“Christine dared event fatigue and lost… Come November, this blog will go up in flames, literally, in a final post that will blow your mind, like it’s never been blown before.”
Joking aside, this blog will be around for the foreseeable future, as will Daredevil, more than likely. I’m just reporting in to say that I didn’t die or go into any kind of comic-related depression. 😉 I’ve just been working a lot.
I just read Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow #1 and Shadowland: Power-Man #1, and will review both in a post tomorrow. Early next week, I will also run a guest post by Matt (of The Weekly Crisis) which details the life and times of Ultimate Daredevil.
If you’re looking for a fun(?) diversion in the mean time, I suggest you read the exchange between myself, Ryan K Lindsay, Aaron K and Antony Johnston in the comment section of my Blood on the Streets review. With 27 comments, it definitely set a new record for this blog. What’s all the fuss about, you ask? It turns out that the topic of pregnancy and the superhero lifestyle created quite a stir. No kidding. 🙂
I will see you later. Feel free to discuss anything you want that relates to the November solicits in the comment section. I haven’t actually read them myself (I stayed away from the October solicits as well), but the hoopla that followed their release was hard to miss.
Ow, my poor guest post, it will be terribly outdated, now that we know the new Daredevil is a vampire.
Um, Spoilers, I guess.
What?
WHAT
@The Uranian: He’s talking about new Ultimate Daredevil. 😉
@Matt: Would you like to edit that part of the guest post? I was going to run it early this week, but wasn’t able to.
@Christine: If this is the news that you were asking Matt to edit out, sorry for posting it. I just saw this as part of today’s Cup O’ Joe:
The last bit of solicitation news we’ll hit is the fact that “Daredevil” is solicited as the final issue, which took a lot of people by surprise. Last week, we talked about how when creatively things weren’t lining up, Thor went on what became a kind of needed break. With these teasers coming for a new “Man Without Fear” are we to expect that Daredevil will be taking a similar turn off the pages of comics for a while?
Brevoort: I should never be surprised by the reactions our audience at this point, and yet time and again, week in and week out, they surprise me. We’ve been promoting “Who is the new Man Without Fear?” for something like three weeks now, and yet everybody is surprised that “Daredevil” is ending. One pretty clearly follows the other, so I was sort of taken aback by the response to the solicits being, “Oh my gosh! ‘Daredevil’ is ending!” What did you expect was going to happen when we asked who the new Man Without Fear would be?
Obviously, I can’t get into the story mechanics behind any of this, but it’s all an outgrowth of “Shadowland” and its finale. We absolutely could be looking at a situation where, as with Thor, there is no Daredevil series for a while, but there is somebody else in an equivalent role. That’s hardly earth-shattering, and in fact, taking a character like Daredevil off the canvas for a little while may make the heart grow fonder due to absence more so than just having him around doing his thing and being overlooked because he’s always been there. It certainly did with Thor.
On top of that, whenever we do one of these event stories we like to have them result in change. We like for them to “matter”, as Axel was saying earlier. So clearly the world of Daredevil and Hell’s Kitchen and all the street-level heroes and their titles is going to be impacted in a major way by the end of “Shadowland.” The fact that “Daredevil” is ending is one of the effects of that but not the only one.
Well, I’ve got to say, Tom. I think the thing that made this move really shocking was that you just made the move to renumber at issue #500.
Brevoort: That was 12 issues ago! It’s been a whole year! [Laughter] I cancelled “Avengers” three issues after reverting its numbering to #500. And it’s not like if we brought the title back, you couldn’t bring it back at #513. It’s not as though those issues go away.
Well, that’s how comics worked back in the ’40s and ’50s, right? When one title didn’t sell enough, a new title would be launched with its numbering.
Brevoort: Very often, because the publishers had to pay for Second Class mailing privileges, and those permits cost money. So if you had a book that wasn’t selling, you’d roll a new book into its numbering and didn’t have to pay for a new permit….unless the Post Office caught you.
And so in the end, “Shadowland” came down to mail fraud.
Brevoort: That was Daredevil’s mistake. Taken down by mail fraud. [Laughter] He never saw it coming.
No, that’s not what I meant. Matt’s guest post deals with Ultimate DD, and I should have posted it when I received it.
As for the info you’re posting, all I can say is that I gave Marvel way too much credit, and that I don’t like Breevort’s tone at all. I’m disappointed that is appears that Shadowland is driving Daredevil into a dead end that appears to more or less break the character until he can be rebooted.
I was looking forward to seeing him recover from this the hard way, the way I felt Diggle had been hinting at. Granted, Marvel may still be trying to spin the real story, but if Daredevil (i.e. Matt Murdock) actually goes on hiatus, this blog likely will too. And if it does, I think Marvel is going to lose a whole bunch of fans that will never be back, fans for whom this may have been their last Marvel title.
I agree, Christine. If this is how it ends, then my previous statement about Shadowland being Daredevil’s “One More Day” may not be far-fetched. Even if Black Panther takes over as “The Man Without Fear”, it just isn’t going to be the same, and I won’t be picking it up (in protest). We love Matt Murdock. We don’t want the Marvel brass to meddle with the character we love. I really hope that this isn’t some stupid ploy to sell a new #1. Why would they do that after re-numbering a year ago? Some of the decisions that are made at Marvel make absolutely no sense, and only infuriate the ones who enable the company…i.e., the readers/fans. C’mon, Marvel!
“And if it does, I think Marvel is going to lose a whole bunch of fans that will never be back, fans for whom this may have been their last Marvel title.”
This. A hundred times this.
And Brevoort’s tone was nothing but condescending.
This whole situation reeks of bad writing (I suspect editorial interference cause Diggle is better than all of this), gimmicks, and an excuse to raise the price to $3.99 when DD “returns”.
Actually. I’m done. Right now. I’m not even finishing out Shadowland. If this all turns out to be misdirection I’ll come back to the title and get the missing issues out of the back issue bins or just get the trades.
The only way I could see this working out is if Marvel has been over exaggerating all of this. If “Daredevil” is ending and the “New Man Without Fear” is actually… Matt Murdock. If they were drawing on the classic themes all the way back to the Miller days, that Matt Murdock is what makes the book so interesting, his struggle, not Daredevil beating up people(which is the absolute truth). “Daredevil” is ending and the book becomes “Matt Murdock: The Man Without Fear” to tell the story of how Matt begins to put the pieces of his life back together again after all the recent tragedy. Though I doubt the people at Marvel are that clever.
If I’m wrong I will come running back and beg forgiveness, but I will not ever come back if this turns out to be Gambit: The Man Without Fear, and next Autumn sees Daredevil#1 for the absurd price of $3.99. I don’t care if Marvel gets Frank Miller himself back to write the character again.
Unlike Batman and Captain America, who have died/gone on hiatus, Murdock doesn’t have a very interesting grown-up sidekick who can take up his mantle like Dick Grayson and Bucky Barnes. Its Murdock or bust man.
Also, I’m not regretting jumping off DD after issue #500. I had a feeling it was gonna be all downhill after Bru/Lark left(which is my favorite DD creative team ever, yes I said it).
““Daredevil” is ending and the book becomes “Matt Murdock: The Man Without Fear” to tell the story of how Matt begins to put the pieces of his life back together again after all the recent tragedy. Though I doubt the people at Marvel are that clever.”
You never know, you’ve basically described exactly what Incredible Hulk has been like for the past year. Banner didn’t hulk-out for 10 issues or so. The storytelling has been nothing short of phenomenal. Sadly, I don’t believe they can pull off something similar with Daredevil. As Jeremy noted, Murdock has no sidekick, so if Matt isn’t in the book, it won’t be worth reading.
I really had high hopes for the DD run by this new creative team (which I was enjoying initially) and into the Shadowland event, but my interest has seriously waned over the past few weeks. I have found the ‘Daredevil as Villain’ character less than compelling, and now knowing that Matt will most likely be gone for who knows how long after this event wraps has soured my feelings even further.
There are other Marvel titles that I enjoy and feel are currently being well handled, but it is going to feel odd indeed to no longer be following Daredevil come this Fall. I do however wish the creative team behind whoever this new ‘Man Without Fear’ turns out to be the best of luck.
Also, to Christine, I can relate to how busy you have been lately. I have been as well. I hope for you there is a light at the end of the tunnel (i.e. some time off in the near future, you’ve earned it). And as a DD fan, thank you for such a great site for however long it lasts.
Is it just me or has andy diggle bottled it? He had matt joining the hand (thanks to Brubaker, which was a great sned off), had to work through that scenario, bring him out at the other side free of the hand and bring on his own stories in the DD universe. But he decided “I’ll run with that hand story, take to him to his darkest place, but how do I bring him back to the man we know? I ain’t sure. Can I leave at the end of shadowland?
The thing that occurs to me is this: Has anyone at Marvel or associated with the book actually used the word canceled? I had a pretty interesting exchange with Diggle on Twitter over the weekend and I followed some of what he was saying to other fans as well, and I’m not sure this title is as “temporarily-canceled-going-on-hiatus” as it seems. He pretty much said that everything we’re now reading is part of his initial pitch for the character. When I joked “So you PLANNED to have him canceled?” (followed by a wink smiley, I should add) I got a request to reserve judgment until after I’d read the story. I don’t think the current creative team has any real sense of how much the weird marketing is completely hurting the story and making people drop Daredevil from their pull lists. The thing is, I was happily onboard with everything until Breevort talked about this the other day. I’m once again willing to trust Diggle on this story, at least until the next strange Marvel marketing mode.
These things go down but they’re never really out. Marvel never really needs and excuse to jack the price, they’ll do that whatever’s in the book. For time being I’m enjoying the story, I think it will have a cool ending with Matt morally intact but personally broken and we’ll just see what happens from there…
Keep the faith True Believer.