First of all, Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a great Christmas (or other season-relevant holiday of choice/culture) and a suitably entertaining New Year’s Eve. For this first post of the year, I’d just like to talk a little bit about what kind of developments we might be seeing on the Daredevil front in the months to come.

Before getting into that though, let’s stay in 2011 a little longer and marvel (no pun intended) at the fact that Comic Book Resources picked Daredevil as their #1 comic book of 2011. Of course, this isn’t actually an official award and if you asked one hundred random comic book readers to list their favorites, you’d get one hundred different lists. Still, it certainly goes to show that there is a lot of praise for Daredevil out there, a trend I hope will continue in 2012. I just wished sales numbers – though not in any way horrible for this day in age – better reflected all the kind words showered on this title. And with that said, let’s get to the meat of this post.

Schedules and guest appearances

While 2011 gave us plenty of Daredevil bang for our buck, we also had to go without for a few months after the four issues of Daredevil: Reborn which came out in the spring. 2012 looks like it’s going to be a very different kind of year. Not only is Daredevil popping up in all kinds of places (see below), including the New Avengers, there has also been some indication that we might get more than twelve issues this year and there will be a “point one” issue later in the spring (if my memory serves me right).

Daredevil: Season One

As we all know by now, March will see the release of the original graphic novel Daredevil: Season One, written by Antony Johnston with art by Wellinton Alves (who also collaborated on the mini-series Shadowland: Blood on the Streets). I’m really looking forward to this one and am curious to see exactly how the Season One concept will work in practice. I’m convinced Johnston can put a unique touch on these older stories.

Just around the corner

Before we can think about getting our hands on a copy of Daredevil: Season One, there are plenty of Daredevil stories to wade through. Next week, Daredevil will start his cross-over adventure with Spider-Man and the Black Cat in Amazing Spider-Man #677, a two-issue story that ends in Daredevil #8 (and hey, there’s a preview!) the following week. But before we even get to that, we will see Daredevil guest-star in this week’s The Punisher #7, by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark (see preview).

With Daredevil #8 out of the way, Paolo Rivera will make his return to interiors in Daredevil #9 – the art in Daredevil #8 is by Kano – an issue that will bring about a close encounter with Mole Man which continues in Daredevil #10. The covers for issues #9 and #10 both look absolutely harrowing and it’s no surprise that one of the lines from the solicitation for Daredevil # 10 reads “The Cracks In Matt Murdock’s Façade Begin To Show!” This, incidentally, provides the perfect segue for the next, more speculative, topic on my list.

Long term developments

I have as much of an idea (that is to say none) as anyone else who’s not closely connected with the job of putting together issues of Daredevil when it comes to what’s on the horizon for Matt Murdock. Still, I’m very much looking forward to what’s going to happen once Matt actually starts dealing with his “shit.” Pardon my French. What I’ve loved about the relaunched series isn’t so much the “new bright, happy, tone” as the fact that as much as Daredevil is clearly about superheroics, it’s also about characters who come across as real, complex people. While I fully endorsed the move to turn up the fun dial, so to speak, part of what makes Matt’s new outlook on life so compelling is that you know it’s in large part a coping mechanism.

When the emotional baggage starts to catch up with Matt, as we know it will, I’m looking forward to something that’s not a complete switch of the dial in the opposite direction, but instead an honest to goodness attempt at having Matt actually work through everything in his life rather than succumbing to the burden of the past. I don’t know that this is what the future holds in store for this title, but I’ve been really impressed with Waid’s take on Daredevil as a character so far that I feel confident we’re going to get some genuine character growth out whatever the process might be. That would be a very good thing.

Other interesting things I’m looking forward to are 1) the date with Kirsten McDuffie that has to happen at some point and 2) more time with the rest of the cast, including Foggy and other newer members.

Who will join Paolo Rivera?

Another question of a more technical nature that remains unanswered is who will join Paolo Rivera as the regular artist. With Marcos Martín leaving the title after just one arc and with an alternating artist scheme in place, it’ll be interesting to see if we’re going to see someone new being announced pretty soon or if we’ll have new artists on a “per arc” basis to take turns with Rivera. For the sake of consistency, I hope Marvel has someone lined up who will be able to commit to the title for the foreseeable future. Who are you guys wishing for?

Well, that’s it for my first post of the year! Feel free to pour your hearts out in the comment section and let’s hope this will be a fantastic year to be a Daredevil fan.