Marvel Studios/Disney+Marvel fans are desperate to see Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) start a war with Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) for the soul of New York in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, but a new theory has found a way to fix the show’s biggest mistake from Season 1.
The Disney+ series see Matt hunt down a disturbing serial killer called Muse, who paints huge murals across the city using his victims’ blood. Not only that, but Kingpin manages to get himself elected as Mayor, and things go from bad to worse when he outlaws vigilantes.
The show was largely a success with an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a blessing given that Marvel Television reworked the story midway through production to shift away from a procedural crime-of-the-week structure.
But Daredevil: Born Again made one major misstep toward the end of the season with one of the villains of the series, and fans have found the perfect way to fix it.
Muse could’ve been the boy saved by Daredevil in Season 1
Disney+/NetflixFans think Muse could have been the young boy saved by Daredevil in the second episode of the original Netflix series. In Born Again, Muse is a troubled young man called Bastion Cooper, who is a mentally unwell artist who happens to be an expert in Taekwondo, obviously.
In the comics, Muse’s true identity is never revealed, and he also has powers which make him invisible to Daredevil’s echolocation skills. In the show, he’s just a tortured artist with mental health issues, and fans weren’t happy about it.
But the new theory on Reddit suggests that the MCU could still fix Muse by tying him to one of the best Daredevil scenes that Marvel has ever put to the screen: the hallway fight from Episode 2, ‘Cut Man’. The episode sees Matt rescue a boy who had been kidnapped by the Russian mob, presumably to hold him ransom or to sell him for more nefarious purposes.
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“What if the kid Matt saved from the Russians in Season 1 grew up to become Muse?” the Redditor suggested. “He developed mental health issues due to trauma of being kidnapped and (potentially) abused whilst imprisoned by them and this was the start of that child becoming the villain Muse.”
The Muse theory would also explain his fighting skills
The theory continued by coming up with a reason behind Muse’s Taekwondo skills, as well as the way he puts Kingpin at the center of his blood-soaked murals.
“Initially the kid dealt with this by taking up art and self defence (justifying his TKD or fighting ability). He used graffiti art to glorify vigilantes like Daredevil but demonised criminals like Kingpin. Especially Kingpin if he ever found out Kingpins connection to the Russians that kidnapped him and beat up his Dad.”
The theory also suggested that Muse could’ve killed some of the surviving Russian mobsters and collected their blood as a way of working through his trauma, before deciding that going to therapy with Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) could also help him cope with it.
Disney+/MarvelThe idea seemed to be a hit with Marvel fans, as one person commented, “That is such a better idea for the character… the direction works on so many levels. With that being said, anything would’ve be better than what we got.”
And another added, “Sh*t… that would’ve been much better. It goes to show the damage that Fisk has caused.”
The original poster then replied about how it would’ve added more layers to the complexity of Kingpin. “Plus the idea that Fisk’s actions created yet another mentally disturbed serial killer would actually sit in Fisk’s mind more than just being told he uses blood in his paint.”
Elsewhere in the comments, the OP also pointed out that Hunter Doohan bears a resemblance to the young boy from the scene, which is a happy coincidence.
Muse was killed in Daredevil: Born Again when he was shot by Heather during his fight with Matt in her office, but despite that, rumors continue to swirl online that Doohan and Muse could return in Season 2.
In August, he told IndieWire: “I would love that. That character was so fun. I don’t know, one, why people see me as a serial killer so much, or two, why I seem to get shot in every single TV show I do.”
For now, fans will just have to hope that the MCU manages to fix Muse’s origin. But until we learn more, find out when Daredevil Season 2 will be released, learn about every upcoming MCU project, and check out our definitive Marvel movie ranking.