If you’re looking for a dark book, one that instills fear and dread within you, then you have come to the right review. Daredevil: The Dark Art, the second volume of the newest edition of Charles Soule’s iconic run on Daredevil, features some of the most brutal things to happen in a Matt Murdock comic. Of course, as with any Daredevil comic, there is also an uplifting amount of hope, resilience, and strength displayed throughout the volume, which juxtaposes nicely with the true terror wrought by Daredevil’s latest foe: The sadistic serial killer called Muse.
Daredevil: The Dark Art collects issues #10 – 28, which is my favorite type of trade. I absolutely love when there are no annuals, miniseries, or other “interruptions,” and you can just read a huge chunk of an artist’s run back to back. This volume features stunning art by the talented Ron Garney, Goran Sudzuka, Marc Laming, and Alec Morgan, with gorgeous coloring from Matt Milla throughout. To be honest, this volume of Soule’s new digest-sized Daredevil collection was my favorite to read, and it is the single volume I would recommend to a friend if I needed to pick only one. From Blindspot’s horrific treatment at the hands of Muse, to Daredevil’s battle against the Beast of the Hand, and even Murdock’s monumental Supreme Court case, this volume felt like it had it all.
Marvel
If you’ve watched the Disney+ show Daredevil: Born Again, you might think you recognize Muse, but the comic version of the monstrous villain is way more disturbing than what Disney portrayed. The way that Muse transforms his victims is horrendous to witness, and the reveal of what his face looks like under his mask is truly shocking. Unlike the pretty boy, the disturbed youth that is Disney’s Muse, the comic Muse is a decrepit and deformed monster. Additionally, in the comic, Muse possesses the Inhuman power to absorb any sensory information around him, making his battles against Matt incredibly complex, whereas the TV version is just a sick, depraved human.
In one of the most shocking events throughout Soule’s long run on Daredevil, the final part of Muse’s original arc sees the horrible villain blinding Blindspot, taking out his eyes using his fingers without a moment’s hesitation. It is devastating and has long-lasting ramifications on Daredevil, Blindspot, and all of Hell’s Kitchen. After his arrest, Muse also breaks his own fingers, another disturbing moment in an arc filled with horror and depravity. The Muse plot also brings Matt into a head-on collision with the Inhumans, and starts a long-running team-up between Daredevil and the Inhuman heroes Frank McGee and Reader, who show up again in a major way in the third volume of Soule’s run.
Marvel
The chilling – and, at times, hard to read – Muse portions of the volume are well balanced with the more “Matt Murdock” issues of the series, namely the Supreme Court arc that happens at the end of the collection. Matt is able, against all the odds, to convince the Supreme Court that superhero vigilantes should be able to give testimony in costume, which opens up the pathway to the legitimation of a superhero’s heroic identity to be its own person in the eyes of the law. This leads to one of the biggest twists in Daredevil history, and a major cliffhanger that concludes this collection: the election of Wilson Fisk as the new Mayor of New York City. Another major inspiration for Disney’s Born Again, Matt’s win at the Supreme Court sets up the third and final volume of Soule’s run to refocus on the contentious and long-running feud between the Man Without Fear and the Kingpin.
I loved this volume of Charles Soule’s Daredevil run. The art from Garney, Sudzuka, Laming, and Morgan is consistently gorgeous and diverse, making every page a joy to read (even the incredibly disturbing Muse scenes…). The devastating consequences of Blindspot going up against Muse alone, and Matt not properly preparing Blindspot, reverberate throughout the volume, and the young vigilante’s relationship with The Hand and his mother is fascinating in its intimacy. This collection is exactly what I hoped it would be, and if you’re a fan of Daredevil or Daredevil: Born Again, and can only get one of Soule’s three volumes, I would suggest you pick up this one.
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