New Daredevil and Punisher creative team rumor mill

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

It seems the internet has leaked the two new teams as being:

 

 

Punisher #1 - Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto, with Laura Martin on colors.

Daredevil #1 - Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera.


That ain't bad, if true.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Both of those would interest me. Esp. Greg Ruck on Punisher, that seems like something right up his alley.

[Randy Jackson]

Waid on Daredevil?

 

That would brighten my day indeed.  Perhaps he can undo all the damage that's been done to Matt Murdock over the last ten years.

[Bee Clayton]

Waid wasn't my first choice for DD, but I'll take him. He always brings a joy and fresh energy to any title/character he writes.

Based on his initial comments, we may be seeing a little more of the 'superhero swashbuckler' of yore. I'm excited already. 

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

And art on Daredevil will alternate between Paolo Rivera and Marcos friggin' Martin.  I am very, very happy about this.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

Both creative teams seem like good and obvious choices, especially Rucka on Punisher.

[Mr. Silver Age]

Waid will get me to pick up DD again; one of my favorite writers and one of my favorite characters. I gave up on DD after his wife went insane and he had an affair with Dakota North. So I don't know how bad things have gotten since, but apparently pretty bad.

I hope the new team can make the book interesting without having to spend so much time undoing the baggage that even though it's a new series (with a new #1, of course), new readers don't understand (or care) what's going on.

Can anyone sum it up?

-- MSA

[ClarkKent_DC]

Mark Waid made me interested in Fantastic Four after many years by writing a first issue that got to the heart of the characters (particularly Mr. Fantastic) and made it wholly unnecessary to give even one seconds thought to what had gone on before.

 

If he can do that for Daredevil (and Daredevil), he deserves a medal.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

I really enjoyed the Bendis years and Brubaker started off well...but the insanity and darkness that followed went too far for a continuing character.  Real noir works if you have an ending...Matt doesn't get an ending as a Marvel property.  The closest he ever came was the end of Born Again and even Frank Miller gave him a happy one.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

I think that is in reference to Matt being a guy all the other heroes like, but have a hard time trusting.  They all know what he's been through, and when he seems OK with it all, it kinda scares them from a psychological point of view.  I don't think Waid will have Matt dating any of the Runaways.  And Daredevil hasn't been a "kids" character for 25 years.  He's not even on the radar (har har) of most readers under 25.

 

Given Waid's artists, this series is going to make me go back on the "no more buying single issues for myself" pledge.  Darn it!  ;)

[ClarkKent_DC]

Doc Beechler said:

I really enjoyed the Bendis years and Brubaker started off well...but the insanity and darkness that followed went too far for a continuing character.  Real noir works if you have an ending...Matt doesn't get an ending as a Marvel property.  The closest he ever came was the end of Born Again and even Frank Miller gave him a happy one.

What he said.

[Captain Comics]

Off the top of my head ...

 

DD and Dakota had what amounted to a one-night stand, that they both regretted, and the "affair" did not continue. Both Black Tarantula and White Tiger are killed, but resuscitated by The Hand under their control. Another Stick-like mentor appears, who is a drunk old Asian guy with a dirty mouth who, nevertheless, advise with the usual impenetrable cryptic-ness. DD decides the best way to defeat The Hand is to become its leader. He does, and Tarantula and Tiger become his chief lieutenants. Somewhere in here, Foggy gets disbarred. There are some leadership struggles at a meeting with all the top Hand officials from each continent, and DD thinks he's won, but the reader knows better -- there's a conspiracy (cryptic, of course) and Tiger secretly answers to them. Bullseye (I think) blows up a building in Hell's Kitchen, so DD builds a huge pagoda on the ruins and runs Hell's Kitchen and The Hand from there. Also, he kills Bullseye with his bare hands. Police and various heroes are alarmed by this, and the "Big Three" of the Avengers tell Iron Fist, Cage, Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing to straighten this out, or else. The chick in the wheelchair at Nelson & Murdock quits, saying Matt's gone too far, but North and Nelson remain loyal and try to figure out what's going on. Tiger kills Tarantula (again) and eggs DD on to greater evils. The "street-level" heroes invade the pagoda, and many miniseries and one-shots ensue, in the "Shadlowland" event. Ghost Rider arrives, but The Hand drive him off (or something). Somehow Elektra gets involved. Also Black Panther. Oh, and The Punisher. But all these "street-level" character are defeated, because "The Beast" -- the animus behind The Hand -- is revealed to have been controlling Daredevil all along, and he whips them with ease. Elektra (I think) kills Daredevil and The Beast is forced out. Of course, DD isn't dead and he slips out as the heroes are arguing or something. Black Panther takes over as the protector of Hell's Kitchen (and Daredevil's numbering). Murdock, who is full of angst over the things he did as The Beast, slips away to his own miniseries Daredevil Reborn, whose title is self-explanatory. Oh, and a new Power Man is introduced, a teenage Hispanic kid who can absorb and direct chi.

 

If other Legionnaires can add more, please do.

Mr. Silver Age said:

Waid will get me to pick up DD again; one of my favorite writers and one of my favorite characters. I gave up on DD after his wife went insane and he had an affair with Dakota North. So I don't know how bad things have gotten since, but apparently pretty bad.

I hope the new team can make the book interesting without having to spend so much time undoing the baggage that even though it's a new series (with a new #1, of course), new readers don't understand (or care) what's going on.

Can anyone sum it up?

-- MSA

The chick in the wheelchair at Nelson & Murdock quits, saying Foggy's too loyal and Matt's gone too far.

[Figserello]

Ah, the old "Sinestro made me do it!" defence.  That's alright then.

 

Unfortunately I picked up this story right in the middle of Daredevil's takeover of the Hand and I hated everything about it.  I felt like I needed a bath after the one collection I read, it was such a wallow in moral murk.  I felt unclean just from reading it!

 

I usually argue for a certain amount of writerly freedom and reccomend the old shrug of the shoulders when long-running characters go off in new directions, but this seemed to be breaking the character beyond repair. 

 

Beechler put his finger on it above.  I'm happy with Daredevil being esentially someone who constantly slips into the grey, morally.  That was the Miller DD that I loved, but with a long-running character, its hard to keep him constantly slipping, without eventually sliding completely into the black, as in this recent Hand thing.  Their long-running nature is eventually the rope that hangs these characters we love, sooner or later.

 

It sounds like Waid is going to just handwave away all DD's murky stuff, as we've seen with big names restarting big characters numerous times before.  When it was done before, the murk eventually makes its way back.

 

(I don't mind murky super 'heroes', but making the central old Silver Age favourites murky doesn't work for me.)

 

I wonder will Waid read the Daredevil comics he writes?  I seem to remember him swearing off reading all superhero comics for good at one stage...