Daredevil Week: Daredevil’s Greatest Team-Ups

Most fans may think of Daredevil as the ultimate loner. However, Matt Murdock has a long history of superhero team-ups (and hook-ups). We wanted to look at some of the greatest in the characters history- and maybe a few that are a bit underrated.

Black Widow

You can’t get much more iconic in a team-up than a long term co-star. And for nearly four years, Daredevil shared his book with Natasha Romanoff, starting in November 1971’s Daredevil #81 and running through #124. The pairing was inspired, at least in part, by the success of Captain America and the Falcon co-headlining Cap’s title. However, this duo didn’t just find a strong superheroic partnership, but a chemistry-filled romance as well. Hell, they even moved cross-country together, a move unheard of for an unmarried couple at the time.

Though the duo have moved on (and frankly most creators have forgotten about it), there’s no denying they’re a great pair, and one that we frankly could use to see revisited.

The Defenders

Look, we can debate shoe-horning a completely different team name onto a group of street level vigilantes until we’re blue in the face. There’s no debate though that Daredevil, Luke Cage, Danny Rand and Jessica Jones are a hell of a team, whether it’s as a quartet, or any mixture of the team-up. Though their official series only lasted a little less than a year, they’ve teamed up multiple times before and since, making a distinct and tight network of heroes. It’s a style of alliance that isn’t used enough in comics, but should be.

Gambit

In the 90’s, every Marvel superhero had a mutant bestie. And frankly for the vast majority, it was Wolverine. I mean the guy regularly teamed up with Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, the Punisher, Captain America, Black Widow… Daredevil though didn’t really have that, though he did team up with him. But in DG Chichester and Scott McDaniel’s “Black Armor” era, Daredevil teamed up with the X-Men’s master thief himself a couple times, and the duo have ran into each other other times since. It hasn’t really developed into a friendship like a Spider-Man/Wolverine, BUT it makes such a strange sort of sense that you can’t help but imagine the possibilities.

The Punisher

Matt Murdock is an attorney by day, who uses his vigilante identity to mete out justice that he otherwise couldn’t. Frank Castle is a violent vigilante who kills criminals. These two hate each other. Sometimes that means working together with a begrudging respect. Other times, it means that they’re at odds, and won’t stop until the other is in the ground. There’s nothing about the dynamic that isn’t interesting and that’s what makes it one of the greats.

Deadpool

While not a frequent or common team-up, this duo is always fascinating when it happens. They both share an ex– Typhoid Mary– and their personalities and backgrounds are diametric opposites. Matt is an often-grim and stoic defender of justice and the law. Wade is a chaotic and wise-cracking anti-heroic who often breaks more laws than he upholds. They often have to do the wrong thing to get the right result, though in Matt’s case he’s trying to avoid it, and in Wade’s case he’s just trying to get paid. 

It’s a team-up that could use more page time, especially considering that shared ex I mentioned? She’s now the Kingpin’s wife. The story writes itself.

Captain America

Steve Rogers is an icon and champion of the ideals behind the American Dream. He’s also a man who sometimes has to say the law be damned to do the right thing. Sound like anyone else? Really, the biggest difference between Matt and Steve is that Captain America makes a difference out in the open on a huge scale, while Daredevil does his work in the dark in small alleyways. But pair the two together, like in the final issues of the seminal Born Again, and you get magic.

Spider-Man

Peter Parker and Matt Murdock are really just about the best friends you could possibly see in the superhero community. Murdock provides maturity to help Parker’s youth. Peter helps Matt lighten up a little bit. And they’re really so close that when those roles need to be reversed, they have the relationship that it’s not out of character or story-breaking. They’re practically brothers and it shows on the page.

Elektra

Of all the characters on the list, only one of them have taken up the Daredevil mantle long-term. Elektra Natchios is one of Matt’s great loves, a physical match for him, and one of his greatest tragedies. While Elektra has woven herself into and out of Matt’s life her entire existence, she’s also his closest confidante and his great love. When Matt had to leave the kitchen to serve time, Elektra put on the horns, and ever since she’s shared the Daredevil mantle with Matt. Her relationship with Matt has always been so close that this just felt like such a natural next step for her, and that easily makes her the greatest of the greats.