Daredevil vol. 2 #60 by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Matt Hollingsworth, and Cory Petit
It takes a year of marriage for Milla to become disillusioned with her superhero crush, and it happens quickly, over the course of a single story arc. One of the framing sequences of "The King of Hell's Kitchen" is a conversation that Milla has with Ben Urich. Matt has vanished after being injured in a massive street brawl, and she needs help finding him. But the conversation goes beyond that, digging into the nature of the relationship, Milla's increasing weariness and fear from existing in the dangers of Matt's orbit, and her feelings about who he is as a person. It's clear she loves him deeply and is terrified for his safety. It's also interesting to note how strong a role her sympathy for him plays in the conversation. She goes into great detail about how hard Matt has had it, how the city "keeps hitting him and hitting him and hitting him." She describes to Ben what it must have been like for him to lose his father, to feel the bloody gunshot wound with his hands--her strong empathy for and connection to Matt through their shared blindness is front-and-center in this conversation as well. Milla's first impression of Matt was, one could say, idealization; he saved her life, leaving her infatuated, and she went all-in on protecting him right from the beginning. Now, after numerous dates and a year of marriage, after having partnered to rehabilitate the neighborhood they both love, having been up-close-and-personal with her hero, that initial idealization has deepened into something richer and more complex.
And yet, Milla makes some interesting comments that also hint at something less-than-ideal in their relationship. She tells Ben: "He said I was like this whole city all pushed into one woman. And--and he does love this city, so..." as if Matt doesn't tend to say he loves her directly. And despite her having clearly thought so deeply about Matt's experiences, his origin story, his work--after clearly spending a lot of time trying--she tells Ben that she doesn't think anyone will ever truly understand him.
Daredevil vol. 2 #58 by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Matt Hollingsworth, and Cory Petit
This gap in her understanding of her husband becomes brutally clear to her just two issues later, in the scene at the top of the post. Milla, smart and practical as she is, has no idea what Matt is capable of doing when grieving. The truth is that when they met, Matt needed her, subconsciously or otherwise. He needed someone in his life to distract from the nightmare of losing Karen. He needed someone who loved and appreciated him in the midst of the secret identity troubles tearing his life apart. And Milla was there, and convenient, and kind, and attractive. It's not surprising that he seized hold of what she was naively offering him. And it's equally unsurprising that he would be unwilling to face this truth head-on and even more unwilling to admit it to anyone.
Apart from anything else--the pathos, the gutting use of body language and coloring (the dismal grey of the room, the bar-like window shadow on the wall--a visual also used in connection to Heather Glenn's engagement to Matt, as you might notice in the post linked above...), I appreciate that Milla is given the narrative space to be upset; to cry, to yell, to demand the truth regardless of how much it will hurt her or him. Matt's grief is real and understandable and Milla's feeling of betrayal is too. And, as always, Bendis gives Milla power in the relationship. She started it by asking Matt out and, later, by proposing to him, and she ends it here. She does come back--fortunately, because it means we at least get to see more of her (as has now happened twice with Nyla Skin, it's a bummer when a great character leaves for completely good reasons but then, as a result, is never seen again). But it's a rich, messy break-up scene, a great one for Milla, and I'm glad to have it.
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