characters' stories for new readers. This not only offers longtime fans a new look at a familiar story, but it offers new fans a solid jumping on point. While this episode of She-Hulk isn’t an adaptation of that run, it does seem to carry the same spirit and energy of that comic. Not every Marvel fan has seen Daredevil or knows who he is, especially younger ones who weren’t old enough to watch the Netflix show when it began airing 7 years ago. That makes this episode of She-Hulk sort of fulfill the same purpose Daredevil: Yellow did.
It might not be retelling his origin story, but within his screen time we are shown all the core traits that make Daredevil who he is. He’s a great lawyer by day and a violent vigilante by night. He’s acrobatic and explains his super senses in a way that isn’t confusing. And most importantly, he’s able to have some fun when he’s not brooding. Matt has always been a super flirty character, and it was fun to see Cox play that aspect up for this show. The only important aspect characteristic that doesn’t really come up in that episode is that he’s Catholic and how important that is to him. But this is still Jen’s show, so it makes sense they didn’t touch on that.
It’s also important to note that Daredevil: Yellow was written by Jeph Loeb with art from Tim Sale. Loeb was one of the key creative voices in Marvel TV, especially all the Marvel Netflix shows. The specific choice to echo a story that he wrote not only serves as a bridge between the last season of Daredevil to the MCU, but it shows respect to the creative team behind the original series.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law premieres new episodes weekly every Thursday on Disney+.