According to long-term artist Chris Samnee, it appears that the current run on Daredevil – written by Mark Waid and drawn by artists including Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin – will be ending with issue #36 in 2014.
One of the most acclaimed books Marvel have published over the last decade, Waid’s run with the character saw Daredevil move away from the more depressive, sadder-than-thou approach and back into the swashbuckling character associated with Ann Nocenti’s run. Launched with Rivera and Martin, the book also featured extended work from colourist Javier Rodriguez and letterer Joe Caramagna, among others.
Daredevil won a sweep of Eisners over the last few years, along with a whole slew of other awards. Along with titles like Hawkeye, it’s seemed to epitomise the current approach Marvel have to their second-tier comics – emphasising both creator and character equally as the hook for readers. There’s no news currently regarding what will happen with the characters next, or indeed Samnee. Mark Waid, however, will soon be launching The Fox at Archie, Doctor Spektor at Dynamite, along with many other projects including his Thrillbent digital comics.
We’ll keep you updated as more news comes in on the cancellation. Heck – it may even be relaunched after the final storyline, in January/February, concludes.
I love Samnee, but calling him a long-term artist is a bit much. He’s drawn, what, maybe 15 issues of the current series?
“move away from the more depressive, sadder-than-thou approach and back into the swashbuckling character associated with Ann Nocenti’s run.”
?! Sometimes, I’m wondering is people are pasting what other people write… Waid’s Daredevil is really not a happy reading, we’re still faced with depression, illness and suicide, but with touches of humor and a totally different graphic approach than before, that’s why it’s so refreshing.
And Ann Nocenti’s run? It was also filled with angst and depression (but with passion too).
15 issues is half the run.
Sadder-than-thou means that there was a game of misery being played prior to this run, where each writer tried to bring more sadness to Matt Murdock to the last. Nocenti’s Daredevil was intense, but he was also a lot more action-packed and swashbuckling than in, say, the Bendis or Brubaker runs.
Less than half the run, and its’ a short run at that. Again, no disrespect to Samnee (whose art I love), but it’s not much of a run, particularly since there have been a few fill-ins in the midst of Samnee’s tenure. Here’s hoping Waid and Samnee are back for the next iteration of the book.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Chris Samnee has drawn 16 issues out of 33 issues released to date. Apparently #34 is going to be a fill-in, so it looks like Samnee will end up drawing 19 issues out of 37. (I’m including #10.1 issue.)
Nocenti’s run was just as solidly in the Frank Miller pile-on-Daredevil mode as almost every other run. To call it swashbuckling is bizarre. Karl Kesel tried for a short while and Bob Gale had one story, but the rest up until Waid was all Daredevil having a very, very bad time.
Why does it need a relaunch? Get a new team on board and just continue!
“Less than half the run, and its’ a short run at that. ”
I think days of artist staying for 100 issues on title are gone, so ~20 issue runs are considered “long”.
Ok this is it. Fuck Marvel. I mean they relaunch the same titles over and over and over every freaking time. Sure DC has waves of new and cancellations at least they stick to the books as long as possible and won’t relaunch 1 month after a book i cancelled the exact same titles they try different stuff. Sure alot of it fails but at least I don’t feel like I’m getting ripped off. I’ve been buying Daredevile since 1990 non-stop…..the Kevin Smith series was good, they had to can it and reboot after 100 issues. Now 36 issues when it is a steady seller for what a sales spike for 2-3 issues? I hope this franchise becomes a failure like the Fantastic Four have become due to the 7-8 relanches since 2000. Seriously ticked off here. I’m considering dropping all Avengers books too, alot aren’t great and apparently there a wave f new ones out soon…..it will be how many books a month?
I can see what Marvel Now! means going forward…….alot of flops out there….how many more to be cancelled and rebooted? (Captain America anyone? Thunderbolts?, etc….)
Seriously Marvel……you guys suck! (And at $3.99 at that)
Daredevil has been my favorite Marvel comic. I would like to thank Waid & Samnee/Rivera/others for a great job. This will be a painful loss for me and only hope that DD gets relaunched come next year.
Close to 352 pages of art produced in 3 years for one title, and consumers still complain about “short runs”? Stop thinking like corporate editors! This attitude has always erked me. Sure I like it when an artist contributes to the look of a character I happen to enjoy for a while, but the desire to have that artist always working on the same title forever isn’t going to allow the art or the character to grow. This work is manual labor you know? These people aren’t Xerox machines, though it seems that that is how they are regarded sometimes.
@ Ryan – it’s not as though Samnee drew all three years of Waid DD. No one is saying artists should be xerox machines, but I personally like it when a book has a consistent artist (or artists, as Slott Spidey has mostly had). it’s not as though artists are being asked to redraw the same page of the same script again and again, just to stick with a book for a while.
Sales have been solid so I think this is just leading to a sales bumping relaunch featuring a new creative team and/or a new direction. Sadly, it will probably also lead to a $3.99 price tag.
What great fun this series was/is. Just read the Monster issue this morning. My teenage girls would probably tell me – “Don’t be sad because it’s over, be happy because it happened.”
My prediction: Waid and Samnee launch a new Daredevil #1 in 2014 with a $3.99 price tag.
The sales on their run are crazily consistent, and Marvel likes the idea of having that consistency plus another dollar per copy.
Knowing Waid’s work, he’ll provide an in-story reason to justify the relaunch. We’ll likely see Matt Murdock living a life quite different from anything we’ve seen before. This hypothetical price hike would bug me, but they’re the best creative team in superhero comics right now, so I’m fine paying the extra buck.
Well, there goes the last Marvel series I buy. My pull list, once DD #36 comes out, will consist of no Marvel titles. Sorry, they’re just not interesting to me. I seriously doubt I’ll get the following month’s relaunch, especially if they up the price to $3.99. Not to be picking on Marvel, but my pull list is shrinking even further with the cancellations of Vibe, Katana, and the Green Team (with the Movement surely to follow).
I’m from a time where comics reached their 400, 500, 600 or even 700th issues. Now I’m just a jaded old fool…
“Well, there goes the last Marvel series I buy. My pull list, once DD #36 comes out, will consist of no Marvel titles. Sorry, they’re just not interesting to me. I seriously doubt I’ll get the following month’s relaunch, especially if they up the price to $3.99. ”
I’m in the same boat and couldn’t agree more.
DD was the last Marvel monthly I was still buying, the rest of Marvel’s current output also holds no interest for me anymore. :-(
So for the first time in almost 30 years, I won’t be buying any Marvel monthlies. I dropped DC’s few nu52 books almost a year ago…
If Waid & Samnee return to a new relaunched DD title, I’ll definitely pick it up…in tpb.
It’s going digital only, it’s going to be $2.99 per week digital-only Infinite comic at Comixology. That’s why the “Coda” issue that comes out after 36 is also digital only.
I was a real smart guy a month ago.
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