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Lore Corner: Let's talk about Muse, the most nerfed character in Daredevil: Born Again
Heads up, some major spoilers here for the Muse storyline of Daredevil: Born Again. You've been warned

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Major spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again follow.
Greetings Popversians, and welcome to Lore Corner! Each week, video producer Ashley V. Robinson and staff writer Grant DeArmitt are going to take you deep into the pre-existing lore behind some of pop culture's most exciting adaptations, such as Marvel's return to the streets of Hell's Kitchen in Daredevil: Born Again. Enjoy!
As of this writing, we've only got two more episodes of Daredevil: Born Again season 1 left on Disney+, and storylines we were introduced to at the top of the season are starting to come to an end. In the most recent episode, Art for Art's Sake, one of those arcs that got wrapped was that of serial killer Muse, the despicable (and kinda fun!) serial killer who uses his victims' blood to paint murals on NYC buildings.
As you may recall from when the character was first rumored to be a part of the show, Popverse whipped up a little 'who is Muse' piece to introduce viewers unfamiliar with the Marvel Comics villain. Now that the character has come and gone in the show, however, fans who ended up reading the Charles Soule/Ron Garney comics in which he was introduced may have some questions.
Foremost of which being: that's it?
In this edition of Lore Corner, we're going to be talking about what happens to Muse's character in the Marvel Comics vs. the treatment he got in Daredevil: Born Again. Just like in the show, Muse meets a grisly end in the comics (we told you, spoilers), but as you'll see in just a moment, the character's comic book death is a little more fitting for a serial killer that eluded some of Marvel's most important NYC heroes.
What happens to Muse in Daredevil: Born Again?

In the seventh and, as I'm writing this, latest episode of Daredevil: Born Again, Popverse's prediction that Muse would come into contact with Dr. Heather Glenn proved to be correct (you don't just put Hunter Doohan at that book signing for nothing, folks). Yes, Muse (real name Bastian Cooper) did indeed attempt to make Heather Glenn into a morbid art piece, but fortunately, Daredevil was right behind him.
Another bloody-knuckle brawl between hero and villain ensued and, in the end, Daredevil once again emerged victorious. Just like in the previous episode, the fight involved Daredevil being poised to take Muse's life, and as has been one of the series major themes, Matt Murdock wrestled with his conscience in doing so. But the decision ended up not being his to make, as Dr. Glenn pulled out a gun and shot Muse in the head, ending the serial killer's reign of terror for good.
In the fallout of Muse's death, Wilson Fisk's anti-vigilante task force swooped in and claimed the victory for themselves, setting their organization (and their boss) up as heroes in the eyes of unsuspecting New Yorkers. No doubt we got to see just how crafty Mayor Fisk ended up being in this whole situation, appropriately representing his prowess as established in the comics.
But what about Muse?
What's the story behind Daredevil's Muse in Marvel Comics?

As you can probably tell by the tenor (and title) of this piece, the character of Muse got nerfed pretty hard by being adapted by Disney+. We never saw the "quiet" superpowers Muse possessed in the comics, making him nigh-undetectible and a serious threat to the sensory-heightened Matt Murdock. Muse is such a threat in the comics, in fact, that he is able to kill multiple Inhumans - yes, Inhumans, the mutantlike superpowered characters who, despite the poorly received MCU adaptation, are a force to be reckoned with in the Marvel Universe.
And don't even get us started on when Muse's storyline starts getting into the supernatural.
Now, look, we understand that Daredevil: Born Again had to make cuts from the comic books that inspired it; any comic book adaptation does. But was it even worth presenting fans with a (visually comic-accurate, I should add) adaptation of this character if his only real purpose was to feed into Fisk's growing control of NYC politics? I mean, we never even feel the weight of his victims dying, do we?
Honestly, that's a question far above my paygrade. Difficult decisions have to be made in adapting years of comic book lore, even if, in Muse's case, that lore is only about 10 years old. Still, we hope that fans who feel the same way we do about Muse's underrepresentation in the series will check out his comic book exploits. Maybe we're biased, but we're pretty sure you'll get what you want out of that.
Daredevil: Born Again airs new episodes every Tuesday night.
Fear not, we have the essentials when it comes to Marvel's Daredevil - especially with Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again. Check out:
- The key difference between Netflix's Daredevil and Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again, according to the showrunner
- The best Daredevil stories of all time
- What to watch before Daredevil: Born Again
- Popverse Picks: Our favorite things for Marvel's Man Without Fear including Ann Nocenti comics, the Netflix series, and more
- How Vincent D'Onofrio reinvented Daredevil's Kingpin
- Marvel's Daredevil actors, ranked from Charlie Cox to Ben Affleck and even Rex Smith
- How Frank Miller accidentally killed a Daredevil cartoon (and Marvel killed a book to avoid pissing him off)
- That time we caught Daredevil actor Charlie Cox sneaking into New York Comic Con as Bluey
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