In 2003, Marvel released the feature-length film Daredevil, a movie focusing on the lesser-known anti-hero of the same name. After the success of the first Spider-Man, starring Tobey Maguire, Marvel seized its advantage and began releasing movies for some of its other heroes. Obviously, this didn’t work well as the cinematic universe didn’t pick up until nearly a decade later, but several films were released in the original Marvel movie boom, Daredevil being one of them. It’s safe to say, Daredevil’s poor reviews were one reason the Marvel franchise didn’t pick up steam until Iron Man. But in 2015, Marvel finally felt confident enough to revisit what they consider one of their worst failures (Elektra being the worst) and turn it into a Netflix original series, Daredevil.

To set the story straight, as a little kid, I loved Daredevil, and idolized Ben Affleck, who played the titular character. So when I heard they were rebooting it, I was nervous my hero would be ruined. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Daredevil follows the life story of Matt Murdock, a resident of Hell’s Kitchen who was blinded by a chemical spill when he was a child. His body reacted to the chemically induced disability by amplifying his other senses, even giving him a type of echolocation similar to a bat. He trained his body to superhuman levels, became a lawyer, and only used his alter ego to dispense justice when the court of law failed to do so.

Charlie Cox assumes the role of Matt Murdock in the new Daredevil, and rather than leap straight into his days of being a vigilante, it starts right from his choice to do good. After establishing the source of his superhuman abilities, the show focuses on his humble roots at a private law firm. Murdock hasn’t really found out who he is yet, and the show plays off that beautifully.

Something very important to Daredevil as a character is its dark nature and grisly, violent fights. Daredevil’s superhuman, I admit, but he’s really just a boxer with incredible agility. This show is downright brutal, conveying his fighting style perfectly with a mix of finesse, skill, and boxing ability. The show doesn’t dance around gore like the movie did; a single punch to the knee in the show resulted in a frighteningly gruesome compound fracture. I shrieked in shock, but it’s this visceral setting that Daredevil thrives on.

The acting is top-notch. The only thing that can compete with this level of talent is the highest budget movies, and even they struggle to deliver like Daredevil does. I was blown away by how incredible the performances are – I was highly skeptical and looking for an excuse to like the old actor for Daredevil more than Cox, but there isn’t a single one. Cox nailed the character – both in suit and out. All the supporting characters hold the bar just as high – even the child actors pull their weight when present.

A hero’s outfit is one of his most important traits. Since Daredevil is also an origin story, it doesn’t introduce his iconic outfit until the end of the season. Instead, it uses a homemade outfit that captured my heart in a single scene. Daredevil sports a black, almost ninja-like outfit, comprised of black jeans and boots, the coolest shirt I have ever seen, and a blindfold/mask that covers his head from the nose up, ending with the two awesome ninja tails coming down his back. He looks dark and menacing, which is exactly what this show needs.

I could praise the new Daredevil for pages and pages, but to sum it all up, even as someone who loved the movie, the show blows it out of the water. It blows pretty much everything out of the water — the big movies that each of the Avengers hail from don’t compare with this, and that only makes me happier because I dislike most of those characters. Added to that, the character of Daredevil is in the Marvel cinematic universe, which means that there’s a strong chance we could get a crossover and Murdock could show those Avengers losers what a good hero looks like.

I would give the new Daredevil 10/10 every single time you asked me, and no matter how much I loved the old Daredevil, this new show takes the cake. I would recommend this to an older audience, because some of this content is beyond a doubt not for kids. Marvel, for once, actually made a good show oriented for older audiences, and it didn’t have to suck the fumes out of The Avengers to do it.