Who is the villainous Muse in Daredevil: Born Again?
Teaser footage screened at D23 2024 showed off this new menace of Hell's Kitchen.
Daredevil: Born Again was rolled out to the superhero-hungry crowd of D23 Expo this weekend, confirming Matt Murdock's newest nemesis Muse in the first official footage.
Teasing the grand return of Charlie Cox as blind vigilante Daredevil; Jon Bernthal's Punisher and Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin, those in attendance in the Californian city of Anaheim were also given a tantalising glimpse of Muse in full costume. Just like in the Marvel Comics, he (or she, since we don't know who's playing the character) dons a white mask streaked with treacle-coloured tears.
But what kind of evil shenanigans does Muse get upto in the source material, and can fans expect a direct replication in the forthcoming Disney+ series?
Introduced just eight years ago in comic book form by creators Charles Soule and Ron Garney, Muse is a serial murderer who enjoys turning his victims into mangled and visceral pieces of art, and so the press go on to dub him 'Vincent Van Gore'. Talk about Hannibal vibes.
During his debut, he wields the blood of 100 missing people to produce a horrific painted mural.
Unlike most supervillains, Muse's real name is never revealed and his powers - imperceptibility, and superhuman speed and strength - are particularly vexing to Daredevil, whose special radar cannot pick up the criminal's crazy physiology. It's like a vortex that pulls in all sensory data, but again, this goes unexplained.
Meanwhile, The Man Without Fear's sidekick Blindspot has both his eyeballs gouged out by Muse, leading to his eventual capture by the former. Later, having escaped, he leaves tributes to the merciless vigilante Punisher on walls around Hell's Kitchen, leading to a definitive confrontation with the vengeful Blindspot in a 2018 story.
Here, Blindspot harnesses the power of a demon to crush Muse into submission, yet the antagonist can't stomach this defeat and commits suicide in a fiery blaze. He's been dead on the page ever since.
Thanks to some paparazzi pictures (and the D23 teaser), we know that sworn enemies Matt and Wilson sit down for a meeting in a diner during Daredevil: Born Again. Staying true to the eponymous Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli comic storyline, the latter flexes his knowledge of Matt's masked crimefighting in an attempt to destroy the lawyer's life, all while running for mayor. "Is that coming from Matt Murdock... or your darker half?" asks a sly Wilson after being threatened.
With Muse causing bloody havoc on the streets though, it looks like these two will need to put their rivalry aside for the greater good and stop this menace.
As for who could be playing Muse in the show, cast members Lou Taylor Pucci and Kamar de los Reyes are listed for the only undisclosed roles, so there's potentially something in that.
Daredevil: Born Again is scheduled to hit Disney+ in March 2025.
