UPDATED: See below regarding why we should be even more blown away by that first page!
I don’t usually devote a separate post to previews, but this is a special kind of preview. Not only is it a sneak peak of an issue that comes out a full two months from now, but it’s the first finished art we get to see from Chris Samnee. Oh, and it’s awesome. I don’t even mind that Marvel’s releasing these pages this early totally screwed up my contest (announced on the podcast yesterday). 😉
The accompanying press release from Marvel (offering details beyond the previously released solicitation), reads as follows:
Marvel is pleased to present your first look at, Daredevil #12. The best reviewed comic of the year continues as writer, Mark Waid, welcomes aboard fan favorite artist Chris Samnee (Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man)! Matt Murdock’s alter-ego leaves him little time for a social life; but the Man Without Fear finally makes time for Kirsten McDuffie! But, the assistant district attorney’s motives aren’t so innocent; she’s on a mission to uncover Daredevil’s true identity at any cost!
Will Daredevil’s super-human senses save him from falling hopelessly in love? Find out in Daredevil #12, hitting comic shops everywhere and the Marvel Comics app, this May; as Samnee joins the all-star Daredevil creative team, creating unimaginable adventures only The Man Without Fear can handle!
Click each image to zoom in, click again to close.
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A couple of comments on this preview: First of all, wow! And that goes for Javier Rodriguez’s colors as well. In this particular scene, the vibrant colors of the amusement park on Coney Island, as well as those of the evening sky, also seem to take on special meaning because the two main characters in the scene are unable (temporarily in Kirsten’s case) to really appreciate any of it. Maybe that’s just my interpretation, but I do think there’s a bit of irony in this scene being so unusually bright while featuring a blind guy leading around his date in a blindfold. It’s also nice that they are once again incorporating real sites around New York in the book.
Another thing I think is cool is how the radar perspective on that second page really does look three-dimensional. That’s just how I imagine the radar, actually: very good at relaying depth, but not much to cheer for in the resolution department. I wonder though, do new artists have to take a new radar crash course overseen by Paolo Rivera before coming onboard? 😉
What do you guys think? Are we Daredevil fans lucky or what?! Oh, and do you guys have any guesses on what they’re talking about in this scene? Kirsten still pestering him about being Daredevil, one would assume!
UPDATED: After a comment Samnee made on Twitter about there being a subtle “radar effect” on that first page, I had to go look at it again. And there it is! Everything from having Matt’s head right at the center of the ferris wheel to the diagonal stripes that run through the image at various angles. Why didn’t I react to this when I first saw it? Argh! Anyway, have a look at the things I found by clicking this image! Can you guys see anything else?
Is Black Widow in the arcade about to be killed by Bullseye? Oop, nope, sorry, that was 30 years ago.
I have to admit I have said too soon, that I don’t like the Lark’esque style of Samnee. It looks gorgeous!
The truth to be told, I still find there is something wrong with the radar: it looks good, but if you pay attention, you’ll see that it seems to be rendering a lighter image on the objects on the left, as if there was a light source in that place. We see a with line on that contures. But light and radar have nothing to do one with another…! (Excuse my bad English). Have you noticed it?
By the way, you it is one of the four blogs I read on regulary basis (the other ones are about politics) and I really love it.
Post updated!
When I saw your comment about the subtle radar, my eye went to the shadow of the railings to the bottom left of the image.