Daredevil is a bit of an odd character when it comes to the colorful costume catalog he’s acquired in 64 years of comic book source material history. He doesn’t have nearly as many costumes as Spider-Man, for instance, and a lot of them essentially bear the same blood-red color palette with a marginally different design in terms of the material it’s made out of (Marco Checchetto and Lee Garbett’s Daredevil designs are highly comparable, though they have their subtleties).

Daredevil’s “DD” logo has also become a remarkably iconic signature, with the red and “DD” quickly eclipsing the original Daredevil design: the yellow-and-red (‘mustard-and-ketchup’) costume that was made from “Battling” Jack Murdock’s boxing robes and featured a “D” logo. It’s disappointing that this yellow-and-red design was replaced with the red one after only six issues of the character’s debut comic series in 1964 and never became Daredevil’s main look, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe has thankfully and miraculously done right by it.

Daredevil’s Mustard-And-Ketchup Design Is God-Like

If Daredevil’s mustard-and-ketchup design hadn’t been the character’s first-ever costume, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not it would have ever been revisited in any Marvel media. Not many fans seem to like it, or they prefer the more iconic red costume, at least, but the yellow scratches an itch that the plain red simply doesn’t.

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Daredevil: Yellow miniseries is hailed as one of the best and most poignant Daredevil stories ever, and it’s no less sincere or mature with Matt wearing the mustard-and-ketchup costume; in fact, it distinguishes the comic far more, and Tim Sale’s artwork is unmistakably gorgeous.

MCU’s She-Hulk Beautifully Honors Daredevil’s Yellow Suit

Part of what has made Daredevil so endearing and alluring in the MCU, especially apart from iconic characters whose adaptations haven’t been as faithful to the comics, is that he’s firmly rooted in various comic eras. For example, the Netflix Daredevil TV series is heavily inspired by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.’s The Man Without Fear, and the Disney Daredevil: Born Again TV series is heavily inspired by Brian Michael Bendis’ Daredevil run, as well as Chip Zdarsky’s Devil’s Reign crossover event (Season 3 now seems like it’ll take influence from Ed Brubaker’s Daredevil run, specifically “The Devil in Cell Block D”).

It’s a hodgepodge of comic influences that all understand the tone that the comics are going for, and that’s true of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s interpretation of Daredevil, too. Indeed, given the lighthearted meta-narrative tone of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, it makes sense for Daredevil to be portrayed the way he is (smiley, flirtatious, and forced to perform a walk of shame in full costume in broad daylight after spending the night with Jennifer Walters).

The mustard-and-ketchup costume could certainly work within the moody context of Daredevil’s own shows (where Matt typically wears dark shades of red/purple, if not black outright) if it was given the opportunity, but it also perfectly punctuated his role in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law as a pulpy guest character. Meanwhile, because the MCU’s Daredevil never wore the yellow-and-red costume as his first costume and has no meaningful history with it like he does in the comics, it’s allowed to be a fun alternate look that he might never choose to wear again.

Daredevil’s MCU costumes are not all terrific, with the handmade cloth suit debatably being the best one. As for his armored suits, the mustard-and-ketchup palette is more appealing than the red-and-black palettes featured in his Daredevil Season 2 and Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 costumes, and the actual armor itself is less bulky and more simple for an incredibly agile and gymnastic Daredevil.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is streaming on Disney+.