Warning: contains spoilers for Daredevil: Gang War #2!One of the more memorable lines from DC’s The Dark Knight just got an homage from Marvel to celebrate the rise of a major new big bad. Heath Ledger’s Joker gave audiences some of The Dark Knight‘s most memorable quotes, but perhaps the best is from a scene between Michael Caine’s Alfred and Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne. “Some men just want to watch the world burn,” the butler warns his ward.
That line gets echoed in Daredevil: Gang War #2 by Erica Schultz, Sergio Davila, Sean Parsons, Ceci de la Cruz, and Clayton Cowles. While the original movie’s line is uttered for the heroes to make sense of a villain as disturbed as the Joker, this comic issue sees Madame Masque offer it as her own endgame for New York’s growing Gang War.
Marvel’s Gang War event sees the city undergo a devastating 48-hour war between New York’s various criminal empires. Having taken out many of her most significant opponents, and with the city’s heroes well in hand, Madame Masque is close to becoming Marvel’s undisputed crimelord.
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Madame Masque Puts a Twist on Iconic Dark Knight Line
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Madame Masque recently became Marvel’s most dangerous villain by becoming the primary catalyst for its major crossover event, Gang War. She manipulated multiple parties against each other to craft a city-wide war between all of the local gangs fighting for each other’s territories. As chaos builds and blood is spilled, Masque plans to reap the rewards once the dust settles by claiming all her rivals’ territories. Elektra’s Daredevil is one of the heroes on hand to settle the fires of New York, but has so far been repelled by Bellona – a clone of Wolverine’s daughter Laura Kinney.
Impressed with what she has seen from Bellona so far, Madame Masque forms an alliance with her. Masque makes it clear that she hired Bellona largely because she trusts her to sow chaos across the city. Masque admits she “likes to watch the world burn.” With Bellona’s mission a success, Masque gives her the chance to leave, but the assassin instead decides to throw in her lot with the villain. It’s seemingly no accident that Marvel would reference such an iconic movie line, as if Madame Masque continues to win, she’ll be moving into the A-list as New York’s undisputed crimelord.
Madame Masque’s Potential as a Top Marvel Villain Is On Full Display
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To sell readers on a new top villain, especially when that villain is an old character who wasn’t always ranked that highly in reader appreciation, it’s important to showcase them in moments where they assert their power. So far, Marvel has done a tremendous job at selling Madame Masque as a threat surrounded by an enigmatic aura. Not only did she create the domino effect to start Gang War, but she was able to recruit a top operative into her ranks not based on leverage, but on their belief in her capabilities and vision. The Dark Knight line is just a cherry on top to establish Madame Masque’s big role in the Marvel Universe moving forward.
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Daredevil: Gang War #2 is on sale now from Marvel
