Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell #1

History

Charles Soule has stated he began developing the story as far back as the spring of 2018, while his original Daredevil (2015) run was still being published, making this a project nearly seven years in gestation before its April 2, 2025 release. The series was formally announced at the Marvel Fanfare panel at New York Comic Con in October 2024 alongside C.B. Cebulski, marking McNiven's return to a major Marvel project for the first time in nearly a decade. McNiven has cited Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns as the primary visual inspiration, deliberately adopting a 16-panel grid structure to force different storytelling techniques, and the two creators described the production as an unusually jazz-like, deeply collaborative back-and-forth rather than a conventional writer-to-artist pipeline.

Trivia · 10 facts

• Released April 2, 2025 (cover date June 2025) as issue #1 of a three-issue prestige limited series; each issue runs approximately 30 story pages.
• Written by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven; full art (pencils, inks, and colors) by Steve McNiven; lettered by VC's Clayton Cowles; edited by Nick Lowe with assistant editor Kaeden McGahey.
• The story is set on Earth-25696, an alternate future outside the main Marvel continuity, in a war-ravaged New York where wireless communication has collapsed and most heroes have fallen.
• First appearances (Earth-25696) in this issue: Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Bullseye (Lester), and supporting cast including Angie, Georgie, Clarence, and the unnamed Triple Ring terrorist group.
• Captain America (Steve Rogers) dies in issue #1, crushed by subway debris while shielding civilians — his shield is then taken as a trophy by Bullseye's organization.
• The issue's closing pages reveal that Frank Castle (the former Punisher) is being held captive and has been dismembered by Bullseye, setting up the antagonist's role across the series.
• McNiven's art style consciously references Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, including use of a dense 16-panel grid layout — a significant formal departure from McNiven's previous Marvel work.
• Issue #1 received at least two additional printings (a 2nd and 3rd printing, both with McNiven covers), and the full series was subsequently collected in a deluxe hardcover edition with bonus creative-process material including plot excerpts, thumbnails, layouts, and McNiven commentary.
• Variant covers for issue #1 were supplied by Frank Miller (with Alex Sinclair colors), John Romita Jr., Leinil Francis Yu, Rose Besch, and Ben Harvey — a roster that underscores the issue's significance to Marvel's editorial lineup.
• Soule and McNiven previously collaborated on Death of Wolverine (2014) and Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters (2021); Cold Day in Hell represents their third major team-up.

Cast · 5 characters

Full credits

Variants (10)