It comes as a completely surprise that Marvel‘s multiple award-winning run of Daredevil is seemingly coming to an end with issue #36. Currently written by Mark Waid, with art duties tackled by Chris Samnee and Javier Rodriguez, the book has been topping ‘best of ‘ lists for the duration of its run. Now series editor Steve Wacker and artist Samnee have confirmed that the run will end in February.
In the Letters Without Fear column of this week’s #34, Wacker writes: “Javier will be back to draw issue #34 in a couple months to give Chris time to focus on our big two-part finale to this era of Daredevil. Sad, I know, but all things must end, right?”
Samnee later confirmed this with the following on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ChrisSamnee/status/393111747097157632/
The book’s sales are certainly not suffering, and the awards recognition is high. It’s more likely that this will either be the subject of a creative shift as part of the All-New Marvel NOW! in 2014, or the creative team will continue beyond the reboots. Indeed, Daredevil was one of the few titles to keep going throughout the Marvel NOW! refresh last year, a strong arc carrying things through. Perhaps it is simply that Waid’s story is finally coming to an end. Then again, an interview with Waid over at Newsarama suggested they would be staying for some time to come:
“They’re…interesting. And quite unexpected and quite familiar at the same time,” the writer reveals. “They may or may not involve a drastic shift in Matt Murdock’s career and lifestyle. But we do know this one thing for sure: the Waid/Samnee/Rodriguez/Caramagna team isn’t going anywhere, and we’re striving for new heights!”
This is a space we will be watching very closely. Daredevil #35 and Daredevil #36 will hit shelves in January and February 2014.
