Netflix's Daredevil series is among the best superhero TV shows ever made. It manages to adapt so many elements from the comics with artful fidelity. The nature of Matt Murdock's powers and disability are handled with the same care as the legal drama of courtroom scenes or the callous cruelty of his villains.
Of course, a good superhero series needs good fight scenes, and this is something Daredevil specializes in. Whether the Devil of Hell's Kitchen is fighting gang members, ninja, or supervillains, the series has some of the best fight choreography on TV. These are the ten best fights of Daredevil, ranked:
Gladiator
In the first season, Matt Murdock meets Melvin Potter, a gifted craftsman with a cognitive disability. Matt learns that Potter has been making Wilson Fisk's protective designer suits. To atone for helping Fisk, he makes Matt's Daredevil costume.
In Season 3, Melvin Potter betrays Matt to protect the woman he loves from Fisk. Fans of the comics know Melvin as the villain Gladiator and have seen Gladiator imagery teased in the background. When the two fight, Melvin is as quick and as strong as Matt, using saw blades as weapons. The FBI burst in, interrupting their fight. Matt escapes, allowing a man who helped him--a man with a cognitive disability and a good heart--to take the fall for him.
Kitchen Irish
Punisher goes to war against three gangs, one of whom are the Irish Mob of Hell's Kitchen. They capture him and brutally torture him.
Daredevil helps break the Punisher free and the two team up to fight against the Irish gangsters. Though the Punisher can barely stand on his feet, he still stands against the onslaught of his enemies. Matt also has to stop the Punisher from killing the Irish.
Rooftop Fight Against the Hand
At the end of Season 2, Daredevil and Elektra battle the ninja of the Hand, fighting them on top of the roof of a building. The two expect to die, but swear that if they survive, they will run away and make a life together.
Elektra does not survive the fight, dying right in front of Matt. As he desperately lashes out against the Han, the Punisher snipes at enemies from another rooftop, doing what he can to help.
Nobu
Nobu is first introduced in Season 1 as a representative of the Yakuza. When Daredevil goes to attack Fisk, he finds Nobu waiting for him instead, dressed as a ninja.
This fight is the first time Matt Murdock is truly outmatched by a single opponent. As he battles Nobu, the ninja uses dart-like shuriken and a kusarigama--a chain-sickle used in Japanese martial arts. Matt is struck again and again, unable to land a blow, as Nobu savages him with the kusarigama's blade.
The Hallway
In the second episode of the show, "Cut Man," Matt Murdock fights against a group of Russian Mobsters in a narrow hallway to rescue a kidnapped child from them. This is the first time the show employs what will become one of their signature techniques--a prolonged fight between Daredevil and a group of enemies, all done in a single camera shot.
Fighting in the narrow hallway, Daredevil is outnumbered and using martial arts against enemies carrying guns. The hero's determination and skill are on full display, while the use of a single tracking shot shows his desperation as he tires from the protracted brawl, each blow taking its toll.
Healy
Healy is an assassin employed by Wilson Fisk to kill a business rival. At the start of the episode "Rabbit in a Snowstorm," Healy incapacitates two men with his bare hands, then kills a third.
When he and Daredevil fight one another at the start of the episode, it is the first time the superhero faces a single combatant who is a real challenge. Throughout the fight, each gains the upper hand, only to lose it. But the best parts of this fight involve Daredevil's senses allowing him to hear the sound of Healy's makeshift weapons, as well as the tragic twist at the end as Healy kills himself after giving up Fisk's name.
Punisher in Prison
When the Punisher goes to prison, Wilson Fisk tells him how to kill the man who set up his family's murder. Punisher kills this man, only to be locked in a cell block as every convict there attacks him with shivs, hammers, and other makeshift weapons.
Outnumbered by better-armed opponents, the Punisher manages to kill every man in the cellblock, using the narrow corridors to his advantage. By the end of the fight, he is bleeding all over, his white prison uniform stained crimson.
Matt Escapes Prison
One signature style of the show is the use of prolonged fights where a single tracking shot follows Daredevil taking on multiple enemies through a crowded hallway.
In this fight, Matt Murdock is poisoned, then attacked by multiple inmates, followed by two prison guards in riot armor. Soon, the whole prison begins rioting. In the middle of the fight, an Albanian mobster corners him. Matt convinces the mobster to help him escape, resulting in Matt and a convict dressed as a guard fighting their way out of the prison in the middle of a riot. This is one of the best uses of choreography, shaky cam, and environment in the whole series.
The Bulletin
The Bulletin is the newspaper that Karen Page begins working for in Season 2 of the series. When the Bulletin is about to interview a key witness required to prove how Wilson Fisk got out of prison, the villain Bullseye attacks (though in the show, he is just known as Dex).
Bullseye dresses as Daredevil for this fight, killing multiple people while wearing the hero's costume (and thus murdering Daredevil's name and reputation, along with the Bulletin's staff). Daredevil confronts Bullseye, but the villain is an even deadlier martial artist and is able to turn anything into an improvised weapon by throwing it, thus keeping Matt on the defensive and at a distance. Bullseye is the most dangerous enemy Daredevil faces in the whole series. Their first fight quickly reveals that Matt Murdock is out of his depth.
Taking Bullseye to Church
This fight works on a lot of levels. Bullseye attacks the church where Daredevil has been living while dressed as Daredevil, trying to smear the hero's name while attempting to kill the people Matt Murdock loves. Additionally, while Bullseye has the armored protection of the Daredevil costume, Matt Murdock has no protection except for wrappings around his hands and wrists, making him vulnerable.
Fans of the comics tensed up, knowing that Bullseye killed Karen Page in a church. When Bullseye throws a baton at Karen, the camera gives a close-up of her mouth parting in a gasp. Then the camera pulls back to reveal she is holding the person who really died. The emotional stakes of Matt Murdock trying to protect Karen while Bullseye targets her make this fight perhaps the most intense scene in the whole series.