Return to Daredevil?

This has been a thought brewing in my head for a couple of weeks now. Ever since I saw the it in the February solicits I've found myself constantly 'should I return to Daredevil?'

It's now been almost six months since I dropped Charles Soule and Ron Garney's run on Daredevil with issue 7 after a lacklustre first arc and my being unable to get into the series up until my exit. So far, this has not been a restful decision and I'm glad to say that I haven't really given the book a second thought.

However, that appears to have changed now with the release of the February 2017 solicits and, in particular, the synopsis of Daredevil issue 17. While I still have trouble getting interested in anything Marvel brings out, seeing this new issue of a character I've been invested in since Bendis was writing him does have me a little tempted to come back for a couple of reasons.

 

For starters, this issue's synopsis touts how it's the beginning of the story about how Murdock was able to get his secret identity back. Now, this is something I struggled with in the issues I had bought because how on Earth did the character undo that little secret. By magic? A deal with the devil (ironically)? This was something which always made me wonder and bothered me when it was (seemingly) treated as unimportant but now it is being focused on I'm interested to see what Soule has come up with (which I think might involve the Purple Man given the arc's title).

 

And then there is the cover and the woman in the front in Matt Murdock's arms. While initially dismissing this as just some new love interest for our hero, I changed my tune when I saw this tweet this tweet from Soule confirming that it is in fact Waid creation and all-round awesome character Kristen McDuffie. This is another bonus for me as (if you hadn't have guessed) I'm a big fan of the character and was really bummed when she got cast aside at the beginning of this volume. Therefore, I'm intrigued to find out what became of her between the last Waid/Samnee issue and the first Soule/Garney one.

However, while I think these are both solid reasons there are also equally good reasons to stick to my guns and not go back to the man without fear. The first of these are, as always the price of an issue because at $3.99, this is still an expensive purchase for a guy on a limited budget. If the price was reduced to $2.99 I'd be happier with picking Daredevil back up but having to spend a whole extra dollar for a digital code I don't want means that, in British money, I'm having to find an extra 80p (because if I buy, I will buy print like I always have for DD). This might not be much but it adds up, especially when I'm already buying other books.

Of course, my biggest reason comes from another of Soule's tweets when answering a question on whether the series is going twice monthly. While Soule's response appears to be light-hearted, it also doesn't state that it isn't (while, admittedly, not confirming that it is). As such, if Daredevil is going to go twice monthly from, say, March then that is going to be twice as much as I am currently fretting over and, in all honesty, more money than I can even think to consider. Therefore, I'd rather look at books which are guaranteed to be if a stable cost for the foreseeable future and not waste my precious budget on an issue of a comic which can't be a long term option for me.

And that's pretty much it for me, my choice with an equal number of pros and cons (there is another con that I'd need to retrieve the runs missing issues, but that's not really a major concern, I can get them whenever). However, while a part of me is very tempted to pick up issue 17 and possibly beyond, another part of me thinks maybe I should move on to something else worthy of my time. I've got some time before I need to ask my Local Comic Shop to hold a copy for me, but hopefully a decision will come to mind soon. For now though, I am sure wishing I had better decision making capabilities.