Contains Spoilers for Daredevil (2023) #20!Daredevil has gone through many different character designs over the decades, but his latest look is straight-up body horror, as he’s transformed into something not-quite human by a new foe. Matt Murdock is going to have to struggle to literally retain his humanity as he faces down a new threat that he can’t just punch.

In Daredevil #20, written by Saladin Ahmed, with art by José Luis Soares Pinto, Daredevil is infected by a mysterious fungus, with his arm warping in a gross new transformation.

In the issue, Matt investigates the disappearance of a young woman, eventually realizing that multiple people have disappeared from the new apartment complex "Propertunity Tower.' Unfortunately for Matt, he’s been spending time there himself, since it’s where his flame Nyla Skin lives. This comes to a head when Matt succumbs to the strange itching he’s been feeling as his arm transforms into fungus and he’s kidnapped by bad guys in hazmat suits.

Marvel Just Put Daredevil Through A Disturbing Fungal Transformation

Daredevil #20; Written By Saladin Ahmed; Art By José Luis Soares Pinto; Ink By Oren Junior; Color By Jesus Aburtov; Lettering By Clayton Cowles

Importantly for this story, the bad guys in question clearly don’t know his classic 1990s black and red armor under his regular clothes, he’s been kidnapped as Matt Murdock, not as a superhero. As the issue’s final page shows, Matt’s far from the only victim, as he’s dumped in a pile of other victims, all horrifically transformed even further than Matt himself. If he can’t find a way out of this, it is likely that whatever this infection is will fully consume Matt before too long.

For a character often associated with ‘realistic’ grounded stories, Daredevil has had a number of run-ins with forces that have transformed him into something inhuman. Most famously is the period where Matt turned Hell’s Kitchen into ‘Shadowland’ after taking over the hand in the late 2000s. While it seemed to readers, and potentially to the writers as well, that Matt had just gone bad, it was eventually revealed that he was possessed by the Beast, a demon worshipped by the Hand. If Matt could shake that off, then surely a little fungal infection is nothing.

This Fungus Problem Is Just Daredevil's Latest Problem With Bodily Autonomy

The Latest Step In Matt Murdock's Journey

Fascinatingly, Matt’s current transformation feels like a reversal of what came immediately before. In the prior arc of the story, Matt’s soul was fractured, with each shard becoming infected by a representation of one of the seven deadly sins, and each possessing someone important to Matt. Now it’s Matt himself infected by an outside force and losing his bodily autonomy. While Daredevil can be expected to inevitably overcomeand defeat whatever this new threat is, it will be interesting to see how it might change his thinking on the unintentional possessions that he still feels guilty about.

Daredevil #20 is available now from Marvel Comics.