One of Marvel’s most popular titles right now is “Daredevil.” It’s a critically acclaimed darling, being almost entirely universally praised across the board for the efforts on behalf of series writer Mark Waid and artists Marcos Martin and Paolo Rivera (with Chris Samnee soon joining in the fray). Just about everyone loves Daredevil now, including Daredevil himself (finally, right?), and Mark Waid’s happy-go-lucky take on the character has been hailed across the board.
On the other side of the table is “Punisher.” It’s a criminally underrated book, with a fantastic update to the Punisher’s usual status quo and a new take on the narrative structure, no longer focusing on the rampage of an anti-hero and instead focusing on the carnage he leaves in his wake like a Marvel version of “Gotham Central”. It’s all thanks to the wonderful efforts of Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto, with guest appearances by Michael Lark, Mirko Colak, Matthew Clark and Matthew Southworth). In terms of a title relaunch, it’s perhaps one of the single greatest of the past year.
Right smack dab in the middle of it all is is “Avenging Spider-Man”, a title that has had an impressive (albeit static) creatie team, which is about to give that up to Waid and Rucka for use during the upcoming “Omega Effect” crossover, which ties together threads from Mark Waid’s “Daredevil” that have been recently touched upon in “Punisher” as well — and today we have a preview to share with you, with art by Marco Checchetto.
All things considered, Marvel is doing a fairly decent job about pushing these two titles with the hopes of making them stick. Punisher and Daredevil both have a history of titles that ran for a fair deal of time yet somewhat fail to survive in the modern marketplace, despite consistent and competent creative teams (Bendis and Brubaker writing “Daredevil,” or Fraction and Remender writing “Punisher”), so throwing them into their own personal crossover while the other book from the Big Shots relaunch (“Moon Knight”) ends up cancelled is a smart move to hopefully boost some sales and insert longevity into the titles.
That and it’s, you know, Mark Waid and Greg Rucka collaborating on a comic book story together with three issues worth of Marcho Checchetto art. What more do you want?
The issue is in stores April 11th. Take a look behind the cut for a three-page unlettered preview as well as the regular cover.
