Daredevil: Born Again Gives Muse Something Marvel Comics Never Did

Spoilers for "Daredevil: Born Again" follow.

The villain of "Daredevil: Born Again" is once more Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio), one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's few recurring villains. Fisk has gone from ruling the underworld to becoming the Mayor of New York City, but crime boss or not, he's still the Kingpin.

Yet there's been another bad guy operating in the shadows: Muse, a masked serial killer that paints graffiti murals from his victims' drained blood. (Murals actually drawn by the real "Daredevil" artist David Mack.) He even dresses like an artist, with a black beanie hat and blood stains on his costume splattered like paint.

Charles Soule's 2015-2018 run on the "Daredevil" comic is a big influence on season 1 of "Born Again," including Muse's presence. Muse is a pretty new villain; he debuted during Soule's third arc, "Dark Art," running in "Daredevil" #10-14 and beautifully drawn by Ron Garney (an artist with skill Muse would respect). It's one of the creepiest and most ominous "Daredevil" stories out there; Muse stays a step ahead of Matt Murdock until the end and he blinds Daredevil's partner Sam Chung/Blindspot.

Muse returned, and met his end, during Soule's "Mayor Fisk" arc ("Daredevil" #595-600, which went back to the original numbering). In the ongoing "Daredevil: Unleash Hell" mini-series (by writer Erika Schultz and Valentina Pinti), Muse's evil endures on Earth even as he rests in Hell. His spirit has possessed an art student named Morgan Whittier, turning her into a new Muse.

While Muse 2.0 has a backstory and name, the original never did. Similar to the Joker, the lack of a backstory and true name made Muse a scarier villain. "Born Again" giving him an origin is one reason why the MCU Muse is nowhere near as terrifying as the comic book one.

In "Born Again," Muse is Bastian Cooper (Hunter Doohan), a disturbed rich kid. He wanted to be an artist but his parents disapproved. So he snapped, and after reading one of Dr. Heather Glenn's (Margarita Levieva) therapy books, decided that "Muse" was who he was always meant to be.

We first saw Bastian in episode 2 of "Born Again," when he approached Heather at a book signing and asked if she'd take him as a patient. In the latest episode, he shows up for a session and reveals his true self to Heather, planning to use her blood for his next masterpiece. Daredevil (Charlie Cox) arrives, a fight breaks out, and Heather ultimately shoots Muse dead. 

In hindsight, Muse's character is there to kick off other conflicts between our main cast. Kingpin uses the threat of Muse to put together a police strike force that serves him and only him. A masked serial killer who directly threatens Heather also drives a wedge in her and Matt's relationship. She disapproves of vigilantes and believes Daredevil has the same sickness as Muse, unaware her boyfriend is Daredevil.

Is this a waste? Muse died quickly in the comics too, but they also did more to make you remember him than "Born Again" did.

Now, comic Muse is a tricky character to adapt for a key reason. He, and Soule's "Daredevil" as a whole, comes from that late 2010s period when Marvel was trying to make the Inhumans take center stage and supplant the X-Men. The only detail of Muse's past that's even implied is that he's probably an Inhuman. He's inhumanly fast and strong, and his body can distort sensory perception.

That makes him an especially difficult challenge for Daredevil, whose powers are all about his heightened senses. Muse's chalk white body suit isn't a costume like it is in the show either; underneath his mask, Muse has a wrinkled face of empty black, red-pupiled eyes. That suggests a physical transformation, like the kind Inhumans go through, and means it's impossible to identify him even when he isn't masked.

An "artistic" serial killer isn't a novel concept, but Muse works specifically as a Daredevil foe and foil; he's a painter villain fighting a hero who can't see. From his pat and underwritten backstory to the lack of powers, Muse in "Born Again" isn't a brave new artist, just another dime-a-dozen psycho.

"Daredevil: Born Again" is streaming on Disney+.