While Matt Murdock is the definition of a street-level vigilante, even Daredevil is open to enhancing his abilities when the opportunity comes along – including using weapons and armor from Iron Man. Recently, Tony Stark created new equipment for Elektra Natchios in her role as the Woman Without Fear, however his contributions pale in comparison to the suits the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen will boast in Marvel’s future.
Daredevil’s enhanced senses give him numerous superhuman abilities, including a 360-degree awareness of the world around him and the ability to act as a human lie detector – a major advantage in his career as a New York lawyer. However, Matt is no stranger to employing gadgetry or armor in his fight against injustice. Almost as long as he’s been a hero, Matt’s cane has contained secret features which turn it into his crime-fighting billy clubs, and he also possesses an armored costume that gives him protection against blades and guns (even if the costume’s grim and gritty design is rarely remembered fondly.)
However, Daredevil takes a major step-up in armor in Declan Shalvey’s variant cover for Daredevil #13, part of a project themed around Marvel’s ‘2099’ line. Rising to the level of Iron Man’s own suit, Daredevil’s 2099 armor turns his billy clubs into blazing energy weapons, enhances his natural strength and agility with enhanced armor, and embeds visual sensors in his horns, with technological feedback implied to replace or upgrade his enhanced senses. Daredevil is pictured watching over the futuristic city state of Nueva York – home to Spider-Man 2099 Miguel O’Hara and Sonny Frisco, Tony Stark’s successor as Iron Man 2099.
Interestingly, this isn’t the only Iron Man-style armor Daredevil has gained in Marvel future. In 2004’s Daredevil 2099 (from Robert Kirkman, Karl Moline, and Mike Perkins), Samuel Fisk – the grandson of Wilson Fisk, the modern-day Kingpin of Crime – takes up the Daredevil mantle. This Daredevil has concealed weaponry, launcher boots which allow him to quickly reach rooftops, and auto-targeting pistols that make him a crack shot despite a total lack of training. Sadly, this version of Daredevil is an immoral criminal who employs a patina of heroism to justify his selfish brutality, setting up the possibility that both Samuel Fisk’s Daredevil and Declan Shalvey’s version could co-exist in 2099 as the latest in a long history of Daredevil’s villains using his costume to wreak havoc.
Despite an incredibly compelling status quo in the one-shot Daredevil 2099 and Declan Shalvey’s innovative Daredevil #13 art, Matt Murdock’s far-future legacy has received relatively little exploration. Hopefully, that will change in the future, as Shalvey’s version of the Man Without Fear wouldn’t be the first variant cover design that ended up inspiring official comic stories. Iron Man keeps promising to create an armored suit for Daredevil if he ever wants it, and despite a history of bad blood between the two, it seems that however the Man Without Fear’s legacy turns out, some version of Daredevil 2099 will end up with a suit that would make the Armored Avenger proud.
