Daredevil: Back in Black Volume 3: Dark Art

by Soule, Garney, and Milla

Dark Art collects five issues, 10-14 of the 2015 series. It's a storyarc focused on a supervillain called "Muse," an artist that makes obscene artwork out of his victims. Here's his "bibliography," of sorts:

1. An abstract mural composed of the blood of over 120 people
2. A full-studio floor tableau of several Inhumans, murdered doing ordinary things like sitting on the couch and the toilet.
3. The murder of Tenfingers, from Back in Black Volume 1: Chinatown

Obviously Matt isn't too excited about this, and his A.D.A. life intertwines with his night life, as he's responsible for serving the man whose studio was broken into for exhibit 1. Turns out, the owner is charging admission to see the awful piece of art, so Matt gets to close the studio for public indecency.

Muse seems to have superpowers, able to murder slews of regular people and super-powered Inhumans. To him, he gets to carve immortal lives out of his victims and turn them from people of insignificance to lasting art. It's otherwise a straightforward Marvel superhero story, except Ron Garny and Matt Milla just crush it on the visuals. In atypical fashion, they collaborate for the full five issues, not needing a fill-in artist. This splash page of Muse in the sewers is one of my favorite, for the perspective, the colors, and the linework. It's crazy that each brick is drawn on there.

The stark use of color reminds me of Frank Miller's Sin City, an appropriate tone to set for this darker Daredevil. I love looking at Garney & Milla's Daredevil, a presence of shadows and red boxing gloves/boots. Take a look at this two-page fight between Daredevil & Karnak. Karnak is an Inhuman Lieutenant who has the uncanny ability to "find the weakness in any person or thing," and over the course of this fight the two are trying to figure each other with great narration by Matt. Here is the scene for your pleasure.

In this age of digital comics, it's extremely easy to whip up a cover collage, so I've done that very thing for Dark Art. Together they tell an extremely abbreviated story of Daredevil's struggle with Muse.

Unfortunately, Muse is another member to be added to the revolving door of supervillainy, so you can cross that off your bingo sheet. Another trope to mark off is that someone close to the hero endures a trauma or death, and, in this one, it's Blindspot (Sam Chung, first introduced in Vol. 1: Chinatown) who gets his eyes gouged by the murderer.

Standard superhero fare elevated by the superb art team of Garney & Milla.

Back in Black Volume 1: Chinatown

Back in Black Volume 2: Supersonic
Back in Black Volume 3: Dark Art
Back in Black Vols. 4 and 5: Identity and Supreme
Back in Black Volume 6: Mayor Fisk

Back in Black Volume 7 and 8: Mayor Murdock and the Death of Daredevil

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