What kept the Daredevil comics going without pause?

[Antiyonder]

Participated in the recent discussion on why a Daredevil series hasn't been made yet. Reasons being the heavy dark tones, with some posters bringing up how he use to be a Spider-Man lite.

But obviously he had to have done something right to keep from suffering a break in the new stories (ala X-Men). Best I can think of is the novelty of the Blind Hero.

So any imput would be nice thanks.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Daredevil is blind.

He's a lawyer.

He's "street level." He doesn't have powers that lend themselves to too many epic SF adventures or access to tremendous resources and technology, so even though he fights costumed villains he has more human-level adventures that fill a niche in the Marvel Universe.

But the main thing is that with Daredevil it's really always been more about the people creating him than the character concept. He kept going because people like Wally Wood, John Romita and (especially) Gene Colan did great work on him, and was revitalized because of Miller, Bendis and Brubaker's takes and updates to the concept.

[Palin Dromos]

Story comes from conflict and Daredevil is almost a walking contradiction.

Lawyer and vigilante.

'Disabled' and super-powered

Catholic who dresses like a devil

Hero who dresses like a devil

Additionally he's romantic life is an utter mess, half his love interests are also enemies and the one's who aren't end up dead (heck Elektra's been a love interest, enemy, and dead).

His secret identity is one of the most compromised in the Marvel U leading to all kinds of problems.

He's constantly walking right up to the 'edge' of reason, of sanity, of heroism. He's a rather emotional character so he's pretty easy to manipulate (at least initially).

His history and character have become so complex over the years (in the good way) that any writer can latch onto any one (or more) aspects and still tell (mostly) fresh stories. And yes he is a 'street level' character so he's stories don't generally get so out there that massive retconning is needed. His involvement with the the 'mystical' assassins, The Hand is the most 'out there' aspect of his continuity I can think of at the moment (please feel free to correct me).

Generally writers seem happy to add to the character, rather than rework or re-imagine him. And any time they do want to 'take him back to basics' they actually write a decent story to do so (no deals with the devil, or lost in time mumbo-jumbo here). He's the kind of character who writers love to seriously kick around, because he'll eventually get back up. He's an underdog.

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

For the most part, Daredevil has only ever had a single monthly title -- therefore the fans never get an overexposed saturation of the character or never have to financially waste money on unnecessary crossovers or related titles starring the character. I wish more characters like Daredevil were limited to just one or two ongoing titles.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Story comes from conflict and Daredevil is almost a walking contradiction.

Lawyer and vigilante.

'Disabled' and super-powered

Catholic who dresses like a devil

Hero who dresses like a devil

Additionally he's romantic life is an utter mess, half his love interests are also enemies and the one's who aren't end up dead (heck Elektra's been a love interest, enemy, and dead).

His secret identity is one of the most compromised in the Marvel U leading to all kinds of problems.

He's constantly walking right up to the 'edge' of reason, of sanity, of heroism. He's a rather emotional character so he's pretty easy to manipulate (at least initially).

His history and character have become so complex over the years (in the good way) that any writer can latch onto any one (or more) aspects and still tell (mostly) fresh stories. And yes he is a 'street level' character so he's stories don't generally get so out there that massive retconning is needed. His involvement with the the 'mystical' assassins, The Hand is the most 'out there' aspect of his continuity I can think of at the moment (please feel free to correct me).

Generally writers seem happy to add to the character, rather than rework or re-imagine him. And any time they do want to 'take him back to basics' they actually write a decent story to do so (no deals with the devil, or lost in time mumbo-jumbo here). He's the kind of character who writers love to seriously kick around, because he'll eventually get back up. He's an underdog.

Great post. You make some really interesting points. As far as "out there," though, Daredevil went to hell and fought the devil (Mephisto) in Ann Nocenti's run.

http://marvel.wikia.com/Comicsaredevil_Vol_1_282