Daredevil is back in black, and it's not an accident. Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again opens with Matt Murdock already wearing a repainted version of his red suit, the crimson covered over with black and a red "DD" emblem on the chest. It's a striking look, and one with deep roots in the comics.
Why the Suit Is Black
Charlie Cox has been upfront about the in-universe reason: after Kingpin becomes Mayor of New York and establishes his Anti-Vigilante Task Force, Daredevil is a wanted man. Operating openly is no longer an option. Matt needed to disappear into the shadows, and the suit reflects that. He painted over his damaged red armor from Season 1, keeping the underlying structure intact.
The red "DD" chest emblem makes its MCU debut here too. Cox said he had to "earn it," and it shows. The double-D logo is a direct nod to the comics, where it appears most notably during two of Daredevil's darkest runs.
The Shadowland Connection
The most direct comic source for this look is Shadowland (2010), written by Andy Diggle. In that storyline, Matt Murdock takes control of the Hand ninja clan, establishes a fortress-prison in Hell's Kitchen, and starts killing his enemies. He wears a black and red suit with the DD emblem throughout, marking his break from his own moral code. It's the same color scheme and the same chest logo Born Again Season 2 is drawing from.
The show isn't doing a direct adaptation of Shadowland. There are no ninja clans or supernatural possessions here. But the visual language is the same: the black suit means Daredevil is in a place he shouldn't be, pushed further than he should go. In Born Again, that pressure comes from Fisk's iron grip on the city rather than an ancient demon.
The Back in Black Run
The other major source is the Charles Soule Daredevil run that began in 2016, collected under the Back in Black banner. In that run, Daredevil wears a black suit for most of the series after his secret identity becomes public knowledge. He operates from the shadows, building a new status quo while Kingpin, who has also become a political figure, works to destroy him.
That parallel is almost point-for-point with Born Again Season 2. Fisk as mayor, Daredevil in black, Hell's Kitchen under siege. Soule's run is one of the better jumping-on points in recent Daredevil history, and the show is clearly in conversation with it.
Fall From Grace: The Original Black Armor
For collectors who want to go back further, the first time Daredevil appeared in black armor was in the 1993 "Fall From Grace" arc, starting in Daredevil #321. His red suit was destroyed in a fight, and he had a new armored suit built to handle a threat involving the Hand, Venom, and Morbius. The look was different, more tactical and angular, but the concept is the same: a darker suit for darker circumstances.
The Frank Miller Shadow
Beyond the specific suit, the showrunner has said Season 2 and future seasons aim to return to the tone of Frank Miller's Daredevil run from the late 1970s and 1980s. Miller is the writer who defined the character's street-level noir voice and brought the Hand into Daredevil's world in the first place. Everything that Shadowland and Back in Black built on traces back to his work.
The Task Force Has a Comics Source Too
The Anti-Vigilante Task Force doesn't exist by that name in the comics, but the concept does. Chip Zdarsky's Daredevil run that launched in 2019 is where it lives. In that series, Mayor Wilson Fisk ordered the entire NYPD to treat vigilantes as criminals, putting every masked hero in Hell's Kitchen in his crosshairs. There was no single dedicated task force, but the intent was identical: use the machinery of law enforcement as a weapon against Daredevil.
The most direct thread between that run and the show is Cole North. In the comics, North is an NYPD detective assigned to bring down Daredevil, a cop who genuinely believes he's doing the right thing. The show flips that entirely, turning him into one of the AVTF's most brutal members. It's a sharp contrast for anyone who knows the source material, and it makes his arc in Season 2 hit differently.
Track the Comics on VerseDB
If the season has you wanting to dig into the source material, all of these runs are in VerseDB. Add them to your pull list, log what you've read, and build out your Daredevil reading history.
Explore Daredevil's full comics history and start tracking your reading list on VerseDB today.
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Written by Dangioffre
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