Spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Episode 7.
We were only just introduced to Muse in Daredevil: Born Again last week, and he’s already dead. That might seem disappointing, especially after all the drip-fed teases earlier in the season as we watched this enigmatic serial killer paint lavish murals throughout New York City, but his story might not be over.
While I imagine the next two episodes will focus on Mayor Fisk’s anti-vigilante task force, possibly tying up the White Tiger murder, showrunner Dario Scardapane recently revealed that Muse’s story “has pretty shocking consequences” that “don’t end” this season.
Sure, Heather Glenn filled him with bullets after he was mercilessly beaten by Daredevil, but there are a few ways we could see Muse resurface, from demonic possession to his latent Inhuman powers awakening, if not something a bit more grounded. Let’s unpack those possibilities.
Muse Is An Inhuman: Could That Save Him?
In the comics, Muse is to Daredevil what Venom is to Spider-Man, the antithesis of his powers. As an Inhuman (confirmed in the credits page, not in-story), he is a sensory black hole, making it incredibly hard for Daredevil to use his radar sense, thus blinding him to his opponent. There was no indication of this advantage in the show, so perhaps Muse’s dormant powers haven’t kicked in yet.
If they do, he will also have heightened strength and endurance, which could allow him to survive the gunshot wounds and escape confinement as he did in the comics, paving the way for his return next season. We’ve certainly seen Marvel characters survive worse: Bullseye was lobbed off a building in the very first episode, and he’s fine.
But I’m not sure Marvel would go down the Inhuman route. Terrigen Mist is required to trigger an Inhuman’s ‘evolution’, and getting that to Muse — somehow knowing it will transform him — would be an incredibly contrived way of bringing him back (even just having the mist spread across NYC would be cheap, rehashing Agents of Shield, and distract from Daredevil’s story). Instead, if Marvel does choose to give him superpowers in the show, I’m more inclined to believe they’ll make him a Mutant, as mere stress is enough to unlock their inert powers.
There’s a precedent for this, too. Marvel pushed the Inhumans in both the comics and MCU, because it wanted them to replace Mutants as the popular superpowered outcasts since Fox owned the rights to the X-Men. Ever since Disney acquired Fox, however, Marvel has walked that strategy back and even made Ms Marvel, formerly an Inhuman, into a mutant (the first ever in the MCU). Perhaps Muse will follow suit.
Demonic Possession… Or Just Copycats
The other key way Marvel could bring back Muse is through demonic possession, which would be a striking play on the Catholic themes of Daredevil and the horned vigilante’s entire persona. In the comics, Muse kills himself by walking into burning debris while bemoaning that he had “so much beauty left”. Upon his death, he awoke in Hell, where he continued his morbid art, using the eternal suffering of others as his canvas.
It was here that he met a fleeting Morgan Whittier, a young artist whom he regaled with his ghoulish philosophy. When she returned to the living, she assumed that everything she saw was a bizarre hallucination, but Muse latched onto her soul and soon started haunting her, pushing her evermore into his delusions. Before long, she killed her art teacher and began making twisted murals out of her victims, donning his bloodied mask.
I can’t imagine a show like Daredevil dedicating an episode to a serial killer trapped in Hell, but elements of this story could be repurposed in a more grounded way. Rather than Muse literally appearing to Whittier as a phantom, encouraging her to kill and continue his work, she could be a copycat. Someone who was simply enamoured with his art, despite — or even because of — the viscera it was painted with.
Some even speculate that the Muse who died was a copycat.
Muse as we know him wouldn’t have to return, just a successor taking on the mantle, and this fits Scardapane’s comments about the “pretty shocking consequences” that will ripple into the next season perfectly. It also fits the idea of legacy that we’re seeing unfold with the White Tiger, who was similarly killed off after only a couple of episodes, with his niece Angela Del Toro now primed to wear the amulet. She’s even infatuated with Daredevil and all things vigilante, something we could see the inverse of with Whittier, Muse, and all things serial killer.
Time will tell, but I don’t believe we’re done with Muse just yet, even if the first incarnation of this character is no longer with us.
